6/21/2006 The solstice

I got to bed after 1:00, but before 2:00. I slept until 10ish. At one point Maddy came in and was so excited. "Maddy fixed her bike all by herself, and she and leah are going to take us to the river."

Around 10 I sort of work to Heather's chats, then I went back to sleep until 1:00. I finally got enough sleep!

Molly and Leah took maddy and spencer 'horseback style' all the way to the River-about 6 miles. In Poszcla. What an adventure for them!

Heather and I had lunch and looked at maps and talked. The kids came back.

We had more food, and then Molly suggested a ride. So she and I geared up, which was a rather extended endeavor, and took off (DSC_7867). We road to Poszcla and I bought bananas and water and orange soda, and I saw the aeriel photo map of my dreams, and then stopped a block later at the tourist information and got some maps, but not the 'key' map that I wanted.

Then we continued onto the busy road to Tiszafurd. That was a bit stressful. Lots of trucks and cars. We were talking about how 13 mph, which was our speed, was pretty fast. Then I heard a squeaking sound and a Hungarian on a beat up bike peddled right past us. The timing was impeccable. Molly said that we didn't deserve to wear spandex.

We approached the big bridge. There is a light on either end, alternating letting cars through because one of the two lanes is closed. Right about then I started to say that we needed to look for an internet cafe, etc, when we heard maddy and spencer shouting out the window. "Hi Daddy, hi molly!"

They passed us, and then stopped at the light. We got to talk for a minute. Leah was jealous of the cherries which Molly had bought.

Then we rode on. After a bit we entered town and I started to say "We need to look for an internet cafe, or mumsy's car" I got to 'cafe' when Maddy and Spencer started shouting 'here we are!' They were standing on one of the concrete 'fins' of the Tiszafurd tourist information center. They had the great photo map for 700 Ft. And the lady gave us instructions to the Internet Cafe.

Molly and I rode to it, while Mumsy and leah and little kids went shopping.

We later learned that the kids had been utterly horrible at the store. suck.

Molly and I did email. I told her stories to match the emails I was dealing with, including how Frank Warmerdam responds with kindness, and that was a model to me.

It was close to six pm when we started at the internet cafe. After quite a while of dealing with email, I connected my laptop to the hub under the table. It worked, which was groovy. That let me ssh home and restart my web server and say hello to #geo.

And then Heather and Kids arrived and we cleared out so Heather could deal...

i paid 600 Ft for over an hour of internet, so I awas pretty darned happy.

I tied the bikes onto the car, with Spencer's help, and we drove home. Taking one detour to see the little resort that has its' own branch of the lake.

We also saw a paddle boat with an integrated water slide. pretty cool.

At home Spencer went immediately to work on Frog Fortess. I assembled the new fan that heather had bought-it will remain here after we leave as our gift to Petra.

Spencer went back out with Maddy to do further work on Frog Fortress. I went out and looked at all the frogs and asked how the caught them. Spencer modddled, he stuck hi shands out and said 'see nothing in my hand' then maddy said 'there's one' and I looked to see the grass moing a bit. spencer made a lunch and the frog was his!

Later he made us all come out because he had captured a most massive frog!

Then we got ready for dinner. I sat on the edge of the tub washing. spencer came in and I bathed him, and cooled myself more and came out to dinner.

more of molly's stuffed cabbages, and other yummy stuff.

Then the kids were atrocious...spencer took 4 of leah's glow-bracelets so he could do a special dance, and tried to snag cherries that I told him to leave alone.

Then I settled them into bed and read peter and the shadow thieves...

And now it is 11:08. This account took 20 minutes to write, for 787 words.

(not including later edits, like this parenthetical bit...written at 11:09).

The ride with molly was glorious. riding through small town central hungary, making conversation on every damn thing. later I was on the dirt and then a drain tile was in my way, and I just bunny hopped over it. But it was not isolated, so I hopped the next one, and the next one, then said 'shit' and stopped the bike to get back onto the pavement.

The part from Neygus to Poroszlo was the best. The road is quiet. Listed on the map as an 'other road,' only 'private road' carries less stature in the minds of the cartographers of our 'Magyarorszag Autosatlasza' (which I think means 'Hungarian Auto Map.' From Poroszlo to Tiszafured was on highway 33, a 'main road, second class.' -- I just processed all of the photos from the 20th, the zip line, zoo, and adventure drive home. It is 12:25 am. The photos from Today are pretty easy to process. I only took the one photo of Molly right before we went on our ride.