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I hope to not (have to) sing B Tyler song "I was lost in France & in the trees etc" in France at VL FulvFlavFlam Meet 2012. in a secret corner of Alsace where I Iast lost in Feb 12.....finding too many new high-speed roads leading west out of Strassbourg with old directional signs & distances to destinations or signs leading to old roads leading to the base of hills & ending !

It was too dark to early to see anything anywhere anyhow....many other lost-drivers speaking many languages that I do not speak nor understand, all of us stopped at the side of the road reading obsolete maps &o trying to make sense of what the satnav voice was saying.

Mine said "return, take 1st left, take 2 more lefts, to arrive back to where you are now !!!

My my my what a mess that was !

I gave up & returned 160 km back home in order to tackle the same (&%$§) trip the next day during daylight hours. Trip II was a lot better than Trip 1....I finally found the correct lost-village in a lost valley by, in desperation, going up & down farm-paths & forest trails that I thought would lead to nowhere.

I discovered that I had been within 500 meter of this village the evening prior & didn't even know it !

Team RWB FSZ will depart tomorrow in time to arrive b4 it gets dark; I promise myself !

Team RWB FSZ arrived from E without mishaps just as others were arriving from N & W

yes...driving into another lost-valley.....this trip with perfectly clear directional signs to arrive in the right village without getting re-lost in France.

A lovely place Graufthal is; ancient & mysterious, with its sandstone-cliff Cave-Dwellings that were actually occupied until rather recently & are now a walk-through Museum,

There is fresh water-tap for 24 hours a day water coming right out of the sandstone cliffs surrounding the village; provided mineral water to all for free & feeding 2 mid-calf depth wading-pools for refreshing "Walks in the Water / Instant Cooling of Limbs".

The cliffs provided challenging asents / decents...on chiseled-out steps of course.

As always, organization was top; Hotel was lovely; Eatery (same place) was incredible, as was the never ending wines........the roads traveled oh my my exciting....

A sudden loss of power on day 2 for a particular RWB FSZ occured - after a low-speed never-ending very-careful passing of hundreds of bicyclists on a narrow 2 way downhill road traveled by all after visiting a Castle-Ruin löcated at the tippy-top of a sandstone (what else?) mountain... nice place to take a break it was; after an slip & slide climb up !

phew ....the power loss was cured with 4 new plugs.........

I say thanks to you to all who assisted in getting plugs-changes / power-back during the lunch break just in time to sprint back to the hotel for a hike in the hills & previous to a next AM relaxed-cruise at medium / high speed sometimes under full-power (keep them plugs clean !) eastward-bound across the Rhein - toward home; while the otherintredid teams continued on to day 3, deeper west into bon La France...