After touring the place I headed down to Assmannhausen, which is also a really cool town but a mistake to travel through. I say this because as I found the path along the river and headed out of town, I soon realized (after about a mile or so) that the path ended. So now I was walking along a very narrow two-lane highway with a speed limit of eighty kilometers per hour. This isn�t very fast but Germans �haul ass� so it was more like an average of eighty miles per hour. The path I was on was alongside a ten-foot tall wall. At the top of the wall was a railing and then the train tracks. Most of the time the path was about one foot wide. Sometimes it was gone completely. At one point I crawled up a hill to the train tracks but only walked up there for about a half mile because it looked like the path was widening. It did widen back to about a foot and I didn�t feel like climbing back up to the tracks so I stayed on it. When cars whizzed by me they were literally within about three feet. It was nerve-racking and I was praying most of the time. I started getting discouraged because it didn�t look like there would be anywhere up ahead to camp for the night. There was the river, then the road, then the tracks, and then the steep incline up the hill. I did see a camping area with a lot of campers on the other side of the river but there was no way of getting to it. It was like holding a candy just out of reach of a small child. I wanted so bad to be over there, but I knew there was no way. My map showed that there was a campground on my side of the river somewhere in the vicinity, but I could see a long way off and there didn�t seem to be any. After walking for about another hour I could see that there were still those trails running along the mountainside and it looked like I could maybe crawl up to the lowest one within a half mile. Then I saw the most welcomed sign of my life. It said �Camping 200 meters.� I�m not good at converting meters into something that my mind can visualize so I just figured it would be about the length of two football fields. I was so happy and when I followed the sign off the highway I saw that the path through the vineyards on the mountains started here, went up for a while, and then headed off into the distance. But then came a big disappointment. I saw a sign that said �Camping 2 kilometers�. I couldn�t believe that I would have to walk another half mile up this valley. I was so exhausted from about eighteen miles of hiking but I soon saw the sign to the entrance to the campgrounds. It was only about one hundred yards from the sign so either I was delirious and read it wrong or it was wrong.
After the trip was over I now realize that the latter was more probable because all the signs seemed to be wrong. It was a tough last part of the day but at least I would have a secure place to sleep where I knew I wouldn�t be bothered. The man that took my money said that it would be eight euros but I got him to take US dollars. That was good because I didn�t want to have to change them and pay the fee. I also paid for two bread rolls for breakfast. I don�t know what the deal with this is but he asked if I wanted them in the morning and there were signs about them so I ordered a couple at twenty-five cents each. Then more great news�showers for free!! I hadn�t showered since I left Frankfurt and I couldn�t wait. After setting up camp, eating some rice with strawberry jelly (which was not a very good experiment), and washing a shirt and pair of socks, I took a twenty-minute, steaming hot shower. It was great! I danced around and sang like a little kid. It was funny that I even had the energy but I have found out over the years that a long awaited shower will do that to a tired backpacker.
9/9/02
Wow! Today was unbelievable! It is almost 10:00 PM, and after about eighteen to twenty miles of hiking (including a trip to the top of the hill and back) I am completely exhausted. But I feel as though I have to write about my day because it was definitely the best yet. I plan on writing for only thirty minutes tonight and then go to sleep if I am done or not. First of all, last night I finally slept without interruption. I actually slept until about 9:15. I didn�t even leave this morning until 10:30. On the way out an old lady who was staying in a cabin next to where I pitched my tent was leaving at the same time I was. She was having a hard time carrying her bag so I offered to help. She agreed gladly and I strolled along with her carrying her suitcase as we slowly made our way to the office. She only spoke a little broken English but we had a splendid conversation. I think that is the first time I have ever purposely used the word splendid in written or spoken form, and it is totally not my style, but that just seems like a perfect description. This small favor was returned to me twice today. I had just come into a small village from the trails up in the vineyards as I passed a man about to park his car in his garage. We exchanged �Guten Morgens� and I walked to the bottom of the street. I was out of food and I saw signs so I stopped to see if one pointed to a grocery store. I got out my translation book and tried to figure out what the signs said. As I was standing there the man I passed a few moments earlier walked by and said something to me in German. I gave my normal reply that always seemed to work because most people here speak at least a little English. I said that I only spoke English and found out that he spoke very little English. I showed him the word in the translation book and he took me right to the local grocery. It was only about one hundred feet away and of course it had just closed for lunch. I knew that it probably wouldn�t open again for two hours, which is customary here. He heard someone still in the shop and began knocking and saying something in German. He was trying to get them to let me in but to no avail.
