Fall is coming an end

The past five days through Poland have been a bit rainy. Although it has been wet, it has not stopped us from having an amazing time in Poland. Once again, we were hosted by some very welcoming people for the evening a few nights ago. The host, named Wiestau was a coal miner for 30 years and he invited some of his friends over for the evening. The guests were very welcoming and it was nice to talk to one of them named Jakub, who has been to California a few times. He was one of the few that spoke English that evening and it was great to have him as a translator. Wiestau (The host), didn’t speak any English but he was very kind. He wouldn’t let us cook any of our food as he wanted to serve us chicken soup and then eggs with kielbasa in the morning. He was a great cook and it was nice to have some food made for us. It was also interesting to hear about Jakub's experience in the US and what he thought of the American culture. Jakub and his father, Zbyszek, invited us to visit their house the next day, so the following morning we rode about 7km to their house and met their dog and grandma. The area where they live were battle fields during WWI and it was super interesting to hear about who dominated the land at different times. The two of them and some of their friends are treasure hunters and they showed us lots of the stuff they had found. Most of it consisted of used shells from the German, Austrian and Russian armies. They also had a bunch of coins and one was even from 1834! They used a metal detector and would often go treasure hunting with their friends. After a bit of tea and some storytelling about their family and where they lived, we got on our bikes and headed down the road. Jakub rode with us for about 20km and it was great to have a “local tour guide” tell us more about Poland and the countryside we were riding through. He rode with us until he decided he would turn back and we said our goodbyes. Hopefully we will get to come back and see him, his father and friends someday. Today we rode 120km and it was another long day. We are now in a town called Sandomierz where we will stay for a rest day before we go to Krakow on Tuesday. From there we plan to meet up with Mom and then take a train through the Tatras to Budapest. We also booked out tickets to India! We will be flying to Mumbai On November 13th. I am super excited to get into some warmer weather and maybe go surfing in Goa! All is well with the McFerrin boys and it will be nice to see Mom in two or three days.