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31.3.60
Hi again My Darling -
And this will be the last letter from on the road! For we pulled another
fast one today, and came all the way from Eberbach to Ludwigsburg, about
20 km from Beutelsbach. So if all goes well, we'll stay with the Krauters both
Friday and Saturday nights, which should be really fun, and I'll get to the
Burg mailbox tomorrow afternoon, which should also be fun. I don't expect much
in recent letters - too early for that - but there should be some from before vacation,
and also some films from our trip. May see Dr. Boerner and meet the new
professors too. It being only Friday, we will probably be about the first ones
back, which suits us both just fine. Bridge wants to take the bus into Stuttgart
for most of Saturday, and I'll will probably spend most of the day at the Krauters, reading
econ when there's time, and do a little shopping in Beutelsbach (glass to mount
the new films. Then Sunday morning, after going to church I hope, we'll move our gear
up to the Burg, take hot showers and wash clothes! So the weekend certainly
won't be going to waste!

It was another day of steady rain today, and yet didn't bother us much.
My raincoat (the $5 plastic one which I bought just before coming over) gives good
protection between the knees and neck, but it is so airtight that I get almost as
wet from sweat as I would from rain - but at least I'm warm. Below the knees
my pants get somewhat wet, and some drips down inside my rubbers to soak
my shoes, but it's generally not as bad as a whole day of exposure to rain would
seem. And the first thing we did on arriving here at the hostel was to take
a "spit bath" and put on clean dry clothes, so I'm really comfortable now.

We left Eberbach this morning just at 9, and biked very steadily along,
with only one rest stop before lunch. We covered 52 km to Heilbronn in 3 hours,
which is pretty good evidence that our muscles have gotten in shape over the
last 3 weeks! The countryside was again beautiful, even in the rain. More
thick forests, with greet flat land along the river bank, a slow procession of
barges up and down river, occasional ruins of castles on hillsides above small, old
villages. Gradually as we approached Heilbronn the valley widened out, farms
appeared on the slopes, gradually the hills withdrew, disappeared. The
countryside south of Heilbronn is (not too surprisingly) very like that around the
Burg, rolling hills, every bit of ground planted and cultivated. But instead
of vineyards, there are larger plots of flatter ground, for ordinary farm crops.
Unfortunately we couldn't enjoy the countryside as much south of Heilbronn
because we were so busy pulling up the hills; some were too steep and long, so we
walked these, and usually stopped to rest at the top. It took us longer to
go about 30km in the afternoon than it had to go over 50 in the morning, and by
the time we got here, we were thoroughly tired; but 85 km was not a bad
day's work after all.

Well, darling, our big vacation adventure is almost over, and we've
survived it pretty well - no heart attacks or broken legs or anything! One stolen
bike for me, and Bridge left rubbers and tennis shoes behind somewhere; other
than this no losses (except perhaps a little weight, and I doubt that because we've
eaten so much!). We've biked about 800 km (500 miles), 450 of them since we
left Köln 8 days ago. The trip cost me only $56 (including $24 worth of train fare),
plus about $36 for a new bike and the telegram home, which are really
extra costs to the trip itself. That's pretty darn cheap for three weeks living, much