Devastated...

The ol' lady broke down last night while joy riding through the Dolomites....

At about 9 PM, after the sun had already set, I was stranded up in the middle of a mountain pass with the prepaid minutes of my phone quickly approaching 0. I also have pretty much zero Italian and German skills, but nevertheless was reduced to waving frantically at every passing car hoping to flag one down, somehow communicate, and then borrow their phone so that I might have Germany's equivalent of "AAA" come rescue me. Long story longer, after about a dozen cars wrote me off for a serial killer, two sweethearts stopped off and pretty much saved my life. So finally, I take a 35 Euro taxi ride from the mountain down to my campsite where I have since been stranded...

And since Italy thinks it's necessary to have "little Easter," a national holiday, on the day after real Easter, it won't even get looked at until Tuesday. I guess that's the life you live when the Pope's living in your backyard. So Julia, if you haven't gotten my emails yet, I'm not making it to Milan today....

- Scheisse Riding