4/1/05 April fools day

We packed up camp at 8a and headed to our bus stop to go into Town. Our train to Annecy leaves at 9:44a but it turned out to be late. We made Turkey and Cheesse Baguette sandwithes on the train for breakfest. You get to see a lot of the countryside on the train. The Flowers are budding everywhere in France. We see a number of vineyards by the side of the track. We arrived in Lyon at 12:40p. Our train was suppost to leave around 2:15 p so we went outside to enjoy the super sunshiney day. The weither in General has been exceptional. It tends to be cool late at night into the early morning and then by 1p it’s nearly hot. Around the time our train was to take off it was cancelled unexplicably. I get into line to ask the ticket office what is wrong and if there will be another train to Annicy todaz. After about 10-15 minutes I get up to the representative and they tell me that there is a partial strike today and that I have to get into line to check to see if there is even ging to be another train today. So I get into the line only to find out that we cannot get onto a train until 5:20p to Annecy. When we arrive in Annecy 2 hours later just about everything is closed, including the tourist's office. We didn’t have an oppertunity to find a Campground before we got to Annency so we were just wandering the streets of Annecy. At first trying to find a map. We found the outside of the tourist's office-closed- there was a fairly detailed map of Annecy there. We thought we saw a camping area Marked on the map and started hiking with our gear in that Direction. We, after a long walk, found a camper camping area in a beach/park Parking lot, but no marked tent camping area. We are both exhausted at this point. Just past the camper camping area there is a park with trees and picnic tables. We experienced our first night of totally free renegade camping. We have never Setup camp so quickly and quietly. Caleb was so proud to camp for free. I was a little scared at first but sleep quickly took over. It was a very Cold night.