About PINs and PUKs

DAY 2: Our goal today was actually Dole. That would have been just under 430 kilometers from Wiesloch. We only managed 339 kilometers to Vesoul – and there was a good reason for that …

It’s some time in the morning. I’m in the bathroom brushing my teeth and I hear Icke mumbling to himself: “Now I have one more attempt.” That’s one of those sentences that turns my entire alarm system to red. With my mouth full of toothpaste foam, I sputtered a “Nnnnnnn!”, but: It was too late. “Hmmm, that wasn’t it either,” my darling said, almost casually, as if she had just turned to the wrong page in a recipe book. A fraction of a second later, I was standing next to her watching her close her phone. “What have you done?” I stammered, spreading toothpaste around the room. “I typed the SIM number of my phone incorrectly three times,” said Icke. “And now?” My wife thought for a moment. “Not too bad. I must have this PUK number for unlocking somewhere.”

Yes … After an hour of fruitless searching, it turned out that the PUK number was safely stored at home in the drawer for phone bills. It’s just a pity that no one is home with us and we live far away from everything. Now good advice was expensive! With every minute “without connection to the outside world” (in Icke’s words), the nerves were rising. Since the hotspot connection to my phone was very unstable, it hardly alleviated my wife's stress level. Almost five hours next to Icke without a phone turned into a real challenge. Eventually, Tanni, our daughter, was contacted to search for the number at our home after work. Around 4 PM, our angel made the relieving call – the PUK number was found, and seconds later, Icke was online again. We were just before Vesoul.

As great as the joy was, it unfortunately could not change the fact that I was already operating on low batteries with my nerves, and thus also with my strength. And so we decided to pay a visit to Vesoul. We used the early arrival for a walk through the beautiful town center and found out that this town with 15,000 inhabitants is definitely worth a visit.

We will certainly make up for the lost kilometers sometime in some way – and if not, then not. The main thing is that we stay connected to the outside world.