Taking a little nap on the countryside

This week's challenge on Illustration Friday is called "bicycle". Some say coincidence doesn't exist. I had made sketches for a drawing about a guy taking his afternoon nap. Two weeks ago you could have seen part of those sketches on my entry for IF's challenge "bottled". Working out that drawing I thought of putting a sign on the car the guy is resting against, saying he works as a bicycle repairman. Doing so, my son told me he had trouble with the gearshift on his bicycle which need to be repaired...
Anyway, this is my 200th message on this blog. So time for some celebration and after that a midday nap would be nice.

Pen and watercolor on Fabriano 300.

Illustration Friday Unfold

I find it always one of the greatest rewards about reaching the top after climbing a mountain, by foot or by bicycle. The view you get when you're almost completely exhausted: a landscape which unfolds to a breathtaking panorama. That is: if the weather cooperates. Mostly the top of the mountain is hidden in clouds, so you're lucky when you get to see the tip of your nose through the fog. And it's so freezing cold that you're only thinking about one thing: the quickest way to get down into the warm weather in the valley below.
Once I climbed the Col d' Aspin in the French Pyrenees, by bicycle. One thing I remembered about that climb was the great amount of campers passing by on my way to the top, leaving me behind in their exhaust fumes. Struggling to reach the pass and for some fresh air. So the drawing is a bit more romantic than reality was: no campers in sight, only a clear blue sky!