September 17, 2018
D14/W3/R1: Zuoquan County 左权县
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Today was in fact a work day but I'm not going to pretend that it wasn't also a rest day because I really really really didn't want to get out of bed. I knew it long before the whole 'race the sunset' idiocy or the bit where I was yelling at my bike for having a goddamned flat tire, but I should have stopped at Guai'er Town where I stopped in 2012. Except that Guai'er Town in 2012 kind of sucked and, from what little I saw of it as I passed by on the road around 3pm, nothing seemed to indicate that it had improved much over the past six years.
What I really should have done was taken that 7km (14km round trip) detour up into the mountains to Tupeng Village to see what kind of condition the tunnel which I'd called the "Hall of the Mountain King" back in 2012 was in, if it had finally been finished, or if the road on the other side had ever gotten paved. Pictures from some hikers in 2016 seem to indicate not but the police in Bai'an Township told me it has been. They might not be the best source of information though as, despite the tunnel only being 12km away from the police station as the crow flies, it's 55km by roads and trails and in another county.
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I just didn't feel like doing any more climbing after yesterday morning's big ass mountain and I was so damn sure that Qinquan or Suicheng would have lodging. I mean technically Suicheng did have lodging, it just looked so miserable from the outside that I didn't even stop to check it out. Of course, I was also sure that Zuoquan would have passenger rail (which it doesn't). Other than the goal of "not arguing with the police" I also seem to be failing at this trip's particular goal of "don't do stupid things".
On the gripping hand, this is my first time deliberately taking interludes from the middle of a bike tour where I leave my bike somewhere, go off and do non-bike things, and come back to my bike, so I've got some bugs to work out.
This morning, once I finally pried my eyes open, I breezed through proofreading and review on 4,628 words of vomit and did the first pass translation on another 2,000 words or so of the same garbage before heading out to the Shunfeng courier company office to pick up my most recent care package from Hainan. I'd like to come up with something nice to say about this particular batch of work other than "it consistently pays me obscenely large sums of money" but I can't. I really can't. It's actually quite difficult consistently managing to write this badly in English and, after actual complaints from the client, we've all but given up on correcting or even pointing out factual errors.
The concept of poste restante is something which officially still exists but the computerized world of big data in Chinese logistics just can't handle edge cases like not having an address so Kaylee, clever girl that she is, found the address for the Shunfeng courier company in Zuoquan and addressed my package to that location. When I went to pick up my package, the Shunfeng staff insisted that I open it in front of them before they would let me take it. Knowing what I now know post-Incident about mail systems around the world being used to 'mule' contraband, I suspect that I was asked to open my package because I set off some red flags.
Now that the package had been opened, lunch primarily consisted of cookies from the American Bakery.
Paid for a second night at the same hotel, figured out which city with passenger rail would be easiest for me to get to, had Kaylee book my train tickets, arranged with the front desk for bike storage and for them to wake me up in the morning to get me to the bus station, and went back to work for another couple hours.
I'll be back to biking again on Friday.
Today's ride: 2 km (1 miles)
Total: 847 km (526 miles)
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