The first part of the day was exceptionally non noteworthy. Better weather might have improved it but it was a dull boring road made that much more dull and boring by all the non dull and non boring roads I've had recently. Not just because of the weather or the closeness to my chosen endpoint, but I think it's starting to be time that this trip is over.

Most of the way to Jiangyou, I turn off on a side road in search of the pagodas which Google and my paper maps have graciously shown me but which the Chinese online maps refuse to admit the existence of.

This gets me into some truly spectacular backroads territory of the sort that's generally very hard to navigate as everything was paved about the same time and everything is of about the same level of (un)importance but I decide to trust AMap's ability as a navigator and it mostly tells me about turns in time to make them. 

I do, in fact, find both pagodas. Don't find any obvious way to get up to them without making "getting to the pagodas" a specific end goal in and of itself but I at least find them.

Then, since the rear wheel which I bought off of Taobao five weeks ago for less than the cost of my tires is wobbling something fierce (gee, what a surprise) and since Jiangyou is an actual city, I tell AMap to navigate me to the closest Real Bike Shop. Despite my non speed, as the number of potential little roads and paths increases the closer I get to the city, the worse it handles telling me I need to turn.

I'm ambivalent about the use of a GPS navigator instead of stopping and looking at the maps and making decisions on one's own but there is a certain degree of usefulness when I'm going to be doing something that has a lot of potential turnoffs.

I don't find the Merida I was looking for because, before I get there, I find a Trek. In terms of looking for a bike shop in a random Chinese city the order of operations is:

Trek/Specialized
Anything with "Cycling Association" in the name
Xidesheng
UCC
Dahon
Merida
Giant
Phoenix/Yongjiu
Other Chinese Brands

It turns out that this Trek shop is not just in the process of packing up and moving but actually in the process of closing for good. In unpacking the wheel stand to true my rear wheel and replace a broken spoke, I'm actually their last ever customer. They not only refuse money from me but also insist on giving me random useful cruft like new gloves and a really pretty scarf.

I follow their instructions around the corner to find hotels, have a very low speed single person crash because I'm an idiot, and then check in someplace nice and upscale which insists on making me go through the online booking process on my phone to get the discounted rate (about 30% off) shown online instead of the walk-in rate.

I'm cold and grumpy and just want a hot shower to deal with the fact that I just dropped my bike on myself at a poorly navigated curb cut. Once I'm naked, I really don't want to go back outside for food but nothing I can find on Meituan interests me either and I end up just eating all the packaged tofu I bought in Qinglinkou (which is apparently famous for tofu and had a number of varieties of it for sale) instead of a real meal.