D7: 灵丘 → 王庄堡（双语）

September 25, 2024

After a morning where, every time I got ready to leave someone else would send me work, I wasn't real confident in my chances of getting any decent amount of distance in. In fact, I was decidedly worried about my destination and a little bit annoyed that my assistant hadn't yet made a specific phone call I'd asked of her to the police station in Pingxingbao to ask "do either of the two hotels which Maps show in your town exist?"

It's a phone call I could have made myself except, in a manner that really didn't bode well for the answer I wanted, I couldn't find the police station's phone number.

每次我准备出发时，就会有人给我派活儿。整个上午就这样，所以我对这天能赶出多少路程实在没什么信心。实际上，我特别担心能否抵达目的地，还因为助理还没按我的要求，给平型堡的派出所打电话而有点恼火，我让她问的是：“地图上显示你们镇上的两家酒店，到底存不存在？”

这本是我自己也能打的电话，只是我怎么也找不到警察局的电话号码，就这情况来看，恐怕电话那头的回复也不会遂我愿。

All of this¹ for 30y, it's understandable why I eat as much Wallace Chicken as I do 就这一堆东西¹要30元，难怪我总吃华莱士炸鸡呢，完全能理解。

"Agriculture should learn from Dazhai" is much more common than "Industry should learn from Daqing" but that may just be the places I go. 我遇到的还存在的“农业学大寨”比“工业学大庆”更多，但可能只是我去的地方才这样

By the time she had appreciated the urgency of this request, it didn't matter anymore as I had gotten a flat tire and spent a good hour crying and raging as I couldn't find the good pump hose extender, I hadn't yet tried the glueless patches from Yi on the tube that had gone flat the day I picked up my bike, and my only other spare tube was the one that refuses to play nicely with most² pumps.

等她意识到这个请求有多紧急时，已经没意义了，因为我的车胎瘪了。整整一个小时，我又哭又气，找不到好用的打气筒延长管，还没试过用从易县那儿买的免胶补胎片修补我拿车的那一次瘪掉的内胎，而且我仅有的另一根备用内胎，和大多数²打气筒都不好配。

I was just outside a car wash place with a big air compressor though. So, after the guy that is probably still a jerk even when I'm not in a bad mood shooed me off because "we can't do anything for bicycles," I found other employees who were at least willing to listen and willing to let me use their compressor.... and I went all of a kilometer before the tube burst through a now much larger tear in the tread that I had hoped wasn't the problem and hoped would survive until Dr. M showed up with a spare tire when she joined me to go biking over the Golden Week.

不过，我当时就在一个有大型空气压缩机的洗车行外面。就算我心情不坏的时候，有个家伙估计也挺招人烦的，他把我赶走，说“我们不弄自行车”，之后我找到了其他员工，他们起码愿意听我讲，还让我用他们的压缩机……结果我就骑了一公里，内胎就从外胎胎面一处更大的裂口那爆了，我本希望这裂口不是什么大问题，还指望它能撑到M博士国庆节和我一起骑车的时候，带着备用胎来找我。

My second flat was caused by the tube getting pinched on the weak spot I attempted to boot with the glueless patches from Yi 第二次爆胎，是因为内胎在免胶补胎片修补的薄弱处被夹破了。

What's this? Great Wall Scenic Highway ahead? JACKPOT.什么？前方是长城风景公路？中大奖了。

Big, wide road.... Generally not too many cars 马路宽敞……车也不多

Walked the 2km back to the bike shop where I'd gotten chain lube on the way out of town and, while I was using their patch kit to fix my nominally good tubes, we discovered that his 26" tire was wider than my frame clearance³.

Another hour spent while he went off to elsewhere to get a tire from them because that was better than removing a tire from one of the few bikes he had that had non crazy wide 26" tires, and I didn't even start out until past 2pm.

Now going to a completely different location because that location was within range, had half a dozen hotels show up on Maps, and was sufficiently on the truck route that it seemed very likely that still more hotels existed.

我往回走了两公里，回到出城时买链条润滑油的自行车店。我用他们的补胎工具修补理论上完好的内胎时，发现他店里的26英寸轮胎比我的车架间隙宽³。

他又花了一个小时去别的地方找合适的轮胎，因为这总比从他仅有的几辆非宽26英寸轮胎的自行车上拆轮胎要好。等弄好这些，都下午两点多了，我才出发。

现在要去一个完全不同的地方，因为这个地方在行程范围内，地图上显示有好几家酒店，而且它在卡车路线上，很可能还有更多没显示的酒店。

I especially like that the women's side got a privacy curtain 我特别喜欢女厕这边有隐私帘

Ming⁴ Dynasty Beacon Tower and tire repair 明代⁴烽火台与轮胎修理

As truck routes go, the volume of death machines was sufficiently low and the width of the lanes sufficiently broad that I was okay with the traffic. Also, the road was really pretty, the sky was a stunning combination of fluffy white clouds and clear blue, and the weather was comfortable.

Using numbers found on their signs, the first hotel that I called said they weren't open, second didn't answer the phone, and the third gave me a price that was substantially different than what the guy in the lobby said.

Because the guy in the lobby was trying to helpfully put me in their cheap room and the boss was like "anyone who calls on the phone wants a private toilet and shower to herself."

就卡车路线而言，路上的“路上杀手”数量够少，车道够宽，所以我还能接受这交通状况。而且，这条路很美，天空中蓬松的白云与湛蓝天空相映成趣，天气也很舒适。

我照着招牌上的号码打给第一家酒店，他们说没营业；打给第二家，没人接；第三家报给我的价格，和大堂工作人员说的相差甚远。

因为大堂工作人员想热心地把我安排到便宜的房间，而老板觉得“打电话来的客人，都想要独立的卫生间和淋浴间”，需要多收费。

Durian seller practicing the saxophone 卖榴莲的人在练习萨克斯

Still functional public grindstone 仍能使用的公共磨盘

A faded sign with a hotel phone number next to the "welcome to town" sign ：“欢迎来到本镇”旁有一块褪了色、还写着酒店电话号码的牌子

And you know what?

He was right.

你知道吗？他对了。

¹ If I recall correctly it was a chicken burger, a chicken wrap, chicken nuggets, two sodas, a veggie burger that I didn't eat, and maybe fries

¹ 如果我没记错的话，有一个鸡肉汉堡、一个鸡肉卷、鸡块、两杯汽水、一个我没吃的素汉堡，可能还有薯条。

² Even with a Presta to Schrader adapter, it still leaks nearly as fast as I can make air go in.

² 即便用了法式嘴（Presta）转美式嘴（Schrader）的转接头，打气时还是漏气，漏得几乎和我打气一样快。

³ The whole point in going 26" was to have more options. So, of course, the current style in 26" is crazy wide.

³选26英寸轮胎，本就是为了有更多选择。结果呢，现在流行的26英寸轮胎都宽得离谱。

⁴ Initially a wild assed guess on my part using what I could see of the towers' construction materials and erosion at a distance, the big fort at the pass the next day was explicitly signposted as Ming Great Wall, so I was probably right.

⁴一开始我只是远远看了看烽火台的建筑材料和侵蚀情况，瞎猜是明代的。结果第二天在山口的大堡垒明确标着是明长城，看来我可能猜对了。

Very nicely done mural of what they sell 精美商品壁画

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 448 km (278 miles)

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D7: 灵丘 → 王庄堡 （双语）

D7: 灵丘 → 王庄堡（双语）