D18: 螅镇 → 吴堡站（双语）

October 8, 2024

Hotels even Marian won't stay at: Gas Station edition 连岳玫瑰都不愿住的酒店：加油站版

I've mostly enjoyed my previous experiences sleeping on a kang¹. However, even with Dr. M's vastly greater experience at taking all the duvets and folding them into a more mattress-like surface², sleeping on one that isn't currently all warm and cozy from having a fire lit in it is a decidedly non-luxurious experience.

Similarly fully awakened by a need to pee and an unwillingness to avail herself of the chamber pot, she's up enough earlier than I am to discover that Mao also once spent the night here and that this town's local place that He once slept is not so developed as to have acquired things like Decorative Farm Equipment or fake horses.

我以前睡在炕上的经历大多挺愉快¹。不过，即便有M博士丰富的经验，她把所有的被子都收拢起来，铺成了像床垫的样子²，但睡在没有生火、不暖和的炕上，绝对称不上是奢侈的体验。

同样因为尿急又不想用夜壶而彻底醒来的她，比我早起了不少，还发现毛主席也曾在这里留宿过。而且这个小镇上毛主席曾经住过的地方，并没有发展到有装饰性农具或者假马这类东西的程度。

There's no door on the squat, but there is a corner facing mirror to let you know not to walk in 蹲厕没有门，但有一面镜子在拐角处，好让你知道别贸然走进去。

Intriguing way of recycling fluorescent light tubes 有意思的回收荧光灯管方式

Looks like there was a wedding recently 看起来最近这里办过一场婚礼

There's a courtyard of probably a dozen 50- or 60-year-old constructed yaodong³ near the entrance to the village that are getting a beautiful facelift which speaks to the likelihood of future such bougiefication and maybe even plumbed toilets.

With my body deciding that morning oatmeal is a completely unnecessary addition to morning coffee for triggering the a.m. peristalsis that will necessitate a second visit to the pit toilet on the other side of the street, I skip breakfast. However, an unnoticed slow leak and the patching of a flat tire acquired overnight kills enough time for Dr. M to finish the brief she was supposed to be writing all week and puts both of us in a mood for lunch at last night's restaurant on the very real chance that there will be no food before Wubao County.

村子入口附近有个院子，里面大概有十几间建于五六十年前的窑洞³，正在进行漂亮的翻新。这预示着未来这里很可能会变得更加精致，说不定还会装上抽水马桶呢。

我的身体觉得，完全没必要早上喝咖啡时加一份燕麦片来刺激肠道蠕动，因为这只会让我不得不再去一趟街对面的旱厕，所以我没吃早餐。然而，没注意到的缓慢漏气以及修补一夜之间瘪掉的轮胎，花掉了不少时间。这倒让M博士有时间完成她本应一整周都在写的简报，也让我们俩都有了去昨晚那家餐馆吃午饭的心情，毕竟很有可能在到吴堡县之前都找不到吃的了。

M's bed was way cooler than mine M博士选的床比我的酷多了

Working while I patch my tire⁴ 我在补胎⁴的时候，她在工作

You would think, since most of the weight is on the rear, that the flat would be there 你可能会想，因为大部分重量都在车后部，所以瘪掉的轮胎应该是后轮。

Clearly, yesterday's jersey wasn't enough of an offering to the Tire Demons 很明显，昨天贡献的骑行服并没能抚绥轮胎神鬼。

It was probably a good decision.

There were noodles available in the next town, but all other signs of civilization are on the other side of the river and, at 60y per bicycle to cross—even if it does mean getting to say we took a ferry across the Yellow River—the functioning ferry we run across isn't that attractive to us⁵.

在此吃午饭可能是个明智的决定。

下一个镇上有面条吃，但其他文明的迹象都在河对岸。而且，每辆自行车过河要60元——即便这样我们就能说自己坐过渡轮横渡黄河了——但我们遇到的这艘还在运营的渡轮对我们来说吸引力并不大⁵。

Today has less Interesting Things than yesterday. Lots of ferryless crossings with signs about how Yellow River Ferries are a local Intangible Cultural Heritage item or how this specific crossing was like really, really, realllllllly important for moving munitions during the Chinese Civil War; a camel; a camel on our side of the river; a Red Tourism Site named "Red Tourism Site"; a petrol station that has lodging.

今天遇到的有趣的事情比昨天少。有很多没有渡轮的渡口，还有些牌子写着黄河渡轮是当地的非物质文化遗产，或者某个特定的渡口在解放战争时期对运送弹药来说有多么重要；看到了一匹骆驼；看到了一匹在我们这边河岸的骆驼；一个名为“红色旅游景点”的红色旅游景点；一个提供住宿的加油站。

Honestly, I'm kind of glad they wanted too much money, cause I'm not sure I want to cross the Yellow on a ferry this small 说实话，他们要价太高我还有点高兴呢，因为我不确定自己是否愿意坐这么小的渡轮过黄河。

They did manage to put a car on this ferry, so it's probably safe 他们成功地把一辆气车弄上了这艘渡轮，所以应该是安全的吧。对不对

Other than the ferry, the site that takes up the most time is probably the Li Family Graveyard on account of us trying to figure out the sequence of events leading to a marker stone with a rather mishmashed 'history' of people surnamed Li and that clearly indicates that we are in a graveyard, but no graves; and no sign of demolished graves.

Dr. M's best educated guess is that there was a graveyard here, it got relocated when the road was widened, a pocket park was put in, the park stopped getting maintenance or attention, and the Li Family came back and put up a marker. It's as good as any other theory.

除了渡轮，最耗费我们时间的地方可能就是李氏家族墓地了。我们试图弄清楚事情的来龙去脉，因为那里有一块墓碑，上面记载着李氏家族颇为杂乱的“历史”，而且很明显我们身处墓地，却看不到坟墓，也没有坟墓被拆除的迹象。

M博士经过分析后的最佳猜测是，这里曾经有个墓地，道路拓宽的时候被迁走了，后来建了个袖珍公园，公园后来没人维护和打理了，李氏家族的人又回来立了这块墓碑。这和其他推测一样合理。

Until you are trying to detangle your bicycle 直到你要解开缠在一起的自行车时就不那么有趣了

Feeling a little guilty about the number of plastic doohickeys that broke off in the process 在这个过程中弄断了好几个塑料小玩意儿，心里有点愧疚。

I'm mostly just happily surprised to see a small fire extinguisher at an outdoor site where people burn incense and joss.

我在那边主要的挺惊喜的是在一个焚香烧纸的户外场所看到一个小灭火器。

Over dinner in Wubao I realize that my train, which I had thought to be the day after tomorrow, is only a bit less than seven hours after Dr. M's midnight departure, so, other than it just being the polite thing to do, it is now completely necessary that I join her on the ride to the train station rather than getting a hotel in the city.

On the one hand, both of us are at fault for not making sure the headlight was charged. On the other hand, we would have walked the Truck Hell no matter what.

在吴堡吃晚餐的时候，我意识到我以为后天的火车，其实在M博士午夜出发后不到七个小时就要开了。所以，除了出于礼貌之外，现在我完全有必要和她一起骑车去火车站，而不是在城里找家酒店住下。

一方面，我们俩都有责任，因为没有确认前灯是否充好了电。另一方面，不管怎样，我们都得穿过“卡车地狱”。

If you zoom way in, I seem to recall there being a camel somewhere in this picture 如果把图片放大很多倍，我记得这张照片里有一匹骆驼。

Is anyone surprised to find out that Dr. M is a train watcher? 有人会对M博士也是个“火车迷”感到惊讶吗？

The pitch black after we made the turn off was actually kind of calming, with my finding the distant growl of the Death Machines a pleasant sound (on account of it being far and away) and Dr. M finding it unpleasant (on account of it being an aural reminder of our recent near death experience).

Living on the mainland, she takes way more trains than I do and wasn't at all surprised by Wubao Station being the sort of place that turns the lights off and closes up between trains. I'd've thought they'd at least let passengers into their pristine Waiting Room though I suppose not doing that is why it was so gently used.

我们转弯之后，四周漆黑一片，这实际上还挺让人平静的。我觉得远处那些“死亡机器”的轰鸣声挺悦耳（因为它们离得很远），而M博士却觉得这声音很讨厌（因为这让她想起我们最近那次险些丧命的经历）。

M博士住在大陆，坐火车的次数比我多得多，所以看到吴堡车站在列车停运期间关灯关门这种情况，她一点也不惊讶。我本以为他们至少会让乘客进入那间一尘不染的候车室呢，不过我猜正因为没让乘客进去，候车室才保存得这么好。

Camel on our side of the River 我们这边河岸的骆驼

Bread purchased in Wubao will feed me for most of the train ride 在吴堡买的面包够我在火车上吃大半程了。

In this case, the Eighteen Hells are actually the "18-Wheeler Hells" 在这种情况下，“十八层地狱”其实是“十八轮大卡车地狱”。

And the award for "Best Hotel Room Decoration of the Year" goes to .... this stack of tires “年度最佳酒店房间装饰奖”得主是……这堆轮胎。

On the plus side, the enterprising individual who opened his own waiting room on the other side of the parking lot not only had beds, he was also willing to come wake people up when it was time for their train.

Somehow even harder than the brick kang, it was not a comfortable bed, but it was a horizontal place to lie down in the dark and, other than troubled dreams that the Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your House⁷ was watching me and smiling with very sharp teeth, I slept soundly enough.

值得庆幸的是，停车场另一边那个自己开了间候车室的人，不仅提供床铺，还愿意在乘客该上车的时候叫醒他们。

这床比砖炕还硬，睡得一点都不舒服，但好歹是个能在黑暗中躺下的地方。除了做了个噩梦，梦到那个偷偷住在你家的无脸老妇人⁷正看着我，露出锋利的牙齿微笑，我睡得还算安稳。

¹ 2010 Yantai, 2012 Tianshui, 2021 Huating

¹ 2010年在烟台，2012年在天水，2021年在华亭

Even with the difficulty in getting new shoes, there comes a time when it's just too much effort to repair them again 即便买新鞋不太方便，但总有那么一刻，你会觉得再去修鞋实在太麻烦了。

² I usually stay in places at the upper end of the lowest price tier. Although they frequently lack amenities of any kind, because they are catering to people who work with their bodies, they often have comfortable beds. White collar category places, on the other hand, still believe the myth that rock hard beds are good for you.

²我通常会选择价格最低档中偏上一点的住处。虽然这些地方常常没有配套设施，但因为它们面向的是体力劳动者，所以床铺往往都很舒服。而面向白领的住处却仍然相信硬邦邦的床对身体有好处这种无稽之谈。

³ Constructed yaodong are buildings, that may even be free -standing, which were built in the same style as a cave house. They often even have arched interior spaces.

³ 建造的窑洞是指那些独立的建筑，采用了和窑洞一样的建筑风格。它们内部通常甚至有拱形的空间。

⁴ I won't realize it until a flat in February 2025, but the reason tire removal is so hard is that I've got the wrong sized tube inside my tire

⁴ 直到2025年2月又一次轮胎瘪了，我才意识到卸轮胎这么困难的原因是我的轮胎里装错了尺寸的内胎。

Someone was paid to make this statue 收了钱还做成这样。

⁵ Also, according to Dr. M's random number decision maker method done prior to us going to watch them unload a car, we weren't supposed to be taking the ferry anyways.

⁵而且，根据在我们去看他们卸车之前，M博士用随机数决定法得出的结果，反正我们本来也不应该坐这艘渡轮。

⁶ Although it's rather a lot more by road, Shanxi is almost three whole kilometers away from us.

⁶虽然走公路要远得多，但山西离我们差不多也就三公里远。

⁷ From "Welcome to Nightvale"

⁷ 出自《欢迎来到夜谷》

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 1,093 km (679 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0

D18: 螅镇 → 吴堡站 （双语）

D18: 螅镇 → 吴堡站（双语）