To Utena, and a rest day

August 5, 2015

A bee in my bonnet.

I had breakfast in my room. I've been eating muesli with a yogurt drink poured over it. The yogurt tastes good, and keeps okay without refrigeration. Last night I did put it in the fridge, so it was a treat having it cold. I started with a small packet of muesli in Tallinn, but that has long since run out. When I bought more in Riga, it was only available in a 1 kg package. That's a lot of muesli to carry on a bike, and I've been eating it up to lighten the load.

My first stop after breakfast was the Maxima store for supplies. I've used up the small travel-sized toiletries I brought from home. The smallest shampoo available was 500 ml, not too big, but bigger than I started with. So it seems, little by little, my load is growing!

Then I headed out toward Utena. The road was much hillier today.

Hills! After I took this picture, I got a bee trapped in my helmet while heading downhill.

On this particular hill, I caught a bee in my helmet part way down the hill. I ended up releasing the buckle on the helmet, and tossing it over the barrier. The bee was still caught in my hair. I stopped at the bottom and got the bee out of my hair (no stings, fortunately) and retrieved my helmet, which had had a soft landing in the bushes. Then I got going again, up the hill without the benefit of momentum from the downhill.

That was the excitement for the day. I stopped in Svedasai for a cold drink. It was marked on the map as a bar, but was the shop associated with a gas station. It could have been a bar, as there was a huge variety of liquor for sale. Interesting combination.

It got really hot, close to 100 F. Going into Utena, I stopped at another shop and had an ice cream. My bike was leaning against the wall outside, and the Garmin registered 108 F when I came out. I think that was from the reflection from the wall, but it really was hot.

I went into Utena and found a guest house that was well-rated on TripAdvisor, with comments about the staff speaking English. I'm hoping that I can get some help planning the rest of the route through Lithuania. This sort of slingshot approach, where I go somewhere and then figure out the next stop is pretty inefficient. I must say, though, that it brought me to a nice place today. Utena is a larger town in an area with a lot of lakes, and is pretty. There is a lake across from the guest house with a walking path around it and a dock where people are swimming, and families are out enjoying themselves as the day cools off.

I ended up staying in Utena another day. It's a nice town, with the potential of just relaxing by the lake, the guest house is very nice and reasonably priced, and I needed to sort out my immediate plans.

After breakfast at the guest house (toast and meat and cheese in the provided breakfast, no lightening my muesli load) I went to the information center. The person there did okay with English, but not okay with planning a bike ride. "We don't like bicycles." Yes, I can tell. I got some guidance about what not to do, and if I followed it, I wouldn't be able to leave town at all! I also asked about the law for cyclists, and whether reflective vests are required. I had been taken to task (at least I think that was what was going on) back in Birzai, by an old man a bike, for not wearing one. I had looked online, and found that there had been a proposal for requiring vests and helmets, but couldn't find whether it had passed. And no one wears a helmet. At the info center, I was told it's a good thing to wear, but couldn't get an answer as to whether it was required. But I went and bought one anyway. The first place I stopped only had XL, so I didn't buy it, and then the second place only had XL also, so now I'm the owner of an XL Lithuanian reflective vest.

I now own a vest like this guy is wearing.

After that, I spent the day wandering around, relaxing by the lake, and hiding out from the sun. It really has gotten hot.

My plan for tomorrow is to ride the A14 for 20 miles to Moletai, and then pick up a smaller road that will take me most of the way to Vilnius. I want to be off the road by 3 p.m. due to the heat, so I'll split the ride to Vilnius into 2 days.

Lithuanian bike path. I was delighted to find this path today.

Some forest between areas of farmland. For some reason, this is fenced in.

I never figured out what this sign was telling me. It had started at 11 km, and I never encountered anything that seemed to match the warning.

This was typical of the houses I passed, including the color.

Outside the information center in Utena.

Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 891 km (553 miles)

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