With Ed from Wuyuan Skywells in the UK until July 9 giving me a very narrow window of opportunity to arrive and use my free night(s) in a way that will allow me to enjoy the facilities while also enjoying his company, I'm changing my plans for a couple days down the road. Even with that happening, however, the direction I currently want to be heading is not the direction I'm heading.

Although not strictly necessary, I want—whenever possible—to stay in a hotel that has advance booking capabilities. It's not just about giving me leverage in a potential argument about whether or not foreigners are allowed to stay somewhere, it's also about ensuring that I don't have a repeat of Day 1 of this Tour where I drag my sorry ass into town only to find, out of a paucity of available places, one legitimately closed for renovations and the other honest-to-goodness¹ booked full for the night. If the final, not bookable online, not called in advance hotel hadn't been open and available, I would have been in quite a bind.

So, east it is.

And while I'm disappointed during the early stages of figuring things out to discover, yet again, that an awful lot of today's endgame is going to be on the National Road, by the time I get to it, I'm overjoyed to have something where the paving doesn't suddenly detiorate into a patch of unavoidable potholes that shake my spine and wrattle my wrists.

Hot and sunny after days of cool rain, today is a day where the shushing sound of waves of green rice can be heard over my music, where my GPS announces turns after I passed them with a "你已偏离路线" that, pulling the device out of my handlebar bag, means finding out that actually happened half a kilometer back but it didn't deign to tell me because the phone that's now handling my music and navigation is no longer an ancient flagship model but something with much lower specs.

The countryside where I am is so chock full of historic farmhouse that, like the Day of Many Pagodas, buildings which would have easily gotten me to stop and go "wow" at other times and places aren't worth bothering to put my foot on the ground and take my phone from my jersey pocket.

I'll collect my first "Agriculture Should Learn From Dazhai²" slogan of the Tour along with a rare public health slogan on tuberculosis treatment and prevention; find that my desire for cold calories is not outweighed by it not being very good ice cream; be given slices of watermelon by a shop before they figure out that I'm a foreigner; and generally just have a nice day. 

It's a day where nothing notable happens. It's a day where things like my treatment by the hotel are only made notable because they stand in contrast to the less pleasant actions of the people the night before and not because they are actually notable.

I wish more days could be like this one.

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¹ This is in contrast to the sharp knives smile of the rainy night in Shacun and the face saving lie that I took too long between calling during dinner and showing up.

² It's the "Industry Should Learn From Daqing" slogans that are truly rare