I had to have at least one 100km day this Tour. I not only had to do it to show off to an insufficiently impressed Chinese Boyfriend, I had to do it prove to myself it was possible. So many long flat stretches and so few mountains, it has seemed as if I've not been getting in the longer days on account of legitimate physical reasons (like exhaustion) or social reasons (like work) but rather because of flat tires or interesting conversation and I needed to know that I could.

As well, the last 40 some odd kilometers were all downhill and mostly had streetlights.

Initial efforts with regards to this feat were hampered by my making a Marian Makes Coffee Music Video¹ and at least an hour of pleasant conversation with a wenmang² Tibetan rug dealer staying in the same hotel as me. A coffee lover himself, his inability to read Chinese characters other than via his mobile phone's text-to-speech function had meant that he'd ended up getting packets of Nescafe 3-in-1 the day before and was so damn grateful for the coffee I was making that I couldn't help but be convinced to sit there and keep making more rounds of coffee³.

Just a wee little bit jittery by the time I finally packed up my things to go around the corner and stuff myself to bursting on the first, second, and third donkeymeat stuffed flatbreads I've had since I crossed from northern to southern Hebei early last summer.

Although this would then put me in the hottest part of the day, it provided me with plenty of energy to make it up the National Road But Not Truck Route level of steepness of the mountain road I'd picked on account of not being able to face the idea of trying the practically an expressway except for the level crossings Truck Route.

As is often the case when winnowing my cloud of possibilities down as the day proceeds, I came to decide that I would only cross the one mountain range and not the second and that I would head back in the direction of the plains once I had done so.

I'd realized that this second road was mostly downhill but not how thoroughly downhill it was nor that it would be as wide and generally unencumbered by traffic⁴ such that when I was getting to the approach with the first large town I realized there was nothing stopping me from proceeding to the second or even the third.

So, after much hemming and hawing over the topo map, and the realization that I was now back on that big ugly truck route (only late enough at night that most of the trucks had gone to bed), I booked a hotel at the first spot to tip me over 100km for the day and rode, and rode, and rode, and rode until I got there.

Didn't much like there when I arrived.

I've long had the habit of paying attention to the little signs and portents that tell you what kind of stranger you are dealing with and the very fact of the boss not offering me a slice of the watermelon he was sitting outside⁵ eating had me disliking him from the getgo.

Check-in and my registration (done by me) all went smoothly enough, but there was zero friendliness or welcome, and—come morning—the distinct feeling of wanting me to hurry up and leave in combination with an inability to provide useful local information like "which way to the closest food?"

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¹ I enjoy the making and editing of music videos far, far more than random people enjoy watching them.

² I'm using the pinyin because, even if he can't read Chinese, I don't want to call him illiterate.

³ There's a reason I'm known in certain circles as the Caffeine Fairy

⁴ I say "generally" on account of every single market town and wide spot in the road being a hellish cluster of wrong ways, side ways, and randomly parked vehicles.

⁵ He also didn't help with opening the door or holding it while I pushed my bike into the lobby.