Linxia!

Whoa, blessed relief…we are in Linxia (not Ningxia, as I reported our destination yesterday).  The spellings of Chinese things in English are easy to get distorted. We’re down from the Tibetan plateau and its elevations of 12,000 to 14,000 feet.  Linxia is at an altitude of “only” about 6,000 feet, so the altitude-induced lightheadedness and headaches we were experiencing are gone.

I’m not complaining about that, though.  In fact, I’m not complaining about anything on this ride.  What we are seeing and what we have been experiencing on this grandest of all adventures has been beyond incredible!  I’ve been receiving lots of emails from our readers, and my good buddy Tom’s comment was spot on the money.   Tom said I was one lucky (you can fill in the blanks, folks).   You sure got that right, Tom!

For starters, here are the photos on the road to Tangke yesterday that I didn’t get to post last night….

Up on the Tibetan plateau at 12,720 feet

A Tibetan motorcyclist

Lu on his RX3…Lu is an incredibly-talented rider

The nine bikes we are riding on this adventure

Chasing Zuo on the Tibetan plateau

A Tibetan Buddhist monk on a motorcycle

The Nine Curves region of the Yellow River

Lu helping a Tibetan woman make tea

Next, the photos on the ride to Linxia today. It was a long day followed by another spectacular dinner. Just a quick rundown tonight, folks. Linxia is a city of two million people. We’ve left the Tibetan Buddhist area and we are now in a Muslim region. We rode 370 kilometers today, which may not sound like much, but factor in that it rained for half the day, we did another 80 or so kilometers on dirt, and Linxia the traffic is something right out of a YouTube video.  It was a challenge.

Here are the photos on the road to Linxia…

My photo of the RX1 on the Rouergai marsh lands

A Buddhist monastery roof on the road to Linxia

A Buddhist monk

Entering the Gansu Prefecture

Joe Gresh enjoying a chicken head after placing second overall in last night’s chopstick contest

An epicurean exercise in excellence fit for an emperor…our new normal…a 19-course dinner! The food on this adventure ride is spectacular!

Master Sergeant Zuo enjoying the noodles

The bikes are all running well and so are we.   To be blunt, we are beating the living daylights out of our RX3s and RX1s, and these motorcycles are tough.  The RX1s are proving to be very capable (this is Zongshen’s first endurance test of the RX1), and you already know the RX3 is a proven performer.    We’ve done about 1300 miles so far, and we haven’t heard a whimper from any of the motorcycles.   It’s just a given that they are Zongshen tough.

It’s 6:00 a.m. here, and that means it’s time to start packing the bikes.   Our destination tonight is Xinin, about 260 km down the road.   You’ll know more about today’s ride in tomorrow’s blog, folks!