Zhangye!

Tonight we’re in Zhangye, which is near the western end of China’s Great Wall.  There’s probably a joke in there somewhere about Donald Trump trying to get the Mongols to pay for the Great Wall, but I’m tired and I’ll let that one go by.  Today was mostly freeway miles, but we are following the route of the old Silk Road.   Heady stuff.   Today was another day with no rain, and that’s good, too.

I’ll include just a few photos from today.  This is one of Gobi Gresh in front of what the sign says are the Yadan Physiognomy landforms…

It looked to be interesting stuff, but we are seeing so many interesting things that at some point we need to just move on.   You could spend a lifetime exploring all of the interesting things in China and still not see it all.

We took a rest stop under a bridge during our 500-kilometer day today and I saw this interesting graffiti…bear in mind we are in western China when you look at this…

I grabbed a cool shot of Dong smoking a cigarette during our break.   He looks like a Chinese Peter Fonda…

At 65, I’m the oldest (by far) of any of the members of our team.  Surprisingly, at a lot of our stops people know all about Arjiu and Dajiu (Zongshen has publicized this ride well).   I’ll tell you all about that in Riding China.   For now, I’ll mention that a lot of people in China are making a big deal about me being 65 and being out and about on a motorcycle exploring their country.  To me, being 65 is not a big deal, but one lady told me (through our translater, Tracy) that in China people who are 65 would not do what we are doing.   I’m not too sure what to make of all of this, but I will tell you guys that over here, 65 is considered “elderly.”   Shoot, back in California, at 65 I am usually the youngest guy in the group I hang with.   Anyway, when I saw this sign in Zhangye today I asked Gobi Gresh to grab a photo of me standing by it looking contemplative.  I have no idea what the rest of the sign says or means.   But you get the idea.   At 65, these folks think I’ve passed my “sell by” date.   It’s kind of funny.

We’re going to try to make Lanzhou tomorrow.  For the record, the bikes are performing magnificently, and we are not being gentle with them.   Both the RX3s and the RX1s are doing a great job.

That’s it for tonight’s installment of the Arjiu and Dajiu show, folks.   Stay tuned.