Day 247 (China): Luoyang - restaurant at km marker 652 at G310 (more ups and downs)

daily distance: 151km
total distance: 14,791km
riding time: 8h 

I was able to circumvent Luoyang on G310 and thus did not have to contend with city traffic after crawling out of the little shed for the night. I was woken up by heavy motorcycle traffic on the path next to the shed and some factory brigades running around military style less than a couple of hundred yards away.

And there were more power stations along the way. Nothing unexpected any longer. The going was rough at first and I took my first break in Yanshi after about 50km. Afterwards I took the wrong road, but got quietude for a while.

Then lousy surface and despite signs pointing in the right direction I must have missed a turnoff at some point. Once I realized where I was, I decided to ditch where I wanted to end up for the day (Zhengzhou) and took a look at the Yellow River instead. Here it is …

The whole thing was a big detour, but I thought worth the effort. I wouldn’t have seen it any more otherwise. The road to Zhengzhou looked flat on my map, but it so wasn’t. This was some major climbing as evidenced here … (me thinks at least)

When I wanted to do some last minute shopping at some place it turned out to be a restaurant. Darn. I asked whether there was a hotel … no, there wasn’t. But I was invited in and eventually they said that I should stay at their place. It was great. The restaurant had extremely yummy food for a starving biker and the people were super nice. A departure from the days prior. The man of the house was insistent on sleeping in the same room which I could avert by pointing to my bike. And so I slept in a place to myself.

On another note, I heard the last show of Real Time with Bill Maher today. This one was with me almost all the time … and yes, I did like it.

This was a tiring day, but sunny and the scenery was good. I am now anxious to reach the Yellow Sea, I must admit. I will see whether I will be taking a rest day along the road as I planned and really should do. But who knows ….