Day 9: Palo Verde

So I arose early this morning with a view to laundering my clothes. Unfortunately the local supermarket did not sell small packets of soap powder. So I returned to the motel's laundry room to find a woman was in the process of removing her clean laundry from thedrier. So acting dumb (something that I have an inexplicable natural talent for!) I said so the vending machine does not sell soap powder, to which she responded that I should try the supermarket. Ah but they only sell large quantities and I only need enough for a single wash. So she kindly offered to provide me with some soap powder.

So off I trundle to get my clothes whilst she returned to her room to get said soap powder.

So sometime later (perhaps five minutes), just I was thinking that she had changed her mind, she returns with powder, having changed her clothes, and carrying a half bottle of beer! At six in the morning!

Anyway, having provided powder, she commented that she loved my accent! And continued, "Do you find women often common on to you because of it?" Obviously I acted coy, as she continued, "just as I am now!" At six am in the morning, indeed!

So I said, not really, especially when they know that I'll be leaving shortly for a seventy mile bike ride.

She left. Probably in disgust!

And no, even though it was six in the morning I did not dream it. But who am I to judge, for all I know she works night shifts, and was doing her laundry and supping a beer before retiring to bed?

Moving on to the more interesting cycling related stuff. In one sense the past two days have been interesting as I finally got to ride the bits of the Southern Tier that I could not last year because of the rear hub problem that befell my bike on the second day.

Perhaps in all other respects the past two days have been very tough. I have been struggling with the heat. It appears to be so much hotter than last year. Whether this is true or not, it has made for two long days as I have been concerned about overheating, which has reduced speeds.

As you can see I'm not on the Molton for this trip. Details to follow in a subsequent posting.

Meanwhile at Palo Verde, it is mosquito bites 9 dead mosquitoes 2, how I wish the scores was reversed!