warm greeting in hengpi

yesterday i rode 70 miles to the middle of nowhere hengpi. i had no idea if the rocky, dirt road i was bouncing along on was the road i though it was. i also had no idea where i was going to sleep or where i would get food.

there's something valuable learning to let go of those essentials....especially when your peddling 4 mph straight into a 10 mph head wind. a couple of hours before sundown i happened upon this small town. when i entered i cruised around asking people if their was a place to sleep. after a while i had gathered a small group of curious boys following me on their bicycles. finally, one of the men i asked tasked them with showing me to the hotel, and my curious parade soon became a my fearless leaders.

i found a restaraunt and slept hard through the sporadic explosions set off by gleeful children celebrating the chinese new year.hengpi is a small farming town that also has a couple of cement factories and one college. i was only planning on staying the night until....at breakfast this morning a gentleman and his son invited me over to their table. the son spoke a little english so we started having a conversation. we shared food and had some laughs. before i knew it his dad had poured me a shot (!) what was i supposed to do? feeling i had luckily happened upon someone i could converse with, i gave in to his hospitality and decided to stay one more night.

the family's eldest son took me around the town today on his motorcycle. the place is full of half built (or half decaying?) concrete and brick buildings. we were going to play basketball and visit their farm outside the city, but it started to rain very hard. we sat around inside their family's shop, watched the olympics, and asked each other sporadic questions. the usual crowd of curious eyes poked in and out to catch site of this strange foreigner. i'm going to have dinner tonight at their house and then i'll be on my way. i told the father "no shots, i need to be healthy for my ride". hopefully the sun translated this correctly.writing this now makes everything seem so easy and comfortable. it is not. i'll try and convey some of my deeper feelings later. right now i just wanted to update you all on where i'm at and that things are ok.