Day 2 to: Zhangjaikou, 131km, 221km to date, 828m up, end elev 761m

I am having arguments with the internet connections in the hotels, so my posts may be less frequent than I had hoped.  I’ve also changed to a Macbook, although everything works, I’ve got a fair bit of a learning curve to get to the dexterity level I have on the Windows machine.  Very frustrating when you know it is a simply keyclick to do something but you don’t know the keyclick.  Also most of the help requires a web connection…

The ride today had some beautiful sections, but unfortunately most was not pretty, lots of heavy truck traffic on the road, very dirty.  Went past a huge coal-fired power complex.  The road seemed to be a continuous stream of light and heavy industrial complexes.

Although we have only rode 2 days, we have a rest day - prep for the 6 days in a row coming up.

Some pics: 

Odd to find a park with classic greek statues and a guy fishing from the landing:

Nice riding:

Tonight's dinner?

Winter Olympic village under construction:

The power plant:

This very unassuming little store was the highlight of the day.  Not only were the double ice-cream cones the equivalent of $0.20, but she insisted on giving us 3 water bottles when we left and wouldn’t take any money,  Many pictures were taken, especially with her granddaughter.