We had set our alarms to 5:30 so we could get going at 6am because we needed to get back to Beijing before nightfall. Between us and Beijing were some pretty serious mountains, and who knew if all the bikes would stay together. Teresa’s CJ was running well but the parts were barely holding together, she said, from all the bumpy roads. I’d was having pesky little problems like the screws didn’t want to stay in the fender, no matter how many washers and nuts I put on the bolts. I ended up twisting baling wire through the holes. The headlight had also rattled lose, also an easy fix, and the air mixture screw seemed to be turning with the bumps, too.
Since the tire change, Teresa seemed to be a bit out of alignment, but not enough to risk messing with. Her back seat had fallen off, the riders seat needed tightening, and it was getting hard to shift, the gears kept slipping out.
Diny’s CJ was holding together without fault, but we kept reminding her not to brag about it too much otherwise…
We planned the day like this — we’d head back to Beijing on the same road on which I’d left Beijing a decade before, enter Beijing Province, go take a peek at the Great Wall, and end up at Starbucks near Teresa’s house. We hoped to be back before dark, with no (major) delays due to motorcycle repairs, road closures, or other unexpected phenomenons.
The mountains were no less spectacular than I remembered, but the road was much improved. There were many tiny villages dotting the wooded, rocky hillsides and standing next to the river. The road looked like the only thing to have happened since I’d been here ten years before. No cities, no white-tiled restaurants, no modern conveniences. Then we came to a strip mine that turned the air to noxious yellow fumes, and then we were away again in the mountains, and then in a mountain village and then soldiers standing in front of the road we needed to continue on in order to get back to Beijing.
To be continued…
Hi Carla:
I’m really enjoying reading all about your trip — safe and sound and warm here in Tiburon, CA. I laughed out loud at those photos of you all decked out in your latest fashions!
JAM