Chilly and sunny and fresh and mountainous, we found a motel in a crazy little western town where the police came when we registered and wanted to know everything. We are the first foreigners to stay here, and they don’t quite know what to do. Finally it’s all finished, passports, paperwork, and Teresa, ever the diplomat, has the police smiling and even sort of laughing by the time its all over with, saying she’s not a foreigner she’s Chinese, what are they talking about.
"Beijing is just about as foreign to them as America," she told us. That’s why when I say I’m from Beijing they’re just astounded.
The motel is comfortable and cheap and cold, but we sleep well and wake up early, determined to find an Internet connection so I can send these dispatches, but the first place we go they won’t let us because they say foreigners aren’t allowed to use the Internet in China. Teresa argues but the man goes off to find the police and we flee, but it’s not long til we find another one who will let us in and I was able to get a paragraph out before the connection got cut off.
Riding was lovely once again, country roads, hay carts, and a fabulous mechanical road sweeping machine. Now my Internet connection has to be cut off again, and I may not be able to hook up again for some days. But I will be collecting photos and video for more formal reports later. Meantime, check out the photo album.
