Day 765 – CHINA (SHAANXI): From Danfeng to Shangnan

Today’s distance / ???????: 36.1 miles / 59.4km
Average speed / ????: 9.0mph / 14.6km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 4h 04m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 6366mi plus 386mi (?) / 10,246km plus 622km (?)
Ascent / ??: 630m
Descent / ??: 710m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N33°31′48.1″, E110°52′27.2″

Today was up or down. Nothing inbetween. Back on China National Highway 312 after getting bored with the consistent surface.

During the steep climb below, a car full of police officers passed. Thinking nothing of it, I carried on pushing onwards, helmet dripping with sweat. A few moments later, the car pulled up beside me. Here we go, I thought…but to my surprise, one of the officers thrust out an ice-cold bottle of ice tea for me. I thanked him and took it, and they took off, smiling. Nothing esle was said. I was blown away.

I decided to make this a short day, and pushed on to the nearest town, Shangnan. The plan was to make some updates to the website in the afternoon.

My plan was thwarted however. I checked into a small inn, and made my way to the nearest internet cafe. “I’m sorry, no internet today,” I was told. I went to another internet cafe and was told the same thing. Upon asking why there was no internet, I was told that it was due to Olympic Games security, and the police had told the internet cafes not to allow internet access today. Weird. The internet’s internal server was working though, and I was able to spend a relaxing afternoon watching the movie Street Kings.