Day 74: Fist pumping road magic
A brother and sister bike packers whose name escapes me, a RV camper couple and Fiona joined me at camp last night. The siblings were doing the Baja divide. Their camp consisted of just rolling a sleeping bag on the ground near the tents. No tents or tarps or shelters or any of that nonsense. Crazy!
Today would be another 75km day on highway 1 so no need to leave early. Jan (from a few days ago) took a couple of days off with a friend in an RV. So was delighted when an RV pulled over and Jan got out and was greeted with smiles and laughs. Is a small world. He also gave me breakfast bars!
Cycling was very gradual uphill for most of the day, broken only by some steeper parts and some epic but short lived downhills. 3 sister volcanos overlooked my efforts today. Plus a couple of big scary dogs that could run quite fast and bark quite loud while showing off some scary looking teeth.
Very often people in oncoming vehicles will wave at me. Most of the time I just about have enough time to wave back before they pass. Is a really nice gesture. But then sometimes some road magic happens, where from quite a bit away the vehicle will first flash their lights. So I wave and they wave back. We get to lock eyes while waving. The wave then clenches into a fist and we are now both fist pumping the air and laughing. It is so fun when this happens. Instant connection with people whose outline I only got a glance at for a couple of seconds. But puts you in a great mood.
Another vehicle pulled alongside me later in the cycle and handed me a pear. I struggled to accept this pear while still cycling but we managed. I feel like I was once thought to not accept gifts from strange men I don’t know in suspicious looking white vans. But it is different out here. The pear was delicious.
Am in Santa Rosalia tonight. Tomorrows goal is Mulege where I should be able to collect a package containing my new rear tire to replace my now hilariously bald tire and a spare derailer hanger.
