September 14, 2015 Lanzhou to Youngchang

Today began with blue skies seen through the haze of pollution.  The Yellow River, more brown than yellow, was visible from our hotel window.  This whole area of China is an ecological disaster.  There is dust, smog, and trash almost everywhere we look.  The land is scarred by bulldozers and earth moving equipment.  I’ve yet to see any kind of erosion protection around the hundreds of building sites.  Everything just runs right into the rivers.

Despite the dirty air and ground, we prepared for another day of riding.  Boz’s fiancé, Jeanette, has joined the group for the next two weeks, so my borrowed seat was returned and I’m now back on the Saddlemen seat Dave purchased for this trip. 

We headed out of the hotel parking lot into the morning rush hour.  John warned us about possible construction early on the route.  However, in the year since he scouted for the trip, progress was made, and we had very little trouble in that area. 

Traffic was also manageable, but we still needed to be on the look out for vehicles usurping our right of way.

In motorcycling, there’s often that one random event and it happened today to Andre Lacy (our 76-year old rider from Indiannapolis, where he runs a large company and chairs the Indiannapolis 500 and the Indiana State Fair boards).  The group was traveling on the far right in the scooter lane.  A 3-wheeled motorcycle cart made a right turn from the car lanes at about 25 mph, right into Andre.  It knocked him about 30 feet into a fruit cart, toppling the cart onto its side.  Tom Loftus witnessed it from behind.  He thought he’d find Andre unconscious or dead.  Andre surprised him when he popped up from the ground and said, “That guy hit me!”  Tom, Mona, Boz and Jeanette (welcome to the group Jeanette) attended to Andre and called John, who was ahead, with us, waiting for them to catch up.

John left us and the rest of the group to sort out Andre's health, state of his bike and claims from the other driver and the upended fruit cart.  We waited at the corner in a nearby zen garden.  The nearby Audi dealer opened their doors and restrooms to us while we waited.  It took about an hour and a half to settle the damages to the fruit cart – Andre and the other driver each paid 1,500 yuan to the innocent party – and to determine that Andre’s bike needed repairs.

There was too much frame damage to be ridden, so the guys towed it to the BMW car dealership only a block away, and will be shipped to Shenzhen to await shipment with the other bikes back to the US. 

We waved goodbye to all the BMW employees and got back onto the boulevard leaving Lanzhou.  Andre joined Janis and Green in the van for the rest of the day.  He’ll have a decision to make as to whether he continues the trip in the van, bypassing many of the sights we will see on the motorcycles, or go home to plan his next adventure.

The source of some of the air pollution became evident.  I noticed at least two other coal-burning power plants on the way out of town.

A bridge over the Yellow River gave us an up close view of how nasty it is. 

It took the another hour before we were away from the smog, and breathing fresher air – at least until we passed the village latrines.

The mountains came into view…

…as did some other farm products, like wheat.  

These women were tossing the crop into the air to separate the wheat and chaff.

Bok choy is the newest crop to make an appearance.

I’m not sure what was being dried in the field, but I like the way it’s stacked.

The snow-capped mountains in the distance, combined with the well-tended fields, made a lovely backdrop for riding in the country.

Mosques are the only religious buildings we’ve seen for a few days.

We had a forced rest break when Mike experience a flat tire.  We happened to stop at the Ganzu Toll Headquarters.   They were friendly and offered us the use of the restrooms and hot water for tea.  But they wouldn’t let us on the highway - no motorcycles allowed.

The views from the stop were pretty good.  Nicely stacked straw…

…mountains…

and as a bonus, ruins of the Great Wall of China.

Meanwhile, the guys were having problems replacing a tube in the tire.  The first replacement had a leak and the second time the tire wasn’t seating properly.  Mike finally ran it until the tire heated up enough to seat.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the scenic national road.

We saw a large solar farm.

John and Janis had quite a start when they drove into the hotel courtyard.  It was under renovation.

A quick look to the left, however, settled them down.  The entry was moved into a different corner.