A rainy, miserable day

May 27—295 km--Fairly short, miserable ride today to Yakeshi. Though it was in the mid-fifties and cloudy when we left, soon it started raining and the temp started dropping. Before long it was a steady rain and in the mid-thirties, with a strong wind. It was really cold! Stopped at a gas station to add more warm clothes, and it was very windy—so windy that it blew TJ's bike over. If nothing else, every time from now on that I ride in crappy weather, I can say, “Gee, this is almost as bad as the time I was in Inner Mongolia…” Here's a photog to help paint the picture:

At about 1330 we pulled into Yakeshi, to a very nice hotel with some kind of Mongolian welcome ceremony with fermented yak’s milk--way too touristy for my taste, I had to pass:
As we filled up at a gas station on the outskirts of Yakeshi, I received confirmation that the Duke and I had very different outlooks when he said "Isn't this just great?" Maybe it was the hypothermia, but I didn't really think so. He is one upbeat dude. TJ, Stuart, and I had a very nice lunch with beer and some delicious deep-fried chinese food. Here is MTB in the restaurant, he looks happy to be there as well:
Went for a brief walk about town, froze my ass off. Bought some food and motor oil and went back to the hotel to try to dry out my stuff. TJ melted the room's hair-dryer in the process of drying his stuff...