Finished off last nights dinner, packed up the all my bags inside, and then fought my way back out through the 'quitos to the road.
The huge storm last night put a nice muddy gloss on the dirt road, so I had a few pounds of mud to scrape off my bicycle (and self) before heading out. The other awesome thing was that the wind had turned in the night and was now coming at 40+ km/h from the SW. 
This was particularly sucktastic because I was headed mostly due south. Started riding, but could only muster about 12km/h into the strong headwind. Many stops for a quick water break, and eventually had to grab water (through the filter) out of a fast running creek (I checked upstream for cows - not my favorite flavoring). Eventually made it to the Abdulino by-pass, a nice 4km uphill ride followed by a 3km downhill stretch where I still had to peddle to get any speed. After 3 hours of riding and only 35km, I decided to stop in a cafe for some lunch and some emotional/spiritual revival.Fortunately, stopping for lunch payed off because the wind, after my hour break, had shifted 90 degrees and I noted with great pleasure that the road was also about to turn the remaining 90 degrees ... so my strong headwind became a solid tailwind! The 5km or so that the road was slowly turning felt like trying to come about in a barge-like sailboat. Eventually got riding at about 30-35km/h and headed down onto some nice flat stretches of 10-15 km. Started racking up kms and my day turned out quite well! Eventually made it to a moderately sized farming center, where i picked up some pilmeny (meat dumplings) and ketchup for dinner, and was given a few beers and cookies by some random strangers for dessert! Rode another 15km until found a nice farmer's road and found a nice clearing in the trees for camp. Cooked up dinner without any mosquitos and sat on a log watching the sun go down listening to Chinese radio on my shortwave receiver.
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