To Villarreal de San Carlos, Spain

July 11, 2023

Heart

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I told Jacinto today would be an easy day, we could sleep in. I set the alarm an entire half hour later! Jacinto ate a two day old hamburger and a pastry. I ate ham, yogurt with granola, and a left over hard boiled egg. It wasn't an exciting breakfast.

We were rolling at 8:20 - far before my mental start time of 9 AM. We made a half mile detour for ice. Then Jacinto's GPS wanted him to go back to the start of the route, and refused to reroute him. We wandered around unnecessarily before exiting town. His GPS spent the entire day trying to get him to go back, but Jacinto could see the line we were supposed to follow.

We had pleasingly small ups and downs today. I stroked my ego, thinking that my legs were finally in the game. It only took 24 days of riding! Does this mean I really should have done hill climbing at home before we left?

I stayed close to Jacinto all morning. I stopped at what I thought was the Roman bridge, but it was too soon. ??? I took photos this way, and that way. I called Jacinto, sure he would want to come back. Then I looked at the map. My original thought was correct. The actual Roman bridge was at Mile 15. Heck.

We saw our first no doubt about it touring cyclists this trip. A couple, grinding up the hill towards us. I waved widely, they waved also. But none of us stopped. I regret that. They both had four panniers. We were quickly down, down to the river. One of those giant downhills that you can see the climb out. Ugh. This was the Roman bridge. Jacinto walked his bike down the dirt road to get a view from the bottom. I'm the one who had a flat tire yesterday. I'm not getting on any dirt I don't need to. I started the long climb up. All of the climbs today seemed gentle. Jacinto said that they were. I was enjoying my private fantasy about strong legs.

At mile 25 in Torrejon, we stopped for a cold drink. I've been drinking Fanta for days - just as if I were really a soda pop drinker. The sugar does seem to come in handy as a pick me up. I'm still eating the dried apricots that Jacinto bought. Today I pulled the package out, and it was already open, apricots went everywhere. No matter. I'm on tour and the three second rule is firmly in place. I picked up all of the apricots, even the ones in the dirt.

We rode down a twisty turny switchback section. It wasn't terribly steep. The corners were all very clean. That's a concern I have on switchbacks. I don't want to lose control of the front tire in loose sand. I did think of the touring couple, climbing up this. No wonder they didn't stop, they were probably in survival mode.

Today I had us routed to a castle. It is way, way up a hill. Sitting in the AC on the sofa, it was easy to say I would do the 450 foot climb to the castle. Reality, in 98 degree weather, with only three miles between me and more AC? Nah - I'm good. You take plenty of photos and show me later. Jacinto went up to the castle. I went on down the road. I stopped at a view point of the river. A man asked me if I had another bike or if I had been riding this one the whole time. As if I had a follow car, with extra bikes of different styles!

It was an unpleasant surprise to find another uphill. My water was out. I was down to lonely ice cubes, rattling in my stainless steel bottle. No matter, I was almost there. San Carlos has about three streets. I went to the far street, and there's a tourist information center! I was supposed to check in for the key to the apartment at the bar. Of course, I had passed the bar. Back I went. The bar was closed. I knocked on the door of the adjacent house. The lady was expecting me. She drove over to our apartment, and I followed. She said the bar was closed today, but she had agreed in advance to cook our meals. She gave me the food menu from the bar, and said as soon as she picked up her son from football practice, she would cook for us.

In the meanwhile, I checked in on Jacinto. He had enjoyed riding in the red zone of his computer. Jacinto had only been in the yellow zone before. Red means over 14%. Jacinto had walked up the stairs twice, in bike shoes, to get even more photos. He said there was a shuttle bus from the parking lot. We didn't know that. Jacinto sounded satisfied that he had met the challenge of the climb. When I asked if he wasn't hot, going so slowly uphill, he seemed a little surprised - no he wasn't hot!

Both of our bikes are in the living area. Jacinto took his panniers off anyway. Here we used to complain about unloaded the bikes, and now we are trained to take the panniers off without complaint.

Our landlady is bringing us omelettes later tonight, so we have breakfast in the morning. She seemed surprised that we wanted two omelettes, each with four eggs. Maybe touring cyclists don't stop here often?

Jacinto just made his route for tomorrow. Of course, it takes the back roads. Which is great. But it also has an extra 800 feet of climbing. There I was, happy with my legs today. We shall see how we fare tomorrow. We are following Jacinto's backroad route for the first 24 miles, and then getting on the main road. That saves 400 of the 800 extra feet of climbing. I think it's a good compromise. Tomorrow we are at a Paradore. We want to be able to enjoy ourselves! The last Paradore had the dining room closed for a wedding, and the cafe was closed because it was afternoon. We hope/plan to get there in time to eat at the Paradore. Emphasising that I'm slow but sure. We shall see.

Today was extra nice riding on quiet roads through the national park. It was yet another recommended day of riding.