July 8, 2017
to Veracruz: one hundred days to Boise
Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary and marks a milestone of 100 days to home. The plan today is to ride to Coatzacoalcos and catch a bus to Veracruz, this will then give us time to cycle to the border by July 22.
"Your back tire has a slow leak, must be one of those metal wires" Patrick says to Rachel when starting to take the bikes down to the lobby. We start out early, Patrick pumps up the tire and we'll see how it goes. We ride the 4 km back to the main road and another 5km or so when Patrick has a flat front tire again. We expected more flats riding along this busy road with lots of debris. There's a gas station and Oxxo shop Patrick keeps riding and pulls into to change the tire.
Soon after this, the rolling hills start for the next 20km some short and steep. Rachel thought that it's good we didn't do this stretch yesterday. The hills lessen closer to town, then we start passing all the petroleum plants. The road surface worsens, traffic increases and our destination is the Ado bus terminal. We spot a Subway and stop to take a sandwich for the bus ride to Veracruz.
We reach the bus terminal by 10:00am, Patrick buys us tickets for the 10:30am bus. The terminal is impressive and profesionally run. Our bikes are loaded on the bus, bags tagged at no extra charge, and an ontime departure. Just that getting out of town and through the next smaller town takes some time. Once back on the main road good time is made and we reach Veracruz before 4:00pm and navigate to Hotel Baluarte where we had booked a good value room.
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Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 34,715 km (21,558 miles)
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