Friday July 25, 2014, 60 miles (97 km) – Total so far: 4,062 miles (6,537 km)
July 26, 2014 60 miles Yesterday Jocelyn was still sick so instead of just getting in a few miles we decided to stay in this comfortable and very inexpensive hotel. Some days it is just better to stay put. Jocelyn rested the entire day except for a quick trip to the market for another package of delicious ramen noodles. I spent the day watching biking videos with Rashad and working with him on his English. He also taught me several Russian words and phrases. It was a pleasure to meet him and he was so helpful as he carried our bikes and panniers up and down the stairs. Today we had an early start to beat the heat. It was a good riding day as the weather was partly cloudy. We had our first Azerbaijan restaurant experience which didn’t turn out very good. We used our “point it” book and did get some delicious fried eggs though. But the salad was dismal and the dumplings contained uncooked pork so we avoided that too. Oh, and the draft beer was very flat.
We did however score some great peaches and grapes from a few fruit stands. Very delicious and sweet. After 60 miles we were tired of the head wind and 8 hours on the bikes. We found a nice hotel with a pool! After dropping off our stuff in the room we dropped into the pool in our biking clothes. Jocelyn soon realized that there were no females in the pool or pool area. This is a Muslim area and maybe the females don’t swim. Interesting though.