| Distance | 72.21 kms | 44.74 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 455 meters | 1,493 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 4.65 | - |
| Avg speed | 9.6 kph | - |
| Avg climb | 2% | - |
| Max grade | 8% | - |
| Distance | 23,917.19 kms | 14,861.33 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 253,875 meters | 832,923 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 1,708.89 | - |
Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
Today is about resupply. Replace all that disintegrating gear in the shopping mecca that is America.
I should not be allowed into REI without parental supervision. My eyes grow to abnormal size and I tend to grab anything near me with frenzied abandon. I had to find a corner to compose myself...breathe 1 2 3...in with the good air, out with the bad air. With a supreme effort at self-control I manage to escape with only $300 worth of damage. The cashier has a tag on his shirt that says he speaks French. I decide to test this theory. It turns out he is from Paris and the tag is not lying. He is thoroughly confused when I give him my Spanish ID card as ID to go with my credit card. A French-speaking American who lives in Spain but just rode a bicycle here from Argentina? I don't think he was buying my story. Who can blame him.
Then I'm off to Barnes and Noble (via Starbucks). By the time I get to Best Buy my credit card has been shut off. I call the cc company from the store, the "fraud" agent on the other end of the line seems disappointed that it's really me and not some Mexican who killed me, stole my card, jumped over the border fence, and went on a mad shopping spree in San Diego. I hate to let him down. I'm not getting out of town today, still too much to do. I get a motel room so I can wash my clothes and play with all my new stuff.
Oh yeah the whole metric versus imperial thing... I grew up with miles, I'm not against them, but when you live outside the U.S. for a while you start to wonder WTF doesn't the U.S. get with the program? The rest of the world is metric, be a team player! For me this will cause some statistical headaches. For the purposes of navigation I am switching the VDO over to miles because I don't want to be multiplying by 1.6 every time I see a road sign with distance on it. When the VDO goes to miles it switches the altitude stuff to feet, the average speed to mph, the wheel size to god knows what, and the temperature to Fahrenheit. If I want the blog in kilometers but the VDO in miles then I'm going to have to convert miles to kilometers every time I enter the distance into a page. The altitude stuff is a one-time conversion so no big deal. When and if I roll up the stats for the entire trip I guess I'll have to convert the U.S. portion back into metric.
