October 18, 1999
Hello people back home. This is Doug from AroundtheWorld1999.com. This is today's journal entry from Monday October 18th. We traveled 680 kilometers, 400+ miles, from Dongxing in the Inner Mongolian autonomous region to Zhongwei in the province of Gansu*. Dongxing is where Ghengis Khan is buried, the founder of the great Mongolian empire.
It was an uneventful day. We drove for a really, really long time. We had to drive well into the dark. When we finally got into Zhongwei, the farmers were burning their fields. They have already harvested all of their crops. There is a thick haze of smoke across the road that was totally killing us when we were driving. That on top of the insane Chinese highway driving. Today was a long day of driving, but we did have a 2-hour lunch break. No surprise here, we had Chinese food for lunch. We washed it down with ice cold Fuzure Cola.
The hotel we stayed at in Zhongwei was totally pro. It actually had hot water, and enough of it for everyone, and it was clean. That's a departure from some of the other places we have stayed. It was a welcome treat for us. Mr. Lee, our guide, totally hooked us up. He's been treating us right.
Well, I think that's all there is for today, folks. Kind of a boring day. Tomorrow's going to be a good day. A little shorter ride, and we're actually going to get into some really scenic territory. Oh, what am I suppose to tell them about. The cold? Yesterday was not cold - Todd Borgie is wrong. It was actually very nice today. It was the day before that we froze. It was a chilly day. And pretty much tomorrow should be pretty good. It will start getting chilly in 2-3 days when we hit the rim of the world section. We're going to be chilly, chilly boys around the world.
What else? Todd says to mention long sections with nothing there. That about sums it up. We did pretty much skirt the Yellow River the entire day, although we didn't always see it. It was a boring day. It was a long miserable day of driving, but we were rewarded with a pro hotel in Zhongwei. Signing off, we'll talk to you tomorrow.