Whoops!

Esther sent this message to me today:

Dad called again this afternoon. He said it is so hot there that he can only ride for 15 minutes and then take a break. He said he only went 15 kilometers in two days, but I think he meant 150 cause he said it took them two and a half hours to drive back. A driver had misdirected him and he had somehow gotten on the wrong road and was heading south for the Chinese border, so he had to go all the way back to Chita to start over and is planning to do so tomorrow. Thankfully a truck driver was just leaving from that stop and had an empty load so took him and his bike back to Chita and showed him where he had gotten off on the wrong track and stuff.

He isn’t sure he’ll be able to ride much during the day though with this heat, esp. because it is so mountainous and the inclines are really steep—trucks are stalling out on them. He pushes his bike up for 15 minutes and then rests. Very slow going. He is concerned about how the heat will affect his progress and said that if he can’t get very far this trip he’ll just do what he can, store his bike there someplace and then go back and finish up next summer.
He sounded pretty good, but of course it is discouraging to labor so hard and then find out that you have been going in the wrong direction!