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Monday, February 5, 2018

I Almost Ran Her Over - 1 February 2018

1 February 2018 – I typed yesterday’s travels and planned on getting out of Quito today. My buddy the dog was back this morning. She was trying to kiss up after chewing on my tube of blue Loctite. She was trying to be overly helpful again and being a silly hound. I found out she had another buddy, a cat which she tormented. The cat boxed her back when she got out of line. I said goodbye to my buddies and headed out of town.

Leaving Quito went quite well. At the first roundabout, I took the wrong exit. That cost me some extra time. I had to drive back into Quito about 3 Miles / 5 Kilometers, turn around, and then drive back to the roundabout where I took the wrong exit. Blanche followed her route without a flaw. I really don’t know how before GPS’s and cell phones, people got through these cities. Even now there are very few signs. You put your blind trust in your GPS or cell phone.

So far, the roads in Ecuador have been really good. I can’t complain. I spent an hour or so driving 62 Mph / 100 Kph. My motorcycle didn’t know what to think about that. I entered the city of Ambato and it looks like about 100,000+ person city or more. There were a difficult couple of turns in this city which Blanche had problems with. Either I goofed up Blanche’s route or she didn’t like the route and deviated. Whatever the reason, I spent more time in this city than I would have liked. I staggered around being a pain to all the other drivers trying to figure my way out.

I eventually located a sign pointing to the city I was driving to: Riobamba. I almost hit an 18-ish year old woman when she stepped out in front of me. I was driving alongside of a bus when she stepped out from in from in front of the bus. I had to swerve into the ditch to avoid her. I could have done without that.

Once I found my way out of that city and got back on Hwy E35 it was pretty much straight driving to Riobamba. I arrived at the hotel I was planning to stay at. I was met at the door by a gentleman who said the hotel was full. Great. He spoke English which was helpful. He offered to lead me over to another hotel. That was nice of him. He also spoke to the receptionist which was more helpful. The hotel had nice rooms and a really nice strong wi-fi signal. Good parking security. I had the receptionist order me 2 hamburgers to arrive at 7:00 p.m.


It was after 7:00 p.m. and I went to check on my hamburgers. Low and behold they just arrived. The receptionist wrote the price down on a piece of paper. I read it. Huh $1.25!!! That not bad. I go get the money with a tip. I give it to the delivery man and he gives me this…what do you think I’m stupid look. I standing there saying what? The receptionist realizes I misread the price and then re-writes the price. it’s $7.25. I went oh!!! I went and got the rest of the money. I misinterpreted her 7 as a 1. They both were standing there thinking “Loco Gringo”. I spent the rest of the night planning my route out Riobamba to the border of Ecuador and Peru. It was quite a fight with Blanche but I think I got it completed without any glitches. It was after midnight before I got finished. Let’s hope everything works in the morning. I went to bed.

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