After a brutal and muddy day one, Matthew and I were slightly dreading getting back on our aluminium horses.  Again we didn't have to race until after 2pm so we headed out on the town.  Thankfully, our shoes had dried overnight!

Shot from hotel room, I was loving the blue sky!!!

I noticed a side street that looked interesting, which ended up being some sort of food distribution center.  Here's the cheese shop.

The bulk delivery truck.  From here things were unloaded and taken to several different store fronts along the street.

Don't drop the fish!  There's no 5 second rule in China.

Yeah!  There's a quote on the hood:  "OlD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE".  Yes, the "L" in old wasn't capitalized, which we felt took away from the message a bit.  The pink works though, right?

Apparently the maker of the hanky didn't noticed the "N" on the skulls' forehead, or how to make an American flag either.

These were some cool saddles in a shop we found.  Man, the horses must be bitter little creatures!

Overlooking some housing, I was sobered by the tarp held down by miscellaneous scraps.  This was someones home.

Thankfully, D-Y-N-O-M-I-T-E rode by to cheer me up.  Shortly before seeing this woman, my friend was grabbed and kissed by an older gentleman.

Back on the trail and feeling good!

Our first yurt sighting.  Note the sheep, horses, etc.  Spirits were high as the weather was great and the aches from the day before were fading out.

My friend with the local wildlife.

Yes, we were following the car path.

See the red dot on the left?  That's our trail marker.

Another panoramic: some of the farm houses.  The road was worse than the dirt path though!

Finally arrived at the finish line.  Neither one of us wanted to get back in any saddle, so we opted out of the celebratory camel rides.

Yurt city: home, sweet home for the night.

Some bone jewelry.  I decided to pass as they appeared to be common goat knuckles and I think Rebecca would have preferred something a little more sophisticated.

Hail to the king, baby.  Go Hokies!

Love this shot.

Caught a family posing for a picture of their own.

Outside of yurt 111, our room.

We thought we would be sharing with four other people, this was a huge relief.

Yes, I took this to prove that sometimes it's perfectly OK to pee in the shower.

That is a bar of soap, shampoo and conditioner.  Why would anyone need any more than a bar of soap no bigger than two Chiclets?

So, that brings us up to the finale of our race days.  In the next post I'll share the celebration and the journey home...