Limping to civilization

By the time I had the bike loaded again, the Italians were just starting to wake up and populate the kitchen. I headed for the restaurant from yesterday and chomped an open-faced sandwich.

I had 40 miles (65km or so) of cycling before I reached Höfn, the destination of my replacement tire. I’d be rolling along at about half the usual pressure and making frequent stops, so 40 miles would take the whole day.

With Skyrim filling my headphones and a gentle wind moving me along, my worries about the tire faded into the background. At the eight mile mark I saw a fenced pasture on my right, and held up the phone in time to catch this:

Horses seem to like the recumbent!

That made my entire day. Now, even if the tire got shredded and I had to push the bike for miles I’d still say this was a great day.

Apparently one of the touristy things to see in East Iceland is reindeer. They roam around a bit and you may even see one on the road.

You’ll also see cyclists! I passed more than usual today. Everyone grinned and waved. We know how cool we are…

I listened to lots of Warlock Holmes and obsessively checked the tire. As an older person, I stop frequently for the sake of my bladder, so to say I stopped even more than usual is a pretty big deal.

I made good time but had no snacks to eat. The leftovers from the restaurant had vanished immediately. With food on my mind, I wondered, just what does a symbol of “egg in a cup” mean on those roadside displays? Something different than all the other symbols for food? The “breakfast” part of “bed and breakfast” maybe?

I passed by some other puzzling things. A giant pipe going up to a lake. Bringing water down, or moving it up? A huge enclosed facility, perhaps for sporting events. Some very clever sheep.

In the late afternoon I noticed that the tire was leaking air about twice as fast. I had one more patch in my toolkit – found while rummaging around the previous night – but didn’t want to use it because then I’d have none for the replacement tire.

The problem was, if I took the tube out and patched it now, it would get damaged somewhere else after I put it back inside the wrecked tire, because it would be lined up differently. Better to wait, if possible…

Right, so, this sign has “knife and fork” as well as “pot on a hook”. How do these compare with “egg in a cup”? The hungry mind boggles!

The road went on. I passed over a rough bridge spanning Hornafjörður and turned southeast, into the wind. The road got a bit lumpy, making a late effort to sabotage my tire.

Just as my Warlock Holmes book ended, I rolled into Höfn. At the far end of town I located my rental, booked on short notice the previous day when it looked like I might actually get here.

I was hoping to spend the additional waiting days in the local campground to save money, but I’d been unable to book there in advance. The idea of just plopping down my tent so late in the day, only to be shouted awake in the morning, did not appeal to me. I’ve learned that campgrounds in densely populated areas are run a bit more strictly than the ones in the hinterlands, even in Iceland.

That was a problem for “tomorrow me”. For tonight, my job was to shower and creep into the bed.