Thanks, Mr. Bush!

It's so nice to be an American abroad. Everyone gives me the benefit of the doubt. Everyone asks eager questions about my homeland. Everyone bends over backwards to make me feel welcome!

Thanks, Mr. Bush!

The graffito at left was on a strange little structure at the top of the "Coll de Rates" (prounounced, very appropriately, "RATS"). To be fair, the "tourists" in this part of Spain are overwhelmingly British, so perhaps this little bit of venom is as much directed at our English friends as at us Yanks. Perhaps.

Anyway, for the three of you that are keeping tabs on this blog, I thank you, and I apologize for not keeping it up quite as regularly as I'd hoped. A reliable internet connection is very difficult to come by. (Our hotel ostensibly has a wireless router, but it works maybe 10 percent of the time. Let's hope it's viable when I click "publish.") There's a local internet cafe, but the machines are ancient and I have no way of uploading pictures to the blog (I realize pictures are really the only thing that makes this blog worth the bandwidth).

One of the reasons I haven't felt super compelled to do daily updates is that they would all read quite similarly. Tuesday: "Another beautiful day here in Spain. The riding was fantastic. Really tough climbs across a couple of mountain passes. Legs ache but in a good way." Wednesday: "Another beautiful day here in Spain. The riding was fantastic. Really tough climbs across a couple of mountain passes. Legs ache but in a good way." Thursday: "Good work, Westly. Well done. I'll most likely kill you in the morning." Etc. Plus it seems a bit mean to write about the heavenly weather when most of my friends and family are suffering through another east-coast February. So I'll not write, AGAIN, about how amazing it is here. I'll not.

Peta continues to impress with her uncanny strength and ridiculous natural talent. At right, she takes a brief rest at the top of the "Rates." Later during this ride, she attacked a guy who'd be a really good Cat 3 in the states. He was not about to let a woman get away (know the type?), but it took him a good while to catch her. That's my girl. :)

Okay, enough for tonight. Thanks for reading, as always. More soon if the wireless gods allow.

--DvB