Written by Nancy

Abu Camping ground to Masuda Hotel Daiei – Math Whiz Day – (52k, 480M)

Well, despite the predictions of rain overnight we woke up early to no rain, and no condensation on the tent due to the light wind all night – yeah!  I was sure it was going to rain, and tried to convince Dave to rent a tarp yesterday when we checked in but he wasn’t keen on it (junior editor’s note: we have a waterproof rainfly on the tent, why do we need a tarp as well?).  And the gal at check in said there was no rain in the forecast – though I wasn’t sure how she was seeing that when our look at the forecast clearly said rain at 3AM.  But it turned out all right in the end.

We were both awake early, about 5am – given that we turned the lights out at about 7:30, we actually got a lot of sleep.  We were anxious to get the tent packed up before any of that anticipated rain fell (hahaha) so we moved all of our bags over under the covered kitchen area and got the tent put away dry.  The kitchen area near our tent was pretty nice, and we settled in there with our chairs (rented) and relaxed while we ate our oatmeal.  Dave didn’t mention it yesterday but this campground is connected with the Snow Peak brand, so there are a bunch of things you can rent when you check in if you aren’t carrying them – from cooking gear to chairs and all the way up to massive tents.  The campground is quite new and all of the facilities are nice and clean.  I’d certainly stay in more of these if they were available.

We finally hit the road about 7:30 and had some gorgeous coastal riding with no clouds or rain for about 20k.  We had quite a few tunnels to deal with today, none with rideable footpaths and one that was a bit long for our liking.  But traffic was pretty light so all was fine.  Then, as we came out of one tunnel, we started feeling raindrops even though we were in the sunshine.  And we could see lots of dark clouds ahead, which didn’t look promising.  We pulled over at the next spot we could fine that looked like there was some cover.  It turned out to be a train station with a store next to it that sold coffee.  A perfect spot for morning tea. 

The clouds were rolling through so we decided to take our chances and get closer to our destination while the rain held off.  Komoot took us off the bigger Route 191 and we had some nice farmland riding and then we got another Komoot special when it asked us to turn right onto a road that clearly turned into an overgrown path.  Hmmm, not sure about that.  And of course right then it started to rain harder, so after rain coats were donned a map check was in order.  We figured out we could continue on the road we had been on and it would take us right back down to the water and intersect with the Komoot route.  Not sure why the overgrown path option was thrown in there – perhaps it may have been slightly shorter but certainly not faster given the state of the path.  Anyway, all’s well that ends well.

As we made our way towards Masuda, we could hear lots of thunder and occasional lightning from the storms above us but we didn’t really have that much actual rain – lucky us.  We got here pretty early, and given early check-in (for a fee!) wasn’t until 1pm we wandered around the small city to try to find a place for lunch.  It took longer than expected but we eventually found a place that looked open.  It was small but already had a few customers so we nabbed an open table and enjoyed a nice meal.  Dave opted for the tempura eel lunch set – I think he got a picture of it but he got tucked into it pretty fast. 

After finishing lunch Dave found what looked like a nice coffee shop nearby, so we made our way to the Kuri Kuri Coffee shop and boy was it nice.  It was busy but we seemed to have time it right and got seated right away.  Then began the task of trying to get a cortado – explaining first what it was, trying to make sure they understood not too much milk, etc.  Actually they got it spot on – the coffees were delicious.  They clearly knew what they were doing with coffee.  And they had their own roasted coffee as well – too bad we don’t need any more to see us through the trip.

We made our way to the hotel and got checked in.  The early check in fees are kind of annoying, but we didn’t want to be wandering the city for another 2 hours before the 3pm check in time so what can you do.  And they had no issue with us bring our bikes up into our room – even gave us two little bike stands to use and let us the bike pump they keep on hand.  Unfortunately they do not have a washing machine so it’s Dave’s turn to head to the nearby coin laundry while I write this blog.

One last thing we’ve noticed since entering Honshu – signs noting the radius of an upcoming curve, rather than a recommended speed for the curve, as we are used to seeing.  I guess once you get used to how sharp a certain radius is and you connect that with an appropriate reduction in speed it might make sense, but it seems like it might make more sense (and be easier for all drivers) to simply state a recommended speed for the corner.  Anyway, just a thought.  And that’s why today’s blog is titled “math whiz” – because to drive safely, you’d better be one. What’s the maximum speed one can round a corner with a radius of 140m?  I’ll leave that one to Dave, he was the math major in college, not me!

Another long day tomorrow to a campsite up along the Sea of Japan.  It looks like the rain will have moved on by then, so we are hoping for clear skies. Meanwhile, neither of us will complain about today’s rain fall – a good day is a dry day.