http://www.pdsnoki.org/
Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!!
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I must admit that my legs and...other areas...were so sore when I went to bed last night that I wasn't certain I would be able to ride today. But thankfully, when I was woken by my wonderful hosts -- who were bearing a breakfast of fresh eggs, homemade bread, bacon, sausage, homemade apple sauce and a pot of very thick coffee! -- my legs felt great. That said, while there was no rain, it looked like it would be another cold, dreary day. I haven't seen the sun yet on this trip. 
After seeing all the grounds and the various parts they have recently built at Luhtre Palu, as well as several more 100-year-old items they had inherited from the Luhtre family, I headed off southwards. The hosts gave me a great map of Rapla county which had much more detail than my 1:400,000 map of the Baltic states. This was the first map I had seen which showed ALL the roads I passed. The direct route from Luhtre to Pärnu was 70 km on the highway (the Via Baltica). Trying to avoid that, we worked out a good route on the other map. I was nervous because some of the larger, red roads turned into smaller yellow roads on the map. She assured me that cyclists went that way all the time, but it must be cyclists with fatter tires (like hybrids and mountain bikes), because just after the small town of 
Valgu (for "town", picture about 5 dilapidated buildings and a bus stop), the road turned to dirt and rocks. In fact, a bulldozer had just dragged up the mud and I passed him on my way (I can't wait to post this picture). I had no choice, really, but to ride in the dirt (mud at times) and I was terrified about getting a flat. This went off and on (mainly on) for about 15 km, but my Armadillo super tires did beautifully.The dirt and rocks finally ended in a tiny town called Kaeläse, and suddenly the road was fabulous. This was a very good thing because this was about the time that the three folks farming in the field screamed for their dog to stay, but he didn't listen. He was a small (but fast!) dog and this gave his friend the German Shepard across the street some ideas, too. They were both chasing me at full speed, so I kicked it into 25 mph on the flats, sprinting to get past them. Pretty funny. High speed for the trip so far in this very flat country.
I stopped in a town called Pärnu-Jaagupi (I couldn't make these names up if I tried. To cite that great old Onion Article, maybe the Baltics should deploy vowels to the Balkans...) for a great shnitzel and had a nice chat with the proprietor, who
was very curious about my trip. Then it was Via Baltica (highway) all the way down to Pärnu. It started to rain a little bit again, which wasn't that bad except that the trucks on the highway spew lots of dirty water at you as they pass. Yuck! There was also a VERY strong headwind from this weather, which is pushing north towards Finland. Needless to say, I had another 40-minute grime-cleaning session when I got in today. Fortunately, for some reason, my nice but economical hotel (Manniku Hostel, but not a hostel) left me some paper towels! The hotel is perfect -- very cheap, but new and clean with, as the Rough Guide says, "tasteful furniture". In fact, the new-construction smell of the place instantly brought back memories of the newly constructed apartment I lived in in Moscow.So Pärnu is a beach resort on the Gulf of Riga where apparently some 1/4 of all Estonians come at some point in the year. But in the rain it feels like a ghost town, except for this modern mall I'm writing this from. Things are pretty dead here, and I failed to find either a USB cable to use to upload photos for the blog (if I ever get access to the USB of a computer at a hotel or Internet cafe) or a bike shop to buy a few spare clothing items and check my tire pressure.
Vitals on today's ride:
Distance: 44.5 miles (total ride at 103 miles)
Cumulative Map: www.veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=20990
Soundtrack (when on back roads only, of course): Maceo Parker, Life on Planet Groove, Lisa Ekdahl (eponymous) and Talking Heads, Little Creatures.
Tomorrow's route will take me right along the coast of the Gulf of Riga. I plan to stop just over the border into Latvia, in a town called Salacgriva. Unless, of course, I am really sore or it is still raining, in which case I'll take a rest day.
NB -- for the few of you actually reading this, just FYI, I still have not sent the fundraising message out for PDSNOKI because we still need to work out the credit card giving page. It should be up and running and ready to go out soon, so you can contribute!
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