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I ALMOST made it to Imabari by bike yesterday! I fell only 18km short of it. I was so confident that I would have that I allowed myself too many stops on the way there, that I wound up poorly managing my time. I made two significant stops on the way there. First, I stopped at some rest area at the border between Ehime and Kagawa to check out what all the tents there were about. Apparently they host some sort of weekly flea market. I bought some soft serve ice cream there, before heading back out onto the road. The second stop was a huge disappointment. I still try to stick to the usual routine of lunch around noon, so once 1 struck, I stopped off at a little cafe that promised “an elegant time.” It was far from it, and the food was really low quality, I think. Those two stops ate up about an hour of my mine. So once I hit the last spot where I turned around at last Sunday I still had to question whether I should continue or not, despite having lots of energy left in me. I left 1.5 hours earlier than last time, but I arrived at my last turnaround spot at only 1 hour earlier than before. I decided to push on, determined to make it to Imabari finally. The terrain changed drastically, being much more traffic heavy and with wide lanes and more mountains than on the roads in Kagawa. I saw a sign reading just 32km left until Imabari, so being used to miles I thought that that number would quickly decrease. For awhile I didn’t see any signs so I trudged on with as much optimism and fire as I could muster left at that time. Still no sign, and worried over the setting sun, I told myself that I would go on until 4pm. Finally, a sign appeared, and it read 18km left until Imabari…but it took me an hour to not even traverse half of that! I considered just continuing and staying at a hotel somewhere in Imabari, and then to do the Shimanami bridge the next day before biking home. But I had to consider that the last time, the day after I was totally beat, my legs aching with every movement, so even if I did stay at a hotel, I probably wouldn’t even be able to make it back home. Beaten, I decided to just head back, accepting that I would be doing some night riding. I didn’t mind the prospect. Or so I thought. It was a bit colder than last time, and this time I had much more distance to cover, so I wound up cycling in misery through the cold dark for 4 hours, stopping constantly to pick myself back up with ice cream. I finally arrived back at my apartment around 11pm, having foolishly eaten 2 ice cream bars in the night. I’m glad I was able to finish the trip, but I experienced some real hardship out there. I’m all the wiser for it, but still I’m disappointed to not have made it to Imabari. I’ll try to get better sleep the night before and to leave even earlier. My next trip might be a leisurely one, maybe just to Tokushima.