I decided a short ride was in order today and did the Charilla loop would be good. It's only 15km but has a hill to get you working a bit. The route is basically the road version of the hike I did two days ago. You see the same formations but from a greater distance.
I stopped at the 6am bar and worked through an entire squadron of policemen getting morning coffee. The bartender saw me and started making my grande cafe con leche. The north road out of town is a fun descent. At the bottom I saw several groups of cyclists. A lot of riders here are on the large wheeled mountian bikes with straight handle bars. They must ride more of the gravel roads (so why not gravel bikes) than I. I always see them on the road. They wouldn't be my choice of bike.
At the sign to Charilla you start climbing. I ride through the town which features an extra bit of climbing and descent - always a climb into town and always a descent leaving. I've never found much in Charilla other than houses. There is some sort of small factory coming into town but I have never seen any place for coffee.
After town there are some nice views as you climb.
At the top you start seeing buildings and soon you are in Santa Ana a kind of spread out suburb of Alcala. A few minutes later I was sitting at my churros place munching away.
The rest of the day was working on the house. I have a lot of Ikea things to assemble and I did another side table. I had a delivery coming and needed to stay near. They gave a small window of 9am to 10pm. It came about 6pm.
Much of the afternoon I worked on the front door. To get the smart lock I brought installed was going to take some creativity. Doing carpentry with hand tools (not the correct ones either) is really hard and a lot of work. I had to make the door thinner in some places and thicker in others. The door drilling kit I bought was helpful but the door is irregular to say the least.
While I was working the next door neighbors said hi. They are Spanish and his grandmother lived a few doors down so they got a house here but they live in England.
I was working on the door for 5 or 6 hours. My body hurts everywhere. But the smart lock is installed and it works. I'm going to let myself sleep in. There is a free concert going on tonight. I would go and check it out but I'm too tired.
I ate some dinner on the roof before coming to bed and I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye but dismissed it. When I came in and closed the door a feral cat was in the house. Scared the crap out of me and it was freaking out too. I opened the door and took off in a total panic crashing into the door as I opened it. I hate cats.
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