My 70 Year Old Father left on his 4 month Bike ride today
- Thread starter Lurch
- Start date
I wish you were there too, VaBs...
This doesn't surprise me at all...if I were there, I'd go out of my way to completely ignore you...
This doesn't surprise me at all...if I were there, I'd go out of my way to completely ignore you...
Ahhhh Heaven.....
:talk2hand:
Here is the email.
He gets a little high strung when things don't work. Typical Engineer.
They are in Budapest Hungary right now.
Since I can't seem to find a way to post anything on the blog site due to SEVERE limitations of this f...ing Android tablet, I thought I'd send an email.
So far the ride has been interesting to say the least. I don't to give the impression that I'm sorry that I'm on the ride; that is not at all the case. It is just that there have been challenges.
First and foremost there are too many bikes. All of us got the impression that the ride was limited to ten bikes. This is already too many but when we got to London and found that there are actually 15 bikes it was a total shock. Every molehill becomes a mountain.
This was immediately apparent when we got to France. We got lost so many times I lost count. Every time we found ourselves on the wrong path, the whole group had to hold up for the stragglers and then make some dangerous U-turns to get back on the right course.
To make matters worse it was cold, rainy and foggy. Not a good situation
We finally managed to get to Rouen where we found that room situation was a total CF. Too many people and not enough beds. Another indication that the ride was overbooked. I wound up in a room with a queen sized bed and two small bunk beads. Luckily my roomie is not all that tall so he took one of the bunks.
On top of that we arrived so late that the restaurant was closed so dinner got a bit bizarre. Being a small town the hotel people had the restaurant keep the kitchen open with a limited menu. The sad part was that Rouen has a magnificent cathedral which was only a block from the hotel but it was too late to get any pictures or make a visit.
The next morning dawned cold and wet. We spent the day riding in more heavy fog and rain. I had it better than most since my Klim brand riding gear is inherently waterproof and I had supplemented that with more spray-on stuff. When the rain go heavy everyone stopped to put on rain gear and just sat and watched.
It became another long day of getting lost and waiting for stragglers. We finally arrived at the tiny village with a long name that I can't copy from another application due to this GD tablet. I tried copying and managed to get the complete blog entry that WOULDN"T copy to the blot site.
OK that's all for now. If I keep working on this
He gets a little high strung when things don't work. Typical Engineer.
They are in Budapest Hungary right now.
Since I can't seem to find a way to post anything on the blog site due to SEVERE limitations of this f...ing Android tablet, I thought I'd send an email.
So far the ride has been interesting to say the least. I don't to give the impression that I'm sorry that I'm on the ride; that is not at all the case. It is just that there have been challenges.
First and foremost there are too many bikes. All of us got the impression that the ride was limited to ten bikes. This is already too many but when we got to London and found that there are actually 15 bikes it was a total shock. Every molehill becomes a mountain.
This was immediately apparent when we got to France. We got lost so many times I lost count. Every time we found ourselves on the wrong path, the whole group had to hold up for the stragglers and then make some dangerous U-turns to get back on the right course.
To make matters worse it was cold, rainy and foggy. Not a good situation
We finally managed to get to Rouen where we found that room situation was a total CF. Too many people and not enough beds. Another indication that the ride was overbooked. I wound up in a room with a queen sized bed and two small bunk beads. Luckily my roomie is not all that tall so he took one of the bunks.
On top of that we arrived so late that the restaurant was closed so dinner got a bit bizarre. Being a small town the hotel people had the restaurant keep the kitchen open with a limited menu. The sad part was that Rouen has a magnificent cathedral which was only a block from the hotel but it was too late to get any pictures or make a visit.
The next morning dawned cold and wet. We spent the day riding in more heavy fog and rain. I had it better than most since my Klim brand riding gear is inherently waterproof and I had supplemented that with more spray-on stuff. When the rain go heavy everyone stopped to put on rain gear and just sat and watched.
It became another long day of getting lost and waiting for stragglers. We finally arrived at the tiny village with a long name that I can't copy from another application due to this GD tablet. I tried copying and managed to get the complete blog entry that WOULDN"T copy to the blot site.
OK that's all for now. If I keep working on this
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it Kevin?
And what exactly are you trying to say BUDDY?
Well he is safe and in one piece!!! Hope he at least can find some joy in the scenery!! Looking forward to hearing more about his trip. 
updates on my dad's trip.
this is a page with some pictures of the OLD FART and some of his bike.
LHR2GDX - Shov1's Photos
And this page is from our website's blog page. It tells the story of how all of this came together.
3BR Powersports Blog | Just another WordPress site
And his last email to me.
Hi Gang,
Here I are standing in the Black Sea off the Boardwalk at Sochi. The boardwalk could be any sea coast city, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, or here at Sochi. Notice that their "sand" is of the very large grain variety. I'm not sure they have any sand in this area at all. Everything I've seen is rocks like this.
Today was a good respite from yesterday's ferry ride from hell. The sun is out and the temperature a perfect mid 70's. As for the ferry ride, the following is a long description that you can skip without missing much.
We arrived at the ferry dock at 2:00PM the day before yesterday. First stop was the Turkish Customs for passport checkout. This included a bit of bureaucratic waiting around but it worked out pretty well as one of the customs officers invited us to the Kanteen where we were treated to tea. Nice folks.
From there we rode a few hundred meters (yards) to the actual dock and vehicle check out. They want to be sure that we didn't leave any vehicles behind as black market sales. This was a bit of a CF as the customs office didn't have anyone who knew what to do. "Come back at 4:30" So we waited a bit and went back. Lots of handling of passports and registration, some stamping of documents and we were ready to board the boat.
After more confusion and waiting we finally rode the bikes and support vehicles. There was no bow ramp so the vehicles had to be backed onto the boat No biggie: both of our drivers are skilled a backing up the trailers. We were all amazed at how few tie downs were available on the deck. Not only that but their method of tying the bikes down was nothing short of criminal. They simply wrapped big thick straps around the center of the bike a ratcheted them down tight. This was OK on some bikes but on the Purple Goose it squashed the living crap out of my $450 Rennazco saddle. Fortunately one of the riders had a thick leather tarp that he loaned me to provide some protection. I also had them move the strap forward so it wasn't right where I sat.
Once we were on the boat we weren't allowed to leave so we looked for some decent seats. All other passengers had boarded before us but there will still lots of seats available, none of them very comfortable. There were bunks available but the Compass leader said that on the previous ride they found the cabins to be filthy, hot and unbearable. This turned out not to be the case and the few folks that paid the extra $30 for a bunk had it made.
One of the riders came around to those of us in seats and told us that the seats in the dining room were more comfortable and even though passengers weren't supposed to stay there if they weren't eating, no one shoved us out. It was better but not much.
And then we waited. We were supposed to sail at midnight more than six hours away but we actually go moving.at 11:30. Fourteen long hours later we arrived at the Sochi port.
It had been a long night. I wound up sleeping on the floor in a small area between the last row of seats and the bulkhead. My feet hung out all the way across the aisle but I kept them curled up most of the time so people didn't have trip over them. Fortunately I had taken some dramamine so not only was I not sick but it also helped me sleep, even on the hard floor.
We had now been on board for more than twenty hours and we were more than ready to get to shore. But alas, is was not to happen. There was a large cruise ship moored across the full length of the dock, in the middle of which is the ferry berth. So we waited; and waited; and waited. The riders who were sea sick from the ride were in agony as the boat bobbed back and forth in sea.
Finally, six hours later the cruise ship pulled out and we made our way to the dock. And then we waited some more. Finally, the First Mate, who had taken our passports when we boarded gathered us around and returned our passports and had us go to the car deck to unstrap our bikes. This was not as easy as it sounds since all of the other passengers were jammed at the edge of the loading ramp waiting to get off. They were not happy about us westerners pushing our way through to get to the vehicles.
It was then onto the dock to get processed through passport check and customs. We had been warned that this could be a long tedious effort but it was actually quite easy as we had an agent waiting for us that spoke excellent english and seemed to have some serious pull with the customs officers.
First up was passport review and stamping. No problem here; an attractive young immigration officer spoke pretty good english and had us processed in less than an hour. From there we herded outside to get our bikes and move them into a line for customs inspection. This wasn't much more that the customs officer walking along the line and checking license plate numbers against his handful of vehicle registrations.
We were finally free to go - almost. During most of this process we were wearing street clothes that we wore on the boat so we first had to put on riding gear. We only had a quarter mile of a ride to the hotel but Russian traffic is not something to brave without full protective gear.
As we moved out to the exit gate, we were stopped one more time for yet another passport check. We had moved a total of about 250 feet from the customs building the gate guard house but passports were still required.
Freedom at last!! It only took a few minutes to get to the hotel which turned out to be a rather new building with lots of chrome and marble. One big shock was no elevator. I'm getting to be in pretty good shape from hauling my bags up stairs. We had one last formality, getting Russian vehicle insurance. This would normally have taken place at the customs house but in the case our "Handler" had arranged for the insurance people to come to the hotel. At last we were free to shower and either go to bed (me) or go out to get a meal. So that's the story for the last couple of days.
Tomorrow on to Rostov-on-Don.
Hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am.
also another link to his Spot transponder to see where he has been and where he is http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=47a04fac59d8a10a3
this is a page with some pictures of the OLD FART and some of his bike.
LHR2GDX - Shov1's Photos
And this page is from our website's blog page. It tells the story of how all of this came together.
3BR Powersports Blog | Just another WordPress site
And his last email to me.
Hi Gang,
Here I are standing in the Black Sea off the Boardwalk at Sochi. The boardwalk could be any sea coast city, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, or here at Sochi. Notice that their "sand" is of the very large grain variety. I'm not sure they have any sand in this area at all. Everything I've seen is rocks like this.
Today was a good respite from yesterday's ferry ride from hell. The sun is out and the temperature a perfect mid 70's. As for the ferry ride, the following is a long description that you can skip without missing much.
We arrived at the ferry dock at 2:00PM the day before yesterday. First stop was the Turkish Customs for passport checkout. This included a bit of bureaucratic waiting around but it worked out pretty well as one of the customs officers invited us to the Kanteen where we were treated to tea. Nice folks.
From there we rode a few hundred meters (yards) to the actual dock and vehicle check out. They want to be sure that we didn't leave any vehicles behind as black market sales. This was a bit of a CF as the customs office didn't have anyone who knew what to do. "Come back at 4:30" So we waited a bit and went back. Lots of handling of passports and registration, some stamping of documents and we were ready to board the boat.
After more confusion and waiting we finally rode the bikes and support vehicles. There was no bow ramp so the vehicles had to be backed onto the boat No biggie: both of our drivers are skilled a backing up the trailers. We were all amazed at how few tie downs were available on the deck. Not only that but their method of tying the bikes down was nothing short of criminal. They simply wrapped big thick straps around the center of the bike a ratcheted them down tight. This was OK on some bikes but on the Purple Goose it squashed the living crap out of my $450 Rennazco saddle. Fortunately one of the riders had a thick leather tarp that he loaned me to provide some protection. I also had them move the strap forward so it wasn't right where I sat.
Once we were on the boat we weren't allowed to leave so we looked for some decent seats. All other passengers had boarded before us but there will still lots of seats available, none of them very comfortable. There were bunks available but the Compass leader said that on the previous ride they found the cabins to be filthy, hot and unbearable. This turned out not to be the case and the few folks that paid the extra $30 for a bunk had it made.
One of the riders came around to those of us in seats and told us that the seats in the dining room were more comfortable and even though passengers weren't supposed to stay there if they weren't eating, no one shoved us out. It was better but not much.
And then we waited. We were supposed to sail at midnight more than six hours away but we actually go moving.at 11:30. Fourteen long hours later we arrived at the Sochi port.
It had been a long night. I wound up sleeping on the floor in a small area between the last row of seats and the bulkhead. My feet hung out all the way across the aisle but I kept them curled up most of the time so people didn't have trip over them. Fortunately I had taken some dramamine so not only was I not sick but it also helped me sleep, even on the hard floor.
We had now been on board for more than twenty hours and we were more than ready to get to shore. But alas, is was not to happen. There was a large cruise ship moored across the full length of the dock, in the middle of which is the ferry berth. So we waited; and waited; and waited. The riders who were sea sick from the ride were in agony as the boat bobbed back and forth in sea.
Finally, six hours later the cruise ship pulled out and we made our way to the dock. And then we waited some more. Finally, the First Mate, who had taken our passports when we boarded gathered us around and returned our passports and had us go to the car deck to unstrap our bikes. This was not as easy as it sounds since all of the other passengers were jammed at the edge of the loading ramp waiting to get off. They were not happy about us westerners pushing our way through to get to the vehicles.
It was then onto the dock to get processed through passport check and customs. We had been warned that this could be a long tedious effort but it was actually quite easy as we had an agent waiting for us that spoke excellent english and seemed to have some serious pull with the customs officers.
First up was passport review and stamping. No problem here; an attractive young immigration officer spoke pretty good english and had us processed in less than an hour. From there we herded outside to get our bikes and move them into a line for customs inspection. This wasn't much more that the customs officer walking along the line and checking license plate numbers against his handful of vehicle registrations.
We were finally free to go - almost. During most of this process we were wearing street clothes that we wore on the boat so we first had to put on riding gear. We only had a quarter mile of a ride to the hotel but Russian traffic is not something to brave without full protective gear.
As we moved out to the exit gate, we were stopped one more time for yet another passport check. We had moved a total of about 250 feet from the customs building the gate guard house but passports were still required.
Freedom at last!! It only took a few minutes to get to the hotel which turned out to be a rather new building with lots of chrome and marble. One big shock was no elevator. I'm getting to be in pretty good shape from hauling my bags up stairs. We had one last formality, getting Russian vehicle insurance. This would normally have taken place at the customs house but in the case our "Handler" had arranged for the insurance people to come to the hotel. At last we were free to shower and either go to bed (me) or go out to get a meal. So that's the story for the last couple of days.
Tomorrow on to Rostov-on-Don.
Hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am.
also another link to his Spot transponder to see where he has been and where he is http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=47a04fac59d8a10a3
BUSA CRUSEN
Registered
That looks so FUN!
:thumbs:
I was wondering how his trip went crossing the black sea! Gotta love spot walla. Man, what an adventure!!! Continued safe travels.
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