Alphabet Soup!

I ride a motorcycle, a thing with 2 wheels; a mechanized horse.
Yes, it has a motor and 2 wheels and I like what I ride.
The machine is called a BMW R-1150-GS Adventure. When people ask me what I ride I tell them I ride a BMW. When I believe they know something about bikes I will tell them I ride an Adventure. For experts I will have to add the year 02 so that they get a better picture in their minds of what I ride.
Now let me see: 1) BMW
2) Adventure
3) 02
So to make it easy for most riders and non riders to understand what I ride the bike should be called a “BMW 02 Adventure” That it is made by BMW is for the moment beside the point. Do I really need the R ? R stands for ? Road ? Well, hello, what else would it be made for ? Roadster ? What is a roadster? Wikkipedia lists a roadster as a car. R like in Racing ? Can not be, the GS ( Gelände Straße ) is not a racing bike. So what is the R for ?
Do I really need the 1150 ?
I know that 1150 is close to the cc’s but not really, so why call it 1150?

I just read an article in Backroads magazine ( February 07 ) written by Mike Stackhouse in which he mentions a few bikes he had. A great magazine, by the way.
Ducati 860 GT * BMW R 100/7 * BSA 441 Victor * Ossa Desert Phantom * XS650 Special * SR 500 Yamaha.
He talks about other bikes he is looking at:
02 Triumph Bonneville * ST4 Ducati * K75 BMW * ZX6 Kawasaki * FJR 1200 Yamaha * ZX 12.
Other bikes he mentions in the article are:
BMW F650 * KLR 250 * 67 250 Ducati * 72 450 Ducati * VFR Honda * Kawasaki 650 * KLR 650 * 350Mark 3D * Harley Panhead * Z 750 Kawasaki * Sportster 883 * and finally the word GIVI.
Now if you know all these bikes, wow ! My hat off to you!
But most of us have no clue as to what all these bikes look like. It’s total Alphabet soup!
What is ST ? ZX? VFR? 3D? F? SR? X?
Is X extra ? does it mean X-tra expensive, extra loud, extra what ?
VFR is what ? Very Fast Racing?

I believe it’s nice to know the numbers. 250 cc is small, 1200 is large.
I believe it’s nice to know who makes the bike. Honda is good. Kawasaki is good. Harley is good. ( Do they still need ‘Davidson’? BMW is good, etc.
The year ? Sure a 90’s bike is now considered old.
But yes, add that to the name.
Since all manufacturers come out with new models each year they could give it the number of the year. 07/650
But then BMW now makes a few 650’s for 07, all with X’s
G-650Xcountry
G-650Xchallenge
G-650Xmoto
What is this ? Am I supposed to remember the difference between country, challenge and moto ?
Talking about BMW’s new bikes:
We now have a bunch of 650’s, 800’s and 1200’s.

F800S
R1200S
K1200S
K1200R
F800ST
R1200RT
R1200ST
K1200GT
K1200LT
G650Xcountry
G650Xmoto
R1200R
K1200R
F650GS
F650GS Dakar
G650Xchallenge
R1200GS
R1200GS Adventure
HP-2 Enduro

So basically 3 motors, all tuned differently for Sport, Country, Enduro, Adventure or Challenges.
Well folks, I am challenged here to understand all these models.
And that is only for 2007, forget the models from the past, forget the models of other manufacturers. Never mind what the future will bring.
My mind is on over load with S, K, RT, ST, GT, G, R1, F, HP, LT, X
It’s all Alphabet soup to me !

Besides all of the above I have to remember ATM, PIN, GPS, WiFi, BP and my SS#. Never mind that I now have to remember all kinds of email addresses, too.

Do we have to make naming a bike that complicated? Or is it, that if I confuse the people with enough gibberish they will think I am smart?
Why so many different bikes from one Manufacturer? How many bikes does Honda make this year? How many are really needed? Is it like buying food? For each taste Honda will make a different bike? Today I will eat Japanese, tomorrow maybe German and in the future Chinese?
Its overload…….I am going over the edge with all these choices.

A tribute to Petra

I just learned through Norm Smith that Petra Knopf, the wife of Stefan Knopf, passed away this evening on January 8th, in Heidelberg, Germany.

Petra was in her very early 40th and leaves 4 Children on this earth. Her colon Cancer was discovered too late and could not be treated.
I am angry that this happened to such a fine woman in the prime of her life.
Petra was so full of life, so naturally nice and a charming addition to Stefan.
It is incomprehensible.
I am shocked!

Petra, Rest in Peace !


Hans

Rita, Shag's Sister

There is this woman called Rita
I never did yet meet her
But she works for Zippo

She is the sister of Shag
No, she is not a nag
But a nice lady I like to know

When we rode last year to rallies
She wanted to know the tallies
And the stories that went with the rides.

She gave us all a lighter
When I received it my face turned brighter
And I liked the design on it, too.

The Lighter is of a special kind
Created by Rita in the depth of her mind
She gave them away with love.

Friends that finished all 3 Rallies
Could get a Zippo she tells us
And I appreciated mine.

I do not smoke but I treasure
This token given with pleasure
That I will always keep.

It reminds me of Rita
And I intend to meet her
This Sister of Shag someday

Faces

Faces do tell a story, just look deep into their eyes.
Next Generation GS Rider. You can not imagine how proud the parents are when they have the chance to show off their offspring.


The future leaders of this country ? These young people will grow older and some of them will take the leaders role. Spend money on them to turn them into friendly human beings ?

He ran a nice small General Store in Turkey. I bought some cookies and tried to share them with the guys having tea but they just wanted to talk to me, not eat my cookies. I wish I could have spoken Turkish, I found the Turks very interesting.

Notice the hats, these are Chinese people. I know they look Turkish or something but these pictures were taken in China.

Just out of the Mosque on their way home. These folks are Uyghur people. Muslims in China.
There are weddings all over the world. I run into weddings wherever I go. Most brides are dressed in white nowadays. Must be Universal by now, brides are in white.

I am glad there are good workers like this one. He was working on a building site. A happy chap with a twinkle in his eye.

He will ride in years to come, look at him smile. His father would like to sit on the bike, too, but is too proud to ask.

he holds a little lamb on his lap to give it warmth. Imagine seeing sheppards when you ride along a road. This is so foreign to me, who normally rides around the New York City area.
A good shoemaker is always useful. They can fix a lot of your gear. I had belt loops put on my riding pants. He used a tie down strap to make loops. They figure something out, they make it work. I like shoemakers for that reason. They are very practical people.

He might succeed, he already wears the yellow success shirt. If you click on the picture it gets bigger. You can read the message on his shirt.

Toy sellers, lucky kid to have a mom with all the toys. I bet he is good in school, too.

Turkish Vegetable Seller. The veggies are fresh off the farm. A great way to shop for fresh produce and food on the road if you are hungry.
Selling seeds will not make you rich but it brings in some money. When you are down and out you try anything to make some money. I can not imagine making enough to live of selling a few bags of seeds a day.

Spices I have never seen before, all for sale here. I don't know their names. I tasted some of them but I don't know what they are. The colors are pretty.

Lots of sheepish faces.

He loves his dog. The dog loves him. A very simple life. I imagine that a lot of biblical guys were sheppards. They certainly seem to have a lot of time to think.

leaning on a cane after miles of walking. Every day, follow the animals. Walk, walk, walk. It must be very tough to be on the alert all the time.
Riverboat Captains watching out for low water. The Yangtze is still pretty wild and not so easy to travel on.
The water is very murky and stuff floats in the waters, too.

Not an easy life being a Russian woman. The guys drink a lot and then leave the women stranded. At a certain age, the bloom is off the flower. What to do ?

Honey selling road stand. It's like that all over Russia and the former Russian provinces. There are stands or people alongside the roads selling anything to make some money.

He sells mushroom on the side of the road to make a living. To be disabled is really tough. Wheel chairs do not help on roads here in Uzbekistan. To get around is difficult with feet. With only one foot ? Tough !

Smile you are on camera.
a phone call can make you smile.

Ugly mask. Scary looking thing to run into in the dark.

Silly hat, Hans. I believe it's a ladies hat, does not belong on a man's head.
yes, she is a princess. She seemed so happy and so free in spirit.
Good old buddies. These 2 Uyghers are in their 70's and still work everyday.

What can I say ? Too much hair ?

Sheppard on horseback. Take a few items off the man and the horse and you could look at a picture from a Millennium ago.
The Imam of the local Mosque. He spoke some English but not enough to talk to fluently. Of course, I did not speak Turkish, either. We had a good old time never the less.
Wise bird. Can anybody tell me what bird it is ? I just got a good picture, that is all.
Hard way to make a living. It was late at night already and those two guys walked the streets looking for anybody to give them some money for playing a song. Do they walk around all day, too ?

I would have never believed these red colors can turn very bright under fire. These are the colors before the tiles are burned. All the 'colors' look red to me. But after they tiles are fired the red turns into 'color'. The iron content, or other pigments in the dye make it possible.


He is waiting for a fish to bite. I can not fish, I do not have the patience to sit there and wait. I rather ride around.
like I said, there are weddings all over the world. Yes, the bide is in white again.

Chinese Group Picture. If you take a picture of all these people how many have their eyes closed in the final photo? How many photos do you have to take before all have open eyes ? How fast do you have to 'shoot'?


Old fashioned costume in China on the Most Western Part of the Great China Wall. I imagine those gals years ago really looked like that. Certainly they used feathers and beads as ornaments.

He is as American as apple pie. David looks Chinese but he can not pronounce ONE word of Chinese. His family came to America when the Union Pacific Rail Road was laid. He is all American. It was strange to see the Chinese wanting to talk to him but he could not understand or speak to them.
Nice little dolly. Those faces seem to be very popular in Asia. They like 'cute' little people in their advertisments.
Breads, breads, breads. Each person believes they have the best bread. Each one wants you to buy from THEM.

A happy bride with a big smile. Again, a white dress. Brides look great on their big day.
He leads camels for a living. Yes, he walks up and down sand dunes all day long. He must be in great shape because it's really hard to walk where camels have a hard time walking.


Don't play with those guys you will loose. They play so fast and so intense it almost looks like a job. Yet, they laugh, too and joke around a lot.
thick glasses, hard to get a true picture of the face. I liked the simple 'suit' this guy wears. He looked like and 'old timer' to me. He had a 'studious' face.

Azerie ? Turk ? Georgian ? I can not tell. I can not tell what tribe they are from.
But believe me, the people in the region know by just looking where he is from.

The good Sheppard. He just stood there on the side of the road, watching his sheep.
Very calm, very relaxed, very open. It rained and yet he was not worried. So different of a job than a Banker in NYC.
A Baker. Simple. Just a baker. Make it simple. When people as you:" what do you do?" you just say:" I am a baker " and everybody knows what you do. I love the simplicity of it.

good bread is being made here. Yes, another picture of a Baker. Simple..... Baker.......



What do you think? Are faces not the best indication of a foreign country ?






































I always felt faces are the best stories about traveling.

The way I see Germany.

Now, how ordinary is this picture, a bike parked in front of a church. Well this is not just any church. It is a church in Wittenberg. Know what I mean ? Of course now you remember it, right ? The door ! This very door !!! Yes, you are correct this is Martin Luther's door, the one he nailed the theses on. This little door brought forth the reformation, the split in the Catholic Church. The town built this statue for Martin Luther. The town is not very touristy even so they are trying to call in tourists. A nice town with lots of history if you are interested in Church history.


A typical small village in the Masuren. I forgot if this is on the Polish side or on the German side.
Does it really matter any longer what we call each country? I am glad that we are on the way to be just earth people, rather than Europeans, Americans or Asians or whatever.
The V2 Rocket was developed here. The Birthplace of Space Exploration ? Or was it just thought of as a destructive weapon ?
This is the old main building, from the air it looked liked an ordinary building, nothing special was going on from the air, right ? But..... these buildings were actually bunkers, see the concrete behind the bricks? The scientists and the V2 program were protected from air raids.

This is the guy who actually made all this new thinking possible.


This is the old factory in Peenemünde,I learned it will be fixed up to be a tourist destination. Of course, Peenemünde already is, but all one can see now is a museum.


Boy do I remember this wall. When I was a youth I visited Berlin a few times when the wall was up. Now its a monument. A relic of a divided Germany.
The graffity was on the wall on the Western side from day one. It really is so difficult to understand that East Germany built this wall. And yet.....
I saw a wall in San Diego, CA seperating Mexico from the U.S.
A wall is a wall, right ? Of course I understand why the San Diego wall was built, but I have a thing against walls. A 'No-man' Zone seemed a better solution to me like between North and South Korea. I guess I hate wall !

Or is it now ? Israel just built a wall to seperate itself from Palestine. The Chinese had the Great Wall to keep the Manchu out. Nothing new with walls, I guess.


What house was that ? There were so many German families that had their coat of arms. With my name like Muellers ( German for Miller ) we do not have a coat of arms.
We were just ordinary. A picture from the past ? Today with email and hyperspeed a mailbox with flowers? Notice the window panes in the background? The glass is made to bubble out, you can look out of the room but you can not look in. No curtains needed.

I did not stay in Poland long enough, a great Country.

This was on the side of a MIG aeroplane parked in some field outside a small village. What does a MIG do here ?

The area I rode through was the former German area once called the 'Masuren" and lots of people ( the older ones ) still speak German. The whole area I rode through had a very neat and wonderful old charm. It has been Poland now for over 50 years and still, some of it reminded me of Germany. I met people ( younger ones ) that came from Germany to look the area over and to look at some villages their parents were born in. It was very emotional and I did not stay long enough. I heard stories of war fugitives, bombings, hunger and starvation, etc. For me, while the area is beautiful and charming, it had some sad connotations, too.
I rode past the 'Wolfschanze' ( located in Rastenburg (Ketrzyn), East Prussia (now Poland), 200 km north of Warsaw ) but did not stop to look at it close. The town near the Wolfschanze gave me the creeps, a town out of a Nazi movie.
Poland was too emotional for me, I will have to go back. My mothers maiden name was Wladislawa Idzkowiak, maybe you will understand from the name alone.




Some roads turned out to be very old and they are slippery when wet. Be careful when you can not see around the corner like on this road. Cars and trucks are parked right in the bend.
Of course some roads are mud roads like this one. I remember one road being very sandy and full of powder sand. I did not stop to take a picture, I was too scared to stop.

"Die Marienburg" Headquarter of the" Die Deutschen Ritter ". Having been educated in Germany this is it for me. Poland rebuilt this castle from photographs only since all plans were lost during World War II, but because the buildings were behind the 'wall' I could not visit the castle then. I have to go back to Poland to do the castle justice. The Poles did a superb job fixing it up.

"Kreuzritter" is the German word for those guys. Riders of the Cross ? The costume seemed authentic.

Looking at this I can imagine how much work it must have been to make just one cup by hand. Today they are considered trinkets but then, way back, it was the norm to drink out of wooden cups.
Good costumes and it could almost set you back a 1000 years. I am glad I live in today's society, life then was not what it seems. Just imagine a life without dentists. Ouch !




A schematic drawing how this all works. Boats are pulled over land using water pumps and rail road tracks and frames for the boats to rest on. The whole operation is amazing to watch.
In order to move from one lake to the other, and to move from one canal to the other, the boats are lifted out of one lake and then brought by rail road to the next, upper, or lower lake.
The whole system runs on water pumps installed around 1860 to 1870. Amazing that this system still works.
As you can see it works. Right now it's used for tourists but in its heyday it was used to transport coal and grain and whatever up and down the rivers and canals. Amazing stuff.

Norway at the end of the Northern World

Watch out for Reindeer in Norway. They are all over the roads in the Northern part. Should you hit one, you will have to pay a huge fee to the owner. It's almost always your fault, they will say, even inside a tunnel.
Yes, yes and again yes, these animals are inside dark tunnels. Your headlighs might not catch them. Be careful inside the tunnels inside the Polar Circle. Remember.... I warned you !
Since Norway is very mountainous, on the level of Switzerland, if not more, it has lots of tunnels. Be very, very careful inside those tunnels. The tunnels contain reindeer. Yes, inside the tunnels are reindeer. The animals love the cool or cold air on hot days and walk through the tunnels too cool off or just lay down right on the road inside the tunnel. The tunnels are not very well lit, some are not lit at all, so it's dark inside. Be careful, very careful inside Norway's tunnels.
The roads in Norway are in great shape but can be very lonely. It's not always easy to find help when needed. I loved this peaceful wandering around Norway. It is very tranquil.
After a day of rain and cold rain to boot I took one of those huts. They are like garden sheds but they have bunk beds, a stove and are dry. I needed all of this to dry out and warm up. A tent is great but sometimes a hut us just fine, too. The cost is about $ 50 a night.

The law in Norway is that you can camp anyplace you want as long as it is about 500 feet away from any building. So you can camp on rest areas, playgrounds, woods, meadows, anyplace you want. People do it all the time and you will find lots of camping going on all along the roads. It's cheap and works great.
If you are hungry you can find dried fish like this all along the roads in the Northern part of Norway. The fish tastes wonderful, all natural and it will sure fill you. Of course, you have to like fish.

The Norwegians built this monument this far North with these coins marking the ?
I could never figure out what these coins mean. Maybe someone who reads this knows.
The lady and the child must be a woman waiting for her husband to return ?
I just don't know.
70 Degrees North plus 10 Minutes and 21 Seconds. No grass grows here, no bush. Just some lichen which are very low growing kind of mosses.



A very lonely spot way up North. I was the only tent around, even so some cars were parked near by. The sun really did not set. This is Midnight in August. The winds were fierce, I thought the wind would blow the tent away. I slept a little but with one eye open just in case. Did I mention it was cold, too?

Baku - Azerbaijan

I was not to give these children a picture of themselves, the matron said.
Ok, I will not..... but maybe someone will know them and show them the pictures.
I understood all of them to be orphans.
They are right now in Baku.

More Pictures of Turkey !

Do they really listen to a different drummer than the rest of us ?


These could have been wine jars from a thousand years ago, at least the cart was somehow a bit older.

Uerguep is a sight to behold, so many nooks and crannies, so many hidden treasures that it is hard to take pictures of it all.

This is really Real Estate. One can buy a whole hill, which serves as a house. Inside the hill are bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms, etc.

This area is amazing, people lived here for thousands of years already and not that much has changed.

What a vista, no matter from what point I looked at the landscape, there was always something new to see.

Yes, this is a house you can buy. It has a real front door, real windows, real electric lights and even plumbing.

Imagine, no painting to be done on your house, no roof to shingle, no lawn to cut. Just live inside those hills and enjoy. By the way, the houses are cool in the summer heat.

Apartments? I do not know about this hill but it looks like apartments to me.

This is the hotel we were in. Yes, build right into the cliff. We had showers, lights, plumbing, etc. All the modern conveniences.

Look at all these field, too. Look at all the natural living conditions. I thought it was great.

Of course they had some camels so that we could take pictures of the hills and the camel in the foreground. Except the camel did not want to be photographed. Always gave me the cold shoulder.

The right spelling of Uerguep is Ürgüp. The town itself is worth a visit but I bet you could not just stay there, you would have to experience the whole area.

A few pillows so you can take a nap when you feel like it. The shaded trees look inviting in the Turkish heat.

This is not fake, a guy lives here during the day. He makes his tea here, takes his nap and hangs out in the shade. Cozy, right ?

Chasing some hot air balloons with the bike I ended up here. A great view of it all.

This is our hotel in Uerguep.

This is the room I stayed in. I had tea outside on this table with some other riders. Very natural and relaxed conditions.

This is something I would have bought as a souvenir but it was not for sale. Dervishes left me in awe. I did not understand the swirling. I felt like they were from another planet.

A trance seems to be produced yet they always know where they are when they whirl. They never bump into each other.

It seemed they follow a certain pattern when they swirl all over the area. Like a dance with rules.

I did not have the best camera but still, these pictures give you some idea. Round and around and around they whirled.

It was like a prayer, very solemn and nothing to be laughed at. These guys take this very serious.

round, round, round, round, round, round, round......... etc.


I imagined doing this and I got dizzy just thinking about the whirling but these guys were not effected by the spinning. Or were they ? Something in their head has some effect otherwise they would not do it, right ?

Round, Round Round Round Round...........

I would have fallen and broken my head just like these broken pots.

Assorted China pictures

Here are some China pictures I just could not put into the blogs.


Today these are modern tiles being burned in China. Still hand painted. Like a lot of work done by hand, the workmanship is very, very good.

A close up of toy soliers for sale in a shop, they are fashioned after the full sized figures and are sold as souveniers.

To bring the boats up river they have to be pulled by hand a lot of time. Trundle passes are used but also the sides of the rivers, just like you see here. Yes, they pull a boat up river, with man power only.

An ancient soldier, look at the details. The face is live like, even so it is nearly 60 years old.

These valleys will all be under water when the dam cause the water to rise. This is a beautiful area, really, really old China.

Another parking spot. What a spot, right ? No cars in the area, the terrain is much to hilly for regular roads, the rivers are the only way to transport things.

Goats on the side of the river. I can not figure out how they catch those goats. What do they do? The goats are way to fast on the mountain to catch them alive. Shoot, I figured it out !

Furniture is still hand made and polished here deep in China. One can argue about the design or the colors, but the craftmanship is superb.

Just in case you could not find the coffin before, look here again, it's in the center of the picture, in the hole. See it ?

Like so many boats on the river, this one I call Longboat. I love this old boats, a great way to transport items and people.

Of course to go up river you have to fight hard agains the current. This is hard work. Day in, Day out, hard work.

This is the way ducks are brought to market. You can buy one or the whole lot. In this case a guy bought all of them.

A river man doing his thing. These guys are strong. They might look weak but they are tough and very resilient. Everyone I met smiled. Seems like they are always in a good mood.

If you click on the center of the picture and then look carefully you will see a coffin. The river people buried their dead that way. In a coffin high up in a cliff. Exposed to the elements. When the river rises after the Three Gorges Dam is built, these sites will be under water.

Look at the nice details on the peasant hat, the colors are warm and charming. The detail work is that of an expert in making straw hats.

This 'toy' wagon was found among the tools in the vault of the soldiers. A chariot to transport the emperor in ancient times.

This clay army is supposed to protect the emperor in his after life. It seems to work, so far they have not excavated the tomb of the emperor. Superstition keeps even today's 'explorers' away from the known grave.

A great idea to have all the bikes in racks like this because with so many bikes on the roads it takes a lot of 'Parking' space. This is just one idea to make it more efficient.

Up and down the rivers, I saw men pushing their boats with loaded merchandise. It seemed like a thousand years ago, nothing much changed on the river.

This is high tech, these poles are so flexible that they are used on sky-scraper buildings in Shanghai, too.
Here they are used for bride work. Notice no safety wires. You better step very carefully.

Pushing will all his might against the strong currents of the river.

Looked like a tea house to me. The boats are parked while the men shoot the breeze inside. Or, if it is ancient tradition, they celebrate with a special tea for a special occasion.

There are pool tables on the sidewalk in the streets. Pool must be very popular in China.

Lots of old fishing boats float on the side rivers of the Yangtze.

In time to come I might have to switch to a 3 Wheeler like this.

Of course you can tell this is a gas station, right ? What is diesel, what is super, what is regular ? What octane ? You can tell ?

The Joy of Motorcycle Maintenance

Here is a post I received from a good friend of mine.
It was balm to my soul that she is as talented as I am when it comes to repairs.


The Joy of Motorcycle Maintenance

Let me say first of all that I am a klutz when it comes to maintenance of any kind and after the events of last week, I am more convinced than ever of this assessment of my (lack of) skills and interest in this necessary devourer of time and patience.
Why I should be so inept, I have no inkling but I wish I could just ride my GS without having to think about oil levels, air pressures, battery capacity, loose parts or back-ordered parts. Even adding gas resulted in a broken gas cap when the tank-bag slammed down on the open cap at a rally far from home last summer.

But last week my incompetence reached a new high. It should have been easy enough to add a half litre of oil to my bike. Just unscrew the cap and add half the litre bottle. Except that there was no viewing window in the bottle so my brainwave was to fill an 8-oz. bottle with oil and put the remainder of the litre bottle into my GS. I did this but when I retrieved the 8 oz. container, I found I had knocked it over and 8 oz. of oil was all over the wooden work-bench, the tools and parts that were on the bench, a choice cordura tool pouch and my favourite leather purse. What a mess! And of course I stepped in the oil puddle on the floor obliviously tracking it about the garage until I slipped, knocking over all the shovels neatly standing at one end.

So I garbaged the purse, soaked the parts, tools and tool pouch in various solutions and attempted to mop up the oil with paper-towels. More oil dripped onto the garage floor as the oil-soaked towels were deposited in the garbage, on the other side of the garage. I hoped that a liberal blanket of kitty litter would soak up most of oil that had been absorbed into the wooden workbench.

A day later, after relating this woeful tale to the boys during a break from our 2-wheeled weekday escape from the city, I was given a useful suggestion. Baking powder will draw the oil out of the wood. However we neglected to consider the Queen of Klutz in action. On my way into the garage with the open box of baking soda on a tray, (because I was returning some of the de-oiled parts and tools to the garage) I tripped. My knees were bruised and the garage floor, the nearby shovels and my jeans were now blanketed in white. But the air was blue from my very vocal expression of exasperation.

It was very tempting to walk away from the mess but unfortunately I persevered in my clean-up efforts. I plugged in the shop-vac that my son had recently returned only to discover he had left it on BLOW instead of SUCK. Now the air was white and very blue.

I think so far I have spent at least 2 hours in the project to add oil to my bike and I still have a tool pouch soaking in fabric softener and a mixture of kitty litter and baking soda covering the workbench. It is a challenge to get in or out of the garage without a wind disturbing my concoction but so far so good. I wonder what will happen when I use my new air pump?????????

Postscript: I added $5.00 to the swear jar last week.

SunSeeker

Silk Route Trip 2005 - China

6/6/05 Mon Jhinge, (China) some hot, some cold
We got to the border at 7.30am but KZ does not open her border until 9am. I waited and so did everybody until about 8.45am (10.45am China Time).
Since we came into KZ via an Army outpost in the mountains we did not have the correct paper work. In facts we found out that while our passports are ok, none of our bikes were registered as entering KZ. Logically, they can not leave, since they never got there. Is this a mess? Yes, Sir! So checking out of KZ took about 2 hours, some bribes took care of the discrepancies on our part. We left KZ at 11am (1pm China time).
Checking out our passports, filling out forms for all 16 bikes took until 2 pm China time and then it was their lunch hour. Well make that 2 hours for lunch. So now it is 4 pm.
Now we have to have all of our bikes x-rayed. Yes, x-rayed.
But…..we all left the border at 4.30 pm. China can be very efficient. The ride to Jhinge is 5 more hours and China does NOT allow individual riding. You must be in a Group.
One lead car in the front with flashing blinkers, one car in the back of the group with all the spare parts and some of our peoples luggage. The road led over a Pass 2500 Meters high. While the road was mostly good, some sections are still under construction. (China is building the longest Highway from East to West). In the mountains the road was over gravel patches, mixed with finished road sections. Once over the mountains (it is cold up there) we hit partially finished stretches of highway with slow, lumbering trucks all over the place. Mr. Yu (Sim), the Chinese guide, took the initiative and rode over the half finished sections of highway. We, of course, followed! He bluffed his way thru the guards. He prepared himself with a fake document, stamped (fake) with a large red chop and we got thru. Sneaky guy! We are a sight to behold. 16 bikes in column with a lead car blinking away and a backup truck as well. We are impressive and totally out of the ordinary here. We look important, VIP status; even so our bikes are dirty and our clothing shows the road, too. The bluff worked, nobody stopped us. Some guards along the way ‘ran’ to open up the barricades for us, the fake VIP.
We arrived at the Hotel in Jhinge at 8.30pm. Dinner was in a fake yurt and we went to bed at 11 pm. Noticed immediately that the food is now Chinese. We survived the Russian diet.



6/7/05 Tue Ueruemqi, China hot, desert
Gobi means sand & stone. Desert is to the left of me, desert is to the right of me. This section is a totally flat area, no shade anyplace. The temperature is 40 degrees C (100degrees F). 256 miles and thru construction sites of the new highway. Of course we cheated and rode on top of the partially finished highway in various stages of being finished. Mostly our riding was smooth but here and there it got really dicey. We were lucky nobody got hurt. In some sections we could NOT ride the partially finished highway and we had to actually ride THRU the construction. Down half finished concrete ramps. Around unfinished bridges, thru areas where they just poured concrete and along roads used only by construction truck with their huge tires, leaving us struggling with our bikes. It is not a great feeling riding along those trucks, dust all over and visibility down to zero; on bad roads, too. My front tire has a golf ball sized bubble in the left side