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Motorized, Again

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

I had trouble falling asleep last night. I must have lain in bed for three hours staring at the ceiling, thinking about riding motorcycles, feeling for all the world like a kid on Christmas Eve. I don't remember when I finally drifted off, but it...

Back to Basics

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Back to at the car park, Tara is busy journaling. Striding in to meet her, I can hardly believe we've done it! Cheering, high-fives and a recounting of the last few hours ensues. Then, as much as I want to collapse and call it a day, I get to wo...

Absurd, The Jimny Saga: Part Eight

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

Knowing they'll have to travel extremely slowly, Richie and Freddie set off a good three hours before the rest of us today, hoping they can make some headway before we catch up to them. In the meantime, we start the day as usual: a leisurely paced...

Pedaling Upstream

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

With everything we needed to thrive at our hard-to-reach Romanian forest free-camp, we almost decided to stay another day. Instead, we packed up, said hello to some horses grazing in a nearby pasture, and set off on our 30 minute trek back to the ...

Mud

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

I spent the bulk of the morning giving our bikes a rare and thorough cleaning. The muddy excuse for a bicycle path we'd pushed and ridden along yesterday had left them several pounds heavier, comprehensively caked with gloopy dirt which had dried ...

Rainy Riverside Ride

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Getting out of large cities can sometimes be a pain. Thankfully, that was not the case today. After a quick, easy exit from Belgrade, we were back on the road once more. It felt so good to leave, extricating ourselves from the blocky concrete bu...

Back to Work

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Very excited about our first day cycling in almost a month, we were packed and ready to go in record time this morning. Before we left, Tyler ran over to Cafe la Corniche to say goodbye to Yousri while I jogged over to the pastry shop to pick up a...

Velocity Rims: Part 3

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Our rims are finally here! Tara and I tore into the boxes at the post office this morning as soon as they opened at 8:30 AM. We could hardly believe what we saw when we removed the cardboard packaging. Velocity has replaced our failing rear rims...

In Summary

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

One month after Velocity sent our replacement rims, their convoluted journey has ended here on our desert island of Kerkennah. The first two weeks featured an information blackout during which they sat, apparently forgotten, in New Jersey. Go US ...

Fare Thee Well, Habib

Friday, January 8th, 2010

After much discussion, we've decided to part ways with our Motobecane Mobylette 88, Habib. The appearance of our long awaited bicycle wheels in Sfax played a big role in this decision. Sadly, our separation does not involve sending him home to th...

Control

Friday, January 1st, 2010

I am by nature, a planner. This at times clashes with the fact that there are ceaselessly a multitude of "loose ends" and unknowns before us as we travel. Improving my ability to relinquish control is something that I've had to work very hard on ...

Stranded on a Desert Island

Monday, December 21st, 2009

We just found out our wheels have been sitting in New Jersey for the last twelve days. Nice work US Postal Service. We've now been on Kerkannah for more than two weeks. The first week was very enjoyable; we did lots of sightseeing, and I had a s...

Latkes on the Road

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

I was not inspired to do anything today. This morning all I wanted was to be on the move, adventuring on our bicycles, or be at home. Our waiting-for-gear limbo was driving me crazy. All I could think were things like: "Why on earth are we sitti...

Waiting for Wheels

Saturday, December 12th, 2009

While we wait for our new rear wheels to arrive, we've spent a little more time exploring the Kerkennah Islands. They aren't big. To provide some variety from working every day at the local cafe, we visited the sleepy resort town of Sidi Fredj to...

Velocity Rims: Part 2

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

UPDATE: It turns out our problems had nothing to do with the braking surface at all. The rim was splitting in two right down the middle. I didn't see this until I removed the rim tape. Click here for a continuation of the story. Roughly one...

Remla Hostel

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

After a couple days of desert free-camping, we both feel the need for a shower so we're packing up and heading to Remla to check into the youth hostel. The short 6 kilometer ride from our free-camp seems to take forever due to the constant, p...

Sta Ali

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Yesterday at the Abassiya museum we asked Madame Fehri if she knew of any fishermen who would be willing to take us out on their boat. Our guide book said this was a common practice, and we were eager to learn more about local way of life. Fishin...

Noisy Naples

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Tara: Before leaving our volcanic campground we stopped for breakfast at the bar/shop on site. As we ate we noticed there were several cats wandering around (at least seven by our count!). One of them decided to befriend me, hoping to get a tas...

More Free Camping

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

With each passing day we fall in love with Italy a little more. Maybe it is the cheap, delicious food clouding our judgment but we're almost certain that we'll pass through again on our way to Moscow (we're looping back through Europe after a Nort...

Velocity Chukkers Arrive

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

We spent most of the morning tearing camp apart and re-assembling it into 'travel' mode. I was expecting our wheels to arrive the following day and I wanted to be packed and ready to go when they did. It took a surprisingly long time to clean and...

Camp Cookies

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Looking for something to do while we wait for our rims, I decided to do some baking today. I thought traditional Jewish jam-filled hamentaschen would be a good idea since we had all the ingredients on hand, and I was craving cookies. I started wit...

Holding Pattern

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

We're still in Silvaplana waiting for our new rims to arrive. It has only been three days and we're already getting a case of cabin fever! Hopefully we'll settle back into staying put, as it looks like we'll be here until early next week. Thankf...

Velocity Rims

Monday, August 24th, 2009

UPDATE: One of our replacement rims failed too. Click here for a continuation of the story. I will be updating this post over the next few days as we sort out our wheel dilemma. My rear rim has failed and Tara's is on the way out in the exac...

Conquering Julierpass

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Today is the big day; our highest mountain climb ever will take us over Julierpass! For breakfast, I make us a large pot of muesli with cooked apples to keep us well fueled. Feeling full, we hit the road! 8:30 AM / 850m It is beautiful an...

Ascending & Descending

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

We said farewell to Chur under overcast skies, thankful for the gray cloud cover that would hopefully stick around and protect us from the sun. A long sweaty day of climbing is a lot more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down on your back. ...

Errands on the French Riviera

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

I was absolutely exhausted this morning when Tara shuffled me, squinty-eyed and stumbling, out of the tent and in the direction of the shower block. While I doused myself clean and scrubbed off the last bit of sleepiness, Tara packed everything an...

Hitting our Stride

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

On our way out of Edinburgh, we stopped to do some much needed bicycle maintenance. I had neglected to clean or lube the chains since we started so I spent a good 15 minutes with each bike cleaning things up well before we took off. We left ...

The Road Awaits

Thursday, February 7th, 2008

Every morning I look at my bike and my longing for this trip gets stronger. I can't wait to give up life as I know it in favor of the road in a strange country with no worries except where I am going to sleep. I picked up a torque wrench ton...