I think I was somewhere between 10 and 14 when I realized that people actually rode there bikes across whole continents. It seemed (and still does seem) absurd that anyone would do such a thing, I immediately wanted in, I wanted to cross the only continent that seemed plausible as soon as I was out of highschool. So my best friend Nate Maloney (now Tarvers) and I headed out by bus to Montana in the pouring rain. (We found a ride called The Great Divide, which was all off road and through the Rockies, although not across a continent it seemed more hardcore). It was on this ride that I found out that 90lbs of gear might be too much for one person to carry up mountain passes, and the boyscouts were straight wrong when they said "always be prepared". And although we didn't make it all the way from Montana to Mexico (we made it to southern Utah so shut up!) I did get my first taste of traveling town to town and torturing self via something most people do for pleasure. We did another trip, this time walking across Spain with Levi and again I fell in love with slow strenuous travel...
"AHHH F#!#@, another flat tire are you kidding me?!!!"
"I know the shirt says 10,000 miles against the wind, but is the wind actually going to be blowing in my face like this the whole time? Even a side wind would be better!"
5 minutes later...
"AHHH Jesus a man could get killed with this huge heavy bike getting hit with a side wind, at least give me a head wind!!!"
Our idol and inspiration Mark Jenkins described it perfectly in Off The Map: Bicycling Across Siberia. "The hero feeling is actually pretty weak, all it takes is a sore knee or bad gas to make you feel horrible" (or something like that, I know the bad gas was in there.)
Luckily for us even on the morning of the 15th when we walked out of the dorms for the last time and were immediately lashed with icy strong wind, our hero feeling was given a boost. Adreniline pumping we made our way down to the starting point. Even on the way we managed to break something, Levi's water backpack exploded "I usually like to start a ten thousand mile bike trip soaking wet in 32 degree weather!". But just as that hero feeling was slipping for a second we turned the corner and were beseiged by press. Apparently nothing happens in Vladivostok, or Russia for that matter because there were 5 different television stations and every newspaper in town there to see off the Idiots. We had to dip our bikes in the pacific about 5 times, the last time I managed to soak my foot, perfect. It wasn't the first time we had had to fake something about the trip, the day before, the 2 of the TV stations came to our dorm rooms, and insisted on going to the school and interviewing our Russian teachers, when they couldn't be found they had another teacher who we had never met pose as our teacher, teaching us in the classroom then they interviewed her. After the whole thing was over she said "so what are you guys doing?" I'm sure the clip I posted of the interview on the website looks great for most of us, but for those of you who speak russian don't believe a word of it.
And so after much fanfare we headed out, thank god for Tom Armbruster, the Consulate General, otherwise we would have looked real bad. That "hero feeling" melted after the first few hills and after the cameras stopped rolling.
Overall the first day went fairly smoothly, we didn't go too far, it was cold windy, and after seeing so many cameras we rather wanted to stay in a hotel where we could see the footage. We left Tom, the police escort and the camera crews after about 30k, it was a great moment, we were finally on our own and able to go at our speed and not have to pose or feel self conscious, (I took a rest break midway up the next hill) We went maybe another 30k of hills and wind before settling in at the very same hotel by the airport where we stayed our first night in Vladivostok. there was something fitting about spending 6 weeks in Vladivostok, only to return to the same hotel and watch oneself on about 5 channels. Pretty funny, oh and I got the first flat tire as we rolled into the hotel. The country side is Russia, there are beautiful little colorful dachas with mini gardens and stray dogs in fields of birch trees. Then you turn the corner and there is a half mile of smokestacks and abandoned Ladas (Russian Cars), another half mile brings you into the center of a small Russian town with an amazing little oniondome church, tons of little kiosks, and some rather Festive-to-early men taking advantage of Russias lenient street drinking laws and cheap alcohol. Amazing.
Yesterday things got out of control, everyone was honking and waving, half because they wanted to get us off the road and half because they saw us on the news the night before. Some people even slowed down rolled down their windows and held conversations with us, on even offered me a redbull at about 30 miles an hour. We posed for photos when we stopped, (levi got two flat tires, ominous sign, get the glue out) we even signed autographs, for now at least we are safe, the Russians have taken us under their wings, we spend most of our time, including all day today trying to keep up with the website and housing offers. It was a long day to Ussiriysk, the place where we had hoped to make it the first day (again the hero feeling melting) but it is better to ease into 100-130k a day and what are we in a hurry for, we though we would be riding on May 1 today is the 17th of April. Ussiriysk is the last city we will see for 700k and so we are staying an extra day (that at least is the excuse my legs came up with), it is the first time we get to see a lot of the famous Russian wooden houses, interspersed with communist housing towering over them, beside the kind of peicemeal shacks you expect to see in Africa (must be hell to heat), it is a fantastic combination that makes the town fascinating to look at, even though we haven't found the church yet.
The generosity of Russian people is mind blowing, a couple at the very end of the day as we were crawling along led us to a Russian drive through restaurant, bought us an amazing meal (this drive through, although resembling a Russian wendy's was full of homemade delicious food) and took us to a hotel. Too Kind. They even took us this morning to this internet cafe, where we were unsuccessful in uploading any pics or videos onto the website other than the ones from the articles I posted under press. Next they are taking us to a bike shop for some more tubes.
gotta run
ellski
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