08-17 Day 38 (Final Prep)

A Busy day…

Mileage

Breakfast

During Breakfast we continued to get to know each other, and immediately after breakfast, I headed off to the foreign exchange counter, to secure some Russian Rubles for our entry into Russia, via the Narva entry point.

Whatever you do, don’t forget to …

In order to secure the bikes, many of us are installing caliper locks when the bikes are left overnight. A caliper lock is a lock that attaches to the Brake Rotor, limiting the amount of forward or reverse motion the bike can make, because the lock will quickly come up against the brake caliper, or the frame. So, these things are really helpfu, but because they are installed on the rotor, mostly out of sight, it’s easy to see how they could also be out of mind, right?

And so, during a conversation with Karin on Friday night, I learned that she uses a mind trick, in order to be sure that she doesn’t not forget about the brake lock. Karin has a yellow cable attached to the lock, and she loops the remote end of the cable, over the handlebar, so it’s impossible to get on the bike, unless you remove the cable.

So, this morning, I was going to go out and buy a cable. But, the h/w store was about an 11 Euro cab ride, in each direction, and I expcted the parts for the cable to be another 5 Euros. So, I would have spent about 2 hours time, and 25 euros. So, I set my mind right, and headed to the h/w store.

Building a better mousetrap

So, there I was, walking to the foreign exchange booth, and I came upon the are of Old Town where flowers are sold. So, I thought… Hmmmm, I’ve got an idea. So, I bought some yellow twine, and a wide red wrap, about 3 feet long. I paid 4 euros, which was way overpriced, but it saved me 2 hours, and over 20 Euros. So, mission accomplished. I’ll insert a picture, tomorrow.

The briefing

At 4:00 PM, we received the first briefing of the tour. It was broken into 1) General principles, rules, and information and 2) Specific rules, and information for the next day’s trip. It took about 2 1/2 hours to finish up, but we learned quite a bit, and of course, I asked a good many questions. In the end, we had 12 riders, raring to get on the bikes, and hit the road to Russia.

We’re leaving tomorrow morning at 8:30, so between now and then, we’ll have to go get the bikes from the hotel next door, bring all of our gear down, and pack each bike, pay the hotel bill, eat breakfast, and be sitting on the bike, with the clutch in, at exactly 8:30

What will tomorrow bring

Well, the trip is really starting tomorrow. We travel about 400 K, which is about 260 miles, broken up in the section before the border, and the section after the border. We’ll arrive in St Petersburg likely around 5:00 PM, and then we’ll have a group dinner, shceudled for 7:30.

I anticipate that this will be a day, like very few that I’ve ever experienced. So, I’m going to enjoy the ride, and be amazed at the entire complicated, convoluted process.