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Europe

We are in Parnu, Estonia and have taken a day off. I have been traveling since the 25th of May, Chuck even earlier. I thought I would take this chance to update our travels.

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After Nordkapp and all the tunnels, we spent the night in Olderfjord. Nothing special, restaurant closed at 7p. We were the lucky ones, we got in at 6:45p. I had a cold cucumber, lettuce, tomato and cheese sandwich and a couple beers. Total price, about $30. Chuck two reheated slices of pizza and a couple beers and paid about $35. Prices are high for everything, and although they tell us it is the height of tourist season, many hotels are shut down and restaurants don't stay open much after 7p.

After Olderfjord, we ended up in Finland. I posted a little already about Sodankyla and the humor of the wait staff. However, again, the hotel was barely occupied. I am getting the impression that they don't get a lot of tourism up here period.

Many more Reindeer/Caribou:
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Some of Chuck's old girlfriends:
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But this was his favorite (he really did push me to post this):
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When the tides are out it leaves these mud flats. Perhaps not a much as the Bay of Fundy, but the tides do seem extreme on the Arctic Ocean.
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From Sodankyla we avoided the bigger cities and took some remarkable back roads. There was very little traffic, in fact no traffic at all. Industry seems to be primarily agriculture and logging. There are lots of logging trucks and lumber mills everywhere we went.
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Finland is F L A T! Maybe flatter than Texas. We were told they have 83,000 lakes left from the last ice age. I can say there are a lot of lakes and plenty of bridges to get over them.
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The next night, we had planned on staying at a hotel listed in the Garmin data we got from OpenStreetMaps. Unfortunately, the hotel was closed (it's the busy season you know???). Chuck found a hotel on his "Apple Phone" about 10 miles down the road and we gave it a try.
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I have to say, I was a bit skeptical when we pulled up and I walked in. The lady who ran was just inside the door but spoke absolutely not one word of English and I spoke only one word of Finnish Kiitos (Keytos) or Thank You. She motioned me in and we ended up having one of the better stays of the trip. I would have taken a picture of her, but I thought it might be rude to take a picture without being able to ask. We ended up eating sandwiches again from a gas station and getting eaten alive by mosquitos out on the veranda.
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The next day we continues on smaller routes that ended up turning to dirt. It wasn't planned that way, that's just the way it turned out. We rode about 30 miles or so on dirt and let me tell you, a Goldwing just isn't the right tool for that job. The dirt roads were pretty well maintained and if I had been on the KTM 990 this would have been no issue. But with the small throw of the suspension on the Wing, it was a very bumpy ride. And being in the middle of a country I knew very little about, a dirt road on a Goldwing was probably not the right place to be.
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more to come ...
 
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Some of Chuck's old girlfriends:
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But this was his favorite (he really did push me to post this):
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The problem was that Joe was in front of me and claimed all the pretty ones.
 
I started in Ireland and will finish my trip by riding across France and taking a ferry from Roscoff France to Cork Ireland.
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After the dirt we kinda stuck to the more developed roads and ended up in Helsinki. We had booked a hotel online because ... well ... it is the height of tourist season! HA! I liked this picture of the Wing, it has done well on this trip:
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Ok, let me tell you about the mechanical problems. First the left headlight bulb on the Wing burnt out in Sweden. Not unusual for a Wing and in fact the gas station we stopped at next actually had a replacement and I did it right there at the station. Next day I started hearing something coming from the front wheel. I had checked the brake pads before shipping the bike and they looked ok. But I had only checked the right set assuming the left were about the same. When I got down to look, at the hotel, I could see my assumption was wrong. The left inside pad looked pretty much gone. I found a Honda shop in Stockholm and we changed the pads right there in the parking lot. It took may be an hour and a half.

What's that grinding noise???
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Pads in Sweden are expensive, about $100 a set, two sets for the front.

The next day, we were looking forward to a full day of riding without mechanical interruption. We stopped at a gas station for gas. In Europe, gas pumps for gasoline are green and the diesel pumps are black. They also have several varieties of gasoline and diesel. I was trying to figure out which brand of E gasoline I wanted when Chuck came over the intercom and said "pick the black!" So ... I did. When I tried to start it, it didn't run just right. After a tow truck ride and a visit to the mechanic to syphon the tank, about 15 liters of fresh gasoline it still did not start.

I believe there was diesel laying in the bottom of the cylinders. We removed the plugs, cleaned them up two or three times. Still no joy. They ordered new plugs and I fired acetone into the cylinders. Then some ether. Installed the new plugs. And it fired up. It smoked something fierce for a little while and clouded up the entire shop, but it ran. And it eventually it cleaned up and has been running great ever since.

The final wing issue was a small oil leak. I had checked the valves before sending the bike and the valve cover seal had gotten a little crimped. When I removed the cover, I just adjusted the seal and that has been right ever since.

We did have one moment with Chuck's bike up in the wilderness. We had stopped at a wayside Water Closet (WC) and when we went to go, Chuck couldn't get his bike to start. On the Varadero, the kill switch does not shut the entire electrical down, like on my Wing. So with the kill switch on, the bike will still turn over. After 15 minutes I did walk over and turn on his kill switch and the bike started. Now ... I am sure there will be a rebuttal to this post, but that's how it happened. :-)

more to come ...
 
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The next day, we were looking forward to a full day of riding without mechanical interruption. We stopped at a gas station for gas. In Europe, gas pumps for gasoline are green and the diesel pumps are black. They also have several varieties of gasoline and diesel. I was trying to figure out which brand of E gasoline I wanted when Chuck came over the intercom and said "pick the black!" So ... I did. When I tried to start it, it didn't run just right. After a tow truck ride and a visit to the mechanic to syphon the tank, about 15 liters of fresh gasoline it still did not start.

We did have one moment with Chuck's bike up in the wilderness. We had stopped at a wayside Water Closet (WC) and when we went to go, Chuck couldn't get his bike to start. On the Varadero, the kill switch does not shut of the entire electrical down, like on my wing. So with the kill switch on, the bike will still turn over. After 15 minutes I did walk over and turn on his kill switch and the bike started. Now ... I am sure there will be a rebuttal to this post, but that's how it happened. :-)

more to come ...

Those of you that have seen Joe and I together know that there has never been a time when Joe would listen to what I say. I guess that this one time will be the first and last time.


I can't say where the kill switch was for the entire time that I was trying to start my bike but I did try it both on and off. I also had another problem yesterday and we even sprayed some contact cleaner into the switch. But, it could have been that my helmet hit the switch when I put it on the mirror...only time will tell.
 
As I mentioned above we are now in Parnu, Estonia and will continue on tomorrow. It is actually pretty cold here. It is 53deg and overcast. I have some old towels from the front desk that I plan to go down and clean up the Wing a little before we leave.

We did take the ferry across the Straight of Finland yesterday. Getting on the ferry and getting the bikes tethered was pretty straight forward.
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Depth Charges in case we are attacked! Ha! No, life rafts:
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Looking towards Estonia:
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Coming into port:
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The rest of the cars parked in the traffic lanes on the ferry. It is the height of tourist season! :-)
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Getting ready to leave. We weren't the only bikes during this ferry crossing and they put the bikes in a small corner of the ship. That guy to the left of Chuck was probably 6' 9" or 6' 10" and riding an older European Transalp, that never made it to the US.
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Pretty common in Europe, are traffic lights that go from red, to yellow, to green. It makes you feel like you are waiting at a christmas tree at the drag races. There are some European drivers that "red light" every time! One interesting sign we saw in Tallinn, was one for a "VideoValve". We were not sure what that meant, but assumed it was for a camera watching the intersection???
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The ride from Tillinn (the capital) to Parnu is about two thirds across Estonia. It took us about an hour and a half. :-) Much of the rest of the trip will be crossing smaller countries and we will have to decide if we really want to spend more time than just riding through. Right now, we are just taking it easy. The parking lot is jammed packed with tourists:
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Thanks for posting your travels. Keep it coming.
 
Guess the tourists heard you guys were coming, eh? :lol2: Chuck's bike looks sweet; have you tried it yet? How was it?
 
Guess the tourists heard you guys were coming, eh? :lol2: Chuck's bike looks sweet; have you tried it yet? How was it?

Hey, we are the tourists! Most everyone speaks English. And usually I can translate Chuck's okie into English. Only occasionally do we run into locals who don't speak English. It has been fun to try to use what limited German I remember from my childhood in Germany, but again, most everyone speaks English. It is interesting not always being the BIGGEST people around, which is quite different than our South American experience.

I have not tried Chuck's bike yet, but it seems to be very capable and easily keeps up with the Wing on the highway. He is running Metzler Tourances, they aren't as good as a more dirt oriented tire on the dirt, but he really needed the tires that got the mileage we were doing. He seems pretty content with it, at this point.
 
We are nearing the end of our first ride in Europe. Pretty soon Chuck will head west to catch his ferry in Roscoff, France and I will head back to Stefan's in Heidelberg. We have had some amazing luck with weather; for example, right now in Olderfjord, Norway, the place we stayed after Nordkapp, it looks like it is snowing.

However, the weather has finally caught up with us. We are in the middle of a rain storm and waiting the outcome of a request for another night here at the Leonardo Royal hotel. If they find a vacancy, it will give me a chance to update the blog with more pictures and stories. Otherwise, we will have to pack and move on down the road.

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to improve and I plan to ride the B500 from Baden-Baden to Fruedenstadt, supposedly one of the best "motorcycle" roads in Germany through the Black Forest. Anyway you cut it, it has been good.
 
We rode through Latvia and Lithuania after leaving Estonia. There aren't many options for big bikes riding through these small countries so we stayed primarily on the main highways/roads. Pretty much a boring ride, with nothing other than traffic cameras.

We did see a lot of these and had a pretty good laugh. We were going pretty fast coming through one, the sign flashed up the speed and then something in their language. Chuck thought it said "Jesus!". I guess we were going too fast!
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Lot's of agriculture along the roadway:
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Once into Poland, we took a number of back roads trying to stay off the freeway. Poland doesn't have a lot of roadways I would consider Goldwing ready. This may look rather good, but they were very rough:
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With plenty of interesting architecture:
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There are interesting city limit signs. Entering the city of Nowa Wies:
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Leaving the city of Kalztnik:
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We also saw a lot of these. We believe they are Stork nests on the tops of power poles:
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These little back roads were brutal. The surface was very uneven and not smooth. In south America we had blown out our front fork seals on dirt roads and we were worried about the same thing happening, here on these roads. We would do may be forty or forty five and we would see these little locally built cars coming the other way at sixty or seventy bouncing all over the road. Those cars can't last long with that kind of abuse.

There are back roads that were very well maintained, but not that frequently:
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We stopped in Radom, at a very nice hotel and managed to do a little walk about to see some of the city:
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We left Radom. Eventually the highway dumped us into Krakow. Let me tell you, it was the closest we felt to being back in South America. 30 or 40 miles of stop and go traffic with little alternative all the way into the heart of the city and then back through the same leaving. I believe Krakow is a very pretty city but only if you don't have to travel through it.

Here's a view of the main route through the row houses that line the street:
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One of the gems we found by accident, isn't that how it normally happens? We are on the main road to Slovakia and they shut the highway down, for some unknown reason. We reroute and find a tiny little road that parallels the highway and go about 5 miles where we meet a car, pointed our direction, in our lane. Just a regular car, but out of the passenger side a policeman, with a tiny red paddle gets out and gestures for us to turn around. We are down to very limited "cow paths" to get across the border. Fortunately for us, these OSM maps are VERY GOOD with the roads in place. We find a tiny little road that most other drivers apparently didn't know about to make our way. It was smooth, free of traffic and very scenic.
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Everywhere we went there were these on the tops of the highest hills or mountains. It would take years to travel and get the stories of each of these:
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In Slovakia we saw some walls that would make Trump proud. We believe these were primarily to block the wind, that at times seemed to rival those of Patagonia:
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More mountain top fortresses in Slovakia:
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Not quite sure what these were, but there are lot's of these fields of yellow flowers or plants:
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And lots of POZOR signs, apparently this means danger:
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The roads between Slovakia and Chechia are beautiful. Lots of tree lined curvy smooth roads:
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Czech Republic is becoming very developed. The roads in most these countries are where we were in the states thirty or forty years ago. Great interstate with intermittent stretches of 2 lane having significant construction. These tunnels are on the outskirts of Prague, under the local rivers.
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We settled for that night in Pilsen, where we were told the Pilsner type beer first originated, hundreds of years ago. We took a taxi to the local brewery, to have a taste. As mentioned earlier, if you are into Pilsner type beer, this is Mecca:
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The taxi ride back was EYE OPENING. He had to hit 70 MPH while running red lights and dodging pedestrians. Europe is big on pedestrian safety, even on many freeway type roads, there are pedestrian crossing where they simply push the button and bring the freeway traffic to a stop. Not so much in countries west of Poland, but most the former eastern block countries, that was the case.

More to come ...
 
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I knew you were on a short trip. Lost track for a few days! Maybe in jail for being a speed demon!!! Some of those guys in South America are still looking for you...Welcome home my friend. RH
 
One thing I planned to do on my own, either before Chuck arrived or after he left was to visit the town of Wurzburg. Since we were about 2 days ahead of schedule and Wurzburg was almost directly on our path back, Chuck had no problem stopping with me.

I lived in an old farmhouse in Wurzburg for three years, from age 2 to 5. My sister was born there and from her birth certificate we got the address. Unfortunately, things change in 60 years. What was an old German farmhouse, is now a cherry tree orchard. I did talk with a neighbor, probably in his 40's who had lived there for a long time. He had no recollection of a house where the orchard is now. So I snapped a few pictures and filed away those memories.

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View from the street
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The house would have been where the old fire truck is now.
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Time marches on ...
 
Chuck and I had developed a contingency plan for early arrival. Our plan was to ride from Baden-Baden to somewhere near Basel in Switzerland, then on to Dijon France and finally split up. He would go west to Roscoff, France where the Ferry would take him back to Ireland and I would return to Stefan's in Heidelberg. Best laid plans...

We have had great luck with the weather on this ride. Apparently we missed a snow storm up in Nordkapp and quite a bit of rain in the Baltic countries by just a day or two. In Baden-Baden, one of the entry cities into the Black Forest, the rain caught up with us. Neither of us were pressed on time so we decided to spend an extra day in Baden-Baden and split up there. I would continue on to the Black Forest and he would head to the Normandy area in Northwestern France.

I must say we had some good digs to spend the extra day.
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And then it was time to go. Someone standing there smoking a cigarette snapped this photo, right before we parted and I headed off into the Black Forest.
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I left the hotel and entered somewhat of a primordial fog, left over from the previous days rain, I presume.
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Reading on the internet, some say B500 from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt is the "best" motorcycle road in Europe. Not having ridden much in Germany, I can't deny this claim. The road is as smooth as glass, has more turns then the Dragon and as far as I could tell, very little 'enforcement'. The road condition in the photo above is exactly the way it was for the hundreds of miles I rode in the Black Forest.
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After a hundred thousand miles I have gotten used to the Wings limitations. If the road is smooth and the turns are symmetrical without heaves, the Wing is actually a fun bike to ride. Putting it down on the peg and making the turn, hearing the smooth hissing sound the peg makes around the corner is gratifying. I took time out to try to take a picture of one of hundreds of such turns. But don't fret, I spent a lot more time riding then I did photographing.
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In Europe, you can't ride too far before you pass through some little burg. It may seem like an inconvenience but in reality it was a good break before getting on the twisty stuff again.
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There seems to be an ornate church in every city.
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The OSM maps we used on our GPS's were fantastic. We had very few map "busts" and it help tremendously when there were "road closures". Apparently, no one in Europe has come up with 'detour' signs. They just close the road and issue an intrinsic "good luck" with finding your way around the closure. But, with these maps, it seemed we were able to find ways around that even some of the locals didn't know.
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There were at least three road closures in the Black Forest, but fortunately for me, I wasn't pressed for time and simply found another, perhaps even more interesting way around. I took this picture on one of the little detour routes I rode:
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With all the talk of environmentally, non-nuclear electricity production in Europe, I passed this nuclear plant at the southern end of the Black Forest.
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An interesting bridge. I didn't ride across it, but I did join up with the road not long after where these photographs were taken.
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On the south eastern side of the Black Forest there aren't as many trees, but the roads continued to be very enjoyable.
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Some of the towns built right along the river seemed to teeter precariously at the edge of the cliff. I think it would be interesting to stay in one of these houses, but I am not sure I could get comfortable living in one, waking up to every noise, thinking may be it was going over.
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And the small rivers ran right through the middle of town. That's a river over the edge of the railing. It splits from the road right where the house is. I wondered if they ever woke up to a "river runs through it"?
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I spent the night near Freudenstadt in a guest house. At dinner, I sat next to a group of guys talking loudly in German. I overheard one of them say, "Texas is schei*se!", so I interrupted. I said, "Ich bin von Texas. Texas is nicht schei*se!" They were a little taken back, one of them said in English, "so, you are from Texas?" I said "Yes". He stumbled around a little and then said that they were talking about the weather. Hahaha.

The next day, I wound my way back through mostly uninteresting back roads to Stefan's. I did a good cleaning, starting mileage 133,373 finishing mileage 138,667. Now the wing waits at Stefans for my return.
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The trip was over and now I had to catch my flight back home.
 

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To call this RR "impressive" is the height of understatement. Well done. (Super jealous.)

I lived in an old farmhouse in Wurzburg for three years, from age 2 to 5. My sister was born there and from her birth certificate we got the address. Unfortunately, things change in 60 years. What was an old German farmhouse, is now a cherry tree orchard. I did talk with a neighbor, probably in his 40's who had lived there for a long time. He had no recollection of a house where the orchard is now. So I snapped a few pictures and filed away those memories.

The house would have been where the old fire truck is now.

Time marches on ...

This might be a job for Historic Aerials:
https://www.historicaerials.com/
 

Thanks, unlike many of the other ride reports I have done, I didn't get disinterested in doing it after about 2/3rds the way through.

Nice Joe. Safe riding man.

Thanks Jerry, back in the States now, so have to adjust to not having pictures on my road signs! HA!

Epic Joe, purely epic! :thumb:

Thanks Tom, hopefully you're getting out to do some Epic Rides yourself.

I knew you were on a short trip. Lost track for a few days! Maybe in jail for being a speed demon!!! Some of those guys in South America are still looking for you...Welcome home my friend. RH

Rick; speed camera's are the pits. It causes traffic to come to a screeching halt and if you don't know that there's a camera, you can't figure out why. Honestly, it's more dangerous than the driving fast, I think. Fortunately, most the cameras only faced forward, which makes it hard to get a picture of the bikes license plate. Compound that with a US license plate and I am not expecting anyone to come looking for me. I was told that South Dakota passed a law that they will not share information with countries looking to forward tickets from Speed Camera's. I think it is something Texas should look into.

Joe your missing the Friday BBQ.
My sentiment also . :mrgreen:

Joe and John Mark, you're right, I do miss the Friday lunches. But, sacrifices must be made! ;-)

That bridge is scary for me!

Get in line Rob! The surface of that bridge looked like a razor blade from my angle. I wondered how that skinny little thing stayed up. If your driving across it, I guess you just have to trust German engineering.

To call this RR "impressive" is the height of understatement. Well done. (Super jealous.) This might be a job for Historic Aerials:
https://www.historicaerials.com/

I have looked at your link briefly, I will need to spend a little more time. Could be interesting. Thanks for the info.

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and for following along. Right now Chuck and I are looking into fall for our next visit to Europe. Probably the UK (England, Scotland and Ireland).

I've updated the states, provinces and countries I have visited on a motorcycle. It sure is purdy! :-)

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Welcome home, Joe 'n' Chuck. As always, great report, Joe. Thanks for sharing.
 
Welcome home, Joe 'n' Chuck. As always, great report, Joe. Thanks for sharing.

Join us for breakfast Tuesday. We will have plenty of stories to tell on each other; PLUS, I plan on bringing a guest from Scotland. Lot's of international flavor.
 
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