27 June 2009 Omsk, Russia

Good morning Dave, have a Happy Birthday ………….oh happy days it’s raining. Today is my birthday and I’m going to drive into Omsk on Highway 1P402 and find a hotel. I wasn’t in a very big hurry to get moving. Consequently I got caught in the rain. I may stay two days if I can find a hotel with internet so I can contact people and tell them I’m still alive. The more I think about this the less I think I’ll find a hotel with internet. My satellite connection/air card is no longer receiving a signal because I’m in Siberia and AT&T doesn’t have an agreement with the Russian satellite people. So finding a high end hotel with directions is pretty difficult unless I find someone who volunteers to take me to a hotel. I should have gotten myself a Lonely Planet book on all the hotels in Siberia before I left the states and I wouldn’t have this problem. I may also see if I can fix my telephone so that it works. I don’t know if it is the SIM card or I left it on and all the time is used up. It was pretty much a light rain all day today, more annoying than anything else. I was about half way to Omsk and this motorcycle rider pulls up alongside me riding a white African Twin Honda. I waved at him and he sped on by. About 5 miles/8 kms down the road he pulled over and stopped. I pulled in after him and we started talking. His name was Mark and he was from Poland. Get this, he rode from Poland and was riding up the Road of Bones to Magadan, Russia in the Kolymer Region in Siberia. I was kind of envious of him because that was one of the things on this round the world trip I really wanted to do. He wasn’t dressed very well to be riding in the rain. His rain gear leaked everywhere, no rain gloves to cover his riding gloves or boots to keep his feet dry. One thing he had was heated hand grips. That’s a nice feature because my hands freeze in the rain and go numb. It might be something I would consider in the future should I consider another adventure like this. He was packing two rear and two front tires. Everything he owned was in the top box on his bike and tires on the side. He was driving 300miles/484 kms to 400 miles/645 kms a day and camping most of the time. I asked him how he was going to cross the rivers and he said he could ford water about four inches above his tires. He asked me if I heard of the movie/series The Long Way Around. I said yes and he kind of said that’s where he got his ideas from or the inspiration. I told him I would have driven up the Road of Bones had I been able to fly out of Magadan to Anchorage, Alaska. I asked him how he was leaving Magadan. He said he would ride down the Road of Bones again and then put his motorcycle on the Trans Siberian Railroad and ship it home because of the time element. Apparently he has timeframe in which he has to complete his adventure. We took pictures and parted company, wishing each other a safe journey. He sped into traffic and the last I saw of him is the mud spray mist off his rear tire. I continued on to Omsk and past a newer roadside hotel and made a mental note of it. If all else falls I can come back to it. I stopped about 12 miles/20 kms outside of Omsk and filled up with gas. I never enter a large city low on gas. I asked a guy if he knew where a hotel was and he said no. So I went back nine miles to the hotel I saw when I was coming into the city. I checked in and went to the room. It was very nice for $32 dollars. No internet here. They did look up an internet café for me. God knows how I’m going to find it. This is a large city and I’m slightly handicapped verbally and can’t read signs. It’s two in the morning. I probably should go to bed and decide what I should do tomorrow.