Monday, July 27, 2009

17 July 2009, west of Klyuchevskiy, Eastern Russia





I got up and was outside the tent when another diesel truck stopped on top of the hill with a valve stuck open. I don’t know how the drivers un-stick the stuck valve, but they always seem to do it. The engine will be idling and clattering away one moment and next the valve closes and it sounds like a normal diesel engine. Then they drive off. I can understand why those valves stick. If you saw the amount of dust those trucks drive through daily you would just shake your head. After several years of that, the radiators clog up and they start overheating. Then they start overheating when pulling their loads through the mountains and they have problems with their valves sticking from the heat. Those semi-trucks just keep going until they break. Then the driver fixes it. There is no such thing as calling the wrecker or tire guy to fix your truck or trailer. Hopefully he can limp the truck in where he can work on it and get the parts he needs, or he fixes it on the spot. I have followed some of these semi-trucks on some truly horrible roads. Did any of you reading this blog see the top of an enclosed semi-trailer rocking back and forth two feet/over ½ a meter? If I would have seen that in the U.S.A. I would have pooped in my pants. Anyway, I tore down my tent, loaded my bike, and started my long day's ride. About 20 minutes down the road I oiled my chain. Lot of good that did because 30 minutes later I was driving dirt and gravel roads. I filled up with gas at the first opportunity. You never know where the next gas station will be. All was going well and I was getting hungry. I stopped in a roadside restaurant and whipped out my breakfast menu and ordered. The lady looked at it as I pointed to everything I wanted. She nodded her head yes or no if she had the item I wanted, wrote up my order and was off to the kitchen to prepare. I had my food in ten minutes. Nothing makes a day better than when you have food in your stomach. I continued driving on the gravel and finally decided 35/40 mph/56/64 kph was too fast if I wanted my saddle bags to still be attached to the motorcycle at the end of the day. I started to drive 20/25 mph/30/40 kph and things got more manageable. I was driving deep potholes, loose gravel and gravel the size of golf ball to baseball-size rock. Oh it was a lot of fun. This went on for a couple of hours and you’d pop back on blacktop as nice as you can drive in the U.S. I stopped again for gas and filled up. I met a Russian guy who asked me if I was going to Moscow or where was my destination. I told him I was going to Vladivostock. He said you don’t want to do that. He said there’s no gas for 450 miles/700 kilometers. He told me where I could find gas but I didn’t understand him. He said diesel fuel is available but not gasoline. He promptly went to his vehicle and pulled out four four-litre plastic jugs and gave me three of them. I could have had four if I’d asked. I thanked him and tied them to my bike empty, got back on to highway and continued driving gravel. I filled up again and filled each jug with one litre of gas. I was back on the road riding along at my preferred speed and needed to gas up. A gas station sign appeared from out of nowhere and I said to myself, what luck. I pull up to the pump and it says no 92 octane gas. They have diesel fuel. Just then I realized what the guy had told me. They have gas stations all along the road but they are out of 92 octane gasoline. I said to myself how can this be? I asked the gas station attendant where I could buy gas and she told me to drive back 120 miles/180 kms to get gas. I told her I was out of gas and couldn’t do that. I needed gas now. How was I going to backtrack 120 miles/180 kms and get gas? I decided to drive another 36 miles/60 kilometers up the road to another city and hope it had gas. If they are out of 92 octane gas I will be so deep in trouble I’m not sure what I will do. I ran into rain before getting there so quickly found a camping spot and set up my tent. It’s kind of an undeveloped wayside. I’m out of sight of the highway so it a pretty good site. I put my tent on gravel. Thank God I have my air mattress to sleep on or I would have been sleeping on rocks and gravel. It’s time for bed and I’m hoping and praying I can find gas tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment