13 June 2009 Sumy, Ukraine

I woke up about 7:00 a.m. and heard rain on the tent fly, oh boy. I stayed in bed for another hour and guess what? It stopped raining. I eventually got up, shook all the rain drops off the tent fly and dug my motorcycle out of its super secret hiding spot so I could load it up. I noticed the motor on my bike was a little noisier than usual so I looked at the odometer to check the miles. I had about 5,300 miles on it. I checked the service manual when I should release the timing chain to take up the slack in it. They said every 5000 miles so I did that quick while I was thinking about it. The motor did get a little quieter after that. I loaded up all my gear and left my super secret hideaway and headed back to the main road. I backtracked on the road I was on last night to a sign that told me exactly where I was on the map. From there I had to find the connecting roads to Sumy, Ukraine. While I was at the sign deciphering the cryllic names a vehicle pulls up and looks at the sign too. I may as well ask this guy if he knows where the road to Sumy is. I wave to him and he gets out of the car to see what I want to ask. He told me the same thing as the last guy because I recognized a lot of the same words. Just because I recognized them doesn’t mean I understood them. He got frustrated trying to explain how to find the road and just said “follow me I’ll show you where it is.” That works for me. So off we go and ten minutes later I can see the road Evan told me about last night with the cryllic name of Sumy. I believe where I goofed up was I was looking for a roundabout like you see in England and many of the European community countries. In reality the circle road Evan was talking about actually was more like a clover leaf like you find in the United States. So I shook hands with the gentleman and his wife and off I go to Sumy. After driving in the rain all day yesterday my rear drive chain needed some chain lubrication. I didn’t want to put any chain oil on it till it was warmed up so I drove for about 20 more miles until I saw a rest area. I whipped in there quick and started to oil the chain when a car pulled in. The car looked a lot like the Honda, Toyota, Mazda, etc. you see in the United States. It had fancy chrome wheels on and the brake calipers were painted red. The windows were all blacked out: Blacked out enough you couldn’t see thru them. I just kept minding my own business when out steps this kid about 22/24 years old. Now I’m out in the country where the hottest thing going for young guys is a new scooter or a new 90cc Honda motorcycle. This kid had on new black clothes, new shoes and creases in everything. I thinking: where does a guy like this get the money for all of this? He gets out of the car and comes over to speak to me. I really didn’t want to talk to him. He starts telling me he knows a shop that can adjust and oil my rear chain. I told him no thanks and that I can do that myself. He leaves and goes back to his car. I wanted to wait 15 minutes for my chain oil to set up but with him around I left early before he called in for backup support. Probably more criminals. I think the kid was involved in crime. I didn’t trust him. He made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. As I drove on to Sumy I drove through wheat fields. The wheat didn’t look that thick and it didn’t look like it would have that high of a yield, but there sure was a lot of it: square miles of flat land. The trip to Sumy was uneventful. The road was sometimes rough and sometimes very nice. I saw on these rough, bumpy, potholed roads Mercedes, BMW and Toyota cars driving 70 and 80 mph. I usually drive 50 and 60, and many of these cars would buzz me less than 2 feet off my handlebars. I found that the Mercedes, BMW, the high end cars were the rudest people on the road. It’s like I’m the privileged few, get out of my way. I drive into Sumy looking for a hotel on the outskirts of the city trying not to create the same problem I had in Kiev/KYJIV. No hotels to be found that I can see. I stop for gas and ask a man at the gas station about a hotel. He can’t believe he’s talking to an American. He’s just so happy that he shakes my hand. He tells me to go to Hotel Ukraine and also told me how to find it. He says it’s next to McDonalds and I said “oh good I can get something to eat.” I stop first at McDonalds for supper and this guy walks up to me speaking broken English and wants to talk about my motorcycle. We didn’t go into that much depth and I asked him where Hotel Ukraine is at. He showed me and then he said it’s not a good hotel. They have problems with guns and mafia. He recommended another hotel 500 meters away which was a much nicer place with secure parking. I’m glad I took the time to find it. I went there after eating and was approached by younger guys wanting to know about my trip and motorcycle. They wanted me to drink vodka with them and I declined. I think they were somewhat offended that I didn’t want to party with them. I had plenty of things to keep me busy all night. I checked in and sure enough I get a room on the 3rd floor and have to lug all my baggage up there. The room was really nice for the price. After putting my motorcycle to bed I went to sleep in a nice soft bed.