Rain geared up

Motorcycle Cross Country Trip: Day 1

I  rode my motorcycle 500 miles in the rain today. A few years ago I
sold my old bike, not because I did not want to ride it, but because
it was damaged by some neighborhood kids and I gave up trying to fix
it. I missed that bike and have wated to replace it since the day I
sold it.  I finally decided to buy a new one (well new to me, 2005
Honda VTX1300c candy red). I have had it a few weeks and it is just as
exhilarating as I remember it being. Now that I got the hang of riding
again, I began my journey of 2,690 miles from Los Angels to
Washington, DC.

I'd like to say this an epic journey of a lifetime but actually this
is the second time I've done this. I remember only feelings from my
last trip along with a few details. Today, several details came
rushing back into my head, like the wind rushing to chill my bones,
finding every seem and gap in my armor as I careened down the highway
at 89 miles per hour. Thankfully my subconscious mind forced me to
make some wise choices on gear. As I was outfitting this trip with
things like floor boards, throttle locks, and snow board pants I was
wondering if it was all really necessary. I spent three hours in the
pouring rain, then a few in the blistering sun, all the time fighting
high winds, all on the first day and all endured with only mild
discomfort. I'm glad at least one of my minds remembered the important
things.

I wear a red skull mask and black worn leathers, honestly I'm a bit
scary and I'm not very approachable. I guess at one of my gas stops I
looked pretty friendly though. Another biker dude came over to ask
about my bike and tell me about his VTX1800 at home. Today he was
riding his Honda goldwing, the yupy gold standard of motorcycle
touring. Dude was all decked out in gadgets and gizmos and tech
clothing. Translation, totally not threatening, but, he was a nice
guy. I warned him about the rain in LA. He told me to look out for
floods Midwest. It was like something out of a fantasy novel. Two
strangers meet on the road and trade news before they move on. So cool
that this tradition is still alive with today's hightec Internet
world.

I went in to pay for my gas and there was a group of French tourists
inside talking to each other. I overheard the clercs complaining
because, they had no idea what the group wanted and one clerc wished
she spoke French. I tuned I to the tourists to pickup on what they
wanted. Just as I got it, the dude clerc makes some stupid comment
like they should just learn English or stay home. Thankfully the
tourists did not fully understand him.

Thankfully also he did not understand me when I called him an A-Hole
in French. I showed them what they were looking for and chatted a few
minutes. My French production is not great but my reception is pretty
good. They were a group of friends touring the USA together. They were
from some town I. Southern France.

The girl clerc was amazed this random dirty biker guy just buste out
with French. She asked where I learned French. The dude clerc replied
"in school DUH". He said it with a bad attitude too. Just to be mean,
I looked at her and said "actually I learned it by going to France and
finding people without attitudes to talk with me". That shut him up. I
left her with a suggestion to buy Rosetta stone.

Before and after that stop I had no other human interaction. Unless
you count the bikers salute. If you have ever ridden on a cruiser for
a long distance, then you know what I mean by bikers salute. I'm not
sure it has a name but that's the name I'm giving it. Interesting
phenomena is that the same thing happens on road bicycles. Maybe
that's why I'm drawn to these two activites. There must be a similar
thread that differentiates cruisers and road bikes from other two
wheel adventures.

I'm in Flagstaff, AZ now. I whimped out and got a hotel. I'll be up
early tomorrow to hit the road again. Perhaps tomorrow I can push past
the 500 mile mark.

 Dana

Last Day In Russia

I am a confidant independant well traveled person. I have been to many
countries and experienced many cultures. I can take care of myself and
get into and out of complicated situations. This does not mean I do
not accept help.

It takes time (sometimes multiple times) for me to learn a lesson.
When I travel I want to prove to people that I know what I'm doing and
can "handle" myself. On this trip I learned a lesson in accepting help
from others. My friends here like Mehkty and Vitya and Julia give so
freely of their time and assitance, I am sometimes reluctant to accept
it. Although they have offered many times (and I should have welcomed
it with open arms) to help me I have not embraced it fully.

On this trip it took a simple act from Valya to know how important it
is to recognize the value of help from friends. I'm sure she does not
know the impact it had on me and maybe when she reads this she will
recognize the profound effect it had on my mentality for the remainder
of my trip, and my life. We often say in discovery, you never know
what repricussions even the smallest action will have, and this is
just such a case.

We were walking through St Petersburg and, of course, it was very
cold. I was bundled up in two jackets, a hat, gloves, and a scarf. She
nonchalantly reached up and adjusted my scarf around my neck and
tucked it in. Immediatly I felt a signifigant improvement in my
warmth. I guess I did not know the propper application of scarves.
This is no surprise since I grew up in Sourhern California.

This friendly gesture made me realize the wealth of information I am
lacking and the value of learning from others. From that moment on I
made a concerted effort to listen to the advice of my friends and heed
their warnings and incorporate them into my actions.

It's funny how the little things people do can embed themselves into
your soul and transform you into a different person. This will be my
last post from Russia for some time. I have grown and learned so much
on this trip, perhaps more than any previous excursion here. I am
thankful for the people that I have become close to. I look forward to
returning here and continuing my relations with them.

Today I say бака (bye) to Russia but I think the French say it better
"A bien tot" until we see each other again.

-Dana

A Relaxing End to My Trip

I have spent the last few days in Moscow, staying at Yasha's flat with
his girlfriend and roomates. This has been a time for quiet
conversations with friends and reflection on my adventures.

Traveling is a time for adventures and new experiences. It is also a
time for introspection and reflection. I joke with people here that I
do good things now to balance out all the bad things I do at other
times. In all honesty I think the bad things I do are limited mostly
to my thoughts of action and not to the realization of those impulses.
I do seek balance in my activites and endevours.

I spent several hours with a good friend yesterday, one who I am not
able to connect with as often as I would like to. We cought up on the
last year over 4 hours of sushi, coffee, and cake. It is times like
this that replenish my energy for moments like hoping in a cab at 3 AM
to head to a club to go dancing after a day full of drinking.

On this trip I have had quality moments with so many wonderful people.
I have heated whine on the frozen Finnish marshes. I have eaten kabobs
outside, in -20 degree weather. I have watched people juggle fire. I
have walked through a torrent of water careening down the middle of a
street. I have taught people to trust each other I little more than
before. I have made friendships that will last a life time. To me this
means I have "lived" and I will continue to do so in the future while
encouraging other to partake in their own lives.

As I write this, a very dear friend of mine is about to embark on an
epic and life changing journey of her own. She will spend the next
three months on her own in South East Aisia, touring the land and
meeting new people. I wish her the best on her journey and look
forward to reading her posts at http://sumsumterp.blogspot.com I hope
you too will enjoy what she writes about. I like to think that in some
small way I was an influential factor in her decision to uproot her
life and make introductions to the world around us.

Tonight is my final night in Moscow. I am meeting friends for a
farewell dinner at Nina's house. I will be sad to leave all these
wonderful people but they like I, must return to the semi-normalcy we
call our lives. I have already begun to schedule myself for work and I
feel the weight of responsibility looming over me like a piano being
hoisted to the second floor. I know I can bear it and I know I will be
successful, but still it is slightly unnerving to stand underneath.

I have a 14 hour stay in Frankfurt on my way home. I have already
arrange for a hotel very close to the airport. I will attempt to find
"something" to occupy my time. The last time I was in Frankfurt I
ended up in a flat of strangers with no money and no battery on my
phone. I had to walk to my hostel over several hours...it was a good
time.

-Dana

To Arive is Divine, To Depart is Descent

As I travel, there are many goodbyes followed by many hellos. I know
each ending is merely the begining of another journey. Departure may
be the worst part of any trip.

I am reminded of my childhood when I would visit my father. My parents
were divorced when I was three and I would spend part of my summer
with my father. I knew as I left my mother standing in the airport
lobby that I would see her again and conversly the same held true of
my father at the completion of my visit. That feeling of lonliness and
abandonment never seemed to wain. I became better at conceiling it and
keeping it inside but always it prevailed, like a deep current flowing
though my sea of emotions.

As I leave the different locations I travel to, that feeling is not
omnipresent. To feel this I must have a connection with someone. As I
connect and truly feel a bond with another person, the old feelings
will resurface inside me. Today is just such an occasion. I had such a
wonderful time with my friends here. I feel that my friendships now
have grown deeper, beyond the superficial acquantance, and have now
become a part of who I am.

In time I will be able to accept my feelings, but always, the void
will be inside me with the absence of their presence.

For now I will focus on my next adventure for three days in Moscow. To
my friends, as you read this please know that you are deeply missed
and will forever be in my thoughts.

As I write this I am fast approaching 30,000 feet in a big chunk of
metal with a couple of flaming spinning monstrosities attached,
pushing me fast than any human should be allowed to travel. Well
faithful readers, I will post again soon, to let you know what
mischief I have gotten myself into next.

-Dana

Ice Skating (каток)

As it happens, yesterday was not a total loss for me. Someone had
mentioned ice skating a few days ago. For some reason this sounded
like a Capitol idea. The plan was, to go two days ago, but I was
enjoying the sitting and talking so much, it never came to fruition.

Yesterday at about 5PM I got it in my head that I must go! Valya and
I were chilling at Anya's place and it took me a while to rouse her
interest. I found out later about her reluctance. We called Polina and
invited her to join us as well. There was an indor каток just one
metro stop down. So off we went into the wild blue yonder.

This was an indoor rink and funny enough it was much warmer on the
ice, in the rink than it was outside walking to it. Polina had her own
skates but Valya and I had to rent. It did not take long, less than 3
minutes, for me to get in trouble :-). I had decided to play a game of
tag with Polina.

I'm not great on skates but I can hold my own on the ice. We raced
around the rink several times. I was enjoying the encouragement from
the woman working in the rink. Finally Valya was able to flag me down
from her stationary position held tightly against the wall. She
explained that the woman was not actually yelling encouragments to me.
I was shocked (but not reallly) to find out she was bellowing for us
to stop playing around, and "don't you understad me!! I said stop".
And "someone make them stop doing that". Hehe, I guess this particular
rink was for serious skaters only who liked to run the rat race on ice.

We stopes our horsing around and accompanied Valya around the rink.
She had mentioned earlier she was not very good on the ice. What I
failed to comprehend until just now, was that she had NEVER been ice
skating before. It was amusing to let go of her and watch her come to
a dead stop in the middle of the lane and be unable to propel herself
forward at all.

Polina and I took turns giving lessons and by the end of the night she
was able to maintain a fairly steady progress forward and remain
upright.

It was a good night followed by a visit to a sushi ресторан
(restaurant). A perfect way to spend my last evening in StPb.

As I type this I am all packed with bags in hand. My flight leaves for
Moscow at 6:30PM and it is currently 1PM. Valya is off at school to
talk to her instructor about a paper she wrote. Polina will meet me at
4 to give me a lift to the airport. I am sitting in a bookstore coffee
shop relaxing with a кофе амерокано (american coffee, which really
means espresso with lots of water added). I look forward to making a
cup-o-Joe at home in the new coffee pot Alex bought.

See ya state side soon.

-Dana

Relaxing Day Out

I made plans with Olya and Polina yesterday to meet at Subway. Really
I wanted a subway club and they had free Wifi. I decided I was going
to camp out there at 7AM and stay until they arrived. So as I'm sure
you may have guessed I got there around 10:30 not 7AM.

I already told you about the yummy coffee goodness I got there and it
is still a fond memory for me. First Polina joined me and later Onlya.
It was marvelous. We just say and talked for hours about all sorts of
things. I may have been awake for the first time here. I think I told
more stories and talked more in a few hours than I have in an entire
month.

We kicked it there for a bit then went walking to find headphones for
me. We were successful in finding them but the shop did not accept
American express and I did not want to waste cash on those. I think
today I will bring another card with me to pay for them. We eneded up
in a Kenyan coffee house near Olya's work.

Sadly it was another bout of crap froo froo coffee. But the company
was awesome. Valya joined us here as well after class. We just got to
sit and talk and enjoy ourselves. It was an absolutly marvelous day.

Poor Polina was so worried about monopolizing my time. I had to
reassure her that meeting friends like her is my reason for being
here. Because I am staying with Valya's friend and I see her most
often, people assume she know where I am all the time. She has become
my "manager" here. When Polina or Olya want to hang out they call her
first and ask if I can come play. It is amusing and actually helpful
too :-)

We ended the evening at my favorite local sushi place. Sasha, a friend
of Valya and Polina joined us for a bit. His English was quiet good
and we had a few laughs. For some reason I was exhausted and had to
forego the evening of drinking and clubing with Olya.

I pretty much wasted my entire day again today just chilling in the
flat. With -20 degrees outside, I am perfectly happy with this. I
strongly believe that I should not need a vacation, after my vacation.
So chilling and kicking it is grand by me.

Lates

-Dana