MOROCCO BOUND

A Solo Motorcycle Journey to North Africa

6 Sept 2002

Richmond International Airport, Virginia

Okay, it is time to start the journey. Teresa just dropped me off at the airport. I have a 6:05 pm flight to Philadelphia, then on to Frankfurt, Germany. Not much more to say that I am ready! The K75S is waiting at Armin’s house and I’m packed for a solo trip to the Sahara. Wish me luck.

8 Sept 2002 (two days later)

Armin and Alexandra’s house, Enkenbach, Germany

I am one tired puppy. But what a way to come home! Less that 10 hours after getting off the plane I was sitting in a Fest Tent at the world’s largest wine festival, drinking Gewürztraminer wine and singing along to songs I didn’t understand, with people I didn’t know! Bill and Joanne, Stephanie, Bob and Ina, and I all took the train from Hochspeyer to Bad Durkheim, with their little puppy “Chewy” (as in Chewbacca). That puppy was the hit of the festival! Everyone wanted to pet him! Women loved him and men wanted to buy him because of it! That little puppy was the epitome of a “chick magnet”. And when we weren’t stopping to let women ooh and aah over him, we were drinking half liter glasses of some of the best wine in the world, along with 100,000 other people. Taking the last train home, I finally stumbled into bed around 01:45 am. What a way to get over jet-lag.

I have the rest of the day to recover, and pack the bike. So many last minute things to do. Tomorrow morning I head to Spain.

9 Sept 2002 (Monday)

9:18 pm in the “Premier Hotel”, just off the A7 autoroute in Valence, France

Wow. That was one tough day. Had so many things to do that I didn’t get on the road until after 11 am. 45 minutes into the trip I crossed the French Border and immediately hit rain. Was in and out of rain all day. When it wasn’t raining, the gusting winds about kicked my ass. At around the 500km mark for the day, I was approaching Dijon and hit a horrible, driving rainstorm that almost completely stopped traffic. Many people did choose to bail and simply pulled over to the side of the road because visibility was almost zero. I motored on, but then found the autoroute closed when I got to Lyon. The tremendous storm system had dropped so much rain, so quickly, that the Rhone River had overflowed its banks just south of Lyon and had closed the A7 autoroute. With rush hour traffic backed up all the way through the center of town, it took me 45 minutes to ride 10 km (6 miles), and that was while lane-splitting! If I had waited in my lane it would have taken over 2 hours to cover the same distance. (That’s one of the reasons I love riding in Europe. Not only do cars expect a motorcycle to lane-split in stopped traffic, they actually move over and let you by!) Taking the detour, we wound around the countryside to the east of the Rhone, eventually getting back on the A7 about 20 km south of town. From there the road paralleled the Rhone on its voyage to the Med and for the rest of the day I watched the rising river waters lap the banks as it churned its muddy way south.

I finally stopped for evening in the town of Valence, at the junction of the Rhone and the Isere rivers. Found a very cheap “premier hotel” that was premier only in name. Besides the cheap price, its best claim to fame was the close proximity to the autoroute and the local shopping district. My dinner for the first night on the road was a bottle of Merlot ($1.95), and baguette (53 cents), and a bag of mixed dried fruit ($1.30). Boy I live large! Breakfast is scheduled to start at 06:30 am and I want to be on the road early. I still have around 450 km to get to Andorra, and I’m still 1700km (1050 miles) from Algeciras and the ferry to Morocco. I still have two BIG days ahead of me. Only did 700 km today in the rain and the cold. Geez, I’m getting old. But I did not start until almost noon, so that isn’t too bad. I hope all my things dry out tonight. The bike is safely parked under the stairs to my room, if you want call it that. It more resembles a prison cell than any hotel room I’ve ever been in. A punched in digital code to enter, tubular steel bunks, one tiny window that doesn’t open but 3 inches, and a modular, self-contained bathroom in which the showerhead is in the wall over the toilet and the entire bathroom is the shower, with the drain in the floor under the sink. Interesting.

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