Andy:
Did not make it to WVa this year, but did have a great weekend in Kentucky.
Ushuaia? In 1976, my new wife and I set off from Pittsburgh to Alaska in
our truck, then headed south along the Pacific coast. We sold the truck in
Sequim, WA for $500 and started hitching, but after a frightening ride over
the mountains in California with two very intoxicated construction workers
in an old Cadillac (who thought they were driving to Vegas but were actually
heading west!), we started taking Greyhounds south-- one day's journey at a
time....day after day, with rests whenever we felt like it. We took
whatever was available when there wasn't some sort of bus... we begged rides
from truckers, or took boats, barges, dug-out canoes, 2 short hops by jet
and 1 in a rented single-engine plane, and 1 rented horse, and we made it to
Ushuaia 7 1/2 months later. Biggest expenditure was food and lodging: we
averaged $7.50 per day for the two of us!
The return trip went up the Atlantic, but at the end of Carnival in Rio, my
wife said, "This is one shitty idea for a honeymoon, I'm flyin' home and you
can get lost!" It took me another 3 months to get back to Pittsburgh, the
day before what was supposed to be our 1st anniversary. Sort of had to
start the courtship all over again. 29 years later, things are better than
ever, but she lets me do the adventures without her now. Fortunately, our
oldest son turned out to be a natural vagabond with an insatiable
wanderlust.
JohnD
-----Original Message-----
From Andy Weaks [mailto:awboat at labyrinth.net]
Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2005 7:11 PM
To: Deikis, John
Subject: Re: Signing off for awhile
Deikis, John wrote:
>I'll be gone for awhile.
>
>
>
>The 650 single-lunger Kawa dualsport enduro has been disassembled,
>strengthened, greased, oiled, adjusted and otherwise tweaked. Tomorrow, I
>leave for Montreal to meet #1 son on a similar animal. From there, it's to
>the end of the pavement in Quebec and then north on the gravel up to
>Labrador and east to the Labrador Sea. Then 12 hours by boat to "the
other"
>road in Labrador and south to the ferry to New Foundland. Another boat to
>North Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. A traverse of the
>Maritimes and then the final 3 day torture: 1700 miles of interstate back
>home to Michigan. The big circle looks to be about 6,000 miles with side
>trips and a lot of gravel and logging trucks. The wife gave me 17 days.
>
>
>
>I've done a lot of blue highways on 2 wheels, but this one looks like a lot
>of gray and white dashed roads.
>
>
>
>Hell, I'm only 25 once!
>
>
>
>JohnD
>
>
>
>
You are taking one of my dream trips, let me know how it goes. Not my
wifes though. I also want to drive to the furthest point north in Canada
someday. I was Ushuaia in Argentina in February and it gave the mileage
to Alaska. I want to do that trip some day too. HAVE FUN and watch those
big ass logging trucks.
What? No West Virginia this year. I was looking forward to being your
guide for a day.
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