10,000 Miles and 1100 km to Moscow...

Today we crossed the10,000 mile (16,000 km) mark for travel on the bikes.  Total distance traveled which includes planes and ferries is now up to 25,000 km (15,500 miles) - which I think puts us past the half way around mark.  We also have been for traveling exactly 8 weeks.  This may seem like a long time to those reading this - to me I'm not sure how it feels.  On one hand it seems like only yesterday that we were in Seoul clearing the bikes through customs - but on the other hand I think of all we have seen, all the people we have met and all the terrain we have ridden and it changes the perspective.  I can't put it into words as it is like a time warp - I'm just not used to spending so much time just traveling with little expectation of what comes next.  I do like the randomness of just going with the flow.  We only have a few set dates left where we actually need to be somewhere on a set day. 

Moscow is coming up in a few days.  We are only 1100 km out.  We hope to get Ken's rear shock sorted out while there.  The replacement has now been held up in customs for over a week.  If it doesn't clear before or while we are there plans B (repair existing at Yacugar dealer in Moscow), C (buy a used shock off eBay Russia and D (have a new one custom made by a contact we have through a friend of Mikial's).  Ken is super pissed off (not to mention it is downright dangerous with his rear wheel skipping all over the place over uneven road) riding his pogo stick so I hope one of these options comes through.  Mark wanted to take the scenic route so we split up yesterday and will rejoin in Moscow over the weekend. 

Next week we hope to be into the 4th phase of the journey - Europe.  We will enter through Estonia and work our way down to Munich where we will attend the Oktoberfest keg tapping on September 20th.  We are also meeting Ken's wife Marybeth in Milan on the 25th.  Other than that we will see where the road takes us. There are probably no wrong turns - it all should be good.

I have no good pictures from yesterday because we busted out 750 km and pretty much didn't stop.

Here is a pic of my semi-clean bike - 20 years old, 102,000 miles and still running strong.