Day 38 Dragdona to Buchurest
This day was short. There was to be a 70 km ride down to lunch just out side of Bucharest where we would have lunch and the we were to be given a police escort to our hotel. The total ride was only 85 kms.
Yesterday's serious traffic prompted Curt, Jaco and I to fashion safety flags out of some aluminum conduit that I scrounged out of a junk yard next to out campsite. Last year's ride convinced me that safety flags look totally dorky but drivers give you a precious few extra inches. I guess who cares the extra 10 inches or so is lots when you are talking about being passed by a semi-trailer going 100 kms/hr with less than 18 inches to spare. It also give on coming cars extra visibility when they pull out to pass right in front of you. As an example of how aggressive drivers are, yesterday there was a left hand corner and a car pulled out to past a truck low on the inside. The second car back then dove for the inside of the other two. And this was a blind corner! As they say in NASCAR four wide in the corners don't work so I hit the binders and let them go.
The ride down to lunch passed the local potato harvest. There were hundreds of horse and tractor drown wagons piled high with sacks of potatoes. It was really quite a sight. Soon we at lunch and were fully snacked and awaiting the police escort. When the police arrived it was a single motorcycle policeman but he was great. He put his lights and siren on and we rolled straight though red lights and intersections like we were on parade. I was a real hoot, people stopping to wave and cheer.
Tomorrow is a rest day.
Well thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for your comments
Terry
1 comment:
Sounds like the drivers aren't agressive; they're suicidal!! Easier to run the Surly into the ditch than hold your ground. Other than you, are there other cyclists on the roads??
Looks like the farmer enjoys eating potatoes.
Ken C.
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