Elvis on the Move - Motorcycle Adventure Travel

(August 22, 2009 - Dębica, Poland) The road from the Ukraine to Poland was not as easy as I hoped. I don't believe I've ever been so lost on such a grand scale. It took a lot of asking before I finally found someone who spoke enough English to get me pointed the right direction. I stopped at a little gas station / cafe for a coffee and I was rewarded with a server who spoke great English. Not only did he draw me out a map with landmarks and signs to look for (complete with Ukrainian hieroglyphics), he also fed me perogies and then wouldn't take my money. He said it was payment for the English lessons but that was just his way of dealing with my objections. My wandering the Ukrainian road system probably added an extra 150 kilometers to my trip but now I was back on the right track. Besides the hour and a half wasted riding was way better than the hour spent at the border crossings. I'll never truly understand the reasons for having two crossings per border. But that...

(August 22, 2009 - Ukraine Republic) I woke up this morning in Rivne. It's a small city in the northwest of the Ukraine Republic. I spent the night at the nicest hotel in town. It cost me roughly ten dollars. I figured I could spend my savings on a lavish supper, but I didn't have any luck with that. Not the lavish part, my meal was extravagant. A cheese platter for four people, bread for a small family, sausage and cold cuts to feed a German oom-pah band, red borscht, Chicken Kiev, and four imported Czech beers (this time Pilsner Urquell). That came to a grand total of fifteen dollars. The girls were laughing when I ordered so much food. They were in shock when I finished it. "How come you not so fat?", was the question the one lady asked. It was too hard to explain a camel and a desert so I just laughed and ordered another beer. I felt great this morning. I knew better than to load my luggage onto my bike. I knew I would be spending the next half hour or so push s...