Hi Everybody

 

       After 3 1/2 months I finally figured out how to connect this laptop to the internet from abroad. What an ordeal.

       I'm in Nice, France for a layover day. Nice is France's fifth largest city and its biggest tourist resort. It is situated along the Mediterranean Sea and the hotel we're in is only a few blocks away from the waterfront. I've only been in France for a few days and it is fast becoming one of my favorite countries. Italians yell their words, the French sing them.

       So far I have personally ridden my bike about 5,433 miles, lost 20 pounds, and experienced sore muscles in places I didn't know I had muscles. I've seen and witnessed things that have made me want to laugh, scream, cry, go home, travel more, travel less, learn to dance, learn to be a sculptor, learn to paint, and flat out run. I witnessed two lions mating in the wild. What could be more exciting than that? I visited Robben Island and saw the cell where Nelson Mandela spent most of his 27 years imprisoned;  I cried. I have since read two books about Robben Island.  I've learned that poverty and wealth, education, happiness and sadness, good and bad health, hunger, work and rest, and everything else effects people the same everywhere. And, I spent 4 weeks riding on the left hand side of the road in South Africa. I argued with an African that countries that drive on the L/H side are wrong because it forces people to hitch hike left handed. He laughed.

        Ruth and my daughter Kim came to visit me for a week. They came to Rome and left from Florence, Italy. We had a great time in spite of the high cost and the fact that venders and pickpockets alike try and succeed at robbing tourist. I know now why Italy is the sixth richest nation in the world. We paid 14,000 lire ( about $7.00) for an ice cream cone in Rome and almost that much in Florence. We saw the ruins of Rome but my personal favorite was the paintings and the sculptures of Florence. I wouldn't mind coming back to Italy but I think I would stay away from the touristy areas. The first day back on the bicycle after Ruth and Kim left, the group rode to Pisa, going through rural areas of Italy. I stopped for lunch and had a tuna fish sandwich, a piece of cake, a Gatorade, two candy bars and a big bag of potato sticks and it all cost 9,600 lire (about $4.30). They didn't sell ice cream. Did I mention I eat anything and everything I want?

       For those of you watching the Rose Parade expecting to see me, you would have if the motorcycle police had not taken off a few minutes too early. We did lead off the parade and the crowd gave us a roaring send off. Our tour had been in the paper and people yelled to us " we'll see you back here next year". It was great. The world tour has turned out to be too much for some people. I had ridden every mile through day 60, 3,560 miles. Since then I have taken 13 days off. Mostly while Ruth and Kim were here but I also took time off the tour to see East London and Cape Town in Africa and Pompeii in Italy. Some people have just given up and gone home. Five people have been hurt with broken bones, and have been sent home to recuperate, and some people, though they stay on the tour, almost never ride. The riding group will see them occasionally when we fly or on a layover day at a hotel but mostly they go off and do their on tour of the world by car, train, or bus. They must be having a great time. Eight people have ridden all the miles. When I dropped out of that group there were eleven.

      So far we have been in Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Chili, Argentina, South Africa, Swaziland, Greece, Italy, Vatican City, (Ruth, Kim and I saw the Pope, though it was through the windows of a tour bus as it drove by the Basilica of St. Peter), and now France.

      Any of you can e-mail me now though it may be sometime before I have an opportunity to connect and respond. Only when I can plug into a phone line can I connect and that is mostly when we're staying in a hotel.

      I'm sending two pictures, one of the Mediterranean on a cloudy day and the other of the leading tower of Pisa. The tower picture doesn't do it justice, my natural instinct was to straighten the tower up in the camera window before I pushed the shutter button. I can tell you that live it looks like its getting ready to topple over. See the cables holding it?

      I'm coming home for a few days rest in May when the trek comes through the US to ride from DC to Quebec, Canada. Maybe I'll see some friends then.

 

       Ciao

 

       Randal

 

From Ruth... Hooray!! Randal is connected!!!  I can paste his journal entries, but I'm not skilled enough with the pictures yet so don't look for them for a bit.  Randal is skinny and looks great.  We had a wonderful time in Italy even if the Italian methods of price negotiation was a bit "foreign" to us.  We got the hang of the open air markets though and even I learned to price negotiate.  I am now hooked on pesto and the wine was cheaper than water so when in Rome......On our last afternoon Kim and I went with Randal to set up his tent and leave his bike with the Odyssey group which had caught up with us in Florence.  Let me quote the EYEWITNESS travel guide about Piazzle Michelangelo where the group was camping.  "Of all the great Florentine viewpoints- such as the Duomo and Campanile- none offer such a magnificent panorama of the city as the Piazzale Michaelangelo." It was absolutely amazing and Kim took a picture of it surrounding Randal and me to prove it.!  I'll post that too when I can.   There is also a copy of Michelangelo's DAVID there too.  We saw the original in the Galleria dell' Accademia (Academy of Fine Arts) and it was absolutely breath taking! It was the only place in all of Italy that I ignored the "no picture taking rule" along with everyone else.  We stood 4 hours! in line at the Uffizi art museum to see Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Primavera and Michelango's Holy Family.  We toured St Peter's and saw the Sistine Chapel.  It was all an art lesson of a lifetime.  Florence is very walkable and walk we did seeing lots.  But there is just so much that for everything we saw we missed something else!  As for the $7.00 ice cream cone; it fed the 3 of us, was 3 times as big as Ben and Jerry's and included the use of the bathroom for Kim and me and after 2 hours in line it would have been worth the $7.00 without the ice cream cone!  

Ruth, again at home, 4/17/2000