European Ride - 2010: Day 14

August 13th
447K - 277 Miles

Obviously, I've fallen behind in my posting. Sorry, too much to see. A friend pointed out that I suddenly appeared in Cannes after last posting way down the coast in Italy. The date shown was the posting date not the travel date, so I will add the actual date to try to keep it, and world geography, fairly straight.

I can't post much right now but will catch up as soon as I can. I was looking at some of the pictures yesterday on the iPad. I hope you folks are clicking on them to enlarge them. Some of them are, I think, spectacular.

Not much to report here today. Got up, left the hotel about 9:00am, heading north along the Med coast. Took care of the laundry for both my clothes and the riding togs. Those guys were starting to get real intense, but Mother Nature took care of that just outside Livorno; the bottom fell out. I got thoroughly drenched. That was okay, the problem, as previously reported, was my helmet lacked the visor, and my glasses/goggle combination fogged up badly, much as they had on my Spanish trip. Not safe. Not safe by a half. Didn't like it, but managed to limp onto Livorno and find a laundry to, at least, do something while waiting on the storms to blow through. By the time the laundry was done they'd done just that, and I had clear sailing to Savona. Just outside of there it's not only looking like more rain, I'm getting tired and, when that happens, I get off the road.

Found what has to be the worst hotel on my trip, with no internet hookups, and the promised connection "at the bar down the street" hasn't materialized.

Went down the beach and took a few pictures. I finally found the Internet bar, it turned out to be a cafe, and was just closing. Didn't matter, I was past the point of blogging. Found a nice restaurant and had a very good dinner while looking out on the Med. It's hard to get pissed when things are this "bad."

This is the main road, A12/E80 north from Rome up the western coast of Italy. It was not made for motorcyclists.

Notice the concrete "berm" on the right. That's to keep cars (not bikes, obviously) out of the concrete drainage ditch just a little further to the right. That thing was about four foot deep and about two across. I actually saw a small car caught up in one just outside of Rome.

The problem is, as a motorcycle rider, you have few options in case of trouble. You can move to the other lane of traffic and hope no one is over there coming at you, or you can stand it on end when you hit that berm. Of course, if you're going fast enough, don't worry about it...you're going to end up on your head about half way up that incline.

Just south of Genoa it starts to "mountain" up. Very pretty ride. Reminded me very much of the ride north out of Salt Lake City toward Bountiful and Ogden.