And so it starts, Leg 23 LOADING !!!!!!

The guys with the most technical skills always flies a few days before the rest of us. They hate paying a Machanic to do work on their bikes if they know they could do it themselves. I am lucky, I dont have those skills, so I pay people to work on DadAss, but Pie and Peens were the 1st to arrive in South America and are busy working on their bikes as I am sitting in the Airport Lounge writing this. Their travels has not been without problems as Peens’s one flight from São Paulo to Buenos Aires was delayed with 2 hours, so he landed as his connecting flight was taking off. He could wait over night and stay at a hotel they provide and fly the following day but he rather paid for a new flight, he had lots of work to do to his bike. Pie thought he was cleaver and bought his back tyre in South Africa and also 5 lt of oil, which, of course, was checked in by SAA but then not put onto the flight once they discovered what he was smuggling, so now he is in Argentina without socks, underpants and a tyre and oil. I dont know where we will now get a new tyre for him, we hope he can get one in Chile as there is one big town left, and maybe it has a bike shop, and maybe there is a tyre that fits.

Peens met a fellow Adventure Bike Rider and immediately chatted to him about the weather down South and the road conditions, (well that is what he tells me, but I GUESS HE WAS ASKING WHERE THE GOOD GRAVEL ROAD ARE !!!!!) But when you look at this guy’e bike, with everything loaded including the kitchen sink, I think this guy stuck to the tar roads.

Please note how peens had cut his hair, lovely !!!! I him and Pie also shared the cost of buying a Tweezers and then helped each other with grooming each others facial hair, like to chimpanzees. So no Uni-brows and Nose Hair from these two on this Leg.

Peens loves saving money and below he is making breakfast for him and Pie, and you know it is breakfast as there is some Orange Juice, (if there was a beer it would be lunch.)

While Peens took over the female role and prepared breakfast, Pie was hammering away on Peens’s front Rim hitting the bent rim back into shape. If you dont know about the bent rim you obviously did not follow my posts of Leg 22, go back and see.

OK, then that was followed by lunch:

Rocky and Millsy are currently already flying, they are in a SAA plane, 2 hours ahead of me. Dog is in a Taxi, still in the USA getting too his 2nd flight, (he has 4 flights to get to El Calafate.) Tex arrived and I hear he is walking around trying to get a better hotel, you might remember from the last Blog Posts on Leg 22 that hotel Upsala was rather a bit of and oeps and not the greatest, cheap and nasty, but not great. I am the last to fly. Tonight Millsy rocky and I sleep over in São Paulo and then have another 2 flights tomorrow. So we are hoping that “those that went before us” will pay for our bikes storage, pay for the work the Machanic did to our bikes, and then move our bikes to a new hotel, a step up from Hotel Upsala, so that when we arrive late afternoon we just have to re-pack our panniers and then be ready for “Stands Up” at 7h00 on Tuesday.

And as Murphy has jumped back onto my back and trying his best to make sure things go wrong for me, I had a few “Oepsies” of my own. I did not want to miss my connection flights, so I decided not to check any luggage but just take everything as Hand Luggage. So I had to take out my deodorant, shampoo and thought I would be OK, but, Murphy made sure I got at the security counter of the person that was probably on a Final Written Warning as this lady wanted to search my bags, she saw my Cork Screw, which as we all know is a deadly weapon, so that was removed, then she found my cable ties which I now know is also a No-No (you can tie the pilots hands with it and then the plane crashes.) Then my Duck Tape was removed (yes, could tie up a pilot.) And then when she discovered the Mother Load, my two plastic Hand Guards, she called the supervisor who asked me what they were. I told him “Sports Equipment” then I was asked how do you play sport with these plastic scoop looking things. I told them you throw a ball using the orange paddle, then your opponent catches the ball with their orange paddle. Then they were worried as there were some Nuts and Bolts inside the bags. I explained that was for when you did not have an opponent and you Bolt the paddle to a wall or a pole and then can still play on your own throwing the ball towards the paddle. this was good enough and said Paddles are still with me, till tomorrow I hear Murphy say.

We chat again.

Fleisch