First Day of Week 7
Another good day on the TOE - first day of week 7, although most of us didn't get the sleep we wanted. Stray dogs seem to be all over and they bark all night and our camp neighbors on one side and the bar on the other kept their music on until 2:15. The night before the music went off by 10 but the dogs were worse. In Herculane there was the festival music but that did not bother us. Henry thinks music should be the single thing we remember most from Romania for this tour.
Started out in our various groups from the water park campsite at Ramnicu Valcea about 8:30. Getting to our highway was easy for a change - quick and no mistakes. The first half of the day was on E81 to Pitesti. The highway was not too busy because it is Sunday. Few big trucks.
Our first half today was also hilly as we worked our way out of the foothills. We had a couple long steep climbs and then some good downhills. A lot through forests and national park again.
Jim got a flat so I hung with him until that was fixed. Then later Walter had a small slitin his tire that Sean fixed temporarily with a piece of plastic from my walletphoto holders - you use what you have.
We struggled a little going through Pitesti missing the first turn we were to take so did a little U there. Quite a lot of traffic. Once out of there however we made good time at 28 - 32K/hr.
The break from the foothills was clearly obvious as we had a flat road with the foothills to our left(north) and flat plains to our right. The scenery in the distance to the south looked industrial although we were passing through several litle rural towns.
Many of the houses we passed had little stands out front with fresh fruits and veggies for sale. I noticed at least the following: plums (more than anything else), apples, grapes, peaches, yellow beans, watermelon, cauliflower, pears, potatoes, tomatoes, yellow and red sweet peppers, onions, eggplant and mushrooms. Some also had bottles of homemade wine for sale - probably plum.
I took off before the others and came to our "campsite" - Motel/Disco Club H (Derre, there's a place for you in Romania) - where we were to camp in back and rent a couple rooms for showers and toilets.
Things did not quite work out that way however. At noon Shanny gave us the motel location and he also said that we could not set up camp until 3 when the senior manager came to work. Chuck met me when I arrived and offered me two alternatives - camp in back in a tall grass area or share the room he rented at 9 euros for my share. Are you surprised I chose number two? The rooms are good with separate bath with sit down toilet (that only leaks a little bit) and shower that gets hot after a couple minutes and beds with good mattresses. Great.
Tomorrow we ride to Bucharest and rendezvous outside the city to meet a police escort and ride together to the campsite. That may be interesting.
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Posted September 11, 2005 by Tour Participant
Romania |
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