The Small Wide World I am in Milan for a series of meetings with a small private Italian chemical company that is partnering with us on a small pilot plant to make hydrogen and/or ammonia. I have combined this trip with my return from my motorcycle tour of Turkey, so it feels like a bit of a drawn our return home. Nonetheless, I am rallying to the mission. I met up with my two colleagues…
Whistling Past the Maelstrom We’ve been planning this trip to Turkey for a year. We have a group of motorcycle buddies (couples and stags) that like doing an international bike trip each fall. In the recent past we’ve done Croatia, Greece and Sicily. While sitting on a terrace in Palermo last October, we agreed on a Turkey trip for this year. It started to take shape in February, came together as a committed plan in…
Taking a Day I am something in between a workaholic and a lazy bastard. I truly do not know which of the extremes is more prevalent. I know I have worked for forty-three years mostly non-stop. I had several instances when I could have and perhaps should have reasonably taken a break from work of something like six months. There was always something that drove me to keep working or, most often, jump into my…
Up, Up and Away There comes a time in every trip when it’s not technically over, but you feel that you are just biding time until you flight home leaves. That time has now come for the 2019 Turkey Tour. We are in Cappadocia in a lovely hotel called Argos. It’s funny that Argo is the name of the Ben Affleck film that tells the story of Tony Mendez, the CIA exfill specialist, who draws…
Like Water for Camels Our last day of riding was not really about riding, but more about mimicking a caravan across the Silk Road. The path was arrow-straight for 130 miles from Konya to Cappadocia and we flew like the wind in our set formation. The only stop we made was at the Sultanhanı Caravanserai, conveniently positioned just off out path and about half-way between the two cities. In the heyday of the Silk Road,…
Stepping Up I began this trip by describing our journey to the center of the earth, which I described as the Steppes of Central Asia. Well, today we said goodbye to the Mediterranean Sea and rode over the Taurus Mountains to the Anatolian Plateau or Plain, what we can reasonably describe as the Westernmost Steppes of Asia Minor. Specifically, we have entered the Konya Ovasi Basin, what those in the Western U.S. would call the…
Sleeping is the Enemy It’s 6:30am in Antalya, Turkey, do you know where your mind is? Sleep is such a funny thing. There are times when the need for it is so desperately that I can literally stare at a page I am writing and see that I have drifted off into incoherence over three words, one of which is complete gibberish. And there are other times when I can put on my C-PAP mask…
This Side of Olympus We started this, our tenth day of this Turkey Tour in the most beautiful little spot of waterfront we may ever see. Kekova is the isolated little town of 100 souls (70 in winter) that has no road serving it and is only accessible by boat. The water is crystal-clear and as blue as anywhere in the Caribbean. There are three small pensions, two of which are owned by brothers. There…
Twenty-Eight Klicks of Heaven You know what gets my goat? I am in the middle of our vacation in Turkey and I have managed to get into my riding state of mind. Focus on 150 feet in front for road condition, check the bike mechanical stats regularly (very easy with two thumb clicks on the new BMW 1200GS), make sure I know where Bob is in relation to me, all the regular things. I leave…
Go No-Go Gulet This morning it rained cats and dogs here in Gocek. Our motorcycle tour of Turkey has been blessed with great weather so far, which looks to remain great through the next week. Nothing is more important for a happy ride than the weather. We all have several weather apps that we use to forecast weather. My favorite is Dark Sky, which gives a weather coverage radar map that you can move over…