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Thursday, November 1, 2007

8 months and counting...


Yesterday marked the completion of our eighth month on the road. As we drove into the town of Iznik, we drove through fields of small trees that were loosing their leaves to the fall weather and making tiny piles of bright orange leaves underneath them which made them look as if they were each setting small fires to keep themselves warm. It was quite a beautiful scene to mark this milestone with.

It was also Halloween in America so it was rather fitting that we spent part of our afternoon in the small city of Iznik looking for a proper "disguise" for me to wear while we travel through Iran. I have gotten conflicting information about just how covered up I need to be and what is and is not appropriate, so we held off on buying anything until we do a bit more research. However, no matter what we end up getting, I think one thing will be for certain: it will not be flattering! (But I guess that is part of the point.)

So, today began our ninth month of travels and in this month there will be a number of changes. Most significantly for me is that once we leave Istanbul for good, I will no longer be traveling on my own bike. The prospect of riding pillion with Kevin for the rest of the trip is very, very, bittersweet for me because while I really feel that I will be losing a part of my freedom and morphing into just another "back-of-the-bike-wife," I also know that I will probably be safer and we will be saving quite a bit of money on gas. I have ridden my bike now for over 24,000 miles across half of the world and though it may have felt in the beginning as if the 650cc red lion was my adversary, it has been my partner and accomplice, and a true pussy-cat for quite some time now and I will miss the purring as we zoom into the unknown.