Am now back in Bulgaria... small change of plans.  Just a temporary blip.  I happened to see that Horizons Unlimited, a group of motorcycle travelers to which I belong, was having their first annual Bulgarian meeting this weekend.  So I thought, hey, why not?  A little off my route but the weather was bad coming through Bulgaria before and it kept me out of the mountains at the time.  So since the weather was good, I headed here.  Of course the day I left Turkey, it began to pour down rain and rained all day long on my way here.  Lots of twists and turns in the mountains to get here... but not many views as I was mostly in cloud.

Anyway, made it here.  There are now about 40 people.  Nice folks from all over... headed to all over... good place to get info and pass some on.  But it is still raining... cold, damp and just generally miserable.  Doug Wothke, who has the camp here and is running the meeting, says that this is the worst summer he's seen for rain.  Amen to that brother!

That was quite the adventure to get here.  I headed up the main street of a little town just across the border and the street was just like a river... water about a foot deep and it had ripped up cobblestones here and there... so I was plowing through this (feet up like a kid riding his bike through a puddle) dropping into invisible holes... DON'T STOP!!!  I was soaked. Actually I was surprised that the bike could go through water that deep as the ignition guts are at the front bottom of the engine. But they didn't flood. Lucky.

Three of us went for a little ride to see some of the local sites yesterday. The most interesting was some caves here in which they have found evidence of long-standing Neanderthal occupation... like over 60,000 years, spanning a few ice ages. Interesting. No art on the walls or anything. But then the cave was pretty damp and cold. Not too comfortable.

So off to Greece tomorrow or the next day. Forecast is to stay like this for a few days. I've attached a picture that was a pretty common site across northern Turkey and southern Bulgaria. Sunflowers as far as you could see...

Tuesday, July 14, 2010 - Still in Idilevo, Bulgaria

Still in Idilevo, but will probably leave tomorrow.  The meeting was quite good and met a lot of folks with similar interests of course.  And as it always is, I have the oldest bike in the group.

I met a chap from Germany, Neils, and we decided to travel together for a while.  We headed out Monday, but only got an hour or so down the road when the rain ahead looked so intense, we decided to high-tail it back and wait a day.  I had left my rain liner to my jacket back in camp anyway and so it worked out well.  Besides, Neils and I had an opportunity to sit with the maps, and he was able to contact some friends in Athens, and so we were both looking forward to traveling together.

We started out yesterday morning... much better weather and got to about the same place we had gotten to the day before, when I, who happened to be in the lead, decided to head off towards some Roman ruins we had ridden past the day before.  I turned left and just went a ways down the side road and stopped to wait for Neils.  I was watching in the mirror and just as he came into view out on the main road, he disappeared in a white blur, then I heard the squeal of brakes, a dull thud and broken glass.  As he was turning left, he was hit from behind by a truck doing between 100 and 120k in a 60k zone who hadn't seen him.  I threw my stuff off and ran back to the road expecting him to be dead, but amazingly by that time, he was standing next to his crunched bike.  He had been thrown backwards into the truck windshield, then launched forward ahead of the truck... but wearing all his gear, was only a little sore.

Cops came and all that, and some friends here that hosted the meeting came out and took him to the hospital for a check.  I guess everything is fine.  Unbelievable.

But today he has no bike.  He is now dealing with insurance companies and all that.  I've waited here an extra day to see if he might be able to rent something but it doesn't look like it.  So I guess I will be off on my own again tomorrow. 

Plans are back to crossing northern Greece, then ferry to Italy.  Not sure where to go from there, although Neils has extended an invitation to come visit him in northern Germany.  Will see how the route works out.

Anyway... just wanted to let everyone know where I was and why I have been here so long.  Nice place to stay though.  "Moto Camp" is run by Doug Wothke a self-proclaimed "different kind of red-neck" from Alabama who rode a 1948 Indian around the world a few years ago and his girlfriend Poly from here in Bulgaria.  She is a great hostess and a great cook as well.  She also has been totally invaluable in dealing with the police, insurance companies and whatever else relate to this latest incident.