7/13/05 Well folks tonight’s radio broadcast is coming from car campers heaven in the largest strip mall and one of the smallest countries in the world, Andorra. Andorra is a tax free country located between France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains. Since it is tax free there are stores every packed in every corner that isn’t a sheer mountain face. Among the vast number of stores is more motorcycle stores than I have ever seen which is why I brought the battleship here for repairs. So as the story must continue buckle your seatbelts and here we go. Let me take one second to sip some wine and watch several car campers erect 800 sq. ft tents, some of these tents are bigger than apartments I have lived in. There is even a couple here on a Honda Goldwing that I could pull my motorcycle into their tent and do laps around the inside. Not exactly roughing it but at least they have warm showers here. So this morning I said my goodbyes to Geoff and Ian who were going to continue on the trail for one more day before making their way back to London. As I was getting ready to go I realized I had lost my sunglasses that were graciously donated by Gone Fishing Enterprises. They were called windjammers and basically had a ring of hard foam around the eyes to prevent wind from coming in. They were the best glasses I have ever used for motorcycle riding, they allowed me to keep my visor up and not worry about wind in my eyes, any other glasses always cause my eyes to water after an hour or so of riding. Well that was my advertising plug so hopefully they will send me another pair. Please Dad. Well even with another item to add to the list of mishaps in the last couple days I refused to let it bother me since there is nothing I can do about it, it is only a material item. So off I set towards Andorra in search of new camping gear and replacement parts for the Battleship. Today was absolutely gorgeous, the temperature was a little cooler at about 90F and clear skies. I came across more great roads today and most of the time I was the only one on them. Pause in the story as I watch a couple hardcore car campers erect their huge tent, the guy has been driving the same 3 stakes for 15 minutes and I think he is close. If anyone out there has an answer why people need such big tents for two people please email me, isn’t the point of tenting to spend time outdoors not inside a huge tent. Well what do I know. Josh please get back to the story, sorry. One of the things I really enjoy about Spain is that it is still a second world country, you have the civility of first world but still the rawness of a third world, you could say the best of both worlds. For example today I was riding along a beautiful windy road with a 1000ft sheer cliff on one side when I come across a sign that has a picture of a cow. As I round the corner I start to notice cow shit in the road, hhhmmm maybe I should slow down. So after a couple more corners I come across a field or more just open range and a 1000 foot cliff on the other side and these cows just meander into the road every now and again for what I could gather to either look at the view or to mess with drivers. Now you might not think this so weird but if you think about it in the U.S. if cow got hit and their wasn’t any fences put up the poor farmer would be sued by the first person who swerved to miss the stupid animal who wanted nothing more to take a shit on asphalt instead of grass. So there is a sense of responsibility here that you arent protected by Uncle Sam like you are in the states. Oh I think they finally got the tent done and are now starting to transfer the 8 crates of stuff out of the minivan into the tent. I really hope they are staying for a week. Sorry if any of you readers are a car camper, uhhmm Josh I think only two people read your random bable anyways, true. So I made it to Andorra about 1:15 close to siesta time so I figured I better grab some food before heading off to the BMW dealership. I stopped at this little restaurant on the side of the road and was greeted by a jolly overweight lady who gladly seated me outside. A jolly overweight cook is always a good sign. I asked for a soda and a menu she just nodded and brought me a soda. So as I enjoyed the sunny day about 10 minutes passed and I though hmmm a menu would be nice and about that time she brought out a plate of sliced meats, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, and bread. OK I though she sure is happy so I wont burst her bubble that this isn’t what I really wanted but it would do. After eating everything except half the tomatoes, I really don’t like tomatoes but I didn’t want to be to rude, I waited about another 10 minutes and thought OK what now since she went off to the back. Well after another 5 minutes she finally came out with a plate of 4 homemade cannoli’s that were absolutely incredible then after that she brought a plate of fresh fruit. I was quite happy she even sat down with me for about 10 minutes after I ate and conversed with me, well she talked allot and I understood about 40% of the conversation but I nodded allot. After a long lunch, I am trying so hard to get out of the american mentality of eating (oh he is driving some more steaks into the ground apparently the first 15 weren’t enough, sorry for the interruption) But it is quite hard to relax and turn an average meal into a two or three hour event. So after lunch I had about 30 minutes to kill before the BMW dealer opened up so I decided to drive around and see Andorra Le Valle, well 30 minutes was enough to see the whole city, pretty small. Once I made into the dealership I was greeted with the rudest service manager ever. Who wanted nothing to do with me. I finally got him to look at the bike then we got a translator , well a secretary who spoke some English with my some Spanish we managed to get that the part wouldn’t be hear till next week. Hhhmm I thought they didn’t even look in the computer or make a phone call. So after a while longer I manage to get out of them the wharehouse is in Madrid. Ok I could drive to Madrid in 6 hours so why couldn’t the part be here in a day and a half. Somehow the conversation turned to I was on my way to Grenoble France in a few days at which point they asked me to sit down and wait for 10 minutes, well after 25 minutes they produced a list of dealers in Grenoble who would help me. Now keep in mind I have been extremely patient and polite up till now, I was almost loosing my patients when out of nowhere Jaume who I think was the Parts Manager who also spoke perfect English and had studied at Berkely for a while came to my rescue. He asked what the problem was and I quickly told him the situation about my bike being broken, I needed a part number a price and date of arrival, well nicely enough I had the part ordered and a gaurentee that it would be here in 36 hours. Now why was that so hard. Now in situations like this one has to reflect with an open mind and think was their something I did initially that made this so difficult. I don’t think there was, for example when I was discussing the problem initially with the service manager a car pulled up and mid conversation the guy walks away from me and fills up the tires on the car and wanders off after ward. I have to think this guy just really didn’t care about my situation, it may have been different if I spoke fluent Spanish but who knows. Oh this just gets better now the wife of the tent constructor is walking around their massive tent with a video camera talking about their wild adventure, that will be a fun one to watch. I mean really who watches videos like that anyways. So with my part on order I happily set off to find new camping gear and maybe even some new boots since mine were at the end of their life, my big toe is almost hanging out. After stopping at several motorcycle shops I decided it would probably be best to buy some Moto-X boots versus street riding boots, Moto boots are much more durable and would be better suited for Africa I think. So finding a shop with a really helpful and quite cute sales girl I decided to buy some Alpinstar Tech-4, now I want to say this store had the best price and I did not just buy them there cause of the cute sales girl,, well I think they had the best price, oddly enough she did mention her boyfriend 3 times in the sales conversation. I guess I just look like a creep. After the motorcycle shop I headed off to the gear shop for a new tentpoles/sleeping beg. Quickly deciding on a sleeping bag, opting for a much smaller one since I am really out of the cold weather climates, I found new tent poles and I opted for a roll up mat instead of a thermarest since I was quite tired of inflating it every night and usually again in the middle of the night since they never hold air, why is it we can put a man on the moon but we cant build a thermarest to hold air for 24 hours. So with my new gear I set off to my campground for a night of relaxation. So here is my challenge to all you campers, next time you go, bring half of what you normally would, cut it down to the basics, I guarantee you will have the same amount of fun and half the work of packing and unpacking. Well that is my two cents. And as I say this there are people who look at what I have brought and think I have brought too much. But damn it this is my website so my opinion is what matters, right???? Today’s Specs Weather: 100 F, Hot and Sunny Distance: 110 miles, Camperdon to Andorra       7/14/05 Today was pretty much spent in limbo waiting for the parts to arrive at the BMW dealership tomorrow. I wandered around Andorra looking in the shops and just generally bumming around. With the heat her I fully understand the mentality of having the siesta. Even here where the economy is based on shopping the town pretty much shuts down from 1:00 till 3:00. Once back at the campground I met the couple with the Goldwing. They were quite a nice couple from Northern Ireland. After spending an hour or so chatting with them I decided to call it a night. Today’s Specs Weather: 100 F, Hot and Sunny Distance: 0 Andorra