This morning after we both woke up Roberto took one look at me and said, you snore! I said; right back at you; you kept me up for hours because of your snoring. And so, that’s the luck of the draw. Each day we pair up with a new rider and the worse ones in the order of snoring are Gpskevin (single room) Todd (single room on his own dime) Chris; Canadian Jim which I drew tonight. And since slicing anyone’s throat or choking them is still illegal in Catalan, I did what any safe and sane human would. I paid for my own room, yet again. So, you do the math. I paid $4900 for this ride; plus my motorcycle plus airfare plus, all food and now lodging. I don’t think that I’ll be doing this again.
Finally, this morning we enjoyed a good breakfast. No eggs but, still a good breakfast for 7 euros a piece. You would think that someone other than the paying motorcyclist customers would cover breakfast but, you’d be wrong. Even though the place we stayed at has a kitchen but, no cook or food.
The yet unnamed Catalan place has an amazingly beautiful bar but, nobody is allowed to enter it and it’s locked. Two beers per mini fridge per rooms. Check!
And the local town doesn’t serve food until 8:00 p.m. at night. We had to ride our motorcycles for something like 8 kilometers through twisted olive tree lined roads. To a town called Flix near a nuclear reactor, a castle on a hill. Nearby is a superfund site caused by a local chemical plant. Welcome to Catalan.
The nuclear plant produces approximately 50% of the power consumed by all of Catalana. The town is called Flix and is in Tarragona Spain. Flix was the site of a battle during the Spanish Civil War back in 1938, which caused a dictatorship to take place.
How quickly we forget. This was my yesterday: It’s 0530 am outside and 53 degrees. This one star hotel is nicer than the other one star hotel that we stayed at and rooms go for around 60 euros per night.
This hotel doesn’t have a lobby so I’m outdoors now listening to a single dog barking, off into the far off distance. And now I think I can hear sheep.
The nearby street lights hang off the buildings across the street and provide some illumination. What else can one expect from a single star hotel with no hotel lobby to sit in.
Back home a one star also comes with bedbugs and hookers nearby. Not so here. The rooms are all very clean and somewhat modern with rare exceptions like yesterday.
On my level now is a locked bar lounge with a cement deck overlooking two story brick buildings. The buildings across the street all look abandoned and deserted but, the pharmacist told me that there’s 400 people living in this town. We’ve seen six since yesterday.
Nothing historic or medieval around the hotel but, if you walk a little distance away from here, the entire area turns medieval.
I could’ve stayed in my somewhat warm shared room and listened to a human snoring loudly but, I’ve had enough. Enough of what I don’t yet know.
Sunrise isn’t for yet another 90 minutes. It’s good to vent some of the ugly of this trip. There’s probably something like five people reading this blog and you and I.
On day one upon our arrival we settled right into an industrial area with a hotel plopped onto it. When we first set off to ride we were all bright eyed and bushy tail; until the rain got progressively worse.
We traveled on unfamiliar motorcycles and roads not worthy of descriptions. Even the countryside looked bleak and uncared for.
The only other people enjoying the outdoors were bicyclist. They rode in packs. I traveled with two smaller motorcycles. The other rider groups started to form and I didn’t see anyone else until later that day. We’re now 4 days into this ride and I can tell you that I can now carve most any road with the best of them. Thank you Todd for helping me to up my game. Plus I’ve got technology on my side. The Rallye BMW 850 that I rented is an awesome all around motorcycle model. I would purchase one.
I had a pleasant chat with Carlos. His grandfather opened the first pharmacy in this town. His father passed the practice on to him when he graduated from a prestigious Boston school of pharmacology.
Above are the actual bottles that his father and grandfather used. Pharmacists used to mix their own compounds until the 1950’s. Then the pills were mixed by manufacturers who sold them to the pharmacy and then all they had to do was to push pills.
THE RIDE: The day started off cooler and a little wet in some areas. Todd wanted me to lead today’s ride and so I did. Today is day four and he still has me leading on most of the ride.
Once out of town we turned onto a road that had long ago being forgotten and neglected. The asphalt was cracked in many places. They call these roads back home forest service roads except that here they are paved over. We eventually reached the top of the flat mountain top with large white wind turbine fans all around.
We finally got out of the forest and onto a well maintained road that was clear of sand or any road debris. The road then started snaking around the mountain as we descended. This is where it started getting fun.
There were no cars around and for hours we had miles and miles of twisties at our disposal. The only occasional tractor would sometimes show.
Carving up a road requires a bit of skill but, once you got it, you only get to keep it with practice. This is where today was worthwhile.
Forget the one star room hotels. This and other road’s like it is why we are here. I can safely say that today Coach Todd was very satisfied with my performance and so was I.
The BMW 850 Rallye performed flawlessly.
I could go on and on about the good, the bad and the ugly but, in reality without Kevin and Roberto there wouldn’t be most all of us in Spain! Thank you guys for making this trip happen for us. Now all I ask is that you up your game on our hotels. I believe we paid enough for you to be able to do so. I know that I did and am still doing so.
End
Trawlercat Chronicles 