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Rob and Dafne at our place
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We bumped into Rob and Dafne in Whitehorse (the Yukon) and they stayed over at our
house for a couple of days.
When my wife and I were on our ride back from Alaska, we stopped in a McDonalds
in Whitehorse. While my wife is eating, I'm outdoors taking my own form of
nourishment (nicotine) and I see a couple on this odd-looking Yammy with car
tires on it and a side-car roll in. The bike had some lettering on it, written in
Dutch.
"This is interesting", I thought. So I walked over and introduced myself. It
was bitter weather at the time (steady rain, almost cold enough to turn
to sleet, as I recall) - conditions that tend to draw fellow-riders together
even more than usual.
As we got acquainted over the next hour, they began to tell me their story of
where they had been and the trials of their trip. They were operating on a
$12/day budget. No exaggeration. They slept in ditches or peoples' yards, ate real
cheap, etc.
I think they had been on the road for over a year already, by the time I spoke
to them. Some of the places they had already been through was Iran, Africa, Russia and
India (if I recall correctly).
And it was no bull, 'cause they had magazine articles with them. There they
were, in the photos of those mags! I still remember the one of a group of black children
pushing their bike out of a mud hole, somewhere in the middle of Africa.
In large part, they funded their trip as they went along, by writing articles
for travel and motorcycling magazines. Dafne - fully fluent in 5 languages -
played a large part in that (it meant they could submit articles in various
languages to countries all over the world).
Partly because they were on a $12/day budget and partly because they were both
such darned nice folks, my wife and I told them to stop by our
house if they came through Edmonton. We'd be willing to put them up for a couple of days.
After that, we continued on our trek back to Edmonton and more or less forgot
about the whole thing. Then, about 2 or 3 weeks later, I get a phone call and it's
Rob. Him and Dafne are on the outskirts of Edmonton! So I rode out and guided
them to our house.
As soon as they entered the door and saw my computer, their
eyes opened wide. Internet Access! The Internet was critical to their means of
earning money, as they used it to
submit articles to magazines. So, right to work they went.
I spent the next couple of days with Rob working on his Yamaha to get it more
road-worthy again (using my garage to work in). Rob, fortunately, is an excellent
motorcycle mechanic. He also used to race in the Netherlands.
One of the biggest tricks was finding tires to match the rims he had put on the
bike. They were from an old MG, of all things! He finally tracked down
the only set of such tires in all of Edmonton. The picture on my Website is of
the two of them in my driveway.
|
Rob and Dafne at our place
|
We bumped into Rob and Dafne in Whitehorse (the Yukon) and they stayed over at our
house for a couple of days.
When my wife and I were on our ride back from Alaska, we stopped in a McDonalds
in Whitehorse. While my wife is eating, I'm outdoors taking my own form of
nourishment (nicotine) and I see a couple on this odd-looking Yammy with car
tires on it and a side-car roll in. The bike had some lettering on it, written in
Dutch.
"This is interesting", I thought. So I walked over and introduced myself. It
was bitter weather at the time (steady rain, almost cold enough to turn
to sleet, as I recall) - conditions that tend to draw fellow-riders together
even more than usual.
As we got acquainted over the next hour, they began to tell me their story of
where they had been and the trials of their trip. They were operating on a
$12/day budget. No exaggeration. They slept in ditches or peoples' yards, ate real
cheap, etc.
I think they had been on the road for over a year already, by the time I spoke
to them. Some of the places they had already been through was Iran, Africa, Russia and
India (if I recall correctly).
And it was no bull, 'cause they had magazine articles with them. There they
were, in the photos of those mags! I still remember the one of a group of black children
pushing their bike out of a mud hole, somewhere in the middle of Africa.
In large part, they funded their trip as they went along, by writing articles
for travel and motorcycling magazines. Dafne - fully fluent in 5 languages -
played a large part in that (it meant they could submit articles in various
languages to countries all over the world).
Partly because they were on a $12/day budget and partly because they were both
such darned nice folks, my wife and I told them to stop by our
house if they came through Edmonton. We'd be willing to put them up for a couple of days.
After that, we continued on our trek back to Edmonton and more or less forgot
about the whole thing. Then, about 2 or 3 weeks later, I get a phone call and it's
Rob. Him and Dafne are on the outskirts of Edmonton! So I rode out and guided
them to our house.
As soon as they entered the door and saw my computer, their
eyes opened wide. Internet Access! The Internet was critical to their means of
earning money, as they used it to
submit articles to magazines. So, right to work they went.
I spent the next couple of days with Rob working on his Yamaha to get it more
road-worthy again (using my garage to work in). Rob, fortunately, is an excellent
motorcycle mechanic. He also used to race in the Netherlands.
One of the biggest tricks was finding tires to match the rims he had put on the
bike. They were from an old MG, of all things! He finally tracked down
the only set of such tires in all of Edmonton. The picture on my Website is of
the two of them in my driveway.
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