Making new friends in Moscow
Day 99 - Recovery from a couple long days of riding. It snowed in the afternoon on June 2. Yes, snow. In the evening, I made my way into the city to stay with Dmitry and Anastasia. I'd connected with these strangers via a fellow adventure motorcyclist. As mentioned in the other post, I was amazed by their hospitality and generosity.
Between the two of them, they have six motorcycles. Yes, six. Two adventure bikes, two street bikes, and two dirt bikes. They have them all (nicely) crammed into one secure parking space, and Green joined the crew for a few evenings.
I was ready for a tire change and Dmitry had ordered my favorite tires online for me from a Russian vendor. Green would be thankful, too. Dmitry and Anastasia had ventured around Russia, Kaz, and the other "Stans" for years. After taking one look at my route and asking some very good questions, it was obvious that I'd not put enough thought into it and would be changing my route substantially through Kazakhstan to trade in some mind-numbing desert and abusive roads for gorgeous scenery further south.
That evening, we ventured around downtown to see the Kremlin and Red Square at night. A few pints of micro-brews were in order. Yes, I was surprised they don't drink vodka, but apparently that's not as appealing to the younger generation.
Day 100 - My employer had published a short story on the Expedition for the internal web portal, and a few weeks ago some colleagues had reached out. We linked up at the BMW dealership, where I would drop off Green to have his shoes replaced. This was totally a premature tire change, again...but I wanted fresh rubber to last through Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
In the meantime, three distant co-workers and I tackled a local motocross track. I've ridden plenty off-road, but never on a full-blown track, so it was good to have an instructor there to help me break bad habits. I was more than happy to step outside my comfort zone--especially since he was trying to help me learn how to drift, intentionally throwing the rear tire out of traction. Needless to say, it was a blast.
We then made our way over to a luxurious sauna in Moscow. Now, this experience, at its core, was the same as in Lithuania. But the lush accroutrements and intricate statues at every corner gave it an entirely different feel. Servers brought us tea and snacks in between visits to the steaming room. Rather than striking oneself with birch branches, a massive, bald man will gladly push you to unknown depths of scalding pain. This is something everyone should experience...just once. I tapped out twice. He didn't apologize. Rather, he just forced me into the ice-cold dunk tank and later complemented my biceps. Thanks, dude...it doesn't alleviate the pain.
The day was capped off with a great dinner...with more colleagues. I feel really blessed to have such acquaintances in Moscow. We capped off the evening with a ride through Moscow on our bikes...a BMW, Ducati, and Harley...a wolf-pack roaming the streets of an amazing city.
