The Ride

When I think about the one ride that got me hooked on riding in other places it was north Africa. Yes I said north Africa. 63 Harley-Davidson's riding through the desert.
We had met a German couple in New Zealand and had become good friends. They were Harley riders and traveled with their local chapter. A few years after we met they mentioned that they were going to take a ride with their HOG group and asked if we were interested in joining the group. The ride was set for May 2001 so the 9/11 attack on America had not happened yet. But it was still in a part of the world that was questionable. We decided that it was just too cool to pass up so we signed up to go.

The trip was completely planned out by the leader of the German HOG group. They had done the trip 6 times already and had it down. We stayed in nice places except for one and it was the "best" place in town. Rats in the sink in one room, a turd in the shower in our room and roaches dropped from the ceiling just as we were walking into the dining area. Yea it was that bad. The good news was we saw some of the best preserved Roman ruins that I have ever seen. They have a Colosseum exactly like the one in Rome except it is much better preserved. We were able to walk down under the exhibition floor where the participants and animals were once kept. Parts of the old elevator system were on display showing how they brought the contestants up into the arena.
In one area that we visited they were still allowing people to walk around on the 2000 year old mosaic floors. We were very uncomfortable in this area knowing that someday they would realize the error of the their ways.
Sitting in one of our better hotels we could see a Bedouin camp across the valley. Tents, goats, sheep, horses and of course a Mercedes sedan.
We took camel rides, got caught in a real sand storm and were treated to an evening dinner complete with horse and rider show. Then we spent the last few days cruising back along the Mediterranean sea. Great resort hotels and nice people. At the time it was the low cost Mediterranean holiday spot.
The only bad part was the return ride from Italy to Germany. In late May you never know what the weather will be like in the Alps. We hit two days of rain and 40 degree weather. Quite a change from north Africa.

More to follow...