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November
25th, 1999 (Thanksgiving Day)
This is
Jeff Okubo. Today we traveled from Zara, Turkey to Istanbul, Turkey.
Today is
day 50. It's Thanksgiving and we are in Turkey. We can’t leave that joke
alone. Unfortunately, while our friends and relatives back in the U.S.
are enjoying warm, delicious dinners and two football games, We’d be
driving one of the most difficult legs of the trip:
The day
started early, and it was cold out. Very gray - looking like it could
start snowing any minute. We packed and loaded the Rovers with frozen
hands and hopped in to start the cars. Unfortunately, Hercules wouldn’t turn
over. We tried push starting it but no go. We decided that we needed to
pull start the vehicle. We hooked up Hercules to Alaska with a tow strap
and started towing. The first attempt was unsuccessful. The next was also
unsuccessful. And by this time the kids on their way to school were
starting to give us those now all too familiar “who the heck are you and
what the heck are you trying to do” kind of looks. Finally, on the third
attempt, halfway down the main road out of town, Hercules started.
And so the
day’s journey began. It seemed weird without Earle. We were a little
worried about the alternator on Hercules, which actually started giving
us trouble the day before and then this morning with the no-start, and it
was particularly worrisome without Earle - our electrical specialist.
Fortunately,
Herc seemed to be driving ok early on in the day. We decided to stop
after a few hours of driving to get some lunch and take a restroom break.
Wow, we thought the restrooms in China were bad. The one in this small
town was not pretty to say the least. We did find a nice little café that
served excellent Gyros! We were starving and the warm sandwiches were a
treat for sure. Next we loaded up on cookies, other snacks and water at
the local store and we were off again.
[Editor’s note. Cookies? Snacks? Jeff? S-weird]
The
weather, which had held up for us most of the day, was finally started to
get bad. The snow flakes were big and they started coming down hard. Just
as night was falling. And right as we were approaching a mountain pass.
Great! The mountain pass was not the Himalayas, but it was some
treacherous driving nonetheless. I would compare it to Hwy 50 into South
Shore Lake Tahoe during a serious blizzard. Fortunately, we crept along
slowly but surely and made it up and down the winding pass. There were
few to no other cars on the road and in no time we were driving in six
inches of snow.
The next
obstacle was another descent into a town that had been ravaged by the
recent earthquake. Tent cities were set up everywhere and we all quickly
realized how lucky we were to be driving half way around the world
instead of being homeless in Turkey during the freezing cold winter. We
decided to stop and get some coffee and warm up at a nicer version of a
truck stop. Hercules was low on voltage so Doug and I had stopped using
the heaters a ways back. It was a cold ride. A man approached us when we
were leaving and motioned to us to let him wash Hercules. Even though it
was snowing like crazy and the muddy roads would make the vehicle just as
filthy as soon as we started driving again, we agreed. As it turned out,
or so we gathered, this man was a quake victim and he was trying to make
some money for his family. We gave him some money and more importantly,
we gave him the big tarps that we had brought along and had yet to use.
He was very grateful and we were happy to oblige.
Back on the
road. Hercules was getting colder. Very cold indeed. I was bundled up in
all of my warm clothing - thermal underwear, polar fleece jacket and
pants, beanie hat and gloves, and I was still freezing my butt off.
Fortunately, the weather would subside as we got closer to Istanbul, but
possibly one of the longest driving days of the trip will definitely
always be remembered as the coldest!
As we
approached Istanbul, we noticed the freeways got better and better. In
fact, I picked one section of road as the nicest stretch of smooth,
perfectly cambered freeway on the entire trip. Very new and very nice.
Unfortunately, the ease in weather and the improvement in roads were
overshadowed by our next obstacle - Hercules lights went out. That’s
right. We were heading into Istanbul Turkey and the lights on one of the
rigs go out. Nice. There was nothing we could do. We had to push on.
After a brief troubleshooting-to-no-avail on the side of the road, we
decided that we would follow right behind Alaska all the way into the
city, all the way through the city, to our hotel (still yet to be
determined)! The lights being out took away from the beautiful approach
into the city. Istanbul is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever
seen at night. It’s a city built on rolling hills, surrounded by water -
very Seattle-esque. There are tall modern buildings mixed with ancient
mosques. The mosques are all lit up brightly with spotlights. Absolutely
gorgeous. Some how, some way, we made our way to our very plush hotel.
Thank God. We made it - over 16 hours of driving with a bad alternator
through white-out snowstorms, with no heater, and finally no lights. It
was VERY good sleep for the team that night.
That’s
about it for today’s journal entry. This is Jeff Okubo from Team Around
the World 1999 signing off until next time. Thanks for tuning in.
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