Road Trip

This post is long over due. I was having telecommunication issues but now I'm all set, connected to the WiFi and writing to you "Race Fans" from the comfort of my tent annex on the airfield in Leszno.

So back to where we left off. Thursday morning: my grandma and I drove into Balingen - the big town near by- to pick up my hire car. Sorted out all the details with that and I was given the keys. Well, not really keys, more like 'a' key. But not a regular key. Its just a remote that you insert into a slot where an ignition button would be. Push it in a notch further, the accessories turn on and then again and it starts. This is way better then sliced bread! It's a key/remote/ignition button all in one! I'm only a poor student, I've never driven a thing like this in my life! And everything's on the wrong side too! So you're all now dying to know what it is? It's a VW Passat sportswagon thing with 20000km on the clock and all the bells an whistles. It turns itself off at traffic lights when you're stopped, out of gear and clutch up. And automatically starts when you touch the clutch again. It's safe to say that I love it and I want one.

Wednesday night I had already loaded up my grandparents car with all the gear so it was just a matter of transferring all the stuff between cars and I was off. Off North to Wasserkuppe to pick up the glider from the Schleicher factory. That car is amazing to drive on the autobahn. I did make a very big nav error by missing an exit which cost me a good 100km but I got there eventually, hitched on the glider and then Poland bound.

                                                         (Now with two toys! Jealous?)
With the trailer on I am only allowed to drive 100kph in Germany and at that I was doing 5.5L/100km!! But slowly.... An extra driver would have made all the difference but I ended up stopping 350 odd km short and sleeping the night in the car. This was still in Germany on the Autobahn past Dresden but it was getting late and I made the right call.

Early Friday morning I just couldn't sleep anymore so I brought the seat back up (electric of course) and went on my way. I soon crossed the border in to Poland and you can really notice the difference. It just feels not right and a bit creepy. Like driving across the border from SA to Vic. Its just different. Its even more apparent when you drive through the towns. They all have an old decrepit look about them. Everything looks eastern European, stale and old. the power line poles are thin reinforced concrete A-frames that were probably built in war time along with most of the stuff you can see in this picture.

 Take note of the sky also. This is what we've been getting most of the time so far.

When you have breaks in the day it can look like this.

                                                  (The trailer just needed something extra)

But that doesn't last long and soon turns to this...

 I think I am camping on an old filled in swimming pool. There are numbers on the blocks...

Apart from the bad weather I'm rearing to go. They say that Tuesday should be good so hopefully I can rig tomorrow, get everything setup, get comfortable in the glider, maybe a short play in the sky to get a bit of a feel for the ASW28, even if its only a day for the twin seaters.

Without much else to do I've been driving around town a bit and finding everything like the hardware store and the Pizzeria close by. Last night I bought a huge pizza for $8AU!! I've still got some left.... Nope, now its gone.

I haven't managed to find any decent tie down pegs so while looking around the hardware store I found these (Along with some straps, rope, hose and shackles).

I think that they're for pulling up weeds and turning over soil. The hole on the handle is where it clips into an aluminium pole but that's perfect for a shackle! I might straighten them out or leave them as is but the glider's not going anywhere!

Now that I'm back online you should hopefully hear from me more regularly.

Eric