May 8th, 2004
 With
1000 miles of a challenging mixture of rain, construction, mud
and traffic with regularly scheduled heart stoppers the 2004
Globe Riders World Tour has completed the first five legs of our
11,000 mile journey and arrived in Beijing. Bob's
BMW met Chairman
Mao's billboard portrait on Tiananmen Square and toured the Forbidden
City. This huge complex of 9,845 rooms once contained all of the
business of government and the residence of the royal family. It
is now maintained by the Chinese government and is a national monument.
We also took time to see a section of the Great Wall, (visible
from outer space) and one of the Ming Dynasty Tombs open to the
public.
Two rear tires have suffered
punctures, one in Shanghai and the second in Jinan. On Sunday,
May 9th we are off for Huludao City and points north. We expect
to enter Russia on Sunday, May 16th. There is a certain degree
of concern as the Russian border police are very unpredictable
and with our high density of equipment we hope that we will not
be motorcycle strip-searched.
We are a group of eleven including
Helge Pedersen and Mike Paull our fearless leaders. Except for
two "drop" incidents,
both the result of one rider's forgetting how wide his 650cc Touratech
bags are we have done very well in the most dense and aggressive
traffic that I have ever seen. We are on three 650cc BMWs, four R1150
GS Adventures, two R1150cc
GSs, two R100 GSPDs and a KTM 950 Adventure.
Mechanically all goes well.
Regards
from Norm and The Tractor, (my GSPD.)
-Norm
Back to
the Beginning of Norm's Adventure
1st
Journal Entry - Beijing China
2nd Journal
Entry - Shenyang China
3rd Journal
Entry - Towards Russia
4th Journal Entry - In Siberia Russia
5th Journal Entry - Continues through
Russia
6th Journal Entry - Marches on through Russia
7th Journal Entry - The Great Potato Field of
Russia
8th Journal Entry - Russia Final (next Poland)
9th Journal Entry - Motorcycle Accident in
Russia
10th Journal Entry - The Crimea - Ukraine
11th Journal Entry - We have Crossed the
Finish Line
12th Journal Entry - Update on injuries
13th Journal Entry - Poland, Czech Rep.
14th Journal Entry - Returning Home
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