Last I left you, I was in a hotel that was much better than the other hotel. That’s useful information, right?
There was an old Turkish Castle a mile away that was worth a quick drive by, but there was something else. There was a Sequoia. I have never seen a Sequoia outside of California. I had to see this one.
I followed the GPS to the coordinates provided. Well, close to them. There was a Surly looking big Pine Tree next to a Surly looking house, with a Surly looking guy sitting at a picnic table with his Surly looking dog that was snapping at my boots. I continued on. A bit farther, I looked in the direction of where the GPS said the tree was. Sure enough, there it was. Way out in the roadless field belonging to the Surly guy. Yup, it was a drive by.
I followed a few oddball roads, in one case going 10 miles down a good paved road, which turned into 10 miles of bad paved road, then into gravel, then into BAD gravel. It was looking like another 30 miles of this so I turned around, and took some other generic road and found this beautiful site.
And on a great twisty road.
Met this German couple with their older BMW’s They were into home made modifications and simple technology. And camping. Great people, had a good talk. They looked more like they were on a world tour than I do.
Take a BMW flying brick and turn it into sort of a dirt bike. Love the bags.
I rode down what is called the TransAlpina road in Romania. This is in the Transylvania region. Yes, THAT Transylvania.
The town I stayed in. A bit small and not very busy out of Ski Season.
As usual, lots of cool churches and things in the area.
And Dracula’s Castle. As it was told to me, this is the castle that inspired Bram Stoker to write his novel. Or something like that. There are hikes at 10 am and 3 pm to the top. It is quite a climb. There is a tourist castle a few hours away. I think I will go there.
The Transfăgărășan road is, like the Transalpina, a great spaghetti road. The Dracula castle shown above is on it. The first part of the road when I was on it had these oil streaks. But only on left hand turns that one would have to brake on. I am not sure what the oil was, it did not smell like diesel, and 4 hours later it was still wet. It was slippery, but not as bad as other diesel spills I have seen. It sure did limit my speed. Then I passed a broken down newish car and there were no more oil streaks. I am assuming the car was just out of fuel, having left it on the road for the last bunch of miles.
Once out of the forest, the road is pretty amazing, but the scenery is awesome.
After riding this road, I was sitting at a T Intersection at 3:30 PM. Left was a cool small city a half hour away. Right was a cool small city and the touristy Dracula castle, about an hour and a half away. In the rear view mirror was 2 hours of spaghetti roads and nothing to speak of at the end. I think the decision was clear. I turned around and rode the Transfăgărășan again.