Europe: Land of Plenty(ies)

Asia behind us and Europe is the route now. I would say that the theme of this part of the trip is “plenty”. Plenty of countries: we are crossing a border nearly every day. We spent the first three weeks going through two countries and cover 10 more in the remaining time on the rally. Plenty of people: the roads are more crowded and the rural areas have many more villages. We drove through Austria on a Thursday but it was a national holiday and the rural roads were mobbed with cyclists doing steep mountain climbs on narrow roads, motorcyclists in groups of 5 to 30 roaring on the same roads and plenty of cars heading towards hiking trails. Plenty of switchbacks: driving through the countryside we went up and down countless switchbacks. Plenty of jaw-dropping views of the Alps. I thought it would remind me of the Rockies but it is very different and the terrain is very different. Much steeper slopes, much more green vegetation, big exposed vertical rock faces. All in all, pretty amazing. Plenty of work on the Celica: the saga of the front wheel bearings continued but turned the corner (pun intended) when they found bearing shops in Austria, purchased 3 sets and then the mechanics used, as the artists would say, ‘found materials’, aka a Fanta can, to shim the bearing race to seat the new bearings. This allowed the Georgia boys to participate in all of the rally activities the next day. Plenty of fun but also plenty of driving. The drive from Salzburg to Egerkingen took about 12 hours. The subsequent two days were much shorter.