April 19, 2004
Salta, Argentina

a chat w/ dad tells the story of yesterday... totally blew two tires w/in 50km in the middle of nowhere.

dano (7:15:59 PM): BUZZ!
al_diningrm (7:31:06 PM): hi!
dano (7:31:12 PM): hey there.  what up?
dano (7:31:47 PM): how are ya
dano (7:31:59 PM): in salta now
dano (7:32:08 PM): after a harrowning bunch of tire problems
al_diningrm (7:32:09 PM): many thanks for the call yesterday- was starting to worry a bit. so how was chile? i'm ok. spent part of yesterday mounting computers in one of the racks.
dano (7:32:23 PM): chile was ok
al_diningrm (7:32:31 PM): yeah thos tire probls been plaguing you after the last batchyou bought.
dano (7:32:31 PM): can't say i saw very much of it
dano (7:32:44 PM): really just a single town
dano (7:32:49 PM): was in and out in 2 days
al_diningrm (7:32:51 PM): one chile dog is pretty much like another.
dano (7:32:58 PM): but argentina is MUCH better
dano (7:33:00 PM): love it here
dano (7:33:14 PM): can't believe 3 days ago
dano (7:33:18 PM): i was in bolivia
dano (7:34:04 PM): salta is kind of like a cross between peoria and prague
dano (7:34:23 PM): this part of argentina has a midwest feel... like seriously
dano (7:34:34 PM): driving around, you might think you're in the midwest...
dano (7:34:38 PM): paved roads.
dano (7:34:50 PM): lush vegetation w/ agriculture
dano (7:34:53 PM): etc
dano (7:35:00 PM): lots of ford pickups
dano (7:35:06 PM): but then you hit salta
dano (7:35:10 PM): and the main square
dano (7:35:12 PM): and its all
dano (7:35:17 PM): outdoor cafes etc.
dano (7:35:24 PM): like some european city
dano (7:35:27 PM): very odd
dano (7:35:54 PM): a huge step up from where i've been
dano (7:36:10 PM): argentines are incredibly nice people
dano (7:36:26 PM): yesterday i hit the border, and after 10 km, blew out a new kumo
dano (7:36:30 PM): tire (from lima) -- no way i could patch it with the kit i had... hole too big.
dano (7:36:47 PM): so i put on a bit of a sketchy spare i had from uyuni
al_diningrm (7:36:49 PM): wonder if those kumo's are knock-offs.
dano (7:37:00 PM): (where i had blown out another kumo tire)
dano (7:37:12 PM): anyway, after 50km more, the spare blew
dano (7:37:23 PM): i had two riders w/ me, from germany.  super nice people
dano (7:37:44 PM): they elected to stay w/ my car, after i nearly insisted that they did not
dano (7:38:02 PM): after all, how should i expect some near strangers
dano (7:38:23 PM): to stay w/ my car in the middle of fucking nowhere when i have no idea how long it will take me to find a servicable spare
dano (7:38:30 PM): but they diid.  and i found this argetine man in an old '50s mercedes truck
dano (7:38:59 PM): picking up brush for firewood
dano (7:39:04 PM): out in the middle of nowhere.  got lucky... turned out next car didn't come along for 2 more hours.
dano (7:39:12 PM): so this guy named marcelo
dano (7:39:30 PM): drove me to his borax mining camp to see if any of his 15" chevy tires would work..
dano (7:39:42 PM): they were 5-bolt pattern but 5" center instead of 6"
dano (7:39:52 PM): so he drove me 30km to the next little pueblo
dano (7:40:08 PM): where i found a guy to fix this kumo blowout
dano (7:40:28 PM): with a hefty patch from the inside... but the tear was so big the tire was still bulging out the tread after we aired it
dano (7:40:35 PM): big tumor
dano (7:40:48 PM): we all looked at it and said "no way"
dano (7:41:00 PM): like it might work for 1 km if i was lucky
dano (7:41:04 PM): but we had no choice
dano (7:41:13 PM): not a single fucking 15" tire in the whole placve ... next alternative was 300km more away.
dano (7:41:21 PM): plus it was 10pm,
dano (7:41:39 PM): and i had 2 germans watching my car in the bloody windy cold desert
dano (7:41:43 PM): 30km away
dano (7:41:49 PM): so off i go with the tire
dano (7:41:53 PM): and marcelo
dano (7:42:20 PM): chatting in a new argentine dialect i can barely understand in a '68 chevy diesel pickup
dano (7:42:25 PM): crazy
dano (7:42:44 PM): anyway we get back--peter the german has a raging brushfire going to keep warm.  we put on the spare, and off we go, driving 10kph
dano (7:42:53 PM): and make into the town after 3 hours
dano (7:42:56 PM): marcelo follows me till the road turns asphalt.
dano (7:43:04 PM): i insist he take some money
dano (7:43:11 PM): but he flat out refuses
dano (7:43:23 PM): plus he gives me one of his 15" spare tires
dano (7:43:30 PM): to swap out at the next tire shop (though the tire is pretty small)
dano (7:43:47 PM): they say argentinians are among the nicest people in the world
dano (7:43:54 PM): i think i agree. amazing man.
al_diningrm (7:43:57 PM): that's a helluva story.
dano (7:44:17 PM): anyway.. this bulging tire made it 300km last night and today.
dano (7:44:23 PM): gotta take a picture of it.
al_diningrm (7:44:26 PM): ha!
dano (7:44:34 PM): i am astounded
dano (7:44:58 PM): dining tonight on 2" thick argentine steaks and nice full-bodied cabernets
dano (7:45:02 PM): ah...
dano (7:45:10 PM): can't be a vegetarian in argentinia
dano (7:45:16 PM): you wouldn't make it.
dano (7:45:28 PM): they would find your withered carcass somewhere next
al_diningrm (7:45:32 PM): all horses and ranches, yes?
dano (7:45:35 PM): to a corral
dano (7:45:42 PM): yep
dano (7:46:14 PM): those kumos stink by the way
dano (7:46:23 PM): korean knock offs -- i thought those koreans probably made pretty good tires.  but not these.
al_diningrm (7:46:27 PM): yeah, are those korean or japanese?
dano (7:46:32 PM): i long for an american tire (made in mexico, lol)
dano (7:46:38 PM): with a nice 3-ply wall
al_diningrm (7:46:48 PM): yeah i thought kumo might be korean, but maybe they're not real ones.
dano (7:47:00 PM): we'll see what i can get here in salta... tons of tire shops here
al_diningrm (7:47:13 PM): well that's a good thing!
dano (7:47:35 PM): yes, salta is a great little town
al_diningrm (7:47:38 PM): just looking at salta on multimap.com
dano (7:47:58 PM): hmm multimap
al_diningrm (7:48:14 PM): has aerial photos too, and a button for bigger maps.
dano (7:48:22 PM): been looking for a site that i can hard-link to
dano (7:48:29 PM): expedia maps doesn't work
al_diningrm (7:48:47 PM): hard links do work, found it that way by googling on salta.
dano (7:49:07 PM): Searching for salta, argentina did not find any matching names or places You might want to try again with the first few letters of a placename followed by a '*' wildcard.
al_diningrm (7:49:33 PM): http://www.multimap.com/index/AR.htm
al_diningrm (7:49:46 PM): salta is linked down the page.
dano (7:50:17 PM): huh... wierd you can find it in google, but not through the main page
dano (7:50:18 PM): lol
dano (7:50:25 PM): common story
al_diningrm (7:52:51 PM): so what's the scenic route from salta, assuming you can find a road soft enough to ride on your rims?
dano (7:52:58 PM): lol
dano (7:53:09 PM): actually one of the top 5 best roads i have
dano (7:53:18 PM): ridden so far
dano (7:53:21 PM): i did today
dano (7:53:45 PM): from calderita to salta via valqueros
dano (7:53:53 PM): insanely beautiful road.
dano (7:53:59 PM): through cloud forest
dano (7:54:06 PM): one lane paved road
dano (7:54:25 PM): have to watch close for oncoming traffic around corners
dano (7:54:32 PM): et
al_diningrm (7:54:32 PM): yow
dano (7:54:51 PM): i can't describe how beautiful this road is
dano (7:55:06 PM): lush, dripping old trees
dano (7:55:10 PM): gnarly
dano (7:55:19 PM): like old live oaks in your front yard
dano (7:55:27 PM): but covered w/ bromeiads
dano (7:55:32 PM): and cloudy misty
dano (7:55:37 PM): backdrop
al_diningrm (7:55:40 PM): wow, that's outa sight!
dano (7:55:42 PM): as far as eye can see
dano (7:55:55 PM): perfect road w/ hardly another car in sight
al_diningrm (7:55:55 PM): bromeliads are so cool
dano (7:56:24 PM): really amazing
dano (7:56:44 PM): anyway...
dano (7:56:46 PM): good time
dano (7:56:55 PM): so... i'm in argentina
dano (7:56:56 PM): !!
dano (7:57:00 PM): last country!
al_diningrm (7:57:03 PM): sounds exotic, beatiful... a little like hawaii
dano (7:57:04 PM): no more borders
al_diningrm (7:57:13 PM): yeah, argentina is hugo.
dano (7:57:16 PM): feels good to be close to home
dano (7:57:29 PM): very much looking forward to coming back
al_diningrm (7:57:44 PM): this is a good enough spell of traveling, then?
dano (7:57:55 PM): yeah, for a while.
dano (7:58:08 PM): i am looking forward to a long time home
al_diningrm (7:58:58 PM): well, i'm looking forward to see you. of course arg. is 1/2 of s. america.... where next?
dano (7:59:31 PM): well... south to mendoza and then probably east to buenos aires
dano (7:59:41 PM): maybe w/ a few stops in between
dano (7:59:47 PM): home strech
dano (7:59:49 PM): t
al_diningrm (8:00:01 PM): well that's pretty direct.
dano (8:00:20 PM): yeah
al_diningrm (8:00:49 PM): you've had quite an odyssey with that scout suspension.... time to design your own.
dano (8:00:57 PM): i think i've got it down
dano (8:01:06 PM): i blew it out again on the road from bolivia
al_diningrm (8:01:30 PM): so you kjnow how to break it.
dano (8:01:53 PM): yeah... fucking road from bolivia
dano (8:01:54 PM): wow
dano (8:02:03 PM): most remote area i've been in so far
dano (8:02:14 PM): 3 days with nearly no other humans in sight
al_diningrm (8:02:45 PM): sounds nice to me.
dano (8:02:48 PM): i followed another land-cruiser for 2 days
dano (8:02:59 PM): i was worried about everything
dano (8:03:22 PM): if i had broken down it would have been a whole week before i could have gotten back and
dano (8:03:25 PM): fixed anything
dano (8:03:34 PM): with scout sitting there alone the whole time
dano (8:03:37 PM): but made it through
dano (8:03:41 PM): incredible country
dano (8:03:57 PM): one of most remote places on earth
dano (8:04:13 PM): yes... all breakdowns happened in exactly the right places
dano (8:04:24 PM): who would have thunk it
al_diningrm (8:04:29 PM): all the result of good planning.
dano (8:04:42 PM): riiiiight
dano (8:04:48 PM): planning on a bunch of luck maybe
al_diningrm (8:05:41 PM): glad to see your luck batteries havent discharged completely.
dano (8:06:36 PM): yes.. me too.
dano (8:06:41 PM): how are you?
al_diningrm (8:07:21 PM): i'm ok. spent part of yesterday mounting computers in the phone room rack.... i'm feeling very driven to finish some of my projects around here.
dano (8:08:35 PM): you've said that several times now
dano (8:08:44 PM): i'm starting to believe you
dano (8:08:57 PM): any progress on streaming video?
dano (8:09:11 PM): i have an amazing video of me sitting by myself on the hood of the scout
dano (8:09:19 PM): going 70mph across the salt flat
dano (8:09:31 PM): on cruise control
al_diningrm (8:09:40 PM): yeah, welding cruise control.
al_diningrm (8:09:46 PM): nuts
dano (8:10:05 PM): fun.. but nuts
al_diningrm (8:16:16 PM): so did you just pull in tonight? is there an internet connection in those tire shops? did you eat yet. by the way this quarter's class is on black holes.
dano (8:16:29 PM): ate big steak
dano (8:16:33 PM): pulled in tonight
dano (8:16:45 PM): no wireless 802.11 in tire shops yet
dano (8:16:54 PM): but the hotels here are awesome
dano (8:17:02 PM): old school 20ft ceilings and doors
al_diningrm (8:17:26 PM): yes, those escaped nazis knew how to live.
dano (8:18:57 PM): lol..
dano (8:18:58 PM): yep
dano (8:19:12 PM): going to retire for a bit here
dano (8:19:18 PM): read emails, etc.
dano (8:19:26 PM): 200 emails piled up
dano (8:19:30 PM): mostly crap
al_diningrm (8:19:36 PM): alrighty good to hear from you..... i'll let you work, i hav eto make dinner anyway.
dano (8:20:03 PM): k