What a start ;)

It was 2AM at the third of May 2013. The normally silent night was disturbed by the noise of a Beamer motorbike riding in the dark. It was me – Wolfi, transporting the last pieces of trash to the trash container. There I got my long desired chance (issue on my to-do list) to test the newly installed HID50 Xenon lights (and they are bright!).

The night went away and dawn was coming. Still plenty of hassling at this idyllic place which we called home. It was 3AM now and finally I was able to finish packing SilberWolf. With three extra roll bags, I was able to stuff all those things on the bike. It looked like we had far too much stuff with. On the other hand, some of the building work needed to be postponed to later when we anyway do changes to the sidecar. Therefore a few extra parts and components found their way into our luggage.

It felt very cold outside and the meter showed -2C. Ice started to form on the roll bags. It was a bit after 4AM. At 6AM we must wake up to catch our ferry which departed 0915. Better sleep fast if this was possible at all with this amount of adrenalin in our systems. The alarm clock on my mobile was ringing at 6AM sharp and we got out of our sleeping place. Half in trance, we packed the remaining items and moved some stuff nicely away (remember, we sell our house and it should be tidy enough). The last bag of trash was put on the bike, it was 0715, we closed the door to our (soon to be ex-) house and we were ready to GO-GO.

Then Skippy asked me to give her her bike keys (those for the side cases and top case) back. Mmmmhh – which bike keys please?? I did not have any bike keys! Taking a deeeeep breath. OK - they were either inside the house in case of which, our real estate agent would need to ship them to us. In worst case, they were in some of the clothes which went to trash last night. Great! None could do and since we still had another set of keys somewhere, we would use those. Let's go now – the ferry was waiting.

Skippy asked me then where I had put the dog leashes. I said, that I did not have them as I thought she had them. A quick look inside the house and ... Oh NOOOOOO – ALL leashes, I mean ALL of them were inside the house. The three which were adjustable in length and the two with a fixed length. Per**** Saa**** V**** Sch****!!!!! I rushed to my shed and found some 8m of polyester rope. That must do until we will find a better solution. Let's go now – the ferry was waiting.

Since we were in a real hurry, I decided not to fix the trash bag (it was a big 240l one) on my bike and ... of course ... it did indeed fell down when I drove up the steep hill. ENOUGHHHH of this nonsense, I wanted to GO-GO and instead, now I needed to go back to get another one in order to collect our items away from the street. And BTW, where was Skippy? I thought she kept a little bit too big distance as we were in a hurry. Anyway I went back home, passed the trash pile and there she was standing: Her bike did not start. AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

We tried to push it – no help. We had no car anymore neither a single extra battery to jump-start the bike. Neither do we have a jumper cable anymore (we gave all those things away). I changed the original battery on the SilberWolf to a car battery. This one is well hidden, which would mean that if I want to get there, I needed to take two rolls down, the two huge Zarges boxes and all the other stuff which was now hanging there in between. No way. Thinking hard what to do as one can expect that at 7AM in the morning without breakfast and only 2 hours sleep.

I did not have any kind of thicker cable anymore in the shed since I threw away all cables a few hours ago (I did a thorough cleaning!). Frustration came up. Inhale ... exhale! The clock was ticking and the time to catch our ferry was getting less and less. Then I though I could use the connection cable which was meant for my winch. Lucky me it was in one of the rolls, therefore easy to get and not deeply buried in the sidecar. So I took the part which you connect to the battery and connected the cable to the battery. Good attempt. I then realized that since I have three cables connected to minus, the screw is too short to reach the bolt at the battery. Exactly for this purpose I installed the small emergency tool box. It has easier access instead of digging tools from my huge tool box within the sidecar. So I took a small allen key to lift the nut a little and the bolt could reach again.

My emergency tool box for quick fixes (operation manual container for tractor)

Then I took out my Leatherman, connected the cable ends. I cut the winch connection cable and un-isolated both ends. Where does one get fastest access to +12V high-power connection point? Right – at the starter motor. One tiny screw and the starter motor cover was removed and BINGO.

The mutilated cable

When holding one cable end on the plus and the other on chassis, I said to Skippy: try to start now and brummmm, the Suzi went on like nothing was ever wrong in this world (I think this SAITO battery does not like cold and freezing weather, it seems to loose its capacity to such an extend that it becomes useless). Now quickly the cover back, put tools away, got another trashbag, collected the trash from our street, brought it away and hit the road. The ferry was waiting.

After an “accelerated” ride to Helsinki and with a big relief we entered the harbor area early enough to check-in in time. 

World we are coming.

- Wolfi

Packing and the last cake...

Well last cake for a while :) Or what did you think?! I haven't gone too crazy yet! ;)

 

Donations to Tuulispää (incl. the car!)

Yesterday started with packing. What a surprise! :) We loaded our car full with all sorts of usefull stuff (tools, building stuff, dog/pet stuff, mattresses, plankets, laptop etc.) and off it went to Somero to the Tuulispää animal sanctuary. So we made at least one nice lady extremely happy and hopefully many animals as well!

 

After that the packing continued... I finally got all my cases packed and could see if everything fits in. Rather well all what I wanted to take with also fits to the cases. I think they are still a bit too full and I have some not so important things with. But at least for the first week or so I don't have to make any laundry because some clothes go straight to trash after using (so worn out already!) and the books will be donated after reading. So here are lists and pictures of what all I will have with, if anyone is interested to know :)

 

My left sidecase is our fridge. So there will go all the veggies and non-dry foods and the shopping/cooling bags.

 

In the topcase will be most of my clothes. I was first thinking of putting them into the right sidecase, but because of the sharp edges it wasn't too comfortable. Clothes I need rather often and sooner or later (most likely sooner!) I would loose my nerves when hurting my fingers and hands to the edges! I also think there fits a bit more stuff into the topcase than into the sidecase.

Clothes:

• 1 x fleece jumpsuit (my favourite peace of clothing at the moment!)
• 2 x 'normal' long pants
• 1 x fleece biking pants & pullover
• 2 x biking underwear (one will be dropped off in the first week)
• 1 x kneehigh warm socks
• 2 x warm biking/running socks
• 4 x biking/running socks (half of the socks would be fine, but no need to do laundry instantly :))
• 1 x long running pants
• 2 x short running pants (one pair could be enough)
• 2 x running top
• 3 x T-shirts (most likely too many shirts with)
• 3 x underpants
• 2 x bikinis
• 1 x long dress
• 2 x short dress
• 1 x wind/rain suit for outdoor activities
• 1 x wind suit for biking
• 1 x karate gi and belt
• 1 x extra cool and mostly selfmade travel jacket with statement badges ;)

...I guess that was all.

Right sidecase:

• Running/walking shoes
• Airseal Para Boots by Vegetarian Shoes! (these will most likely replace my current biking shoes rather quickly, because they are already 7 years old and falling apart)
• Flipflops
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - series (will be donated after reading)
• 2 x dictionary
• Sunglasses and reading glasses
• Wrist and knee supports
• 1 set of extra driving gloves, hood and boa
• Travell towell, pillow and sheet
• Beauty bag, epilator etc
• Toy bag (mp3 player etc.)
• Sewing kit
• Reflective vest

... and a kangaroo! :D

On my tankbag will be the most often used items on the road and it also works as a kind of purse...

• Rain overall
• Waterbottle + belt for it (mostly for running and hiking)
• Lunchbox
• Camera, phone...



All fits in :)



Wolfi has all of his stuff (of course!), girls belongins, medical stuff and bike tools etc. One big sidecar box is for our camping/sleeping stuff and the other one is kitchen, which includes all the dry foods and eating/cooking equipments. He will most likely tell more about those things at some point and provide pictures.



...and then the cake! So last night I made the last cake for a very long time, at least I think so... There was still some usefull ingredients in our cupboard, which we couldn't really take with but didn't want to through away either. It might sound a bit weird mixture of everything, but I (and Wolfi - the cake monster, of course!) liked it :)

Chocolate-coconut-lingonberry cake

• 2 dl whole wheat flour
• 1 dl coconut flour
• 1 dl cacao powder
• 2.5 dl coconut flakes
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 0.25 tsp salt
• 1 dl coconut oil
• 4 dl coconut milk
• 2.5 dl coconut sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla flavor
• 4 dl lingonberries

Mix all the dry ingredients together and in a seperate bowl all the wet except the berries. Pour the wet into the dry and mix well, but not too heavily. Gently stir in the berries and pour the dough into a cakeform. Bake in 175 C degree oven for 30-40min.

Frosting

• 1.5 dl melted coconut oil
• 2 dl cacao powder
• 1.5 dl maple syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla flavor
• vegan chocolate sprinkles

Mix all ingredients together, pour over cooled cake and cover with sprinkles. Let set in fridge for about an hour before cutting and eating.

~ Ilta

p.s. 17 hours to departure... All excited and totally stressed!!!

Farewells... and a huge stress!!!

Saying goodbyes ain't always easy! A week ago we started to say goodbye to our friends and my relatives here in Finland. Last weeks tuesday we had again car full of stuff and headed towards my poor little student sister... so now Heli has a proper jungle in her flat and birthday presents for the next ten years (at least!) :) Then we went to my grandparents who can sometimes be so nice and positive... last words I heard were: "I guess we'll never meet again". How lovely to hear such things, when you anyway worry about them almost constantly:( Well none can do. It was still a nice afternoon there and I will heavily miss them! Terveisiä mummulle ja papalle, ikävä jo nyt!

My mini cupcakes were a huge hit :)

Last weekend we had a farewell party here at our home with a vegan potluck theme. Was a lovely day with nice atmosphere and the guests could get to know our plans and equipments etc. much better. Warm thank yous to all of you who attended the party! All the foods were great too, especially the hummus and banana cake! :D

The bald and the hairy old dudes :D Always teasing the smaller ones...

For me the toughest part was most likely yesterday when I had my last training in my beloved karate club Sokuto. That club is so far the best I've ever been into and I have (unfortunately?) been in quite many already! I had really great seven years there, had plenty of good time and great trainings and befriended with many wonderful characters. I will miss you guys a lot! This of course doesn't mean the end of my karate career, not even a bit! I will still continue practising alone, visit as many clubs on this planet as possible and will also teach my dear husband to be my training partner (Wolfi has jujutsu background) so that I'd finally get the black belt...

So this last week has been full of farewells, but also full of STRESS! Everyday has been a real working day with cleaning the house and yard, building/maintaining the bikes and doing all the final paperworks. Wolfi just estimated that we have donated about five full car loads of our belongings to Fida, two car loads went to my sister and one load to HESY (animal protection society). Also countless of bags of clothes to UFF and way too much of things to trash/recycle! Tomorrow our car, some tools and rest of the useful stuff will be donated to Tuulispää animal sanctuary. So plenty of good work done at the same, no need to earn with everything! :) Still some tiny things to do, like our testaments... Thank you Ulla for giving that as a very first advice, when we told about our plans last year! (hehe) Well there was some point in her comments also... if something will happen to both of us we would never want any state to inherit us, no way! Much rather some animal sanctuary or so, who do much more good in this world! :)

btw. It's now Vappu here in Finland, which is a celebration of work/working class and we have definitely celebrated it with a load of work! Well done us :D Tomorrow will start the packing stress, so let's see what all have to be excluded...

Hyvää Vappua! Happy May Day!

~ Ilta