My Crazy Adventure

Below are some pictures from my trip in Tunisia so far with some explanations of the pictures. I am also working on a slide show to add with all of my pictures from here. Hope to have that done later today.

These two 747's belonged to Saddam Hussein. During the frist gulf war he flew them to Tunisia and then did not pay the Tunisian government the taxes he owed so they would not let the planes leave. They have been parked in the same places on the airport tarmack for almost 20 years.

This is the great salt lake. Normally dry. The previous 3 days of rain made it look like an ocean. This bus has been stuck there for many years. There is normally water right below the surface of the sand so people think they can drive on it but find a different story once they try it. Many have been stuck, but I hear it is fun to ride ATV's on it.

This is about 100 meters from our hotel. Douz is the town we are staying in and translalted means "door to the desert". This is the beginning of the Sahara desert. To the right is Algeria and to the left Nigeria.

Of course we are friends with the bartender!! This is Rihad. Also called Zazoo. On his head is a Chica or water pipe. We all took our turn smoking the sweet apple tobacco inside of it. I did not inhale, but smoked it like a cigar. It was a very sweet smoke. Only two of us on the trip so far are non-smokers so for 5 minutes one night I fit in with the rest of the group when I smoked the Chica!!

We finished setting up for the meeting early so we were able to do an amazing ride in the Sahara. We rode for one hour, stopped and had a BBQ in the middle of the desert, then rode home for one hour. The dunes were amazing. Jumps and drops, it was a little scary, but you learn how to read the dunes. Caution is key. I am a little sore today and have some blisters on my hands from the twists and turns of the ride, but it was a great experience.

This was the biggest dune we rode up today. This is me. I guess when we go deeper into the desert later this week we will have dunes 3-4 times bigger than this one. This one was about a 6o foot dune. It was so much fun!!

Here is the tour group we work with making us lunch. We had lamb, some wonderful salads, French Bread and mint tea. It was a very cool and relaxing experience. We were in the middle of nowhere!! The amazing thing is that our guide had no map, GPS or way to tell direction, yet drove right to the exact spot where his brothers were waiting for us. Pretty amazing. Along the ride we saw nomads with their donkeys and camels wandering through the desert.

Those are just a taste of the pictures and stories I have encountered so far. I hope to get the slide show done soon. But for now, hope you are enjoying the stories. There will be many more to come. The dealers arrive tonight so it will be work for the next couple days attending meetings and helping with the demo rides. Thanks for checking in.

Love you all.