First let me apologize for the delay.

We left Boston on Monday at 7 PM and had 3 planes to catch on our way to Antalya Turkey. Corey had an extra flight since he first traveled from S. Carolina to Boston. We met him at the airport and the fun started right away.

First Corey was allowed to check-in "without" his ticket (not our fault but a big no-no). Once we were all together at check-in it turned out that our bike carriers were too heavy. A recent regulation change back in November 2005 restricted over-weight to 32 KG. Our bike carriers were more like 60+ KG. So the repacking began. We started moving stuff from one bag to another and then filling extra bags until they allowed us through. Blessing #1: They waived the over-weight fee ($25) per bike box for a total of $100. Besides the clothing fire-drill, it was a nice way to start.

We were off to our first stop in Zurich. We had a 4 hour lay-over which gave us time for a nice (expensive) breakfast. Definitely not a good exchange rate with the US Dollar against the Swiss Franc. Back on the plane we then landed in Istanbul. Yes, Turkey at last.

Getting our Visas and moving through passport security was easy. Blessing #3: The Visa only cost $20 instead of $100. Another savings of $320 for a total of $420. The fun started again when we attempted to get our boarding passes to go onto Antalya. Our luggage (bikes) were checked in all the way until Antalya (so we thought). Apparently this too was a mistake. We had to claim our bikes since leaving Istanbul would put us on a domestic flight. We were told to go back to passport security, find our luggage, go through customs and then return for our boarding passes. Blessing #4: We were able to just walk right through security. Blessing #5: Our bikes were right there and we just walked back to the check-in (actually we almost ran trying not to miss our flight). Back at check-in we again when right through with no questions and were on the plane to Antalya (after a 35 minute delay).

We landed in Antalya and we're met by Rustem and Ali who took us to Ali's restaurant for a amazing dinner. Ali then let us stay in the apartment across from the restaurant so we wouldn't have to pay for a hotel room for the night. Blessing #6: This was another $140 savings bringing the grand total to $560. If this keeps going, we will all be rich by the end of the trip.

Despite the snoring from 2 un-named riders, we got a good night sleep ready for some riding in the morning.

Now On to Today’s Ride

After a nice breakfast we assembled our bikes and took off for our first leg of riding to Finike. We left later than we wanted, but the weather helped us forget. We started before Rustem as he waited for the taxi that would be our follow car for the day. Unfortunately, Brian blew a tire about 10 minutes into the ride and we didn't have a tube or pump on us since we were to be escorted. Tom make a quick phone call to Rustem who brought us a tube and pump and we were again on the road.

It was a tough first day of 70+ miles in the saddle with quite a bit of climbing. We did the final 25 km in the dark with the follow car behind us. After a quick shower at the hotel we headed out for dinner. It was food on top of food. A very encouraging site considering the calories we burned today. Well it is off to bed. Tomorrow we have another 80 km with more climbing until we hit our final destination in Kas.

Sorry for the long entry today. We had a bit of catch up to do. Things should be back to normal on all fronts tomorrow. Good night.