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We had some extra time while hanging out in the garage. So we recorded our conversation and called it a podcast: Life Today As Us.

We're on the eve of the end of our Zambian adventure, and it's been a great one! We cover our safari with Robin Pope Safaris in South Luanga Park. Then the long ride back to Lusaka, being hit by rain. Then a couple days shopping here in town. We're tired, happy, and ready to journey home tomorrow!

A year after our long trip, we're doing a two wink stint in Zambia, Africa! Rented some Lifan 150s and put-putting around. This episode we cover why Zambia, short stay in Lusaka, Choma, Livingstone, the Devils Pool, and back up North East. Already run out of gas once and one flat tire *shrugs*? We've been eating N'shima, and making lots of jokes with strangers.

We left the heat of Houston and spent two weeks going across the freezing desert of the American southwest. It was awesome! Spent a couple nights in Dallas with Andrew's aunt. Then we hit up Caprock State Park with the Texas bison herd and we caught a genuine Friday Night Lights football game. Onwards to Santa Fe, where we had our first snow of the trip! Then quick stop in Bluff, Utah, on our way to Monument Valley and then the Grand Canyon. Mindboggling perspective looking down the canyon, and super comfy camping despite it getting down to 12 degrees or so. Spent two nights recovering in Laughlin, Nevada at the Avi Resort which was pleasantly surprising. Quick night in Barstow, California on Route 66, and then night in Los Angeles for sushi. Then we met up with my parents and my mother's family in Ventura for Thanksgiving! It was a great couple of nights chatting up with family that we haven't seen in awhile. Followed by some idyllic camping in Morro Bay, and a rainy ride up to Monterey. We're getting real close home now!

We've spent the past two weeks in the South! After camping in Tennessee, we spent a day visiting the Civil Rights history of Montgomery, Alabama. We continued onto Gulf Shores, Alabama for a couple beach days and BBQ oysters. Then we stayed in one spot for the longest time in five months, nine days at my sisters place! She lives just outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We had the full southern experience with a day trip on the Greyhound to touristy NOLA, a trip to the Myrtle Plantation, Halloween, and one of the best experiences on the trip at the Angola State Prison Rodeo. We had an excellent time visiting with my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Also, gave us a chance to replace my leaky radiator!

This episode is a dozy! We've been busy visiting family in New Hampshire, meeting Andrew's siblings in NYC, visiting family in Windsor, riding some of the tallest coasters in Cedar Point, and camping in Tennessee. This episode has some BONUS content at the end, we took our recording equipment with us when visiting Andrew's Nana, Papa, and Grandma. So you get some extra stories of adventure from them!

I start the episode calling it Episode 22, which is wrong, it's 23. Ok, other than that, we're on a new continent! We're now in Montreal, and looking back at our last week in Scotland, from Storm Ali, to flat tire, to road construction, to Apple Cross, Perth, and Edinburgh. We talk about the ending of the European part of our trip, and how excited we are for America. 

Heather is now thirty. We also cover Saint Omer, taking the ferry from France to England, Andrew's chain braking, not seeing Stonehenge, amazing visit with the Finnis family, ploughing competition, Finnis Fest, and then the ride up to North West England. Then we go for a massive walk to celebrate Heather's birthday. We're loving every minute of it, and only a week left in the UK!

We finish out our time in Italy with a day trip to Milan.  Then we visit Susset les Pins, Sarlat-le-Caneda, and Blois, France. Susset was a little sleepy desert town on the Mediterranean. We spent most of our time here working on the bikes, getting new tires, chain, oil change, and rebalancing tires. Also ate some awesome food, including a seafood extravaganza, a whole chicken, and wood fired pizzas (not all in one sitting). Sarlat we stayed at the local Huttopia, a chain of campsites that offer some extras like a pool, store on site, and great showers. It's a convenient 10 minute walk from the little medieval town where we wandered during the day and accidentally ate a meal of just an appetizer and a dessert. Now in Blois, we're soaking up the last of France by staying in the artist district and visiting the royal castle.

Episode 20! We cover our time in Bad Essen, Germany, and Nancy, France. Also, our ride to Castelletto S. Ticino, Italy. They've all been adorable little towns, with some good food and quirks. The rides have been pretty easy and it's bizarre to be in a new country every couple of days. But we're settling into it! We also ramble for a bit in this episode about how the trip is evolving, what the trip means to us, and some emotion babble. 

We rode through Scandinavia! We saw incredibly deep blue lakes, dark mountains, lots of rain, waterfalls, and some glaciers. Also, incredibly expensive. So we've switched to Airbnb lodging and cooking our own meals. In Denmark, Andrew was able to hook up with another glassblower. It was awesome. Oh, and at the end we catch up on our first day in Germany. 

Alrighty, this time Heather asks the questions. In this episode, we recap our month in Russia including the places we stayed, people we met, and things we saw. Questions include what is our theme song for Russia: Marilyn Manson's Killing Strangers. 

This episode covers our last week in Russia. We were invited by the Crazy Region to go to a motorcycle rally on a beach by a river, where we won a prize of "farthest traveled" and got to take a selfie on stage. Then we go to Palekh, and be the guests of Yuri and Anatoli of the Crazy Region. It's a quaint beautiful town, and we get an amazing tour of their factor that designs, builds, and paints amazing icons and painting for Christian Orthodox Churches all around Russia and beyond. We make quick stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But it's hot and expense. We then make an easy border crossing into Finland--excited for Scandinavia! 

Get a cup of coffee, this is a long one. We wrap up our stay in Omsk, then to Tyuman and spend an amazing weekend with the Harley Davidson crew, then ride to Chelyabinsk through the countryside, and then Heather's harrowing crash on the way to Naberezhnye Chelny. Low siding after front end wobble going 80 mph while passing changed everything. Change is cemented by visit with Archbishop Michael, who we met in middle of nowhere Mongolia and just happens to live in Naberezhnye Chelny. Life is strange. We are then thankful for an uneventful ride to Kazan. 

Western Siberia has been chill. We wrap our couple of days resting in the college town of Tomsk. Then our relatively straightforward 550 miles, 13 hour day of riding to Omsk. Omsk is not a very touristy town, so there's not much to do here. We took advantage of it by Andrew getting a hair cut, using the sauna, and going to an Aquapark. Also, we can't avoid talking about US and Russia politics, given the recent Helsinki summit.

This episode gets interrupted twice. Sorry, that's what happens when you stay in a hostel in a college town. After our incredibly pleasant stay in Barnaul, we move on to Novosibirsk, where we meet up our friends Alena and Viktor who we met in Chemal. We get some home cooked food, a fantastic experience meeting others who are learning English, and a tour around the great city of Novosibirsk--the third largest city in Russia. Then we move on to Tomsk, known for 18th century wooden houses, a place where many were exiled during and after World War II, and now a large and prestigious university town.

We've spent our first week camping in Western Siberia. After Koch Agash, we headed to the small tourist town of Chemal. It was beautiful, right on the river, with cheap camping and good amenities. So far, we have had welcoming greetings everywhere we go. Everyone wants to make it clear to us that Russian and American people are allies, and that they were pleased to see us in the heart of Russia. After staying in Chemal for several days, we hit the road up to Barnaul. We were pleasantly surprised, staying in a suburban hotel in this bustling industrial city. It's called Hotel Chaika, named after the first woman in space's call sign "seagull". We have met many friendly people--including probably the best mechanic in Siberia, Victor at Motoxayc22. The best attraction in Barnaul has got to be the Gornaya Apteka, or Mountain Pharmacy Museum, where we spent a couple hours, including a great lunch of Siberian food in their restaurant.

Alright, slightly different format for this episode. Since cities and names can so easily be forgotten, we spent this episode doing a "round up" of Mongolia. If you don't know, we spent June of 2018 in Mongolia traveling East to West on our KLR650 motorcycles. This is episode we talk a bit of what surprised us, where we went, what we did, and the roads we traveled. I hope this can help with anyone planning a trip to Mongolia in terms of what to expect, how it costs, and navigation. Also documented in blog at donkeydiaries.co/blog

We completed our first border crossing! We crossed over from Mongolia to Russia at the Tsagaannuur - Tashanta border crossing. According to the internet this is one of only two border crossings between Mongolia and Russia that foreigners can use, the other being just north of Ulanbaatar at Altanbulag. The Tsagaannuur border crossing was described as being much less trafficked and maybe a little easier to get through. For us, we got there at 7 am and didn't get through the Mongolian side until 4 pm. It was exhausting. But then we were allowed through the gate, it started to pour rain, with some epic thunder and lightening. The Russian side of the crossing was a breath of fresh air, lasting less than two hours, and all of the customs and border patrol were very helpful.

We made the trek from Ulaangom to Olgii. Well, we were originally intending to go to the Russian border crossing that allows foreigners through at Tsagaanuur. But after a crash in a river, Andrew's chain falling off (twice), and an incredibly kind driver advising us to go south to avoid dangerous rivers, we ended up in Olgii. It was a hard day of riding and we saw a bit of everything: craggy mountains, grasslands, steep hill climbs, rocky lake bed, deep sand drifts in the desert, and canyons. Should have known Mongolia wouldn't let us have one easy day to the border.