| Distance | 359 kms | 223 miles |
|---|
| Distance | 16,444 kms | 10,218 miles |
|---|
Breafast on the terrasse. Friendly waitress. Chat with the owner about the motorcycle, he asks about what happened to the Verkleidung (fairing). On the road at 9am, head up Passa di Resia. Stilfersjoch is closed because of mudslides. After I'm through Resia I try to go north but there is a cop there telling me that that pass is closed as well. West towards St. Moritz through Martina, at the Swiss border they tell me that pass is closed. I don't really care because the road up to the checkpoint was awesome. Head back through Resia; there is only one way left out of this valley: Offenpass towards Chur. Thankfully it's open. Great ride.
Passes all day:
The tunnel di Livigno took me back into Italy from Switzerland. At the top of Forcola di Livigno I pass back into Switzerland again. The Swiss customs guys take a good look at my license plate. They ask me for my driver's license, passport,insurance, the works; and take it into their office for a good ten minutes. One agent is assigned to watch over me (like I'm going to escape riding down a mountain that has only one road?). They have me open the saddle bags for inspection. We're speaking French because I don't speak Italian and they doesn't speak English. It is freakin' cold at the top of this pass because we're in the clouds. They can't find anything to bust me on (they seem disappointed) so I'm free to leave.
On Albulapass I stop at the top next to a lunch truck from Edelweiss Motorcycle Tours. The cook gives me a free lunch and we talk for a while about my trip and their business. Most of their clients are Americans who rent bikes in Munich and do the Alps for two weeks, all included, including the lunch truck which meets them at a pre-arranged spot every day. I joke with him about getting his route map so I can follow the lunch truck around. They've got it easy....
I'm shooting for Andermatt but run out of steam in Disentis, Switzerland. I decide to crash for the night at a hotel that has a few bikers in front of it. They are a British couple, he's on an R1150 and she has a 1988 K75C. We talk for a while about motorcycles and where we have been. She complains about the exhaust smoke when she starts the bike after it has been sitting for a while. The heads are sideways pointing left, so when you use the side kickstand the heads are facing downwards at a fairlyl sharp angle. It's normal to get a little bit of oil drip through the gaskets just from gravity. I usually put it on the center stand anways unless I'm just stopping for a couple of minutes. They are coming up from Croatia and headed back to England via the Chunnel. Disentis is a pretty place but there isn't much going on. It rains hard overnight.
