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Day 54: Vilnius to Kaunus, Lithuania

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Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7240 miles down, 1345 to go

Quote of the day: “We got some real shocks now!”

After dinner last night, Karen and I walked a few blocks to check out an unusual statue in Vilnius — a bust of the Lithuanian-American musician Frank Zappa.

 

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius

Bust of Frank Zappa in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

From there we found a beer store and pub named “Beer Heaven,” but they were closing at 10 p.m. so we only had time to try one of their 80 beers. We think that, with at least 70 breweries and 3,000,000 citizens, Lithuania must have one of the highest brewery to million citizens ratios in the world, certainly a good measure of happiness.

 

Beer Heaven

Beer Heaven (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

This morning, we stopped by the local office of our sponsor, Sotheby’s International Realty, for some photos before renewing the shock absorber hunt (the shop from yesterday evening didn’t pan out).

 

John with Vilija at Sotheby's

John with Vilija at Sotheby’s (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We first went to another garage, and they pointed us to a large auto parts store, which had some shocks in stock that were the right size, but the mounting hole was too small. However, the salesman helping Luke gave us the name of a garage with a machine shop that could resize the hole, so John decided to buy the shocks. By about 2:45, the modified shocks were ready, so we drove to Kaunus, which was only a little more than an hour away over an excellent four-lane highway.

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom

Old shock on top, new shock on bottom (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Luke's got shocks!

Luke’s got shocks! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car

Augustus Jansonns, the salesman who helped us, signs the car (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Once we were at the hotel in Kaunus, Luke and John put on the new shocks, which took about an hour. The left rear shock had failed internally — Luke was able to pull it apart as shown in one of the photos below. He said he has never seen a shock fail like that; however, he has also never seen a shock that drove for 5,000 miles on Siberian roads! We hope that the shock saga has finally come to a close.

 

Cathedral? What cathedral? We've got a car to fix!

Cathedral? What cathedral? We’ve got a car to fix! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Shocks are not supposed to do this!

Shocks are not supposed to do this! (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk

New shocks; still using the springs from Novosibirsk (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After dinner Cathy, Karen and I walked around Kaunus for about two hours since we won’t have time to see the city before we leave for Kaliningrad tomorrow. I saw a nice Lithuanian calico kitty,

Lithuanian calico

Lithuanian calico (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

and we walked across a pedestrian bridge over the Nemunas River.

 

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus

Pedestrian bridge across the Nemunas River in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

There is a plaque on the bridge that describes how a famous Lithuanian aerobatic pilot, Lakunas Jurgis Kairys, flew under the bridge (which is only 20 feet high) in his airplane  on September 2, 2000.

 

Plaque the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys

Plaque that marks the flight under the bridge by aerobatic pilot Lakunas Jurgis Kairys (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also saw several nice cathedrals and the town hall that sits in a city square where hundreds of people were watching the World Cup in outdoor cafes.

 

Town hall in Kaunus

Town hall in Kaunus (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Last, we walked by a model of the Lituanica, which was piloted by Lithuanian-American pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas on an attempted transatlantic crossing from New York to Kaunus in 1933. Unfortunately, the airplane crashed in Poland and both pilots were killed. I recognized the model because the airplane, which was a Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker, is on the back of the 10 lita bill; the pilots are on the front.

 

Model of the Lituanica

Model of the Lituanica (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Back of 10 lita bill

Back of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Front of 10 lita bill

Front of 10 lita bill (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we drive to Kaliningrad, which is back in Russia. We’ll be crossing the border at the same location as the 1908 racers, except the 1908 racers crossed from Russia into Germany instead of from Lithuania into Russia. Our total drive tomorrow is about 300 km, with about 100 of that before the border and 200 after.

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Day 53: Vilnius, Lithuania

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Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7147 miles down, 1411 to go

On this day in 1908, a significant event occurred in Siberia that very few people even noticed until many years later. It occurred near Tunguska, which is about 400 miles north of Tulun, the town where John lost the bag containing his papers.

At 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908, as the Thomas Flyer was in Omsk and the Protos was in Kansk, an object 200-600 feet across exploded at about 61 degrees north latitude and 102 degrees east at an estimated altitude of 3-6 miles. The explosion, which measured about 1,000 times the size of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, killed 80 million trees over an area a little smaller than the state of Rhode Island. Due to the remote location, no human fatalities were recorded; however, the shock wave reportedly broke windows up to several hundred miles away. The object was originally believed to be an asteroid or a comet, but more recent studies indicate that it may have been a meteor. You can visit Wikipedia to learn more. The crater and devastation from the object are still visible, as you can see in the Google Earth image below.

Tunguska Event Site

Tunguska Event Site courtesy Google Earth

Today began like many our of days, with a trip to an auto parts store that we had noticed while walking to our restaurant last night. But it was a small shop, and the clerk didn’t have a suitable rear shock absorber in stock. He suggested we try the Vilnius auto mart, a place similar to the auto heaven in Novosibirsk, but the Vilnius mart is closed on Mondays. With nothing left to do regarding the Roadster, we went on our walking tour of Vilnius.

 

Auto parts store in Vilnius

Auto parts store in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We spent most of the tour in the Old Town section of Vilnius, where we saw many old Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches that have been restored since Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. The Catholic church below is located at Vilnius University.

Catholic church at Vilnius University

Catholic church at Vilnius University (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Near the university, we also had a chance to see the presidential palace, which is the equivalent of the U.S. White House.

 

Lithuanian Presidential Palace

Lithuanian Presidential Palace (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

The highlight of the tour for me was our visit to the Uzupis Republic, sort of a bonus country for our trip. The area is a self-proclaimed republic of artists that has its own constitution, president, bishop, and anthem.

 

Welcome to the Republic of Uzupis

Welcome to the Republic of Uzupis (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

As you might expect, there are plenty of small shops and art galleries to peruse in Uzupis, such as the one below that offered some good advice along with art displays.

 

Artistic advice that everyone can follow

Artistic advice that everyone can follow (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We also saw a wall that displays plaques with the Uzupis constitution in different languages (I forgot to count how many). Here are some of my favorites:

5. Everyone has the right to be unique.

10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat.

16. Everyone has the right to be happy.

24. Everyone has the right to have faith.

38. Everyone has the right to not be afraid.

41. Do not surrender.

 

Republic of Uzupis Constitution

Republic of Uzupis Constitution (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

After the tour, John returned to the hotel to try installing one of the old front shock absorbers to replace the broken rear shock absorber. The replacement shock is too short to use the spring that was installed on the old rear shock absorber, but it’s better than nothing. As far as I know, there are no new tie wraps on the car as a result of this latest installation.

Old front shock now being used as a rear shock -- yes, John and Luke are getting desperate

Old front shock now being used as a rear shock — yes, John and Luke are getting desperate (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

About 4 p.m. our guide, Karen, rode with Leo in the Envoy to find a car wash and they instead found a garage that said they might be able to help with the shock absorber. John, Luke, Karen and I walked back over to the shop with one of the old front shock absorbers and the man in the photo below, Marius, said he might be able to find something by tomorrow. He thinks there is a Mercedes-Benz shock similar to the one the Roadster needs.

 

Second attempt to find the shock absorber in Vilnius

Second attempt to find the shock absorber in Vilnius (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Tomorrow we’ll first check to see if Marius had any luck finding a suitable shock and, depending on what happens with that, we may or may not visit a military vehicle museum before we start our short 105 km drive to Kaunus.

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Day 51: Pskov, Russia to Daugavpils, Latvia

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Number of tie wraps: 49 (holding steady)

Countdown: 7067 miles down, 1518 to go

So far, all of our border crossings have been filled with angst, and today’s lived up to all expectations. We arrived at the border crossing by Grebneva, Latvia about 10:30, had cleared the Russian side by around noon, and thought we would surely be in Daugavpils by mid-afternoon to enjoy the sights. But the border gods had other ideas in mind.

First, one of the Latvian border guards pointed out that John had only a copy of his registration for the 1928 Roadster, and that copy wasn’t sufficient proof of ownership. The fact that John had used the copy to bring the Roadster in and out of Japan, China, and Russia twice didn’t seem to sway the guard’s opinion. While we were mulling what to do about this turn of events, the same border guard came back out and said that Leo’s Envoy also couldn’t enter Latvia (or anywhere in the European Union, for that matter) because it doesn’t have a front license plate. He was unpersuaded by the fact that the state of Florida doesn’t issue front license plates, so there is no way to legally obtain one. However, he said that we could bring Leo’s car across the border on a truck. Presumably, we would then be out of his hair and on our own to deal with no front license plate.

The border guard also suggested that we return to St. Petersburg to obtain convincing documentation. In addition to setting our itinerary back several days, the main problem with this approach was that it wasn’t entirely clear what documentation the customs folks wanted. John asked if a U.S. embassy or consulate could just fax the documentation and the guard said he would check and come back. He disappeared into another building and when he returned, the verdict was that John and Luke could drive the Roadster across (for reasons still not entirely clear), but the Envoy had been denied entry and would have to start the whole process over.

We waved goodbye to John and Luke at about 2:30, and then Cathy, Natalia and I climbed into the Envoy with Leo and drove about 200 yards back to the Russian border. After a bit of negotiation, we were able to turn around without reentering Russia and we drove back to the Latvian Customs line to wait for another turn. While we were waiting, Natalia had a brief conversation with the Latvian border guard who had denied our initial crossing, and he indicated that they had found a “solution.” We pulled back into the customs area about 4:45 and 15 minutes later, we were on our way. We still don’t know what the “solution” was, but we’ll take it!

After getting across the border, we met up with John and Luke and had a nice drive through the Latvian countryside, where we saw many houses and small farms with gardens and greenhouses.

 

Latvian countryside

Latvian countryside (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

We arrived at our hotel about 7:15. but we gained an hour, so it was only 6:15. We said our goodbyes to our Russian guide, Natalia, to whom we are eternally grateful, and our new guide, Karen Bradbury, greeted us with champagne and a new set of tie wraps for the Roadster! Karen will be with us until Paris.

 

Our new guide, Karen Bradbury, and a new set of Roadster tie wraps

Our new guide, Karen Bradbury, and a new set of Roadster tie wraps (Eileen Bjorkman photo)

Alas, this is our only day in Latvia. Tomorrow, we head to Vilnius, Lithuania, 173 km. We’ll be staying there Monday for some sightseeing and then on to Kaunus.