Leaving Chita, the roads had been plowed and were nearly dry. We made good time. There were very few people or villages now, since previously this was only a “cart road” or nothing; deep permafrost mud in the summer and impassable snow in the winter and no bridges. The Trans-Siberian Highway is the unofficial name for a […]

After a final goodbye to our old friends in Rubtsovsk, we hit the icy roads of Siberia with memories of our crossing in 1996. Many good changes had taken place but it also brought much more traffic. Now instead of frozen mud and gravel roads, they were mostly paved, covered with treacherous black ice and […]

Our emergency trip back to Ulaanbaatar, (the capital of Mongolia), to pick up repair suspension parts from Hellwig and get the necessary visas and extensions had been fun and interesting, but it definitely threw a wrench into our expected travel plans. We had hoped to drive back to the capital on the spectacular road we had […]

With the excitement of the Golden Eagle Festival over, we were quickly brought back to reality and the fact that The Turtle V had a serious suspension problem. The good news was that repair parts from Hellwig Products in Visalia, CA were waiting to be sent. The bad news was that there was nothing remotely like […]

In order to complete the Mongolia series, we are reposting Monika’s Birthday blog. Only she can get away with celebrating two birthdays in one year! What’s a birthday? Just another number on the calendar right? Not for Monika! Her birthdays are special and can last for days, depending on what she dreams up each year. […]

It was 23°F outside under a blazing blue sky as the second day of the 16th Annual Golden Eagle Festival began. Different from the previous day’s event where eagles had to attack a dead rabbit or fox being drug behind their trainer’s horse, today they had to zero in on their owner who held a chunk […]

After a harrowing 5-day/900-mile, (1,500 kilometers), drive across the amazing expanses of the northern Gobi Desert, (see previous blog), we arrived at the site of the 16th Annual Golden Eagle Festival just outside of Bayan-Olgii in Western Mongolia, and parked to join the growing crowd of spectators. Some of you may recall that when we crossed […]

In the morning we gently headed out. The rear suspension seemed to be doing fine without the help of the air bags. Turning back to Ulaanbaatar was not an option. We already knew how bad that road was. We could only hope it would get better. It didn’t! We were not lost. We just didn’t […]

Getting directions out of the sprawling city of Ulaanbaatar was a bit of a challenge at 6:00 AM. We did have a tourist map, but of course, it was not in English. We had no GPS chip for Mongolia, but knowing our destination was west, as long as we had the sun to our backs […]

HAPPY NEW YEAR   Life is an Adventure The Essence of Adventure is not knowing how it’s going to come out. Live your dreams and have a great and healthy 2019. Best Wishes Gary and Monika