Thank you. Good to be back! My girlfriend is abit disapointed actually. She´s missing my arse!

Welcome back, Jan!

Thank you!

Glad to hear it man, you are way overdue for a Friday session with us

Ha ha ha!! Funny!

Thanks!

Welcome back! I hope to hear about your adventures in the Kola Penninsula!

Welcome back, Jan!

It was beautiful up there!











Dirty as hell in some areas. But we knew that before we left for that trip. But some other areas where beautiful. And the russians are among the most friendly people on the planet. We drove up to Murmansk and then headed south and up north again on small shitty roads to Arkhangelsk and then down to St Petersburg and home. Some 7.000 kilometers in 4 weeks. Some pics......:




McDonalds in Murmansk. Amazingly enough one can find the best McDonalds restaurants on the planet in Russia.


Lenin. The first atomic driven ice breaker on the planet. Built back in 1957 if I don´t remember things wrong....




Our bikes found a friend.


A Subway restaurant in Arkhangelsk.....


How to cross rivers on the russian countryside during summer..... They use the frozen rivers as roads during winter time.


A small coffee shop on the Russian country side where we ate one day. Gravel roads for several days. Or horrible tarmac roads. I actually prefer dust roads over bad tarmac if I get to choose. The route we choose between Murmansk and Arkhangelsk was on small roads. Not many tourists there. We did not see one single vehicle with foreign plates after we left Murmansk until we got close to St Petersburg some 3 1/2 weeks later.


St Petersburg. Fantastic city!

We´ve been to Russia quite alot. Our 4th time this summer. We like Russia and have most likely seen more shitty villages in Siberia than most Russians. Been as far east as Ulan Ude when we went to Mongolia with the bikes a couple of years ago. Kaukasus last year. And the Kola peninsula this year. I have a reunion coming up next year in Orlando, Florida. A show group I toured with in the 80´s. I am thinking about taking the bike east through Russia/Siberia/Road of bones to Magadan and then ship the bike to Alaska and drive to Orlando. And ship the bike home from Florida. Might be a good trip. Abit scary tho since I´ll do it alone and there are a shitload of bears in far eastern Russia. Will have to camp on Road of bones. Bears and mosquitoes. Not my favorites. I actually think that I prefer bears before mosquitoes if I can choose....

Bed time!

//J

One more thing before going to bed.....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2NcpKx_Pto[/youtube]

Lots of Stick playing lately. I´ve through the years mostly used the Stick as a complement to my bass playing. Always played 2 or 3 songs on the Stick on each gig but my main instrument has always been bass. Done rather many gigs during this last year where I´ve been playing Stick only. Good fun! And most often no effects. I got a AER Compact 60 (I think it´s called) amp awhile back. 2--channel amp. Perfekt for playing Stick with a piano and vox. I use it for the melody side and use my bass amp for the bass strings on bigger gigs. But that AER amp sounds GREAT with the Stick!

Welcome back, Jan!