[Ulyses]

Originally Posted by BigMan73

Hey Ulyses,
Great RR. I noticed it only last week and caught up during the entire last weekend.

Many of things you wrote about, resonate with me very strongly. I too am a veteran, Israeli Military (tanks, infantry ran after our dusty trails..),

My dream bike back then was a DR-750 or DR-800 ("DR-BIG"), which I wanted so badly. It was so funny to see it suddenly in your thread. DR-650 DAKAR was my 2nd dream bike.

Anyway, I met this beautiful girl, she loved travelling too, and had a mini RTW on her own already. Told her about my plans, we started dating..
So then I'm in a dilemma - she's amazing, only thing she hates motorcycles and I really wanted to travel.
We both quit our jobs and went on RTW for 6 months, RTW literally: Israel/Thailand/Australia/New-Zealand/Fiji/Cook Islands/Tahiti/Bora-Bora/LA/Paris/Israel
Just not on the motorcycle.
I think I made the right decision

Fast forward almost 20 years, I have 3 kids and a V-Strom (and my dear wife) and we are travelling as much as we can.
But that big ADV is still waiting. One day..

Enjoy your time, I wish you all the best.
Bigman

P.S. The Galil Assault Rifle you took a photo of (Columbia?) reminded my of my Glilon (shortened version of Galil) that was my de-facto GF for 3 years, we went together 24/7 and even slept together.. (Israeli soldiers never ever leave their rifles, even at night time, not sure how it is with the Marines)

Awesome! I love tankers! They would totally make my day when they fired their main gun. The sound alone is enought to make you sh"t yourself. Of course, they always called us "crunchies" and made fun of us for having to walk everywhere, but I think they were just jealous...Personally, in retrospect, I think I would prefer to roll around in a 100 ton killing machine. Sounds like a good time to me!

That DR-BIG is a crazy bike! I just saw another one a few days ago. Did you ever end up getting one? Does your wife ride with you on the wee-strom?

And yes, we too had to sleep with our weapons. Except when we were sleeping in the snow. Then we had to dig a little snow cave for our rifles so that the moisture from our bodies didn't get into the action and then cause them to freeze up when we got out in the morning. Sleeping with an M-16 in your bag sucks. I was so happy when I became an officer and I could just sleep with my pistol instead. Much more comfortable.