Went to Georgia, fuelled at Gulf station, saw a Mack truck

[Vladislav]

So the title turned out as quite common chain of events for a general American trucker. At the same time the things I got involved into we of almost different kind. Ok, more correctly at a different place. 

Feeling lust to travel I sat on my motorbike and rode direction Georgia. Which is not the state of the US but the country in Kaukazus mountain region. It's a former part of Soviet Union so plenty of connections with Russia and the most people speak Russian language. There's only road from my place to there and that's a long roamy mountain pass. I never drove there before and got surprized of how beautiful the scenaries were and how difficult was the way. I was really lucky riding (with no rain though) but found out plenty of trucks went that way either and at some places it seemed about impossible to do. But the main trouble for the trucks was crossing the border. Drivers I lalked with said they usually spend from 1 to 10 days in the waiting line. In the mountains, just on a side of the road! 

On my way I met at least 3 "parked conwoys" of nearly 2-3 kilometer long. Police car was placed at the beginning and they managed to allow a certain amount of trucks to go depending on what was happening at the customs. Definitely not a place you'd like to spend one or two weeks of your working time. One of the pics represents such the line of trucks. I stopped at the shoulder to make a pic but exactly at the time police flagged the trucks to go so the pic looks like the conwoy's going. But if you look further there's endless tail of stopped trucks. 

[Vladislav]

Ok, I mentioned Gulf fuel station. That's true. I saw many stations branded that way in Georgia. Nothing extraordinar but presence of that American thing took my attention. I must be honest I forgot to make an actual pic when fuelled so the one below is from the net. 

And the most interesting point - the Mack truck. For the first I should say those three conwoys each three kilometer long didn't contein any Macks. Just a few Freightliners, 1 Kenworth (at the pic) and 1 IH I was not able to make a pic of. 

[Vladislav]

But the Mack 😀was met on my way. Otherwise all this blah-blah-blah would'n worth being posted at all. The truck was Iranian. I saw it parked on a side of a road. Also in Georgia but close to Turkish border (don't ask me what I was doing there 😀)

I sure stopped by (there were two trucks with similar trailers but the 1st one was Volvo or MAN), knocked to the cab door and said Salam, adding a few Persian words I happened to learn in the distant past (of having nothing to do definitely). The guys got exited seeing my interest and represented the threasure. I was told it was Iran Kaveh assembled R600 of 1970 with 250hp. It had two sticks originally but was swapped with Eaton due to wear. The truck looked well cared and restored in the past. Fresh paint on the cab and chassis, the engine seemed owerhauled. I honestly have no idea how it's possible to cruise mountain passes of 2500m high having 250 hp and a tank trailer hooked. Just seems I'm way far from knowing everything in this world. 

So here you go

[Mark T]

2500 m ???   How about doing it at 50 years old ?  

[High Binder]

Vlad, Thanks for the pictures and the comments about your travels. You're correct, the scenery is beautiful and I really like your bike.

[mechohaulic]

ditto on the pictures and story.  looks like the R doesn't have AC .  can't believe the R has built in extended cab  vs add on sleeper. caught my attention due to I have a DM-800 in progress (1/25th scale) that has been given a built in extended cab. in between lawns etc cab got primer today. 

[mowerman]

 Yes, thanks for that… cool rig yes 50 years old and still working wow . I expect you had a pretty good time with that motorcycle scenery is gorgeous. I could do without the snow ha ha.. thanks for the post.. Bob

[Vladislav]

9 hours ago, Mark T said:

2500 m ???   How about doing it at 50 years old ?  

The guy looked younger. And the truck either did 😀

[Vladislav]

7 hours ago, High Binder said:

Vlad, Thanks for the pictures and the comments about your travels. You're correct, the scenery is beautiful and I really like your bike.

Thanks for the comment. The bike is quite powerful and fast. But it's cool to drive roads where nobody can check your speed. Currently I'm in the right area😀

[Vladislav]

Eastern Turkey. Kurdish land. Big mountain you can see at the background on the 3rd pic is Ararat. 5137 meter high. Armenian national symbol but geographically located in Turkey. 

BTW no more Mack trucks on my way so far. 

[Vladislav]

5 hours ago, mechohaulic said:

ditto on the pictures and story.  looks like the R doesn't have AC .  can't believe the R has built in extended cab  vs add on sleeper. caught my attention due to I have a DM-800 in progress (1/25th scale) that has been given a built in extended cab. in between lawns etc cab got primer today. 

That's Iranian built cab. You can see difference in the shape of windscreens, doors and even the cowl. They seem ordering chassis and mechanical components from Mack and made cabs and hoods locally. R-model was either produced in short and sleeper versions. 

[Vladislav]

5 hours ago, mowerman said:

 Yes, thanks for that… cool rig yes 50 years old and still working wow . I expect you had a pretty good time with that motorcycle scenery is gorgeous. I could do without the snow ha ha.. thanks for the post.. Bob

Thanks for the comment, Bob. That snow happened to be more of a scenary thing than an issue. The air was nearly 15 Celsias which with help of sun made the ride quite comfortable. 

[harrybarbon]

19 hours ago, Vladislav said:

So the title turned out as quite common chain of events for a general American trucker. At the same time the things I got involved into we of almost different kind. Ok, more correctly at a different place. 

Feeling lust to travel I sat on my motorbike and rode direction Georgia. Which is not the state of the US but the country in Kaukazus mountain region. It's a former part of Soviet Union so plenty of connections with Russia and the most people speak Russian language. There's only road from my place to there and that's a long roamy mountain pass. I never drove there before and got surprized of how beautiful the scenaries were and how difficult was the way. I was really lucky riding (with no rain though) but found out plenty of trucks went that way either and at some places it seemed about impossible to do. But the main trouble for the trucks was crossing the border. Drivers I lalked with said they usually spend from 1 to 10 days in the waiting line. In the mountains, just on a side of the road! 

On my way I met at least 3 "parked conwoys" of nearly 2-3 kilometer long. Police car was placed at the beginning and they managed to allow a certain amount of trucks to go depending on what was happening at the customs. Definitely not a place you'd like to spend one or two weeks of your working time. One of the pics represents such the line of trucks. I stopped at the shoulder to make a pic but exactly at the time police flagged the trucks to go so the pic looks like the conwoy's going. But if you look further there's endless tail of stopped trucks. 

Amazing scenery, thank you for the pictures Vlad. And deep snow this time of the year, it has not melted.

[Vladislav]

1 hour ago, harrybarbon said:

Amazing scenery, thank you for the pictures Vlad. And deep snow this time of the year, it has not melted.

The snow was seen at the mountain pass, about its highest point of 2500m above the sea level. Overall it's quite warm in the region, nearly +20C. And the road was clean and dry including the pass. 

[Brocky]

Vlad, Thanks for the scenic travel log!!!! It is great to see the other parts of the world I will never see otherwise.. What is the reason for the long delays at customs / border crossings???? Did you get held up with the Bike or with a car???? With the number of smaller countries in the area it must take months to travel any distance?????

[Vladislav]

54 minutes ago, Brocky said:

Vlad, Thanks for the scenic travel log!!!! It is great to see the other parts of the world I will never see otherwise.. What is the reason for the long delays at customs / border crossings???? Did you get held up with the Bike or with a car???? With the number of smaller countries in the area it must take months to travel any distance?????

Brocky, you are welcome! It's always fun when you share your fun😀 

The long time waiting is for trucks. Mostly due to cargo. Plenty if paperwork must be arranged. Also X-ray inspection. Sure that's a matter of amount of stuff involved. But it's government business so drivers and cargo owners have to pay by the time spent. 

Cars are much easier deal if not too many in the line. Usually it takes from one to a few hours to pass a border with a car. Motorbike is even more easier deal since you overpass the line of cars (and sure the trucks) and has less lugguge to be inspected. I crossed Geragian border in 1,5 hours and about the same time from Georgia to Turkey. There were no cars at the latter pass at all but I needed Turkish insurance which I didn't buy at home. There was an office at the border cross (they usually are there) but it took them nearly 40 minutes to get the deal done. 

[mrsmackpaul]

Im gunna have to get a map out to work out were you are Vlad

 

Geography of that part of the world isn't any good in my brain

I have read some books of truck drivers crossing from Europe to the middle East and beyond

And even 50 years ago the queues were long and bribes were steep for trucks

Thanks for the story and photos 

 

Paul

[doubleclutchinweasel]

Looks like a VFR?  I used to ride a VFR-750.  Very sexy bikes.

[other dog]

Wow Vlad, thanks for sharing these pictures. As everyone has said that's some beautiful country you're traveling. I was just reading a story about Mt. Ararat this morning and the possibility of the remains of Noah's Ark being found there, fascinating stuff.

I wonder how high those sacks are stacked on that truck, he'll take out every stop light along the way! Looks like a pretty steep hill in that second picture too.

[Vladislav]

On 5/10/2023 at 9:06 PM, mrsmackpaul said:

Im gunna have to get a map out to work out were you are Vlad

 

Geography of that part of the world isn't any good in my brain

I have read some books of truck drivers crossing from Europe to the middle East and beyond

And even 50 years ago the queues were long and bribes were steep for trucks

Thanks for the story and photos 

 

Paul

Paul, to me it seems like a good approach to relate description with a map. If you haven't lost interest in that look where Moscow first. Than Rostov-na-Donu, than Vladikaukaz (still in Russia). Than stretch from Vladikaukaz to Tbilisi (the capital of Georgia) is that portion of the road with the mountain pass and snow aside of the road. 

Than further I passed Georgian city of Borjomi (that's a place Georgians produce well known mineral water branded by the same name as the city). And from there I went to Turkish Ardohan crossing GE/TR border on my way. Than further east to Dogubayazid and today I came to the city of Van near the salt lake of Van. 

[Vladislav]

The castle of Ishak-Pasha in Dogubayazid, Turkey. I haven't learned how long ago it was built and who was that guy but he definitely had a taste in scenaries and too probably women. I honestly can imagine the only thing he missed in his life as collecting antique trucks😀 The last pic is a wiew from one of the windows. 

[Vladislav]

23 hours ago, doubleclutchinweasel said:

Looks like a VFR?  I used to ride a VFR-750.  Very sexy bikes.

Yes, she is. When I was looking for a bike VFR-750 was in my focus. Actually I enjoyed the look. But those 2 or 3 examples to choose from at the time were selling pricy. And all were 17 y.o. At a certain day I visited a bike dealer to look a CBR-600F. It was in a really poor shape but some dark green thing nearby took my attention. I asked "what's that" and heard back "VFR-800" I answered "oh, well, Ok" meaning it was way off my cost range. I looked over the bike though and asked to try seat on it. That was my "mistake". Next morning I woked up and found myself realizing " I don't want to look for a motorbike anymore"😀Called the guys, arranged the deal, payed twice of what I was planning to. Have ridden her for 16 years since and never had a thought I made a wrong choice that day😀

[doubleclutchinweasel]

This was my VFR and a friend's ZX7 on a trip to the famous "Dragon's Tail" (AKA: the place I grew up and learned to drive!).  This was May 5th, 1998.

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by doubleclutchinweasel

[Vladislav]

Met a steam loc on my way today. Turkish guys made a cool thing keeping an old portion of the bridge (there's a new one in 20 meters aside) and layed rails on it. My original guess was that was and old RR bridge but I didn't find traces of the track before and after the bridge. So seemed like it was a product of someone's creativity and it turned out fine on my mind. The loc itsef represented relatively poor condition but looked like it was restered to some grade in the past. The car showed traces of vandalizm but was solid overall. Would be interesting to count out was that Turkish produced loc or a imported one and where it was made if so. 

[Joey Mack]

Awesome pictures Guy's !!!