May 7, 2023 - Bihac, Bosnia and Herzegovina

 Today was our day of rest.  We did not ride the motorcycle although I did run a few errands with the father who owns the Airbnb we are staying at.  It was a nice, warm day with no rain.  Tomorrow may get a little wet.

We sat on our front porch in the sun drinking coffee for almost 2 hours this morning. It felt great.  We ate some bread, cheese and salami we bought at the grocery store yesterday. 

I have been a little concerned that we have overloaded the weight carrying capacity of our side cases when our dry bags are strapped on top of them.  So, I unloaded some straps I brought with me and was fooling around with them in the driveway.  The side without the exhaust pipe will work well by supporting the case to the frame with a nylon tie down strap.  A nylon tie down strap will melt against the exhaust on the other side case so I needed something else I didn't have.  The homeowner, Omer,  notice me working on it and came over.  His English is a little better than my Bosnian but not much.  Through hand signals and Google Translate he offered to take me to the local hardware and see what we could find.  It was a beautiful store resembling a slightly smaller version of Home Depot.  I bought some stainless steel cable, attachment bolts and an extra pair of nylon tie down straps just in case.

The bottom line is that we did good and were able to rig a support system on the exhaust side with the cable, some protective hosing and attachment bolts.  It should work okay until I come up with another brilliant fix.

Sooz and I walked to an ATM for some local cash and then to a local restaurant for dinner.  They had a limited menu due to kitchen construction. They didn't speak any English so we had no idea what we ordered and it kind of showed.  I liked it because it had a lot of sausage, but Sooz could have done with a lighter fare.  We recognized the local salad Sopska which we had enjoyed during our last trip to the Balkans in 2018, but the limited menu did not allow it.  The entire meal for both of us including bottled water came to about $9.00 US.

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain a little.  We are going to try to get liability insurance for the bike and then take it easy.  The river across the street is easy to walk to and enjoy, plus, we can hear it in our apartment.

Our dinner menu.  It turned out we each ordered the Desetka u cijeloj.

The Desetka u cijeloj platter with a scoop of mild feta-like cheese, and bottled water.  I enjoyed it.

Our new friend enjoying our motorcycle.  You can also see the nylon tie down on the non-exhaust side case.

The Una River across the street from our Airbnb

Omer and me crossing cultural divides while working on the bike.  Photo by Sooz.

Another shot of our new friend.  Photo by Sooz.