Day 19 - Joniškis, Lithuania - Choice One is Paying

Tony's View

We have been having so much going on that I forgot to let everyone know that Choice One is paying for this bicycle trip. It is my 30th anniversary trip. What a great place to work that they would pay for a trip like this. Just so you know, Choice One is hiring and if you're interested, you can get ahold of Brittany Clinehens at bnc@choiceoneengineering.com. If you do apply, remember to say you heard it from this blog, so I get the finders reward. 😂😂👍. 

Today was more highway riding. I would say 90% of today's ride was high traffic with little shoulder. 

We started out the first couple of miles with a 12" shoulder, then for a couple more miles we had an 18" shoulder and we were saying this is much better. It is amazing how 6" makes all the difference. Soon after saying that, it switched to a 6" shoulder and stayed that way most of the rest of the day. A 6" shoulder it difficult to maintain. You have to keep a straight line which takes a lot of concentration while looking in the mirror to make sure everyone gets over at least a little bit. Overall, drivers were very nice and even the oncoming traffic on the other side would move over onto their white line when there was traffic passing on both sides. That allowed the traffic on our side the ability to go a little over the center line.

At the border between the Latvia and Lithuania border, there was this abandoned border crossing station. We are guessing that the Soviet's wanted to keep track of everyones' whereabouts by checking their passports.

Just a few hundred feet farther we got the Lithuania border sign, and Joan is holding up 3 fingers for our 3rd Baltic State. Not sure if this sign or the border crossing is in the right place. If Choice One would have surveyed it, we would know which one would be right. Did I let you know that Choice One is paying and that Choice One is hiring?😊

After few more miles, we started looking for our Airbnb. We struggled a little bit. Then I asked a sweet pregnant lady with her little daughter who was super helpful and we finally found it. By the way, she knew no English, but was still able to help us. She seemed to understood thank you when I said it.

Joan's Extras

Lots of farm fresh air today and lots of gnats or some other little bugs. It was a lesson at keeping your mouth shut. 

We found a sushi place and let Marla know it too. I learned there how to say thank you in Lithuanian. It's ačiū, pronounced the same way that we sneeze, achoo. 

Also, we went to Maxima for some snacks and breakfast. Tony tried to buy his usual couple bottles of beer, but got denied. They have a policy that allows stores to sell beer on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays only between certain hours. Nice evening for a walk though!