[Ruppert]

I met this guy in downtown Seattle on Saturday. He's a 62-year old deaf mute from Belarus who's riding around the world. Pretty interesting story:

http://www.motorbyte.com/mmm/pages/2003/62/hip62.htm
http://www.orfica.com/yarets/index_eng.html

He's traveled over 84,000 km, visiting 29 countries and all 50 states so far. He told me it's too cold here and he's heading for South America next. :clap

 

[mnewell]

Cool!

He's a deaf mute and he can talk?

 

[Ruppert]

mnewell said:He's a deaf mute and he can talk?

He communicates with signs and gestures. He's very expressive, it's actually not that hard to understand him. He also showed me a bunch of pictures, maps and articles that chronicled his journey.

Last year he was hit by a truck in Illinois and suffered a broken pelvis and other injuries. That laid him up for a while I guess, in addition to totalling his bike. Various rider groups and a BMW dealership in Illinois raised a bunch of money and got him a new bike. He pretty much makes his way around on donations from people. If you do a google search, there are tons of articles and forums on him out there.

 

[Gage151]

That sucks, probably didnt hear the truck coming.. It's cool that so many people pitched in to help him.. I like hearing stories like that.. It would be interesting to see if any non-riders helped out..