March 31, 279 miles from Kiev, 2542 miles to Lisbon, Portugal. The ride is now 10% done.
The sky is blue and matches the gold and baby blue colors of the Russian Orthodox churches in the area. Even the fence around the town monument is blue. Even the Ukrainian flag is the same blue and gold.
3/24/10: Crossing the Goryn River at the town of Goryn.
I took a short video of the river as I rode along it…
March 22: 48 degrees, light rain. 2564 miles to go to Lisbon. Looking up the history of Sarny, again I see that the Jews of the area were plentiful, but not very welcome. The Khmelnytsky Uprising was centered near here. It was Cossack rebellion in Ukraine in 1648-1657 which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland.
The ultimate aim became a creation of Ukrainian autonomous state. The Uprising succeeded in ending the Polish influence over those Cossack lands that were eventually taken by the Tsardom of Russia .
In Ukraine, Bohdan Khmelnytsky is generally regarded as a national hero and a father of the nation. His image is prominently displayed on Ukrainian banknotes and his monument in the center of Kiev is the focal point of the Ukrainian capital.
The entire Jewish population of the Commonwealth in that period (1618 to 1717) has been estimated to be about 200,000. Jewish Ukrainian communities were devastated by the uprising, during that period total Jewish casualties are estimated at least 100,000.
222 miles from Kiev. March 20.
Still following the Sluch river. This area has been historically disputed between Ukraine and Poland.
3/19/10: Sosonve Ukraine. 53 degrees, sunny. Population 2,074 (2006). I am following the Sluch River, which flows through the town. There are a few hills here.
Did you know that 76,000 Americans have been hit by cars while walking or biking in their communities in the last 15 years?
Most of America’s roads are designed for cars – and for cars only. That doesn’t make any sense in a country where one in three people doesn’t have access to a car, and where half of all trips could be accomplished with a 20-minute bike ride.
A new bill was just introduced in Congress would jumpstart the process of transforming our transportation infrastructure to make it friendlier to bikers and walkers – the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R. 4722). It would create a federal grant program to fund local projects aimed at improving conditions for pedestrians and cyclists.
Will you join me in asking our representatives in Congress to co-sponsor this bill? I just sent a letter to mine, and it just takes a second:
http://action.smartgrowthamerica.org/t/3224/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2434
March 17, 2010. Ivanika – 191 miles from Kiev. It is a lucky thing for me that my grandfather was able to leave for the United States before 1942. More than 2,000 Jews from Korets, Ukraine (Korets had a population of 8,600 in 2001 and is the closest “large” town to my grandfather’s birthplace of Kylykiev), were led out of town, down a rural road through the forest, to mass graves, where they were shot in May 1942.
Kylykyiv, March 15, 2010 – 168 mi from Kiev – 2,653 to Lisbon. 25 degrees, raining.
My grandfather Mordecai was born and lived in Kylykyiv. His family was very poor. Thy lived in a dirt floored hut. The nearest town of any size was Korets, about 13 miles away. When he finished his training as a shochet (Jewish kosher slaughterer) he worked for a little while in a small village living in the home of some cousins. Then, much against his mother’s wishes, he decided to go to America. His main reason for wanting to leave was that he did not want to serve in the Russian Tsar’s army. That was one of the main reasons that young Jewish men left. Another reason was that the economic opportunities were non-existent. Jewish life in that part of the world was very very difficult.
3/11/10 – Yablunivka Ukraine. 28° F, Cloudy.
Yablunivka, population 82, has a store, but it is no Stuarts Shop. Where I am from there is a Stuarts every 10 miles or so whenever I go for a bicycle ride.
Forest near the village of Yablunivka
Village shop Yablunivka
3/10/10 – Yablunets, Ukraine. 32F, clear.
Some snapshots I took along the road
3/8/10: Korosten, Ukraine. 24 F, light snow. This historic city in the northen Ukraine located on the Uzh River.
The city was founded over a millennium ago and was the capital of an ancient Slavic state that was later incorporated into Kievan Rus′.
The city is relatively small, mainly because it is located very close to Chernobyl. After the nuclear incident, the area around the city was declared a zone of a voluntary evacuation.
Jud's Bike Log 