13 August ’04, FRIDAY!!!! Today we left Elblag and it had just started to give us a little light rain. We were heading for the Baltic Sea and a ride along one of the long “spit’s”. The one we chose to ride out was the one that stops right at the Russian border. Well, that’s getting a little ahead of this day. Everything was going smoothly after my fiasco with a gas station, but I wont get into that. On our way up to the coast, about a 50 Km ride (30 Miles), we saw a very large bi-plane warming up for take-off. You know about the size of the bi-planes that are used in the fields for spraying the crops, well, take and multiply that size of plane by 4 or 5 times. It was HUGE !!! Design was about the same, but after that….Wow. Well, as we pulled in to the first village at the beginning of the spit, we came into our 1st really heavy tourist area….people and vehicles were everywhere. We tried not to take too long in getting through and onto the destination of the end of the spit. A short distance out of the first village, we ran into more rain and the roads went to….yes they did !!! So we spent the next 45 km traveling about 15 to 20 miles an hour at max. When we finally did reach Plaski, the road came to a very unusual stop….right in someone’s driveway….beyond that was the Russian border. So time came to turn around and find someplace to park and see for the first time the Baltic. The whole time we traveled this narrow spit and there wasn’t one time we could see the Sea because of the heavy tree’s and high sand dunes. There were parking area’s, complete with attendants off and on all along the coast, but no sea view for those driving. The Sea was just over those sand dunes and trees…. We did find a spot to park (Free), and a trail to take us to the Baltic Sea for the first time. I will remind you, it was raining and the trail had deep and very fine sand that stuck (and is still sticking) to everything. Oh yes, it was up a long sand dune to finally see the beach. We walked over, stuck our feet into the Sea, and walked back…. We’ll stop at a campground somewhere else and enjoy the sea…. The ride back was just a painful as the first, but our destination was the larger city of Gdansk and with all the crowds at the beach and the rain and everything it has to be a lot better. On the ride to Gdansk, we ran into a traffic jam that seemed to last forever before anyone would move. After waiting in this line for about 20-30 minutes, and having lunch in the van, we finally got closer to the problem…..IT WAS A FERRY LINE-UP WE WERE IN IT!!!! Well, we said something that I can’t remember, but we made a u-turn and went looking for another way to Gdansk. As it turned out, and to make this journal much shorter by leaving out the rest of the catastrophe, we fought HEAVY CONSTRUCTION TRAFFIC every turn we made, the rain got worse, we couldn’t find a campsite, and we were getting hungry !!!! We drove completely away from the area as fast? as we could and finally about 8 last night we arrived in Gradziadz. About 120km due South of our first destination. So much for FRIDAY the 13th Tomorrow…..REST !!!