Jeff's Blog - Friday, September 30, 2016 - Olympia to Elliniko

I'm snakebit. I hit a pothole in a middle-of-nowhere country road which immediately gave me two flat tires on the left side of my car. Two flats with only one spare tire is a great way to ruin your day. I was really in no man's land, a winding road through the mountains, no towns or even houses or buildings anywhere around. One side of the road was an olive grove, the other was some kind of farm I think. I had no idea where I was and Avis couldn't accept my GPS coordinates as the spot to send a tow truck, so I waited about 15 minutes until a car passed me, I flagged him down, and asked him to speak to Avis and explain where I was. After this I waited about 2.5 more hours in the heat for the tow truck to arrive. His shop, about 20 minutes away, had no tires of the type my car required in stock (they tires apparently couldn't be repaired). He drove me and the car another 30 minutes into the city of Pyrgos to buy 2 new tires for about $250. It took about 2 more hours for the tires to be mounted and me to be on my way. Today's sites were cancelled of course. Hoping for tomorrow.

"Layers in the Distance", today's photo, just minutes before my troubles began. Taken from the winding road on the side of a mountain, looking across a very large valley.

OK, now my pre-prepared route map is really screwed up, but here it is anyhow. I didn't actually go to the Messene, way down to the south, or my second site, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, but instead just went straight from Olympia (actually, from Pyrgos, a large city on the west coast, to the left of Olympia) to Elliniko, the final stop on what should have been today's itinerary. I knew the last hour of road to Elliniko was treacherous mountain road, so wanted to arrive before dark, and I just barely made it.

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