I kept driving I had no plans to see anything just to drive and get past the city of Dnepropetrovsk and find a camping spot. Then I saw a sign that said something about a memorial to a bridgehead. So I followed the sign.
First I found this memorial and cemetery. The guys here were killed in the fighting for the brindge head here in Sep-Oct 1943
In typical fashion there was one sign that said bridge head this way. Then the road forks and enters a town and of course there are no more signs.... Well I asked a few people and finally found what I was looking for.
The view of the river
Sorry its fuzzy but here is an over view of the memorial. I haven't found an exact number of people killed here. Everything I can read about it makes it out that this was a rather small bridgehead and once they got to this side the Soviets got held up by the Germans and never really did to much.
From there I kept driving. I went through Dnepropetrovsk and headed towards Poltava. The road was nice and I was making good time. I was hot and sweating all day I wanted to find a place to camp along some water so I could swim. It was about 7:00 pm and the sun was exactly in front of me and blinding me. Next thing I know at the last moment I see a massive hole in the road. To late to stop or miss it I hit it head on and HARD!
It knocked the wind out of me. I pulled over did a quick inspection but didnt see anything wrong. I kept going but every time I hit a bump the handlebars would dance a bit. I stopped again to see a massive amount of oil coming out of the boot on one of my forks. Well what to do now.
I found a little pond and pulled off. There was a bunch of younger guy on mopeds there. I stopped and asked if I could camp here and they said sure why not.
They didnt stay long and took off about the time my tent was set up. I changed and went swimming as the sunset. It was nice.
The next morning I woke up early. Figuring I needed to get to Kiev and knew one fork was puking oil I wanted to get an early start and maybe beat the heat. The ride home was uneventful. The road was well paved and I made it before lunch time! Now to hunt down new fork seals
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