BIKES OVER BAGHDAD trip #3 for Chad DeGroot
10 days, 50.2 hours in the air not including layover hours just in-flight hours, 26,712 miles and close to 27k total miles traveled, 5 shows, 2 Country’s, Bikes Over Baghdad trip #13 and MY 3rd. 5x bags lost including 2 bikes and all our tools Since June 11th care of Turkish airlines in Istanbul, Turkey. 50 hours total staring at our phones or our life support devices. Keep in mind this in my perspective of this trip, all words, thoughts, and situations were from my mind as I see it. -Chad D
Day 1 3:56pm Tuesday flight to Orlando-NYC-Paris-Niamey 15 hours flight time and Tons of miles traveled. First flight crammed in tight and on a garbage airlines called Delta. Flight attendants job is not really that hard is it? Lady next to me is doing puzzles of the fastest animals. In a holding pattern. Not awesome. Why do they and can they charge so much for everything at airports? I do not understand French but I did hear “poop on a croissant”. Going to try and avoid plane food altogether but I called ahead for a veggie style and with that it always comes out WAY quicker than everyone else so they can just smell mine.
Day 2 3:15pm Little sleep. More catching flies and dry mouth. Only 103 degrees outside. Lost my clothing bag. It is still in Paris. Start building as they got a ton of wood for us. Niamey Africa…I would have never guessed we would be here.
Day 3 Late for breakfast. Small sand storm and huge rain storms last night blew open our door several times and slamming it so hard. Was ok being dry since mosquitos and Maleria is a problem. Now it’s wet…do the math. Need our yellow fever card to get out of the country. Was suppose have one to get in. Guess there are 4 at the embassy. Not enough. No wifi and no outside contact. Sunny and time to build. Tour of the small base and meet n greets. Holding guns and telling stories. Show #1 was working out the bugs and getting adapted but awesome regardless. Excited crew watching the demo. Another wild storm tonight.
Day 4 Changed up show #2 with a hip and it helped. More wood delivered so it’s a full Course with wall ride. Thousands of bugs attended the show as well. Started an hour early as rain chances are high. Amazing show and everyone killed it. Always midnight chow sessions and great stories. We are all getting worried about the bugs and everything trying to kill us.
Day 5 sunny and blazing. Slept late. Moved the course to the heli pad so it’s going to be a hot outside show. Smooth big surface with a French fire truck to ride. Huge turn out for the show including the French. Enjoying the ac most of the day. Uv is at 10 or very high. Lots of deet and high uv protection. Everyone killed it at the show plus made a lil edit for Artical 15 and their new movie. Stoked. Most everyone are staying up till early morning guess cause they can’t sleep or better wifi.
Day 6 105 degrees 11:55am. Visit the local vendors who set up hand carved wood and wild jewelry and more. Get invited to the French base where we get a quick tour plus some expresso. Eat, sweat, eat, sweat, repeat. Line was cut by a truck so they got it back up and Internet is game on. FaceTime with the family and loading pics n videos. Doing laundry again. Packing for our 3am flight to Turkey, then Qatar, then Djibouti. Full day of flying and airports.
Day 7 1:01am. No ac at the airport. Glad it’s nighttime but seriously overheating. Filthy animals on this flight love to frolic in the bathroom water. Not sure if their washing feet in the sink. Istanbul-Qatar-Djibouti. Blows my mind were in commercial airplane flying over Baghdad in a bright white plane. Thank you wine for taking my mind off this. Long day. 11:52pm finally landed.
Day 8 We all woke up like zombies in containers. For real the base is a container city stacked 3 high. Great lunch and meet n greets with the commander and staff at Camp Lemonnier. Free day otherwise. Trying to avoid the heat. Lots of wifi and MWR sessions. Late night chow. Good night.
Day 10 Chill day and pack for another full day of flights and traveling. Two meet n greets. First flight of three is delayed. Lady next to me is so big she needs the seat belt extension. Wow. People eat anything given to them on planes. Even if it sucks. Munch it down gobble gobble. I always have food with me cause I do not see a lot of airlines food sitting well.
Day 11 Over flying as the last flight went overnight from Ethiopia to USA 15 hours long. Tossing and turning. Food looks like packaged crap. Editing a few videos and watching a couple movies. Amazing how many people can fit on a plane. Ended up loosing 3x of our bikes and most of our bags. Some guys got them back a few days later but 3x bikes are still missing and its been over 7 days as of now. Air France and Turkish Air are pretty well known to loose things. Now we wait…
It took over 25 days to receive our bags. Crazy how many miles my bike went on this trip alone…lost and found and flown and driven around the world.
Go check out and follow the crew who make this possible: @bikesoverbaghdad @catfishvsthug @mykellarrin @anthonynapo @chaddegroot @chadkagy @livewireconstruction @wesselbuilt @texasmwade @mulligan4130 @darden4130 @armedforcesent @texaspetesauces #bikesoverbaghdad #decobmx @decobmx #profileracing @profile_racing
InstaVids:
Pics:
Here is our autograph poster that turned out sweet. New one each deployment and this one is the best so far.
Not my pic but the base doctor showed us this which happened a few days before we arrived. Wall of sand. Blinding sand storms. We were in two at night so it sounded and looked like the end of the world. And we did get rain both nights which came in sideways it was blowing so hard.
Most meet and greets involve guns and some of the crew wearing red white and blue wildness.
Guns, everyday guns…
Mykel pushed it this time and barely got over 16 people…damn.
Always story time in the transport bus. Were always being transported so why not.
Our 2nd time in Djibouti and we assume were welcome back.
We had our own rooms with blasting AC to keep the bugs out and stay cool but by the last night they were onto us. We spent hours squishing them so we could try to sleep.
These fellas were everywhere and Catfish and Napo were on a missing to catch one. But if they did they did not know what to do next.
Airport selfies are a must.
1st show working out the bugs and dealing with dust.
Everything in Africa wants to kill you.
This is stored outside in the sun. Never ate any, never tried, and so many questions…
Required group photo and bones pose is a must.
Motion sensors at all gates and even areas with water drainage. Also Morgan can sleep anywhere even in a chair with is arm pits exposed.
See ya later Africa but not our bags and bikes…they lost most everything.
The sand makes the sky look like Mars on some days. It’s confusing at times cause the sun looks almost white like the moon.
This trip was pretty chill so we did not have to wear these and helmets…
2nd show, they keep getting better with jet lag wearing off and getting use to our format.
Airport life, some people just can’t stand up and travel. ITs nuts…she just sat there after she fell.
Bugs on my head. Hoping none want to kill me.
Signing autographs after each show, telling stories, and bringing smiles to the soldiers.
This is unreal to have to normal decades and one smith decade from Morgan in the background.
I do love Texas Pete sass. They are a great sponsor for our trip. My favorite is the Garlic.
Last show on the helipad and we invited the French. See that French firetruck in the background? Check the videos above to see the marks and what went down on that.
This is nuts. WOW.
Meet n greets and tour of the Camp Lemonnier base seeing the Navy boats and the hospital trying to commit Catfish to the luny bin.
These nuns never been on a plane, and really could not figure out the escalator so they turned it off and they were climbing on their hands and knees to get up that thing. What a sight. Sunny and 108 but feels like 133. Africa hot.
Thanks for taking a look. Check out everyones Insta pages, know we have a great crew, we enjoy bringing entertainment and smiles to the soldiers, and we will be back to a new part of the world and new bases. Huge thanks to Keith Mulligan for the photos and less than normal sleep making then pics and what we do awesome remembrance of this trip. -Chad D
Source: Bikes Over Baghdad, Chad DeGroot