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If it seemed serious, Claire would take a pile of bedding into the hallway, two walls separating her from the outside as recommended, and try to sleep there. Bob, though, would stay in bed.

Sleep was too important, he reasoned, and the odds of getting struck by a Russian missile or drone were low enough in a city of 3 million, where maybe three buildings were struck during a given attack.

It’s the kind of decision residents of the Ukrainian capital make all the time, the couple said in an interview from Lviv, in western Ukraine.

“When you think about the chances, the odds of you yourself getting hit are pretty slim, but you never know,� Claire Rogers said. “You still have to decide for yourself what your risk tolerance is.�

Bob Rogers, 81, and Claire Rogers, 61, who live on Tucson’s east side, have a pretty strong risk tolerance. They’ve biked all over the world and tend to follow where adventure leads them.

This summer it was to Ukraine. They left Tucson May 13 and arrived May 20 at the Poland-Ukraine border, where they assembled their collapsible bikes and rode across the international line and on to Lviv. From there, they took a train to Kyiv.

The plan: To donate their bikes and help establish a new community garden in the capital city. They did that, of course, and much more as events unfolded.

Neither speaks Russian or Ukrainian — or Danish, a language that became important — but they know how to manage.

“From all the years of traveling in Asia and South America, different places, we have gotten very good at pantomime,� Bob Rogers said.

Garden expertise shared

The garden was a natural for the Rogerses, since they had helped start one more than a decade ago at the Far Horizons RV Resort on Tucson’s east side.

“We learned a lot from doing that one, and we thought we could help share what we’ve learned with the community garden here,� Claire Rogers said.

Work had already begun on establishing the garden, in a spot where a building had collapsed and debris was scattered.

“They brought in a big Caterpillar excavator to clean out and make space for us to put in garden beds and paths,� Bob said.

“We’ve been building planter boxes and benches and swings and helping with a lot of improvements to this public square,� Claire added.

They helped put in a bocce ball court and exercise and playground equipment. All kinds of things to help people get out and exercise and simply be in the outdoors together.

“A lot of this is focused on health, getting people to get out and improve their health and mood and also socializing,� Bob said.

Claire explained: “People in Ukraine are under a great deal of stress. We spent six weeks or longer in Kyiv, and almost every night you were at least awakened once. And so people there haven’t been getting good sleep for three years. For us it was only a few weeks, but we could certainly feel it.�

A Danish convoy

In the midst of their garden effort, a new adventure arose. Their garden project was being led by a Dane, so they heard of people from Denmark who were driving donated vehicles needed in the war effort to Ukraine. A convoy needed drivers.

The Rogerses took a moment to ponder it and, of course, went ahead. They flew to Copenhagen and joined a 10-vehicle convoy, steering a Toyota four-wheel drive pickup east to Ukraine over two days.

The drivers all communicated with radios, but that didn’t help the Rogerses.

“It was all in Danish, so I just had to follow along closely,� Claire said. “They gave me the privileged spot of being right behind the lead driver so that I could just stay close and follow.�

“So, we had driven into Kyiv in the dark, and then I had to do it again later because of a party that we had the next day.�

That’s another story that took place after an evening gathering with the Danish convoy drivers outside Kyiv.

“By the third bottle of wine, the trains had all stopped for the night, and Uber drivers were not willing to make the 45-minute drive out to get us, and curfew was only an hour and a half away,� Claire wrote in the couple’s blog, . “’Claire, are you sober enough to drive us, in Jesper’s car, back to our hotel?’� one of the Danes asked.

“By the time they asked me a second time, I thought I’d better be. So, I was. Just as we started the car up, the air raid sirens went off.�

Suffice it to say they made it, again, though she picked up an automated speeding ticket and a parking ticket in the process.

Unnerving drone attacks

The days tended to start late in Kyiv, the Rogerses said.

“In some European cities, if you want to get out before the crowd, you would get out before 8 a.m.,� Bob said.

In Kyiv, it was more like 10 or 11 a.m. People tended to stay in longer, recovering from the warnings or attacks the night before.

In fact, the Rogerses were there when of the whole war.

As much as people got used to the attacks, they were still unnerving. The drones were especially bad where the Rogers were living, near the Dnieper River. Civil defense officials tried to shoot down the drones over the river so they wouldn’t damage buildings or hurt people on the ground.

“You can hear the drone getting closer and closer, and they’re trying to shoot it down, and then all of a sudden you hear the closer guns trying to shoot it down, and it sets your teeth on edge,� Claire said.

The good side of the war, if you can say that, is that it has brought people together in what the Rogerses see as an undefeatable resistance. And the Rogerses got to be part of that as they put their spirit of adventure to good use.

“Volunteering with people, doing something you all believe in, creates instant friendships,� Claire said. “It’s just amazing closeness that’s it’s hard to come by any other way.�

They encourage other people to vacation in Ukraine, too. But, of course, that would depend on your risk tolerance and spirit of adventure.