The circle is complete!

Well, today we really did live the final chapter of our "Round The World" adventure as we picked up Kevin's motorcycle from the docks. We were fully prepared to have some difficulty getting the two-wheeled vehicle out of Customs, but everyone was very nice, probably bouied by the fantastic blue-sky weather we're having and are predicted to have throughout the week-end. The US Custom officer even signed and stamped our "unusually formal" carnet without much ado and sent us on our merry way to collect the bike from the shipper. At the shipping warehouse, once again we were prepared for a long wait, but in a matter of minutes (and after paying the mysterious $135 handling charge) the crate was brought out and plopped down on Kevin truck-bed. All together, the whole process only took about one hour, including driving time. Not bad at all. Needless to say, Kevin was very excited to drive over to his garage and unpack the bike as soon as he possibly could. First things first though, and it was lunch time so we drove to Wendy's first for a celebratory double-bacon-cheeseburger lunch.







We spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking the bike and all the riding gear we had packed along with it. In fact, we think we actually could have packed a whole load of gems and diamonds in the panniers and no one would have known any better. As Kevin put his bike back together, I put on my riding boots and a borrowed helmet and took my first ride in months...since Turkey in fact. The bike felt fantastic, I can tell it missed me as much as I missed riding it! The ride was as they say, "short-n-sweet", only a couple of blocks to get gas. When he was finished with his tools, Kevin took the same fuel ride, the teaser, and returned very happy. In fact, he will be riding his bike all weekend since he is teaching a motorcycle safety course tomorrow and on Sunday.

As we drove "home" with the bike strapped in on the flatbed, we noticed that many fellow two-wheelers had taken advantage of the perfect weather to take their maiden voyage of the season. Motorcycle are everywhere! Once at home, I proceeded to give my riding jacked a thorough cleaning, something I had been holding off on doing until we left the grime and pollution of the third world behind. Now it's all down the drain and hopefully my jacket will look blue again, not new, not after 365 days of consecutive wear, just blue; happy, happy blue!