Loading Up

We finally got our bikes shipped out Sunday the 15th after a week of delays. Apparently the shipping company had some mechanical problems with one of their trucks. Good thing we allowed for an extra week. Here's a picture of Shane, the truck driver, loading up Robb's bike. These guys went over our bikes with a fine toothed comb making sure they noted every little blemish. I was a little worried that my windshield would be too tall -- the height limit is 59" and my bike is 62" tall. Shane assured me that it was no problem -- they would remove and reinstall the windshield if necessary. It seemed to clear by about an inch.

The second picture is my bike all loaded up. I have to admit it's a little strange giving some dude your 20k+ bike and only getting a little pink piece of paper in return. The next time I see it we should at the Harbor City California Harley Davidson dealership. I hope we packed everything we needed. Three weeks from today we should have the first leg behind us and be in Monterey, CA.

The Route

Here's the route we are taking (as it stands today) starting at Harbor City, CA and ending up in Gainesville, FL. I was able to create a route for each day and download them to my GPS. You can click on the image to see a full size map. As of this posting we intend to travel for 14 days, visit 10 states, and ride over 4400 miles.

Packing Up

We got a call a few days ago and found out our bikes will ship out sometime between Sunday, July 8th and Tuesday, July 10th. I woke up early this morning to put Robb's bike back together (don't ask). By noon I had my bike clean, Robb's bike back together, and Jim's in pieces on the garage floor. We wired up Jim's XM receiver in record time despite the sweltering heat. Everything is buttoned up and our bikes should be ready to ship tomorrow.

As of 4:00pm Saturday, I have yet to pack anything in my bike. Since I'm a bit larger than my riding partners, my clothes, jacket, helmet (yes, I have a big noggin) take more space. I'm also taking a laptop so our dozens of fans can keep track of our progress, and a generous number of tools. Hopefully it will all fit as planned -- we'll see.