Having the motorcycle exported to Europe ready for this years adventure

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We’re back home from waving off the bike. Well, actually, we feel more like we abandoned her in a Savannah warehouse. She’s now in the good hands of the folks at Schumacher Cargo to send on her way across the ocean to England. To be met by us (somewhere) in 5 weeks time. Apparently they can’t tell us where yet! This messes with my organizational psyche and I’m not sure how to deal with it!

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A while ago I wrote about why we decided to ship the bike over rather than rent or buy in the UK. What seemed like a good decision and the simplest option, seems to have grown arms and legs as we have gotten closer to leaving. Iain is about ready to pull his hair out (which he can’t afford to do) as he receives yet another email with details of what needs to be done in order to;
a) to ship the bike off at all
&
b) to enable us to pick her up on the other side.

Of course, said emails started as soon as we dropped her off thinking it was all a done deal! Our heads are swirling with customs forms, insurance needs, possible carnets to be bought etc. etc. etc.I anticipate a whole blog post dedicated to this kerfuffle to follow!

Additionally, we received a call from the UK rep asking us to call him as he “had an issue” with the fact that some of the countries we are going to aren’t in the EU. Due to the time difference we couldn’t reach him today so we have to wait and wonder as to what possible issue that could be!

To save on luggage space and weight when we fly over next month, all of our riding gear was carefully stowed in the panniers and top case and sent off with the bike.

My last post addressed how bloody freezing it was in North Carolina and how we realized that we need to invest a bit in some thermal, windproof clothing. Again, there was much research to be done and reviews to be read. Ultimately, we went a bit KLIM crazy! We chose;

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Men’s Inversion Jacket
Women’s Whistler Jacket
Mens Zephyr Wind Shirt
Women’s Solstice Shirt, 3.0
Men’s Aggressor Pants, 3.0
Women’s Solstice Pants, 2.0
PowerXross Gloves
We already had the Men’s Induction, Hi Viz Jacket, Men’s Voyager Air Pants and the Women’s Avalon Jacket. I think KLIM should be paying us to advertise them on this trip!

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Of course, nothing is ever simple with us! It seems that now spring has officially sprung, the cold weather and thermal gear was out of stock. With a bit of searching I was finally able to gather all we needed from a combination of Amazon, EBay, Revzilla and Twisted Throttle. Thank God for the internet!

So, Savannah…it’s one of our favorite cities to visit, so of course, we had to take advantage of this and spend a couple of nights there. We travelled with our pals, Michelle and Ralph so it was double the fun. Suffice to say, the Keto diet went right out the window as we enjoyed the various eating and drinking establishments on offer. Not to mention the delicious pralines from River Street Sweets, that Michelle insisted on buying us. She is such a bad influence! Our lovely AirBnB was just perfect and an easy walk away from all the fun. The hostess Sarah. We tried to tell ourselves that the exercise countered the calories but that’s unlikely!

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The shipping place was super easy to find, thankfully, as I was leading in the car as Iain followed me. It was pretty interesting looking around the warehouse seeing what vehicles were being shipped and wondering at the stories behind them.
There was a similar bike to ours, a BMW GSA which looked well ridden and we thought that surely there was an interesting travel tale to be told. I noticed a sticker on the side and when I Googled it later, I came up with this website and was able to read all about the journey that the bike had been on, around the world in 365 days!

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There were a few classic cars too; including one that reminded me of the movie Titanic. Remember that naughty scene!

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So now, we’re back home again and counting the days until it’s time for us to leave. I’m finalizing the packing and making sure that I have all the cards and gifts together for the various celebrations we’ll be a part of along the way.
Meanwhile, Iain is gazing wistfully at the empty space in the garage and wondering how to get through the next 5 weeks without his “baby”. Perhaps he shouldn’t have sold his old one yet because, of course, the weather her in Tampa has taken a cooler turn again and it’s lovely biking weather!

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Follow our posts as we prepare for our 13 week tour of Europe that starts in May 2018!

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