Getting Closer!!

Honda ST 1300


Kawasaki Concours
Suzuki VStrom - Oh baby!!

As of this morning we're now officially less than three weeks until we leave - only 20 more sleeps until I head to Spokane!!

I'm heading down to Spokane early in the evening of Jan 11th and I fly to Phoenix the next morning. The good news is I'm not too excited at all. Unless you count waking up at 5:00 each morning because checklists, gear lists and the myriad things that can go wrong, are all flying around in my head. I initially tried to fight it but now I just get up and surf my new porn sites: E-Bay Motors, Motor-Cycle Superstore, Adventure Rider and Horizons Unlimited. Rosi says there's only so many times I can read comparisons between a VStrom and an ST1300 and that I'm entering obsession territory. Entering? I passed entering long ago! I'm now fully into obsession and closly approaching neurosis. I'm already planning the next bike and the next ride! At this point I'm leaning towards the VStrom as an excellent all-rounder, or maybe the Versys, but I have to admit I have just a wee bit of speed demon in me and a Concours or ST has a certain appeal. No rough road capably but they both go like a raped ape and they're oh, so sexy! Nothing like an old short hairy fat guy on a nice bike. Hey, I can at least pretend it's me and not the bike people are looking at :-)

Rosi and I once walked past an Ex-Officio store in an airport in the US and their slogan was that they were a store for those travellers that were already planning the next trip before they got on the plane to leave on this one. It spoke to me - I'm that guy!

Anyway, I have to run to do some last minute shopping. Here are pictures of my current dream bikes. Enjoy and have a fantastic Christmas.

My "best" friend

A few pictures of my best friend, Dexter.
OK Kevan, my other best friend....
:-)

One Month to Go!!

Not much new to report but we're now at the one month mark!
My Dad spent four hours working on Brad's bike installing the replacement windshield for us. It's one more thing out of the way. This is a huge weight off our shoulders because now we don't have to spend time dicking around with it on before we leave. We all arrive on Saturday evening and we want to leave first thing Monday morning so the less we have to do to get the bikes ready the better.
Dad and Carol - you're both officially associate members of Team Panama 2008!

Pretty much everything is done at this end. Brad and I both have our new BC Licenses - and Kevan is going to make colour copies for us and laminate them so we'll have "spares" to hand over at road blocks. It's a trick we read in some of the other blogs etc. If a Guatemalan police officer demands your license and then refuses to give it back unless you pay some trumped up fine, you agree to come in to the police station to pay and retrieve your license - and then carry on because it was just a copy. It sounds good in theory - only time and experience will show if it actually works.

Other than that we're pretty much done. I still have to pick up Rosi and I's Malaria tablets at the pharmacy but they should be ready this afternoon. I also have to call our credit card carriers and let them know which countries we'll be in and confirm with my out of country medical through work that everything is a go. All this is just fine tuning though - we're all just waiting for the "go" date now.

And not that anyone is counting but for me there's 29 sleeps!!