2002-04-15

Slow boat to China

Our motorcycles, standing at attention, ready for inspection by customs and loading into a cargo container for transport by sea. We fly out on May 7 and will pick up our bikes in Shanghai the next day.

Next to the bikes is a large shipment of construction material from Home Depot going to, of all places, Pago Pago. We got a chuckle out of that.

Mike Paull, Helge Pedersen and Sterling Noren perparing one of the motorcycles for its trip across the Pacific. Mike is a tour member like me and Helge is our group leader who is organizing the journey. Sterling is a professional video producer and will record our adventure. Sterling took the video for Helge's Iceland trip and it turned out quite well so it's terrific to have him along.

Helge spent ten years riding a BMW R80GS around the world and documented his travels in his book, Ten Years On Two Wheels. This is a fabulous book even for those who aren't interested in motorcycle touring. There isn't much narrative but his photographs are a feast for the eyes and tell the story well.

Helge made this same trip once before; two years ago. You can learn more about Helge and the previous trip on his web site: www.globeriders.com

Helge will take us from Shanghai, north through Beijing, into Russia, across Siberia and the Ural mountains, through The Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic and into Germany where our destination will be Munich. The rest is up to each of us. Some will fly right home and others like me will ride around Europe for a while. I am scheduled to fly to Vancouver, B.C., with my motorcycle on July 28. It's just a few hours ride to Seattle from there.