The picture at right shows our BMW R1150GS motor bikes at Verna’s mother’s house in Shady Cove, Oregon. The Rouge River can be seen in the background at the bottom of the hill.

Having just completed three months of preparation we left Shady Cove Tuesday, September 26, 2000. We arrived in Amsterdam Saturday, September 30, 2000.

We plan to return to Ireland for a few days, make a trip through the South of England and then travel the the South of Spain for the winter. We will be in Spain until March or April, depending on the weather. We welcome visitors, with advance notice to insure that there is room at the inn.

En route to the Vancouver airport we stopped in the Portland, Oregon area to visit with Jim Mohr, a golfing buddy of Jim’s from our days in the San Francisco area. After a much appreciated feast at a local Italian restaurant, Bugatti’s (highly recommended), Jim was kind enough to put us up for the night before seeing us off on our journey.

From Portland we continued our trek north to Vancouver. The bikes were dropped off at the cargo terminal on Friday, September 29 and we were lucky enough to have Verna’s good friend Bonnie Mardis fly in to Vancouver from her home on Vancouver Island and spent the afternoon with us while we waited for our flight. We had a delicious Chinese lunch with Bonnie and had a great time catching up on each of our activities since we had last seen each other. Thanks for coming to Vancouver and spending time with us Bonnie! At 7:30 PM we and the bikes flew to Amsterdam, arriving Saturday afternoon.

It’s always great fun shipping the bikes - we never know what will be required when we arrive at the cargo terminal to leave them for shipping. In Vancouver they wanted the positive battery cable disconnected and the cable itself taped with electrical tape to insulate it and ensure it could not accidentally provide power to the bike when in transit. Here’s Jim reconnecting the power cable on his bike at Shipohl Airport in Amsterdam. Each bike arrived inside one of the two containers pictured in the background. It is always a leap of faith to leave your vehicle in the hands of total strangers for shipping. This is the fourth time we have shipped our motor bikes by air and each time the bikes have arrived safe and sound.

The process of clearing the bikes through customs in Amsterdam was very simple. We would recommend both Toronto and Vancouver as good places to ship to or from in Canada. We have shipped bikes into and out of Amsterdam and this worked well too.

We are now on the road in Europe. We plan on going to Ireland via Rotterdam, Hull, Hollyhead and Dublin. From there it will be either back to the UK and then on to France or by ferry directly to France from Ireland. Stay tuned for further adventures!

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