Well, to call it great is a bit of an overstatement.. but this is certainly an update. Why haven’t I been updating the blog? Did I give up? No. Truthfully, I’ve been a little lazy, but it is really because I’ve been having so much fun these last couple of months traveling around the USA, meeting good people, eating excellent food, and catching up with family and old friends. One cannot ask for a better trip and I haven’t even left the US!
So.. what’s been up? Here’s the summary. I’m going to back-fill some details as the weeks progress.
Petrolia -> Eugene -> Portland -> Seattle driving through some of the most beautiful coastline followed by the worst weather of the trip (cold + rainy). I hung out in Seattle for a few weeks with some old friends.
After several conversations to people at the HU Petrolia meeting, I concluded that I don’t really have the budget for Australia. While I *REALLY* wanted to go, I just didn’t have the money. The way I knew this was when the guy from the Bay Area was saying that Australia was too expensive 
So Unfortunately, Australia is going to be another trip.
I then started rearranging my trip to go straight to Thailand from Seattle.
I called around to several shipping and logistics companies around the USA and ended up using http://www.frontierforwarder.com/worldwide_agents.htm . They helped me ship a motor out of an africa twin to Singapore last year. I priced sea (normal cargo) and air shipments, but ended up going RoRo.
RoRo is short for Roll-On-Roll-Off, a method of shipping where the cargo rolls itself onto the ship. This is typically used with cars, excavators, and farm equipment that is too large to fit in a container. They also take motorcycles 
. This ended up being super expensive, but I was happy to not have to deal with crating anything up.
The New Plan: Drop bike off at the Port of Tacoma near Seattle for shipment to Laem Chabang near Bangkok. The bike will be there around November 10th… I’m going to get on November 3rd.
Until then, I’m spending time with the family in Kansas City, Missouri.
Every update must have a picture… here I am all dressed up at the port in Bellingham, Washington:
In Bellingham, WA
What? No mention of your quality time playing corn hole, eating German breakfasts and having fun with Albi Doggles?!
Hey now.. Updates coming!! This was a high level update. Ya’ll are going to make the blog… I mean CORNHOLE!!!! I gotta do something with those great action shots.
Only 3-4 weeks and you’ll be riding all over Thailand! I’m so jealous
What, no picture from the color party!?!? I thought you’d pick that one for sure
Have a great time and be safe, and don’t forget to update us.
Dave,
I’m in Germany right now, heading to Ireland next week then home on the 25th. If you’re still in town I’d love to get together again for a beer if you have time.
Another example of how plans always change….cool. Hopefully Holland will still be scheduled though.
Dave:
Enjoy your short stay here in Bangkok. Hope you got settled into a hotel last night without too much problem. Now, after being here for a day, and hopefully gotten a chance to get out and about, how do you like how motorcycles are used in this part of the world? This is what motorcycling is truly about! I’m sure you’ll love riding here. Good luck.
Hey Steve!
It was nice meeting you. I made it to the hotel with no problems and am now exploring Bangkok. I’m impressed with how easy it is to get around without speaking a lick of Thai. That was a great email. Thanks for the lengthy reply. I can’t wait to get the bike going once I get it from the port. Until then, I’m headed to Chang Mai to study Thai and do some hiking
Got your spot update a couple days back – eager to see your first Thai update. Now that you are out of the USA you need to really ‘start’ the blog. Between the getting-to-be-too-cold-to-enjoyably-ride-weather and the work grind I’ll be waiting for updates.
186,282+ miles/sec to you.
-G