Nach Deutschland
Nach Deutschland!
It's time to take the plunge and ship the F800GT to Germany, thereby setting the stage for annual extended European wandering! She needed to be at the shipper in Gardena, CA on Friday, 15 February.
Easy peasy, right? Ride to Riverside on Thursday, a quick 460 miles, brave the LA traffic Friday morning for a not so quick 60 additional miles, sign the papers, a Lyft to LAX and a flight home. That was the plan.
What promised to be biblical rainfall, with an accompanying flash flood watch for Thursday suggested an alternate strategy, especially because one of my goals was to ship my riding gear along with the bike. Stuffing a wet Aerostich and helmet into a dry bag to be opened six months later seemed like a less than compelling idea. If it wasn't dry, my plan was to take the gear home with me, then schlep it to Germany in August. I could certainly live with that, but shipping would be better. All of Krisanne's gear could ship, staying dry in the panniers and her Aerostich in its own dry bag.
As of Tuesday evening, there looked to be a window, maybe. Wednesday was forecasted cloudy but mostly dry, with rain starting in the evening. Thursday was to be the epic rain, with Friday again cloudy. An extra night at the Thunderbird Lodge in Riverside was sounding better and better with each passing minute. At least that gave me a chance.
Here's what Wednesday and Thursday looked like in Riverside as of Tuesday evening:
Friday was back to cloudy:
Also cloudy Friday to Gardena:
That's it then; Wednesday is Departure Day! It's not like the bike isn't mostly packed already...anyone who knows me knows it has been sitting in the garage like that for a week. A quick call to the Thunderbird to extend the reservation and the countdown begins.
Packed and ready for the 460 mile blast to Riverside.
It would be cloudy and cool most of the way. The last 40 miles or so the temps dropped into the mid-40s and it had clearly just rained. The road was dry, however, and I made it to the Thunderbird Lodge just in time!
Hunkered down under the eves awaiting the rain and, boy, would it rain.
Time for a quick stroll to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Met this little guy along the way:
Downtown Riverside is going through some redevelopment; rehabbed houses, new lofts. Love the colors.
Ya think???
Not quite raining on the stroll back to the motel...but it was coming. Cue the music...
They were calling it "an atmospheric river." That seems right; and it started dropping out of the sky in sheets. This was some of the hardest sustained rain I've ever seen, basically it rained hard all day long on Thursday. All Day. Radar tells the story.
The GT hid under the eves and I watched reruns of Friends. Pretty sure at this point that Ross really does love Rachel, but am surprised they were able to get all the nipples thru the prime time censors.
My phone kept blowing up with these helpful messages:
Finally, finally, finally, it started to taper off, then ended early evening. Time to poke my head out of the room and explore Riverside a bit. There's an interesting historic part of town but a fair amount of flooding on the way.
Not a bad IPA
Brightening sky, yippie!!
Friday was go time, rolled out of the hotel around 9 am, some, but not terrible, traffic, dry roads, low 50s. Aside from a GPS frolic and detour, an uneventful run to the shipper in Gardena. All my riding gear was dry, so I was able to pack that away and ship it with the bike. Disconnected the battery, signed the paperwork and strapped everything down.
Their warehouse is a sight to behold. Cars and bikes all staged for shipment, many drool worthy.
,
Ducati content...bikes back from the Mecum Auction.
A very tasty Honda
And a BMW R90S...I could have wandered around there all day.
Very professional operation, it all went very smoothly. A quick Lyft to LAX, and I'm back home for dinner.
Next stop...Deutschland!
The ship: MSC CLEA, bound for Bremerhaven
Entering the Panama Canal...looks like there's a bit of traffic!
Made it to the east side of the Canal...
Cleared the Canal on 20 March...next port: Barcelona, Spain due 29 March. Getting there!
23 March...heading into open water 👏
28 March...getting closer...
29 March...in the strait...
31 March...heading to Italy...
2 April...docked on the boot's shift pad...is it possible to be jealous of your bike??
My European travel mantra:
6 April...docked in La Spezia, Italy
8 April...docked in Valencia, Spain...how far to the Motogp track?????
12 April...docked in Portugal...
17 April...I've just learned that the container with my bike was off loaded while the ship was docked at Italy's shift pad, and is now en route to Bremerhaven! The MSC CLEA is on its way back across the Atlantic.
2 May...the F800GT has cleared Customs and is now at the storage facility in Heidelberg waiting for our summer adventure! Woo Hoo!!
It's time to take the plunge and ship the F800GT to Germany, thereby setting the stage for annual extended European wandering! She needed to be at the shipper in Gardena, CA on Friday, 15 February.
Easy peasy, right? Ride to Riverside on Thursday, a quick 460 miles, brave the LA traffic Friday morning for a not so quick 60 additional miles, sign the papers, a Lyft to LAX and a flight home. That was the plan.
What promised to be biblical rainfall, with an accompanying flash flood watch for Thursday suggested an alternate strategy, especially because one of my goals was to ship my riding gear along with the bike. Stuffing a wet Aerostich and helmet into a dry bag to be opened six months later seemed like a less than compelling idea. If it wasn't dry, my plan was to take the gear home with me, then schlep it to Germany in August. I could certainly live with that, but shipping would be better. All of Krisanne's gear could ship, staying dry in the panniers and her Aerostich in its own dry bag.
As of Tuesday evening, there looked to be a window, maybe. Wednesday was forecasted cloudy but mostly dry, with rain starting in the evening. Thursday was to be the epic rain, with Friday again cloudy. An extra night at the Thunderbird Lodge in Riverside was sounding better and better with each passing minute. At least that gave me a chance.
Here's what Wednesday and Thursday looked like in Riverside as of Tuesday evening:
Friday was back to cloudy:
Also cloudy Friday to Gardena:
That's it then; Wednesday is Departure Day! It's not like the bike isn't mostly packed already...anyone who knows me knows it has been sitting in the garage like that for a week. A quick call to the Thunderbird to extend the reservation and the countdown begins.
Packed and ready for the 460 mile blast to Riverside.
It would be cloudy and cool most of the way. The last 40 miles or so the temps dropped into the mid-40s and it had clearly just rained. The road was dry, however, and I made it to the Thunderbird Lodge just in time!
Hunkered down under the eves awaiting the rain and, boy, would it rain.
Time for a quick stroll to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Met this little guy along the way:
Downtown Riverside is going through some redevelopment; rehabbed houses, new lofts. Love the colors.
Ya think???
Not quite raining on the stroll back to the motel...but it was coming. Cue the music...
They were calling it "an atmospheric river." That seems right; and it started dropping out of the sky in sheets. This was some of the hardest sustained rain I've ever seen, basically it rained hard all day long on Thursday. All Day. Radar tells the story.
The GT hid under the eves and I watched reruns of Friends. Pretty sure at this point that Ross really does love Rachel, but am surprised they were able to get all the nipples thru the prime time censors.
My phone kept blowing up with these helpful messages:
Finally, finally, finally, it started to taper off, then ended early evening. Time to poke my head out of the room and explore Riverside a bit. There's an interesting historic part of town but a fair amount of flooding on the way.
Not a bad IPA
Brightening sky, yippie!!
Friday was go time, rolled out of the hotel around 9 am, some, but not terrible, traffic, dry roads, low 50s. Aside from a GPS frolic and detour, an uneventful run to the shipper in Gardena. All my riding gear was dry, so I was able to pack that away and ship it with the bike. Disconnected the battery, signed the paperwork and strapped everything down.
Their warehouse is a sight to behold. Cars and bikes all staged for shipment, many drool worthy.
,
Ducati content...bikes back from the Mecum Auction.
A very tasty Honda
And a BMW R90S...I could have wandered around there all day.
Very professional operation, it all went very smoothly. A quick Lyft to LAX, and I'm back home for dinner.
Next stop...Deutschland!
The ship: MSC CLEA, bound for Bremerhaven
Entering the Panama Canal...looks like there's a bit of traffic!
Made it to the east side of the Canal...
Cleared the Canal on 20 March...next port: Barcelona, Spain due 29 March. Getting there!
23 March...heading into open water 👏
28 March...getting closer...
29 March...in the strait...
31 March...heading to Italy...
2 April...docked on the boot's shift pad...is it possible to be jealous of your bike??
My European travel mantra:
6 April...docked in La Spezia, Italy
8 April...docked in Valencia, Spain...how far to the Motogp track?????
12 April...docked in Portugal...
17 April...I've just learned that the container with my bike was off loaded while the ship was docked at Italy's shift pad, and is now en route to Bremerhaven! The MSC CLEA is on its way back across the Atlantic.
2 May...the F800GT has cleared Customs and is now at the storage facility in Heidelberg waiting for our summer adventure! Woo Hoo!!
