Finnish Curve Cowboys

We decided to be on the safe side and started at 06:30 from Hotel Hoheluft towards Lindlar in the neighborhood of the city Cologne Germany. We were both for the first time riding on German autobahns (or actually I was there last May but I had my dear wife sitting as a speed limiter behind me..). And there was not much traffic at all for the first two or thee hours. So we were doing a steady 160 km/h for the first 1 – 1,5 hours which still felt comfortable speed with the load we were carrying. Okay, we had to try a full throttle with the windshields down and I got it up to 202 km/h but that was maximum. Of course with average speed to 158 km/ h you can kiss goodbye to any fuel mileage. My bike with all the extra lights and mirrors got about 1,2 liters / 100 km worse mileage than Jouko’s bike which is mostly stock. I had to fill the tank every 220 km when Jouko would have gotten about 300 km. So now it is proven that if speed is doubled the air resistance grows by quadrature. We made it in good time to Lindlar and got a chance to meet Tom and Hartmut plus a whole bunch of other German LT-riders who were having their regular "stammtisch" at Hartmuts hotel.. I had met many of these guys at the German LT-Treffen last May.

Tom and Hartmut had left their bikes to the Frankfurt Cargo already on Friday so we got very valuable advise from them for the drop off procedures. As we hade made it in such good time to Lindlar we decided to push the remaining 200 km to Frankfurt so that we could drop off the bikes to the Gargo already on Sunday well before 18:00. We even washed the bikes at Hartmut’s and when approaching Frankfurt airport we had to watch and adjust the gas level so that we would not have more than a quarter tank at arrival. Of course I had to fill 5 liters some 50 km before and Jouko did not need any…
The Cargo Center did not have their full staff on Sunday but there was a very helpful supervisor who advised us with the bike preparation. Of course many (or most) of his advise were somehow safety regulations related and everybody was a bit jumpy because of the latest terrorist news from London. We were advised to remove all possible extra liquids, aerosols, tire filling cartridges or whatever would look suspicious in the possible X-raying of the bike. We loaded our riding gear in the trunk and left saddlebag. I left some other luggage in the right saddlebag. I was allowed to leave the Chicane tank bag on. The radio antenna, flagpole and the bike-to bike phone antenna had to be removed / folded down. We disconnected the battery, locked the cases and left a spare key for the supervisor. Nothing was allowed to be left tied on top of the bike simply because the freight company does not want to take responsibility of any losses of loose stuff on the bike.
So we had already handed over the bikes on Sunday which was very good as the procedure was quite time consuming and we would have been tight with time on Monday morning as our own flight on Air Canada to Calgary took off at 14:00. The bikes will follow on Air Transat flight on Wednesday. Or this is at least the plan….I’m writing this on the Air Canada flight.

Of course a Big Trip like this needs at least one unplanned episode. I had (or still have) mine already: When discussing with Tom Russell in Lindlar about his and Hartmut’s travel plan we got to talk about the Canada / USA border formalities and what all documents will be needed. Tom mentioned drive’rs licence…DRIVER’S LICENCE! Oh s**t, my licence is at home in my regular wallet! I decided not to take that wallet as it is too bulky and it has a bunch of different kind of plastic cards that have no value abroad. Besides it is already falling apart. So I took a totally new one in which I just loaded three credit cards and some cash and that was all. I even had a fancy packing list but the driver’s licence was not on the list….
My own fault of course. Well, I had already driven through 3 countries without a valid driver’s licence but I would hate to try to enter the U.S. without one… So I called my dear wife and she packed the licence into an envelope and DHL picked it up today (Monday) and they promised it to be in Calgary by Wednesday. Now in the ideal situation we can pick up my licence at the same time when we are getting the bikes. That remains to be seen…