Sunday, August 26, 2007

Day 4 in Buenos Aires

Argentina customs is closed for the weekend, so the saga of getting the Ulysses released will resume on Monday. The big concern now, as you know, is that there is a 3-5 day ride to Ushuaia to actually start the ride. Initially this may not seem like a big deal, but the fact is the start date originally set for the August 21th, then changed to the 26th, and now maybe September 2nd (a 2 week delay). The big question will be the Antigan pass in Alaska, if there is snow the road can be impassable, which could make breaking the current record an even bigger challenge, and potentially even impossible. Currently, discussions are taking place with Chris Houghton, owner of Harley-Davidson of Atlanta, John Flickinger, CEO of Buell motor company, and Chris Carr to develop possibly an entirely new strategy for being successful at this ride. Other concerns are the Pan American highway in Peru and the conditions of the road there since the earthquake. Additional obstacles could be found in the aftermath of hurricane Dean and its impact on Central America. While we anticipated obstacles along the way, this situation is something that has everyone involved scratching their heads wondering how this could have happened. Each day that goes by poses a bigger challenge in Alaska, not to mention the financial consequences. Chris informed me that customs is charging $150.00/day storage fee for the motorcycle. Lets hope Eagle Global Logistics can remedy this unfortunate situation. I want to thank everyone supporting this project and for all the people who have called Chris during this mess.