Anchorage, Alaska

Well it appears that we have finally made some progress on the motorcycle. I met with EGL "superstar" John Higgins for lunch this afternoon. John was outstanding in helping me with the motorcycle and coordinating my movement in anchorage in terms of the most economical way to navigate through the city. It's funny, I feel as if he would have been involved from the beginning this whole fiasco would never have occurred. Even John himself was amazed at the number of people who were involved and how the whole thing transpired. Anyway, that's all history now, time to plan for my upcoming ride. For those of you who have not been to Alaska, everything costs $$$$$$$. So here's the new plan. The bike will now be shipped up to Fairbanks tomorrow, Doug Chambers at Fairbanks Harley-Davidson has everything in line to prep the bike and send me on my way the first of the week. So I will be leaving for Coldfoot on Tuesday, spend the night there and then push on to Prudhoe Bay on Wednesday. Considering the fact that the window of opportunity for Prudhoe Bay- Usuhaia is gone now, I will attempt to break the Prudhoe Bay-Key West world record which stands at 101 hours right now by Gary Egan. Thursday morning, I will officially kick off the ride. Almost as if on cue the weather has turned ugly here, last week while waiting for the bike it was sunny and in the mid 60's, today and all of next week the forecast calls for rain and lots of it too. While the rain is not such a big deal, it does bring in to question the condition of the Dalton Highway after 4 or 5 days of so much precipitation. I was actually hoping to make some good time through there... looks like that might not be possible now. Have also had reports that there already is snow north of the Brooks range so I may have to deal with that as well. I need to acknowledge the gang over at Woodland International (shipping co.), after reading my saga with EGL Logistics, decided to contact me and offer their assistance. In fact, Jeff Schumacher even went so far as to contact EGL to get the facts pertaining to the whereabouts of the Buell. I feel confident that his involvement was instrumental in getting the bike to Alaska. Thanks to Kevin, Sherry and Jeff, I certainly appreciate your concerns and the effort.