Saying Goodbye

Today I had to say goodbye to my superb machine.  She has done me proud over the last 5 weeks or so and not missed a beat.  6500 miles, 812 on gravel, longest day of 425 miles and only a few days off over the course of the trip.  Not even a puncture have i had to deal with.  We took a pretty straight route to our meeting point at J7 of the highway just outside Halifax.  It was a very windy trip getting side swiped quite often and it was hard work rather than being able to have fun on our last run.  We asked Ian to take a picture of us leaving the meet point and this is what we got

it was followed with us and John leaving the car park

The cargo handlers were just down the road a few miles and after arriving we all dealt with taking photos and filling in the damage check documentation

we have all been able to keep our on road tyres and they came out of the van for us to secure to our bikes for transport.

a final photo before we have to part

then Ian gave us a briefing on how our bikes got from where they were into the cargo bay (we thought he was joking!)

They are going to bring in a tipper trailer, drop the flatbed, you drive or push your bike up the slope and hold it until we get three bikes on, he'll bring the trailer back up and then reverse it to the cargo bay, you can then drive or push it off ........ got that?

yes John, up there...

it all works like clockwork and once reversed the bikes go straight into the bay

chivalry is not dead, I chickened out which meant that Gary had to go again

got the last two bikes in as it started to rain

so its all over bar the shouting and we retreated to the bar wearing our new tour T shirts

and we have finished the day with our final team meal.  Great restaurant and the table was like being in the Boardroom.

we have two nights here as part of the official tour and then gary and I have added an extra night.  The group will slowly split up over the next couple of days, it will seem very odd not meeting up outside at the bikes each morning.

I will continue the blog to include our time here in Halifax and  our additional days in Niagra and Toronto with Carolynne and Izzy so stay tuned and thanks for logging on