well there is an end to the best vacation of my life and I am trying not to think of the dull and morose life that will ensue this absolute and incredible summer
So to recap the weekend after meeting the harley boy's in bernieres sur mer we honored the fallen soldiers at the memorial in Caen and after the saturday morning annual assembly I departed for frankfurt since it rained friday and saturday till lunch I figured I put on the rain bag on and sure enough I sweated till I hit Paris but the rain stayed above however the wind was another matter. anyway the GPS took me right through Paris from west to east on the freeways and Paris would not be Paris if there was no traffic jam everywhere on the freeways. Parisians on scooters are suicidal in traffic, they honked me off when I was between lane but not fast enough for them and I thought I was fast and furious at nearly 30 mph on the dotted line with cars on both side of me and my mirrors clearing with inches only . I survived the death race and left paris thinking of where I could stop for the night and by 6PM I was in the vicinity of verdun so I turned off the freeway and stopped for the night .
every body knows verdun so I will spare the history lesson but I took the time next morning in bright sunny day to visit the douaumont fort where I felt very humbled by the carnage perpetrated in the name of freedom
I rode in the morning sun on side roads for a while and saw these vast cemeteries on rolling hills with simple crosses in the fields . I stopped and stayed for one minute silent by the road side praying to the souls of all those young men.I did not take pictures as I felt it was inappropriate. I departed the area and rejoined the freeway to frankfurt.
I timed my fuel reserve to hit the hotel at the airport with a gallon or so as required by the airline for carrying the bike.
the next day I rode to the air canada building and prepared the bike for transport I was a bit anxious as I am not a "recognized shipper" and thought maybe I would have to ride to a broker's office for dangerous good invoicing and extra cost.
but when I showed up the same people that cleared me three months before were there and things got done quickly, in fact they wanted to know about pictures and vacation stuff . what a nice and efficient bunch .
I showed my airline pilot license with dangerous good privileges filled the forms that I had already in hand paid the money (1500 euros) took the bike air side and inside the cargo bay nice as they are they let me strap it my way , then they xrays the bike ,again because I am not an approved shipper .
I was on my way out of the door within one hour . I wish I could deal with this level of cooperation whenever paperwork is involved.
one last note I had a AVON rear installed in early july and unkown to me was UNDERinflated consequently the side wore faster than the middle band so much that the bike wobbled in turns at speed after about 4000miles of wearing . the mechanic from triumph in nice told me about it when I took it in for maintenance and said the wearing pattern was typical of under inflation
So inflate at 2.8 in euro measurement in the rear and no less for avon.
this kind of wrap up the thread riding in paradise .
I hope you all enjoyed it .
PS i dropped the camera just outside the building on the hard concrete and it went klunk !! so the last picture is of the bike on the dolly. beside who cares about pictures without bike. I will post professional pictures of the farm with all those bike from a pro who is sending me his memory card after that we will call it a day.