Thursday, October 9, 2025

Day 0 - Planning and Preparation

Traveling the last few week has been intense.  After trips to Guatemala, Mexico City, San Francisco, New York, and Providence, there was only one day left to get ready for this trip.  Packing this time was a bit different since my motorcycle is already in Germany. 

With help from Bob Smith, we crated my trusted 2017 BMW R1200GS Adventure motorcyle at his shop with wood we bought at Home Depot.  The end result was a very compact box (to minimize air freight charges) ... front wheel off, top box off ... which we ultimately took to our shipping agent for shipping with Lufthansa directly Dallas-Frankfurt.

At the Frankfurt end, Stefan Knopf, who also helped my with the shipping of my motorcycle back in 2012 for the Transasia Motorcycle Trip, took care of picking it up, getting it through customs and taking to his shop for storage.  He also arranged for the proper insurance coverages for this trip.

So, on to packing.  The challenge this time was remembering what I had sent with the motorcycle and what I had to still take with me.  The other variable is that this trip is a solo trip so a lot less coordination and planning.

All tools went with the motorcycle so no need to do anything there.  So, helmet, GPS, boots, pants, jacket, and gloves was pretty much it. Plus, 3 pairs of everything else (shirts, socks, underwear) that are easy to wash and dry, and nothing else. Easy.  

The last 2 days y started to go to bed early and getting up around 4-5am to start getting used to the time.   The flight was uneventful aboard a brand-new Boeing 787— departed on time, landed on time, meals came early in the flight, and I was out by 7pm for the rest of the flight.

Landing was beautiful ... we descended through a perfectly smooth uninterrupted cloud blanket at 5,000 feet ... sunny above, cloudy and gloomy below ... like 2 worlds separated by an imaginary boundary.

Front wheel off, bike on, tied down

Walls on, ready for the lid

On its way to being shipped to Frankfurt (Lufthansa)

Made it Frankfurt's Airport

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