After several months of ordering, outfitting and prepping our bikes...the dream is becoming a reality, and the adventure is beginning!

Lake Tahoe, Nevada to Compton, California

Despite the occasional chattering of teeth, Highway 395 was the perfect delivery, equipment test and dreaming route. Our communications were not functioning properly, I could hear Kev, but he could not hear me...(I'm sure that Kev would say they operated perfectly...ha ha ha).

We rode through some incredible country side, and I resisted the urge to pull over to take pictures. I had it covered, or so I thought! I set up digital video (Hero) on my windscreen and was meticulously capturing the sweet spots...yeah! We were excited to see what had been captured...come to find out I had not properly turned on the device...bummer.

All said and done minor snafoo's in the big picture, easily solved!

Manoeuvring through rush hour LA traffic, we enjoyed the energy and warmth of the air, that smelled like dyer sheets...ha ha ha. That energy is also at times just pure craziness, some drivers should pop a "chill pill" and maybe use that stick by the steering wheel called an indicator?!

Riding up to the shipping warehouse we knew that we had several hours of meticulous bike cleaning ahead of us, per strict Kiwi standards. We got on it. Armed with toothbrushes, micro fiber towels and orange degreaser we scrubbed away in the parking lot. The bikes had never been cleaner! We handed the bikes over to what seemed to me, a slightly shady warehouse worker in Compton, a suburb of LA. Nervously we walked away, leaving the pink slips and keys in the bikes!!

Our bikes will be arriving in Dunedin, New Zealand in early March and we will not be far behind.

I'm sure that we will be pinching ourselves as soon as we are reunited with our bikes. Mine a 2011 BMW f650gs twin and Kev's a 2010 BMW r1200gs...can't wait!!

On our journey down we actually rode through a town called Independence...how appropriate!