3 August 2009 Seoul, South Korea

Sometime around 1:00 a.m. we stopped in a rest area and took break. We stayed there eating and drinking refreshments until they shut off the lights and locked the place up. We continued on until 4:00 a.m. when the driver needed to stop and sleep. He pulled into a rest area on the side of the road and slept until 6:00 a.m. I got out of the truck and walked around for about an hour and then sat in the truck until he was ready to go. When the driver woke up we were off to the crating company which would crate my motorcycle. When we stopped we were probably more than 20 miles/32 kilometers from the shop. He turned on his GPS and followed it to the general location. We ran into the same problem I had with the Molly Hotel. We were within 100 yards/100 meters of the place and couldn’t find it. We waited for two hours until the owner came by and saw us. He told us the location of his business and we pulled in. We asked people in the area and they didn’t even know where the business was. This sounded real familiar. Eventually the employees showed up and the task of unloading and crating began. The young lad driving the fork truck struggled with getting the pallet lined up so we could get the motorcycle off the truck. Once we got it on the ground the fun started. They wanted me to disassemble my motorcycle. Take the front wheel off, mirrors, top box and saddle bags to make the motorcycle as small as possible to reduce the shipping cost. I did everything but take the front wheel off. That would have made no difference. Then Wendy was in the middle of all this haggling. She wanted the crating box as small as possible to save on shipping costs. I couldn’t have agreed more with her but we could have left the motorcycle in one piece except for the top box and the mirrors. One funny thing about this whole process was taking off the box. It’s held on by probably 10 M6x1 bolts. Each bolt has five washers and a nut. The two front bolts are special. The bolt is a socket head cap screw which is longer with different washers and a nylock nut. So everybody was being very helpful again trying to speed up this operation. I loosened everything up and two other people helped unscrew the bolts and threw everything into a pile. Well that mixed everything up. When I built the mounting brackets for the top box there was rhyme and reason for my madness and I didn’t want it screwed up. Well, we removed the box and then put all the bolts back in their perspective holes and screwed the nuts on. The crating guys randomly started putting the bolts and washers in the holes. Some bolts had one washer on others had six washers and the wrong nut on. So I straightened out the whole bolt, washer, and nut situation. This ticked off the crating guys because I redid all their work. I told them Toyota didn’t become a #1 car manufacturer by doing poor quality work. That ended all the conversation on that subject. They stood back and let me finish. I ended up one washer short and it was nowhere to be found. I also took off the saddle bags and took out what I want to go with me to the hotel. I put my helmet in the top box and my riding pants in one of my black bags to travel with the motorcycle. The crating guys got everything arranged the way they wanted to crate it, took pictures, took measurements and started building the crate. They also informed Wendy of the crate size for the Airway Bill. They built the base or bottom of the crate first, the four sides and then the top. Once the bottom was completed I rolled my motorcycle on the base and we strapped it down with my tie downs. They then packed everything around and under the motorcycle. I made sure everything had foam in between and under stacked components so it wouldn’t rub against other metal parts and ruin the paint or damage mating parts. The motorcycle was then shrink wrapped in blue plastic. The sides and then the top were put on. It was a work of art. The fork truck picked it up, took it over to the scale and weigh it. It weighed 964 Pounds/438 Kilograms. The motorcycle crate was then loaded back onto the truck and we departed to pick up the Airway Bill, which has the shipping number on it. We got that from Aero International Company which handled the shipping of the motorcycle. The AWB number was 014 6010 0316. I also got a copy of the AWB number and any future reference to the shipping of this motorcycle required this number AWB# 014 6010 0316. After we picked up the AWB we departed for the Incheon Airport. It took some hunting but we finally found Air Canada. Guess what? When we arrived it was lunch time and we had to wait until lunch hour was over. We probably waited 30 minutes until everyone returned from lunch. It was not a big deal. Then of course you must wait in line until it’s your turn to be helped. The guy driving the fork truck was just a maniac. He was very efficient at what he did and he could load and unload trucks fast. I stayed out of his way for fear of getting run over. We offloaded my motorcycle and set it on the dock. That was the last I saw of it while I was in Korea. The truck driver took me to my hotel and I tipped him for putting up with me. He was a nice guy and I liked him. I stayed two nights in Hotel Sky in Incheon, South Korea. As soon as I checked into the hotel I contacted Wendy about the shipping status of my motorcycle and how she wanted to be paid. I also contacted Linda about setting up a flight for me to Vancouver. Now it’s just waiting for my motorcycle to ship to Vancouver, B.C. Canada and Linda to find me a flight to Vancouver. The motorcycle must set for 24 hours before it can ship because it’s dangerous cargo. I think its international law or a shipping law. So it won’t ship until sometime 4 August in the afternoon. I’m planning on flying out on the 5th of August the day after the motorcycle leaves in case a complication arises and I am needed to help sort out the problems. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. So it’s shower and food time. I saw a Domino’s pizza while were looking for Hotel Sky. It took me probably 30 minutes walking to find the Domino’s pizza place. I ordered a medium extravaganza and a drink. There is an outside mall in between the buildings so I found a spot and ate my pizza. It was the first pizza I ate in months. I went back to the hotel and checked my e-mail. Wendy wrote back and told me she could meet me at the hotel at 7:00 p.m. I could then pay her for the shipping of the motorcycle. I wrote back and told her that works for me. She arrived sometime around 7:00 p.m. I paid her the money for shipping the motorcycle, showed her how we crated it and some of the bad roads I rode on while in Russia. I thanked her for her help and she left. I watched some television because some channels were in English and then went to bed.