New York and Across the Pond

On the way down to New Jersey I had found a shipping agent online whose website sounded like they would be able to everything I needed. Unfortunately when I got there and said that I would be transporting the bike overseas they said they weren’t interested, more to the point they couldn’t deal with the shipping that requires a special licence in the USA. They did quote me a price on a custom built crate which at $551 was about what I expected. In the meantime my mate in Australia at Ultimate DLR had come up with a possibility of getting the bike into a container that was being shipped from New York to Melbourne with a Corvette in it. All we needed was agreement from the owner of the car. I wasn’t about to sit around in New Jersey for the weekend so I looked at the map and headed south to Gettysburg.


Honest Abe showing a tourist where he wrote the address


Some fine civil war era buildings are still around


All sorts of shops, and shop owners??


Still in town the bullet holes still remain

The small town of Gettysburg was one of, if not the battles that would be the turning point of the American civil war. Also the site of Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address, today it’s a major tourist destination for Americans on the east coast. Once again I managed to pick one of the busiest weekends of the year for this area with the apple harvest festival taking place. But I managed to get a motel within walking distance of the town centre where the antique shops make for some interesting browsing. The battlefields which nearly reached the town do require transport. In places on the Saturday the roads became almost blocked around some of the country lanes, especially little round top. But I saw enough to satisfy my curiosity and finish my limited education on the civil war.


The monuments on the battlefields


The view from Little Round Top


Another stirring monument to the brave south

Also while in one place I managed to get my registration documents sent to me from Awendaw. For any shipping out of the states you need to have current title (or registration in my case) so it was the last thing I needed to be able to get the bike home. On the Saturday I spoke via skype to Gerry in Aus and they had confirmed that it was a go for putting the bike in with the Corvette, so on the Sunday it was back to New Jersey. I booked a motel only 750m from the transport depot and on the Monday took the wombat down and completed all the necessary paperwork. It should have gone into the container last week and should be shipped sometime this week all things being well.


The Manhatten skyline


Driving in NY, Got that??

The Tuesday was now free to do a tour around New York. At $69 it was the cheapest way of seeing as much as I could. My main aim was to see the Statue of Liberty and Elis Island but by taking the tour I was also going to see a lot of New York city including Times square, Grand Central station, Strawberry Fields in central park and ground zero.


The view of Elis Island most immigrants would have seen


Then into the main hall for processing


Some got bored and creative while waiting


Then on to the trains


Liberty


And up close


Then into Times Square


And looking the other way. What a Zoo!!


The Naked Cowboy busking. Proves a point.


Yoko's mosaic to John in Central Park


Grand Central Station. A magnificent building.


Ground Zero. Very eerie at night

Mike Haysom say’s I need to explain why the Wombat is going back to Australia. Well the original plan was to ship it to the UK to then ride from London to Magadan. After a year on the road I've had enough for the time being. Also the $30,000+ dollars for the organised trip to Magadan is too much at the moment and can be better spent at home. That ride would be interesting no doubt, and may still happen in the future, but it doesn't achieve anything I haven’t already done in riding around the world.

The adventures haven’t finished by any means and with having plenty of time during this ride to think Africa will be the next big overseas trip. A ride from the UK down through to Spain and Across to Morocco, through Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, finally crossing back over to Italy and up through to the UK. Obviously this isn't going to be possible at the moment! Libya has to settle down first.



With this in mind I have just added another bike to the collection a 2008 Yamaha XT660Z Tenere, white of course. Now I have one of the first and one of the latest. The first run it will get will be to Paris in a few weeks time. I think it will make a good bike for any further adventures that will be based out of the UK. This will save me the cost and hassle of shipping bikes across the world time and again.