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NEWS
The Badger is home and ... well, if not loving it then glad to see the folks back home, at least. If you've followed his travels, stay tuned for the next big thing. If you're here for the first time, the whole journey lies before you to discover ... get clicking! Last new pix are at the bottom of the news column - scroll or click here
Bonny’s passage has been booked home. I am beginning to tidy up and put my bags in some kind of order. I spent a day or so with my dear friends Chuck and Marcia on the Blue Ridge, and if they do read this, yes the Harley IS nice, I just couldn’t admit it publicly. I pottered back to Asheville, where I spent a few days ‘chilling’, the emphasis being on chill. It eventually led to all sorts of things dropping into place. I had a link taken from the new chain, and a new front sprocket fitted. I stopped to do an Open Mike at a coffee shop, but they must have heard I was coming. I say this because the place was closed when I got there. Ah, the price of fame!
Stopping for coffee, I bumped into Candace again. Great way to say goodbye. So unexpected, yet I suppose I should be used to that sort of coincidence here by now. Equally coincidental was contacting Scot, whom I haven’t seen since Glacier Park, to find we were both heading to the Hostel in the Forest. Joel, a new friend who has sent the site some great pics of the Autumn leaves on the Blue Ridge, was also here.
There we have it. www.foresthostel.com - this is where Badgers unwind and come to terms with life and the universe. I came back here and decided to stay and ship Bonny back from Brunswick, then fly up to DC, saving me another freezing. Also it has proved the perfect place to step back from all I have learned and to contemplate a little on what comes next. It certainly feels more like I am approaching the beginning of something new rather than the end of a simple holiday. Some simple words from one person and who knows where it may lead me. Possibly at a complete tangent to all I had previously planned, possibly anywhere at all. I had intended to ride down to Louisiana again, but the Blue Moon was fully booked, and that didn’t leave enough time. As for Ohio, not rideable as it is way too cold for me up there right now. I suspect it will be warmer when I come back, as return I will.
Brunswick it is, a nice backwater, but woe, the fun and games getting Bonny tucked up on a nice boat home! Tucked up is exactly how I felt after all the conflicting information given by ONE shipping company. Follow this if you will ...
Fare aprox. $500, this is good and I am happy, however I need a piece of paper called a dock receipt or somesuch. The office in Brunswick does not issue them, the shipping agent charges $250 and won't give out forms for free, the dock office doesn’t hold them, and no one else has them. This is NOT restrictive practice, but Free Enterprise USA style! Then, surrendering to a VERY helpful agent, I find I need $1000, not $500, ahem, cash please Mr Badger, no cards cheques, and, oh, no banks will release that much to me on my cards. It was a fun filled day, wandering through the 1950s with such aplomb. Eventually compromise was reached, and I was free to fly happily, through gritted teeth, to Washington DC.
This also was a grand experience in the name of ‘Homeland Security’. A line half a mile long, removing jacket, shoes, offending articles (note the best way to reduce the amount of liquid in a bottle of brandy to the prerequisite 3oz is to stand there and drink it, whilst commenting that the last person to get this many clothes off me had to marry me).
DC. I spent a couple of nights at Mairin’s place again, hiring a car and popping to see friends in New Jersey and now Gettysburg. A car I have found is a lot wider than a bike and a lot slower BUT considerably warmer.
In a few days I will be back in England, I am excited to see everyone again and put into action the plans and ideas that are nagging at me. Believe me, all my instincts tell me that this is not the end of a journey, but the beginning.
I am not sure if the next entry here will be from England but I suspect so, as it will be then that I will be able to take stock, thank people and contact individuals that I so want to keep in touch with
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