So here we are. Since April we’ve done a few local rides, mostly short. Our most recent one a couple of weeks ago involved bonus collection and confirmed that Kiwi can not be left unsupervised with navigational duties. Our first bonus (in Canberra) was supposedly “Mt Welcome” but the GPS couldn’t find it. Others might think perhaps this was an issue… not Kiwi… Undeterred he headed for the general area and I was asked to do a search on Google on my phone. Google told me it was a 2 day, 6 hour ride away in north western WA… I didn’t have that kind of time.

It turns out the name of the place we were actually looking for was Mt Pleasant. It was only 6 minutes away.

And now we’re sitting in the airport in Melbourne. Flight one of the day from Canberra to Melbourne is done, and we have two more flights to go: MEL to DFW and DFW to MSP. We will arrive in Minneapolis on Friday evening, approximately 26 hours after we left home on Friday morning… The wonders of the international dateline

I think it’s fair to say we’re not as well prepared as we were for 2019. We’ve done less riding and less rally practice. We were supposed to quit alcohol at the beginning of May (supposed to being the operative words here) and when we arrive in Minneapolis job number 1 is to get the bike registered.

Work for both of us has been full on, particularly for Kiwi, and I think as much as one of our goals is to improve our standing from last time (63rd), we haven’t really done the homework to make that a reasonable prospect.

So what will the next 3 weeks hold? Well first, get the bike registered. Since 2019, the MN DMV has updated its policies and getting a numberplate ain’t as easy as it used to be. After that, we’ll test out the call in bonus system and then try to squeeze our gear onto the bike. In there somewhere we’ll also be aiming to start to relax, and I’m sure I’ll update you with whatever crazy shenanigans occur… Till then…