From Kansas City, I traveled to Seattle. My buddy Lorie picked me up at the airport and we headed out to find some dinner! Seattle is a really interesting city and I enjoyed her sharing with me about the various neighborhoods and sights. We went to an awesome Thai restaurant in a really cool part of town near her place. From dinner we headed to her place where I was greeted by her two fabulous cats! I was so shocked by the size of her little girl who looks like a beach ball with fur, a tail and legs. So funny! We talked about the new bike and both of us agreed it was a smart move by Harley. The next day I was graciously taken to the airport on her way to work so I could fly to Tucson!

When I landed in Tucson, I was quickly reminded this was a popular retirement destination. I was surrounded by elderly folks impatiently waiting for their bags and completely oblivious to their rude behavior when they stepped in front of me to wait for their bag. All I could do was laugh when I had to clear them all out of my way when my bag came before theirs’.

On a side note, me the perfectionist had not only forgotten her passport but also her motorcycle registration! I was in a total panic from Kansas City to Seattle as I tried to arrange for one of our crew to dig through my personal files at work to get my registration and then have Jon, my boyfriend, drive out to my house and get my passport…that was the easy part. I then had to get them both to overnight two separate packages to Jerry’s house. (Jerry is my dad’s long time best friend who is graciously keeping my bike safe while it is down here and I am in Alaska.) Unfortunately, Barry reminded me about the passport the night I got to Seattle, which meant my stuff wouldn’t ship until the next morning and wouldn’t arrive until the following day (Thursday) which is when we were leaving at 8am for Mexico! There was no way I would get the stuff in time. Luckily for me, Jerry and Barry have a good pack of pals around here and his friends Mark and Jan offered to pick up my packages at Jerry’s since they were coming to Mexico a day after us. HUGE RELIEF! I am not gonna lie; I was stressed about it until I had my passport in hand! Who knows if I would have been let back in the U.S. without it! (Although I convinced myself that my charm and lack of any criminal history would help my cause if I didn’t have it)

I was greeted by Jerry and his lovely girlfriend Carol when I arrived. They were accommodating and after we had settled in for a minute we all jumped on our bikes and headed to a cool spot called Pub 22 for dinner. It was a mix between a college bar and a restaurant with kegs hanging from the ceiling in a hipster attempt at decorating. We ate, although I was battling “stomach” issues from the stress of the travel and my passport that was hopefully in route! We got home and I realized it got a little cooler at night than I anticipated. I definitely didn’t bring much for riding gear since it was in the 70’s and 80’s during the day! We all went to bed since we had to hit the road at 8am the next morning.