The Plan....

So the plan is for Grif to ride solo from Canada, through the US and Central America to Panama, where I will either put the bike on a plane to Bogota or a boat to Cartagena, Colombia, there I will make my way down to see Russ a top bloke who I know from Dragoman Overland - we worked in Central America and Mexico for 6 months together.

Lisa will fly in mid November and we will have 3 months to see as much as we can - Lisa and I are keen divers and would love to head to Galapagos for a few days - however, this is quite an expensive side trip, so we are staying flexible with the possibility of booking something last minute if things look good.

Other than that, we are going to play this trip by ear and not try to set things in stone - my previous travels have shown me that setting tight deadlines through the whole trip - especially through Latin America, where 'Mañana' rules can make things difficult.

The only deadlines we have are when Lisa arrives in Colombia mid November and leaves from somewhere in South America to head back to Canada at the beginning of March.

Riding the bike back into Canada is not possible in March - the roads around here generally have an inch of sheet ice over them, so we are also being flexible on possibly leaving the bike in South America somewhere for the next trip - or flying it to Edmonton and trailering it back home

Grif

Getting There.....

So Ive been putting some of the final modifications to the bike, including case armour to protect the engine from being damaged if I drop it on rocks and an Aussie made B&B Engineering bashplate which is a lot better than the Happy trails one we had on there - much better protection.

Still to put on are the Pro Taper bars and heated grips - when they arrive, change the front brake line for a steel braided one so the front brake has a bit more bite and better feel, to finish up the electrics with the Gerbings wiring for Lisas heated jacket and gloves, mount the power outlets on the bars and in the top box for charging things on the road, change out the chain set, pads, and oil change, mount the tool tube when it arrives in place of the small original one, possibly add a scottoiler...and a few other things to do Im sure, that should keep me out of the bar....

Grif

Summer 2010

My husband came up with this wild idea to travel "2 up" to South America. At this point in my life I figured, why not, sure let's go! With lots of dosh and refurbishing, we are almost ready to go. We purchased a 2009 Suzuki DR650 and have given it all the trimmings. This also meant many trips into Calgary but with summer stocks dwindling, we have had many challenges. We are very familiar with the post office staff, as we are ordering online at a phenomenal pace. Customs Canada loves us as well!