Arrival

Friday 25th July;
Anchorage
I arrived in Anchorage at about 2:45pm local time (9 hours behind the UK). Having cleared customs in Vancouver before boarding the plane there are no finals checks to go through. I was collected by Jeff our support driver along with Andy, one a Kiwi and the other Australian. Andy was there to see if his missing luggage had arrived, it had not, and was due to arrive later that night.

By the time we got to the hotel and I had said all the hello's to everyone (most had been there a week or more) it was past 4.00pm. After just dumping all my gear on the floor, we went out in the van to find the Ammo Can and the Alaska leather company. The "Ammo Can" was for additional ammo for our go on the firing range later, it was quite an experience just walking into a shop and buying live rounds over the counter without a "by your leave" !. The Alaska leather company was for a sheep skin cover for my seat this to add comfort for the long rides, I had found out some of the best were being sold here in Anchorage. After this we got on the bikes and rode to the Anchorage Gun Club's firing range. Here we got shoot all sorts of weapons from AK47 to .45 hand guns automatic machine guns and the most impressive and scary was the 50 calibre (one shot each) when shooting this you can feel the wave of power from the shot it was like being hit by a brick wall. The whole thing was great fun, but as we rode back I began to feel the effects of jet lag, after all I had just flown in from Vancouver and had a "trans-atlantic" flight the day before.

Miles
about 6000 air miles !
Today 80
Total 80
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Saturday 25th July;
Anchorage
Up early, yes me! Had to start organising my kit for packing into the panniers, and additional final work on the bike was needed. At 12:30 pm we rode to the house of the organisers of the previous evenings gun shoot, there they had laid out an amazing barbecue with steaks the size you would not believe, after gorging ourselves and then some group photos we rode back to Anchorage to finish off preparing. Tomorrow is the official start of the ride and the first day of riding, 300 plus miles north to Fairbanks.

Miles
Today 80
Total 160