Went out to Maggie’s a local bar for a drink with Angela and Steve after teh presentation. Great fun and great people we finally called it a day at 2:00am

Well after last night we knew we weren't going to get an early start and so joined Cliff and Steve and Angela at the Marcus Dairy Diner. A local bar breakfast destination where thousands of bikers meet every Sunday. I even maange to capture a local guy pulling some prety nifty stunting.

Got back to Fabians apartment took all the bags upstairs and made sure the bikes were locked and covered. We don’t want them on show to get attention and so Fabian had some bike covers to put on them – the first time they’ve ever had covers on!!

Went down the road to a small Latina bar- the Yucca bar on the corner of seventh street on 111 Ave A. Had too much Sangria and Caiprinhas…and ate great food.
Got back to the apartment and I had such a bad neck that it was making me feel quite ill.

After note: Bloody hell, Lisa's in lust. What she doesn't mention is how she sate on her bike and swooned as the young officer chatted away. An ex Marine who we've dybbed in Lisa's honour...'officer Cock-lovley"

We said adios to New York along with it's wonderful manic atmosphere, it really never sleeps and to Fabian and Jeannette about a week ago. The diary taken a bit of a back seat as we've ridden down to Bob's BMW. Bob's is one of the largest and busiest dealerships in the USA and yep, we're running our presentation for him. We actually got booked about 3-months ago for this and we've both been looking forward to it.

Looking a little the worse for wear we rolled up onto the drive way of Bob's home and were made to feel immensly welcome by both Bob and Suzane (his wife).  The evening easily slipped by with easy conversation and some great red wine.

Now Bob's is litterally full to the roof with everything BMW from new bikes to a museum collection and so space is a premium. That just one of the reason's we'd agreed to run two presentations for Bob and so by the 1:00pm on the 13th we were already underway with the second show. The first had kicked off at 9:30am. I'd personally wondered, "who the hellis going to wnat to listen to two brits waffle on about their travles at that time in the morning, but sure enough 50 people crammed into the presentation room and the tiem flew by.

The last few days we've had a chance to get back to some long overdue emails and with Bob;s generous support even managed to fix a frustating issue we'd been having with Lisa side-stand.

Basically when we'd swapped out Lisa's lower frame to install the TT Rally sump guard, it had raised the ground clearance by 1 1/4 inches, which although brilliant in itself, left us with the issue that now Lisa's bike was leaning to far over when on side stand. BMW in the genious had decided to bypass the common wisdom of attaching the side-stand somewhere close to the footpeg hangers and has instead stuck it welded to a lug halfway along the under frame, thus when we raised the frame we increased the lean.

Bob knew just the man to fix our problem and so the side-stand saga began. Ok not so much a saga but still a story with a sting in the tail. Mark the welder obviously had a good reputation and seemed unfased by the challenge of instal a new mounting lug onto the Touratech peg hanger and rigging upa solution that would allow Lisa to utilse a kick-stand from a F650 Funduro, BMW original single cyclinder. After two day;s the solution looked spot on.

The sting in the tail was the ludicrous bill of $750. It was only with Bob's generous support that that little issue was settled. Bob we are indebted. Thank you.

By way of a thankyou we did run one last presentation at Bob's but this was for the staff, who'd been unable to attend the previous two shows. What a crack! A very different atmosphere that for clients.

Cheers guys.

Nick...by the seat of your pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a day.

We'd dragged ourselves out of bed by 6:30am and had managed to ride the bikes down to Allentown, a small town about an hour and a half from Lehman. For about the last week we'd been getting updates from Nick...who's Nick I hear you yell? Well this is the blurb from one of his web site covering his last insane little bike jaunt..

..."Nick Sanders is ‘the fastest man around the world on two wheels’. The 49-year-old maverick follows in the great British tradition of slightly eccentric adventurers, and his record-breaking expeditions have already made him a cult figure within the motorcycling community. His latest escapade, titled "Parallel Word" sees the former BBC cameraman, author and philosopher set out on the ultimate voyage of biking endurance. Move over Ewan and Charley, this is the real Long Way Round... Read more ›"

Motorcycling genius eccentricity aside, he's also and more importantly Caroline's Boyfriend, yep...Lisa elder sister. Mmm, funnily small world isn't it?

Well in an attempt to play a very small role in his latest adventure and in an attempt to stay in one piece, as Caroline had threatened the shedding of much blood if anything happened to Nick, we'd agreed to meet up outside of NY and help him get his bike through customs and get him on his plane back to the UK.

Sat inside the 'New City Diner' that didn't look especially new, we heard Nick before actually seeing him pull up i the car park. Nick park up, almost stumbling from his dirt covered speed beast. A Yamaha R1; possibly the most insane bike to do a RTW trip on but hey, we've always said it al comes down to the rider and not the bikes.

Nick practically slummed off the bike with fatigue...nope fatigue just doesn't cut it,he looked absolutely and completely f'knackered.

"Hello you two, ya alright" Nick chirped, like he's just popped back from a quick trip to the lo call offy' (liqueur store to my American friends). Nick had just ridden for 5-months and covered an amazing 60,000-miles. He'd also been professionally filming the solo ride and writing 3 books at the same time. I'm serious when i say this ...I have no idea how that's possible. He simply can't sleep.

Nick had called us at Chris's 4-days prior and told us that he'd meet us yesterday. When I'd asked him where he was, he'd casually replied.."Oh, I'm in Guatemala at the moment, but it's not that far"!

Guatemala to New York in 4-days? I seriously had my doubts, but hey, this is Nick so never say never. A day later that planned he we are eating egg's over easy, with hash browns all washed down with strong coffee.

It was good to see him again, now all we had to do was get him to the airport and onto that plane. There was no pressure, he only had a few hundred friends and family pitching up at his 'welcome back shin-dig, along with the majority of the British Bike press! Nick's got 4-hours from when he arrives in the UK, to get off the plane, clear customs, and catch a train to Wales, before his party kicks off...no problem. There's a fine line between optimism and lunacy. That's lunacy with a smile though:-)

Back on the bikes we took turns leading between the 3 of us. As we closed in on NY the traffic started to build and then of course in true British fashion...it started to rain. I swear to God, I watched Nick fall asleep half a dozen times en-route.

Down by the Newark docks, we'd pulled up to check directions to the shipping company. We'd covered the same street 3-4 times and for the life of us couldn't find them. We'd been looking for 216, turns out they were the large cargo looking site at 226, go figure???!!!!!

With Nick in the offices Lisa and I grabbed a quick cup of tea from the burger van. Not much was needed by the way of conversation, the occasional glance accompanied with a wet faced smirk said it all. Nick has a style all his own. Let's hope to god he never changes.

There's was one last little job. Nick had told us he'd wanted to film us, just a quick interview for one of the DVD's he's producing. So, we headed up the road, parked in front of a desolate looking warehouse and started filming. I kid you not, the Police turned up, lights flashing within minutes and set about laying down the whole "you can't film here, it's against the law". The ever serious questioning continued, "...where are you from? Where have you been? What brings you hear?".

The 3 of swapped glances, holy bejusus, who's going first. What do we tell this guy. Where are we coming from, why are we here? We could be here for the next few days. With a style and confidence that is born of British eccentricity and years of experience getting out of tight jams, Nick handled the situation. I'm pretty sure the Mary Poppins accent coloured with a little 'up-north' twang, swung the whole deal. By the end of the encounter, the officer all but apologized for interrupting and was asking for Nick's autograph.

With Nick on the back of my bike, Tinkerbelle we shuttled him up and down to the US customs building, in order to get the doc's he needed to clear the bike.

With the bike sorted, kind of, but that's another story, and once again with the Nick'ster riding pillion, we headed over to the airport terminal, Nick jumped off, we waived our sad farewell's and wished him luck. 30-seconds later, he's running back out of the shiny glass buildings still wearing his biker leather one-piece shouting.."it's the wrong flammin' terminal, let's go, let's go".

Eventually at the right terminal and with Nick again inside we'd agreed between Lisa and I to wait...just in case.

Back at Chris's in Lehman, the day entire seemed like a blur. Inside the warm laughter of of Chris and Alexey could be heard. Alexey is a Russian rider form Vladivostok, who'd ben brought over by the advrider.com, a bunch of guys had got together arranged aflight and a bike and sent him off for a few months to enjoy the USA.

As you can imagine, conversation was in full swing within minutes and we talked to the wee hours fo the morning.

It’s been nice, it’s been fun. But it’s not what defines me…us. When I’m on the bike I know who ‘I am’, when I’m vegging in front of the TV, I’m just another guy, turning his brain off, eyes glued in a semi trance like state, watching Hollywood’s latest offering of bright, high octane, whiz pop eye candy. Mmm it tastes good!

Chris had been instrumental in getting our names in front of Pieter, the new VP of BMW Motorrad NA. We owe him. This was on my mind as we waived from the road until out of sight. It was now 1:30pm and we are just going to get as far as we can. The 118 turned into the 220 South and was to keep us company for the day. We’d found a happy pace at around 65mph and had found our usual rhythm. Couch and late lie-in’s aside, it felt great to be on the bikes, yeah, yeah the wind in our hair and all that. There’s a liberating feeling in not knowing where we going to be tonight. Not knowing how we’re really going to get there or what’s going to come our way.

As dusk fell we’d voted to duck off the 220 into the town of State College. It’s nice to have ourselves to ourselves. We’ve indulged tonight in a small meal out and a movie. It does feel like we’ve been on show for the last month. It’s good for the most part, we love to share our journey but in the back of our heads is the idea of having to meet people’s expectations of us. The idea of who they think we are. I know we shouldn't’t, it shouldn't’t be a worry, but it’s in the back of our minds and when we have time to ourselves and a few quite moments alone away from the vacuum of attention and presentations and question, we realize how it affects us and heavy it can weigh.

I’m thinking more about our farewells this morning. A thought just struck and is making me smile. We’ve had 5 ½ years of goodbyes. We’ve experienced more goodbyes in the last few years than most people have in a lifetime. We’ve met some incredible people, and we’ve had to say ‘goodbye to everyone. It’s a sobering thought, but not in a bad way. I’m excited to think about all the people we’ll meet in the future who we’ll be saying goodbye to.