Monday, 10 September, 2012  London, England to Montreal, Canada (0 miles) Total Trip Miles – 13,092. 0 hrs hours riding

Weather Temperature mostly sunny in the lower 70’s…a beautiful day for travel

What a great day this has been!…celebrating my birthday for 30 hours with the time zone changes and being back in North America for the first time in weeks! Also, thanks to everyone for all the birthday well-wishes and welcoming me home.

Departed London’s Gatwick airport at 12:30 pm for the 7 hr flight to Montreal and as I was boarding I saw several ground handlers and asked about my bike being on board…one of the guys showed me his cargo load sheet pointing to the exact spot it was located on the aircraft…it is actually just inside that forward cargo door. Comforting to know the bike was with me on the flight and that there would be no issues getting it to Montreal.

Arrived in Montreal on time at 3 pm and ended up catching the hotel shuttle since the bike wouldn’t be ready for pick up for an hour or so. The driver Mark said to just give him a call and he’d take me over to the air cargo facility when I was ready.

At the hotel I grabbed just enough gear to ride the bike back to the hotel and off we were…at CAS Air Cargo I processed the necessary paperwork and paid a $75 handling fee believing I’d have the bike in a matter of minutes when I was told I needed to visit the customs office about 3 miles away. With no transportation I asked if they’d call me a taxi also knowing both the customs office and the air cargo facility were closing for the day within the hour.

After arriving at the customs office there were concerns as to why I was only importing the bike into Canada for only one day before leaving for the US…why didn’t I just simply fly directly to the US I was asked. After explaining my fundraising efforts for Rally, the customs official cleared my bike for a temporary importation…It’s for the children folks.

I asked that the taxi wait for me and we were once again off to air cargo to pick up the bike! After some minimal work in the bike, I was off to the hotel to join some friends from Medicom for dinner…Jan Levine & Scott Woolford. Funny thing that when I arrived at the hotel and gave Scott a call, he was actually staying at the same hotel…crazy. Ian & Scott treated me to a nice dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant…what a nice welcome back home!

If you would like to make a donation to give all kids diagnosed with cancer a better chance at living the full life they deserve, please visit Rally Foundation & Rally Around the World or Text “RALLY” to 85944 to give $10 to WIN the fight against childhood cancer. Send this message to 10 of your friends…Be a RALLY 10 to WIN!