Richard look away now! I think I may have found the wedding dress of my dreams in Ishigaki! I hope they will ship to Calgary! Now that I have the dress taken care of, we have to actually set a date (and stick to it!)!

Here is a riddle for you:

Question: What takes 4 days, 3 nights—one over international waters, 2x75 min bus rides, 8 different airports and a 1.5hr car ride with your fiancée?

Answer: My return trip from the tropical Japanese fishing island of Ishigaki back to my home-away-from-home, Noosa!

Although, as crappy as this may seem, I was on my 2nd day on my 2nd bus on my way to my 6th airport (Narita) and I was thinking how great it all was! It’s pretty cool to traveling the world and going to places that I probably would never get to if I wasn’t racing there! Oh yeah, and if anyone has Airmiles they want to offload, you let me know!!

Here’s a couple Travel facts/tips for you:

--In Japan, it is totally possible to make a connecting flight onto a competitor airline (no partnership here…) when you land 25min before departure time but still have to take a bus to the terminal, pick up your bike box at the baggage claim(10min before take-off), check-in for the flight (7min), get back through security (3min), run to the farthest possible gate while they announce last call for your flight (1min), and run the last 100m with an airline representative telling you to “be fast”! The crazy part is, both my bike and my bag (which took different routes) made the flight too!

--When traveling in Asia, always bring a pillow with you. Who can tell me those rock hard, mega thick, bean-bag-material filled pillows are actually comfortable?!The immigration line in Narita was longer than LAX….I didn’t think it was possible…

Off to the overnighter into Auckland....

Thanks for all the e-mails and comments! You guys are awesome!