On Feb 26, 2005, I flew to Portland Oregon and got picked up by the owner of a pristine 2003 Honda VTX1800R.
I won this bike a few days earlier on eBay for $7,600.

    Hi, I just won your auction.
    What I'd like to do is fly up to Portland on Saturday, Feb 26.
    I'm looking at Southwest flight #1105 which arrives at 5:15pm in Portland.
    Can you meet me at the airport with the bike, do the transaction, and I'll head home that evening? My phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx

It almost worked like that. Instead, he picked me up at the airport and drove to his place of business in Hood River, OR. 687 miles from home. That evening I started riding home and made it about 300 miles to Grant's Pass in very-cold-Oregon-February wee hours. The next day I rode the remaining ~400 miles back to Danville.

Commercial Flight to PDX Feb 26

Picking up the bike

Riding back Feb 26,27

No pictures on the way back --- it was cold and late!

I set out from Hood River around 9pm and drove to Grant's Pass. A good bit of the way down highway 5, very late at night, I was driving pretty fast. It was really cold, but lucky for me, not raining. I had a bit of excitement when I saw some tail lights a mile ahead do a little wiggle right and left. I backed off the throttle thinking maybe there were deer or something. Then suddenly, in my lane, was a lawn chair. Whew! That woke me up for a few more miles.

Back Home Feb 28

Then, back home on the 28th I got a few pics of the bike.