UPS takes my bike to Oregon

Sending Bike to Oregon via UPS
Today I took my '06 Trek Madone 5.2 WSD bike over to the UPS shipping store and sent my bike on it's way to Oregon. It cost more than I expected. Since the bike box was 2" into the second "oversized" crate that put the freight cost into the next level, was additional $56.00. The insurance was $1.00/100, and of course I insured this bike for full replacement. You never know if the UPS person is going to have a bad day and fling the box around and damage the contents, and splinter the carbon fiber! Mike Abram's at Ernie's helped get it packed. I was doing ok in my garage packing everything, until the wheels, and I couldn't get them into the box, too tight a squeeze. I loaded it in the car and drove to the closest shop and Mike did some more adjusting of everything and got it all in. Everything was well padded and taped up real good. I will be responsible for putting this bike all back together when I pick it up at the starting hotel location in Astoria. I made little marks with a marker in places to line up things the way they were when I re-assemble it. We were instructed to put identification on the outside of the box telling the hotel to hold this box for America by Bicycle. As the bikes come in they have a room where they will be stored until we pick them up. I will still have my Independent Fabrication Crowne Jewell road bike, and a Trek 7600FX trail bike here at home to get in some training miles with until I leave on June 15th. Bye-Bye Bike!