Thanks.

I hope you have a wonderful time! I look forward to reading about it!

That would be great!

I love mine and wouldn’t want to be without it. I also have a Garmin edge 1030 plus and it pairs with the light so I can see on the Garmin when there are cars behind me and how close, it Aldo beeps when cars are approaching. I lost my mount several weeks before the end of the tour so Scott let me use his so he didn’t have one. As soon as we got back I ordered 2 new mounts that look like they should be less likely to come off. I lost mine when we were in a hurry to unload everything and as soon as I realized it I went looking but couldn’t find it.

Jacinto decided on two weeks in Palm Springs. I told him if he gets bored staying in one place the entire time, it’s on him!

Very cool. Also, we changed our plans and will be stopping at Borrego Springs for 4 nights on the way down. Weren’t you thinking of going there?

Italy sounds like an excellent choice!

Yes, I will be here most of the time you are. The stars align once more! I hope we can get together.

What a wonderful wrap up. We both loved following along. You expressed so well many of our thoughts. The fact that the air travel, no matter how well it goes is often the most tiring part of the trip. In our case, the fact that we didn’t discover bike touring earlier. The wonder and joy of being on the road, on a bike. The hope that we can continue to do it for many more years, but the certainty that we might have to do it a bit differently. Just not yet we hope. We will continue to check for any updates or Portland adventures. Welcome home! Well done.

Welcome home!
Racpat

Thanks, Bill. Sorry we ended up with a pretty low critter count on this one. We’ll try to do better next time.

Once again I loved following along! Thank you both for all the effort you put into sharing your adventures.

Are you still happy with you radar tail lights?

You wrote "When I was younger I prided myself on being able to replay the entire tour, remembering every stop and some detail of each place we stayed". That's an amazing feat.

By the middle of the second week of my trip this summer I sometimes had problems remembering in the middle of the day where I had started from that morning or where I was headed for the evening. Although the text of my daily entries generally helped establish those facts, the titles didn't tell the story of where I was or had been.

Scott & Rachael: Your daily journal will be missed; it was a morning ritual... coffee with your daily report.. all the great photos, videos and commentary. Looking forward to more! Best to you on recovery to life stateside.

For some time I have followed a Swedish guy on Youtube, named William Taudien. He has traveled and video blogged all over the world, but not by bike. In a recent entry he muses about why he is travelling, and also about why he is documenting it. You might be interested to have a look. He grows philosophical at 1:09 of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_vDKT9BoE

I’m so glad I’ve been doing this. When I was younger I prided myself on being able to replay the entire tour, remembering every stop and some detail of each place we stayed - where we parked the bikes, typically. It’s how I would put myself to sleep when I had insomnia - better than counting sheep.

It doesn’t quite work any more though. To many places and too many years have gone by. I tried that on the plane after the iPad died and I needed something to do, trying to list out every place we stayed for the last nine months. If I didn’t write it down, it would be gone.