Summary/Thoughts

First and foremost I am so thankful to the good Lord above 

• for having been able to take this trip 
• for keeping us safe and healthy throughout the trip
• for the people we met along the way and the stories they shared
• for the kindness of strangers
• for family and friends that helped us succeed and motivated and cheered us on

Looking back

• I was surprised with the mental toll the trip had on me. The first month I struggled constantly to convince myself to stick with it and not go back home. I couldn’t keep up, my legs hurt, saddle soars made every moment on the seat unpleasant, and spending all my non cycling time with 2 men constantly talking and watching sports was tough 😬 I love them both dearly, but finding time apart was necessary. 
• I was also surprised that it was close to 3000 miles before I really felt like my legs were finally strong enough to endure each day. I had read that after touring for 2 weeks, most people are accustomed to being on the road. That wasn’t the case for me. So I thought maybe 6 weeks, the time it takes for exercising to have an affect. It was close to 8 weeks for me.

Misc thoughts…

• I felt sad for every animal that I saw that lost its life along the road and trails (maybe not the skunks, porcupines, and snakes)
• I was amazed at how much puke I saw on the shoulder of the roads
• Mosquitoes drove me crazy
• I feel like I did adapt to the hot and humid weather. The high heat days (over 100 degrees for consecutive days) in Montana were ridiculous tho
• This is definitely a beautiful country we live in! The west coast and east coast are very similar, with the middle of the country being just a little less scenic, but it still had its uniqueness

Things I would do differently 

• Warm showers hosts - I wish we would have used this great resource 
• Taking more days off - I think it would have helped, it would have been nice to enjoy our surroundings more, but we all got to a point where we just wanted to get done

Do it again? No. A shorter trip? I think so, but being away from family and friends and our dog was too hard for 3 months.

Glad I did it? Now that I’m done, definitely. I’m glad Terry and Ross convinced me to stick with it. Terry convinced me it was an important part of the trip to share this experience with me. Terry and Ross were always encouraging me and cheering me on thru the difficult days. I’m sure my riding improved immensely from the beginning days, but I was still a much slower rider than they were. 

There is so much alone time whilst on the bike. Way different then I thought our trip would be. In my mind I saw us riding together, enjoying the journey together, but in reality there was very little time spent side by side riding. At the end of the day we’d say “did you see” this or that, but very seldom did we experience it together.

The time it took to plan each day of the trip was way more than I expected.  Ross handled so much of that, and we are very thankful for all the effort and time he put into getting us where we needed to be everyday.

Closing…

While my experience differs a great deal from my husband’s experience, it wasn’t all bad. I do enjoy riding bicycle, and I do enjoy it for many of the same reasons as Terry does. I find it a little more difficult to find the serenity sometimes. The hill climbing and 8 hr days and excessive heat, humidity, and mosquitoes definitely took their toll on me. But, touring enables me to do something with Terry that I know he loves. To be able to do this  tour with both Terry and Ross was such a blessing! I know that as the days go by, I’ll look back and see more pleasure than pain in having accomplished this trip!