Day 47--Last Full Riding Day

Brattleboro to Burlington, Mass.

Again, no stats. The day was again truncated by gear troubles, and I cut things short for all the reasons I've mentioned before. I was torn between that fact that this was a poor last week to finish an other-wise great ride. There were other far more serious situations outlined earlier in the blog that happen during the ride, and my minor inconveniences this past week do not even compare to those.

I hope it's obvious that I would have preferred to end this week on the bike. But, in the sceam of things, all's well that ends well. I started every day; I only lost about 200 miles out of the total 3,415 (not counting the occasional minor detours) despite all the truncated days; I ended up in one piece; I was stronger, in many ways, then when I started; and got to meet some great people, share a great experience, and cross off another item on the "bucket list". No nothing's wrong, it's just a figure of speach.

As with many of the riders, my wife, Chris, joined us in Burlington for the last couple of days. We went out to dinner, and found a Sushi place near the hotel, virtually by accident. We went looking for a steak place, and found this place. Chris works full time and teaches at a community college part-time. So needless to say, she stayed busy while I was gone. However, after living with each other for over 30 years, things change when the other one isn't aroung to help out in the various odd ways, or be around to yell at, or whatever. All I will say about this is that I, like most of the other riders, certainly appreciate the support of our significant others who let us wander off across the desert, over Rocky mountains, across the plains, through the midwest, and over the eastern mountains and on to the Atlantic Ocean. Actually, we had a payback vacation planned to three weeks after the Anchor House Ride: an inland waterway Alaskan cruise.

We still have a final short day (18 miles) tomorrow to the Atlantic Ocean. Compared to most days, 18 miles is just the morning warm-up. See ya............