Day 71

Three weeks ago we stopped riding in Rapid City, South Dakota. Tomorrow we ride out of Lewistown, Montana. Now that we've visited with friends and let our bodies recuperate we'll start fresh with only the aches and pains that are associated with throwing frisbee, huluhooping and general overexertion from attempting to keep up with children. Bicycling is great and a lot of fun but the absence of an upper body workout is quite obvious after a marathon game of catch. I'm sure if we were truly worried while on a trip we could do push ups or curls with cans of beans. But am I that dedicated? Somehow I don't think so.

From Lewistown we head east having decided a long time ago that we weren't going to make it to Oregon, Idaho or Washington on this trip. With not enough time to complete the loop we'd imagined and not enough strength or desire to haul our 500+ pounds of bike and bikers over the Rockies we made the choice to cut off a few thousand miles and start our return trip now. We'll work our way back to Ohio some which way that we don't know yet. The road will lead and we'll just ramble; from here on we think it will be more of the trip we'd hoped for.

This next segment of our ride we view as a separate bike trip. Our first tour consisted of mashing out the miles, days of fighting our way as far as we could and only stopping when something broke. We spent time learning along the way what worked, what didn't and what was just plain crazy to attempt. Now we're seasoned veterans... right. At least from here on we know more of what we're getting into... right. Perhaps what I'm trying to say is that we're ready for our next adventure and we get to ride back to where we came from unless something better stops us along the way. We'll see...