6/23: final thoughts

Today is the long trip back to the states. A large number of VBTers including Walter and Mike were up around 5:00am to catch a 6:00am transfer to the Split airport. The rest of us dribbled out during the day. Stu and I caught a 12:45 transfer along with Tom and Barbara. We took the same flights back to Boston via Frankfurt. We arrived in the evening of the same day so it was about 18 hours of travel. It was a long day.

I have always felt that traveling west is easier than traveling east. Not everyone feels this way. I always feel pressure to sleep on the eastbound overnight flights and probably sleep less well as a result. Traveling west I don't worry and I just doze. It probably also helps that I'm traveling home instead of beginning a new travel adventure.

All four of my biking adventures (three trips with VBT) have been enjoyable on a number of levels. Because my philosophy on personal finance now includes international travel for bike trips with my biking buddies, it would be pretty hard not to have a good time.

The riding on this trip was challenging, not as difficult as riding in the Alps, but nonetheless it pushed me to my limits. There were times riding in the Alps when I really did not want to be riding any more. On this trip there were moments when I thought it was pretty hard but never a time when I thought that getting on a bike was a bad decision.

On our previous VBT trips, Mike and Walter or Vince or Marty and I were the strongest riders in the group. For our TdF trip, we were the slowest. On this trip it was nice to get to know and ride with Dan who was far and away the strongest rider in our group and would have fit right in with the riding group in the Alps.

The ebikes changed everything. There were multiple occasions when we would be struggling up a hill and one of the people on ebikes would breeze by. If it was Caryn, Dan would be standing to try to keep up. Tom did the last hill of the tour on his ebike and chatted with Walter as they rode up the hill together.

I had fun on my little spin on an ebike and it is, as Caryn put it, a game changer. I can see riding an additional 10 years beyond when I might otherwise quit riding if an ebike was available. The ebikes on this trip were pretty clunky and if the power ran out, they would be prohibitively heavy to pedal. The technology exists to make ebikes indistinguishable from standard road bikes. For ego if nothing else, I hope that the technology trickles down so that when I am ready to do a tour with an ebike, I can do it on a bike that is not a tank.

The routes were well chosen. They demonstrated an understanding of what riders want and what I try to consider when planning routes myself. The rides covered a variety of terrain (flat, hilly, really hilly) and the spectacular views never stopped. There were a few roads on our routes that had poor surfaces but that's life.

My trip home included an additional drive from Boston to Syracuse but I had a chance to visit with my sister and her family and Honora in Springfield. She had just finished her first full day as a bike cop and when I insisted on pictures, she sent me this.

Finally, I am re-posting this picture, probably my favorite, below because it captures the trip perfectly.

P.S. did you happen to notice that the 2017 VBT Catalog has on the front cover, a picture of.... HVAR!