The End

Touched down in Denver this evening, took the bus to Boulder, grabbed a pita and a six pack, and went home.

Getting back is bittersweet for sure. Most of this trip has gone really smoothly, glad I got started with it. Seeing the width of the country was interesting, and I really enjoyed a lot of the small towns along the way. For the most part, the weather was beautiful, or at least tolerable, and The Infernal Machine handled things well. Except for some knee issues on the first couple days, some road rash in Wyoming, and an annoying respiratory bug, I've stayed pretty comfortable for the last couple months. To answer the constant question - the butt is, and has been, fine :) (Brooks B17.)

Visiting with family and friends was really good too, I'm proud to know some really great people, and spending time with them is always good. Met some really cool folks along the way - far too many to list here (that's cheezy anyways,) hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with some of them. And, of course, the conversation with bunches of random people in gas stations, diners, and parks along the way was fun. It's all about the people.

Getting a break from the 90mph pace of the previous year at school was good as well, last spring left me a bit fried after 20 credit hours and working a lot to pay for them.

When it boils down to it, I feel more at home on the road/trail/mountain than pretty much anywhere else. It's always good to be home.

But, now it's back to 90 for a while longer, probably more than two full years this time around, and only a small part of me is looking forward to that. I'm hoping to get this degree knocked out in three years, which is going to require heavy course loads, bending some rules (prerequisite stuff,) and taking classes next summer. School is generally interesting, but that long of a stretch could be tedious.

Some days on the road, I had to deal with bad drivers and occasional assholes - glad that's over. I feel strongly that most people are good people, but I think the sheer number of people, in the form of drivers, that I was seeing everyday was exposing my to more of that small percentage of jerks than in previous adventures. Plus, you don't generally take note of people who do a good (correct) job passing a cyclist, but the bad ones definitely stick out. Never before have I put my life in the hands of so many people. Not the most comforting thought, but I'm still here.

I'm glad that I'll be around more familiar people for a while too. The ride was a much more solitary trip than I had anticipated, and some of the longer stretches without any familiar faces got pretty lonely. Finally, my string of good luck appears to have had a hiccup over the last few days too - a few things happened that have me down a bit. One of them is that the guy who was subletting my room isn't going to be able to get his mess (and it is a mess) out of my room for another 8 days.

But, it takes a bit of bad to appreciate the good I suppose, and really my complaints about the trip are fairly trivial and meant just to show that it wasn't a complete joyride. On the whole, life is good.

As far as this blog goes, this is gonna be the last post most likely. That said, previous posts definitely aren't set in stone and I have plans to go through them to finish and edit text in some places, and add quite a few pictures. The editing might take a while since I've got more pressing things to deal with than getting the blog polished up. If you're incredibly bored, there will be more on school and such over at ianr44.blogspot.com.

We'll see how it goes.