Epilogue: 1 SAG driver. 6 cyclists. 23 days. 1574 miles. Countless memories.

“Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day”

I’m back in the States.  Doing a much-needed day of laundry.  Food shopping to restock a refrigerator that’s been left empty this past month. Listening to the political pundits on MSNBC.  In other words, returning to a normal life.

I always take a day or two to reflect on the past weeks of riding.  It’s still too raw and swirling in my head to comment the next day on what’s just occurred. 

The beaches of Praia da Luz

The day after the ride ended, everyone slept in for the first time in nearly a month.  We all gathered at a more human hour to grab one last breakfast together (9 am instead of our usual 6:45).  Again, we walked the 20+ minutes down the steep hill to the beach for one last shot at a full English breakfast.  Jesse is already having baked-beans-for-breakfast withdrawal symptoms! We were a bit more subdued than during recent meals.  We had already begun the process of decompressing.

Thank goodness we weren't taking our bikes up and down those hills to the beach!

After breakfast and that hill climb back up to the condos, we started the process of breaking down our bikes and packing them for shipping/bringing them on the plane. Thank goodness Gene was part of our riding crew, as he’s the only one certified as a bike mechanic.  His expertise helped make things go faster.  After about three hours, all five bikes were in their shipping boxes.

Gene starts the breakdown process.

The rest of the day was spent napping, confirming seat assignments for flights back home and easing back into the work world (e-mails and text follow-ups, etc.).  At night, we all gathered, and again did the down and up walks to and from dinner for our last night together.  More so than the morning’s food gathering, we spent more time reminiscing on the past three weeks; reliving individual feats, favorite meals, worst climbing days, favorite catchphrases that will live on in our collective memories, etc.

Seat post off, front wheel off, handlebars about to be dropped.

Jesse and I continued our decompression session later that night after dinner by watching multiple episodes of The Newsroom, the Aaron Sorkin HBO series, on the DVDs available in the condo in which we were staying.  It was another exercise in the re-acclimation back into our US-based lives.

And all tucked into its box.

Monday morning was a very low-key last morning cup of tea together with everyone.  Our bags were packed.  The cab was coming in twenty minutes.  And we were looking sadly into each other’s eyes as we hugged and kissed and wished each other well as we entered the final phase of prying ourselves out of each other’s lives after spending nearly the past month together.  Not an easy task among friends you’ve spent parts of the past 4-6 summers together.

The cab came.  Somehow, we managed to fit both Michelle and me and our bike boxes and luggage along with Jesse and his luggage into the van. And then we were off, on our way to the airport in Faro and our flights home.

I am trying to look back on the past three weeks.  Michelle, Jesse and I tried to talk about it in the airport while waiting for our respective flights.  Jesse and I tried to talk about it while flying home.  We all had a hard time putting our feelings into words.  Honestly, it just seems a bit unreal.  Where did the last month go?  

As I sit here writing this, the whirl of the spin cycle of the laundry playing in the background, I still feel as if that ride through Europe was so long ago, as if crossing back over the Atlantic was like flying through some kind of time warp that transported me far away from what just finished a couple of days ago.

                          1 SAG driver.  6 cyclists.  23 days. 1574 miles.  Countless memories. 

I thank all the folks who helped me get through the past month.  Thanks to all the folks at Montclair Bikery, particularly Ken and Anthony, for getting my bike in shape for the long haul.  Thanks to Mike at New York Sports Club for helping get me in shape. Thanks to Michelle for inviting me to this crazy affair in the first place.  Thanks (on behalf of me and all the riders) to my son Jesse for coming up with the insane idea of coming along as the SAG driver.  And thanks everyone else out there who offered good wishes and spiritual support to me before and during the ride.  

And thanks to the cycling Gods and that invisible force of nature that kept us all safe and alive during three-plus weeks of riding through heat waves, rainstorms, forest fires and city traffic.  Jane told Jesse during breakfast one morning that she prayed for us every night.  Jane’s, and everyone else’s, prayers were answered. We all made it safe and sound. And every one of us looked up to the heavens and thanked our respective higher powers for delivering us to the beach in Praia da Luz in one piece.

We few, we happy few.  We band of brothers and sisters.

It was a helluva trip.  A once-in-a-lifetime adventure.  And I had a blast.