Wrapping it all up - Part 1 Oct 13, 2015 - tomorrow I'll be flying home!
While still enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the Saab family in the DC area, I have started to deal with what many experienced long-distance cyclists have predicted: A slight feeling of depression, homelessness, of not really belonging to where I might physically be ... My own phrase reflects this sentiment aptly, I believe: the "Post-Tour Blues".
My very last warmshowers hosts, Camilla and Debra in Williamsburg had returned from their cross-country trip a month before and they stated that it had taken them three weeks to get back to normal life emotionally - and that with a busy schedule dealing with a project in Africa and lots of things going on at the home front!
This last week in the US with my long-lost friends from my childhood have brought back so many wonderful memories that had been lying dormant for decades that it actually feels difficult at this moment to concentrate on a resumé of my cycling tour. But I am sure that, inevitably and in due time, all my recent experiences, minor and major, will fall back on me and I am willing to sum them up as best I can over the following weeks. Although I will be mainly writing for myself it would be nice to find that even though the thrill of wanting to find out "what next", that has kept many of my ardent readers cranking up their tablets and laptops every morning for the last couple of months will not be satisfied any more, the one or other reader might provide me with constructive comments ... I might even take them into consideration when planning my next tour :).
To those who remember that I was not originally supposed to venture on this trip alone I would like to recommend Dave's little treatise on
Crazy Guy On A Bike in which he describes his own perspective of the long planning process and the ensuing events which ultimately forced him to - let's put it this way - postpone his adventure to the coming year. So read all about it here:
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=tS&doc_id=16291&v=3t