May 31, 2005
Epilogue
ITHACA, NY -- May 30
Well, it's been 10 days re-adjusting to life on the homefront. I think I have the hang of it again. It took the entirety of this post-vacation downtime to finish the last 5 entries of the blog, which gives you an idea of how exhausting the affair really was. With this post, I am sealing the journal off and retaining it as a memorial to the trip. What follows are some final words and perspective.
There are times when I almost see the trip as one long dream, and have trouble reconciling that I actually did it. As I settle back into the thick of things up here, parts of my simple 2 minute commute to and from work on Diana still scare me to where I wonder how I pulled off over 4000 miles of unfamiliar territory in rapid succession. It's part of why any self-planned trip is such a discovery -- you will always end up doing things you wouldn't normally think yourself capable of in a day-to-day existence.
The big question one always asks in that existential hangover one gets after the vacation is, "was it worth it"? I vote yes for a number of reasons, not the least of which is returning with all 4 limbs intact and a bike that is still more or less as road-worthy as when I left. And that is no exaggeration, given the number of nights I had restless sleep wondering if I'd make it home or not. Most of these nights were confined to the initial thrust of the journey. Once I got into the deep South, it became almost routine and my expectations for any given day's survival skills were more or less tempered.
Then there's the financial nags to consider. Gleaning from the table below along with some other estimations based on sheer cash consumed, I would generously guess that the trip totaled $1700. Not bad for spending almost 3 weeks away from home, and honestly few instances of sheer roughing it -- I made a point to eat and drink what I wanted, and stay at reasonably reliable places when I needed a hotel.
The almost $400 worth of in-trip repairs might rank slightly above average for a trip with 13 hard days of riding, but must be factored against the fact I barely paid that much for the bike in the first place and am not still making payments on it. After all the hype I had read (and obviously took to heart given this trip) that "any bike can be a touring bike", I was honestly disappointed to pass far less older bikes on tour than I expected. A good two thirds of the bikes I encountered looked less than 2 years old. I imagine some of this is due to how recent the mass revival of leisure biking in America is.
As to "would I do it again", absolutely. I am generally happy with how much of the trip transpired. Given the time it would take to build and plan a worthwhile sequel to this journey, I'd hope to have a newer more tour-friendly bike the next time I do it (looking nervously over my shoulder as I type that lest Diana oversee it). I definitely champion May as the best month to undertake these sorts of trips, due to the weather being between the April showers and Summer storms, and most waterfront tourist traps still not in full "peak season" just yet (or in the case of Florida, just waning).
I'll close this with some witty statistics and a master Table of Contents. Thanks again for reading, and for all the feedback.
Love,
Todd + Diana
THE TRIP, BY THE NUMBERS
| 20 | Number of days the trip lasted |
| 13 | Total number of days spent travelling |
| 4,260 | total miles logged on the trip |
| 15 | Number of miles it rained |
| 40 | estimated number of miles ridden on signed Interstate or other limited-access express highways |
| 2 | Number of times pulled over by cops |
| 0 | Number of tickets written by cops |
| $380 | total cost of repairs in trip |
| 4 | Number of motorcycle dealers / repair shops visited |
| 42 | total number of stops for gas |
| $182.07 | total spent on gas |
| $530.78 | total spent on lodging (6 nights of hotel staying during the 20 day stretch) |
| $600 | estimated cost of food and sundries |
| 0 | Number of important items lost (I thought I ditched the sunglassses in NJ on the ferry, but found them still ticked into the netting of my tailpack when I next parked) |
| 3 | Number of ferry rides |
| 6 | Number of toll bridges crossed |
| 3 | Number of genuine "close calls" with a car violating right of way from the side / behind |
| 2 | Number of proselytizers encountered (not counting an equally religious extoller of a new surgical procedure for enhancing the brain and curing seizures, ecountered at a diner) |
| 19 | Number of "available wireless networks" added to my scroll list from using free wi-fi on the trip (gotta clean that up soon) |
MASTER INDEX TO DAILY POSTS:
| April 30 | |
| May 1 | |
| May 2 | Plus this bonus detail of the darkest hour |
| May 3 | |
| May 4 | |
| May 5 | |
| May 6 | |
| May 7 | |
| May 8 | |
| May 9 | |
| May 10 | |
| May 11 | And also this postscript from my mini Florida vacation-vacation |
| May 12 | |
| May 13 | |
| May 14 | |
| May 15 | |
| May 16 | |
| May 17 | |
| May 18 | |
| May 19 |
Posted by Todd at May 31, 2005 08:17 PM