July 19

The dead president's dinner was fun.  However, I drove up without my leather jacket.  Thought it would be too showy.  This was error.  I paid by freezing on the 1 1/2 hour drive back to Moscow as it got down to 54.

And speaking of temps, I left early this morning for the 325 miles or so back home because I did not want to deal with the heat more than I had to.  Still, I experienced a 49 degree temperature swing.  At that I escaped the absolute worst.  It was 99 when I got home, rising later to 106.

And speaking of getting home . . . .  Pat was following my progress, NSA-like, using the GPS in my phone.  She was waiting for me as I came down the drive, and took these.  Note the garbage cans that were there when I left are now gone.  I do not know if this is significant.

Over 9000 miles total.  Thanks very much to all who took me in and, in some cases, healed me up.  It was even more wonderful too see people again and catch up than it was to see all the things I saw.

Kat and Kyle came over for dinner.  I got some belated Father's Day books to as we had our steak dinner with Kat garden salad and Kat garden zucchini stuffed with tomato, sausage and other goodness.  Time flew and it was after 10 before we knew it.  So I kicked them out.

A reflection or two.  First, the time when I could ride 800 and 900 mile days as a matter of routine are the stuff of myth for me now.  I know I did it; I have no idea how.  Second, if the folks I ran into on this trip - and I am speaking of strangers now - are representative of the U.S. and Canada, then we are in pretty decent shape.  I didn't run into a single actual jerk during the whole trip, but I did meet a good many nice, helpful people.  Third, how is it that I am blessed with so many good friends?  It is an astonishment and a mystery for which I am very grateful.  And lastly . . . 

Mark Twain said that the two most important days in a man's life are the day he's born and the day he figures out why.  If there is a single answer to the second question, I don't know it and I've been pondering this for better than 50 years.  I have partial answers.  One of them is my love for my wife and daughter.  Still, a sceptic might say that love is just a feature of evolutionary biology designed to maximize the chances of passing one's genetic material to the next generation.  After all, if you love someone, you take better care of them.  Love almost surely is an evolutionary advantage, but it is also almost surely more.  Consider the bond between a young child and a puppy.  That is love, pure and unconditional, but it is difficult to see what evolutionary advantage interspecies love confers.  I think love is an answer, and I do not believe it is reducible to mere biology.

I have another partial answer.  When I was in Ontario, heading west, I stopped for breakfast just after another rider, heading east.  By the time I got off the bike and got inside, he was already seated.  A tall, lean man wearing leather chaps and jacket.  I sat at an adjoining table and ordered.  We didn't speak, but simply nodded to one another when he got up to leave.  On the back of his jacket were the words,

                                     IT'S NOT THE DESTINATION, IT'S THE RIDE

Have a good ride, my friends.  You get only one.

                                                                  FIN