Homeward bound.

morgan, hoy, bonjour, hiya, lo,

I write to you from gate 301 at the Dublin International Airport. Monday saw us smoothly through the Wicklow mountains and into the brick and bar of Dublin, our final destination. After three thousand kilometers, ten weeks time, nine liters of cider, eight ml of bay leaf liqueor, seven countries, six border crossings, five flat tires, four rough tumbles, three beautiful rainbows, two foraged mushrooms, and one lifechanging experience, it seems as though we have stopped pedaling.

It feels so natural that we head home now. After close to a year of adventuring, and no more than 2 weeks in a single place, we are ready. Ready for projects, growing and making things, and spending time with people we know and love. We will cherish all the friendly, interesting, and just plain curious people with whom we have had brief encounters. They have shaped our vision of Europe and made us feel that the world is a much smaller place than imagined.

Our bodies are tired, but our minds alert (perhaps it is all that tea that we have been drinking, keeping us up at night with grand ideas about the meaning of life). Ready as could be for a bit of regularity, but also for the constantly changing world. I think we have been training over the course of the year for LIFE. I mean, it is full of change, challenge, and cheer...no?

I have lost a few pant sizes, gained muscle, lost a bit of fear, gained a sense of empowerment, lost my need for many clothes and a bed, and gained an appreciation for nature, people's goodness, and the comforts of home we take for granted.

I hope that we will carry the many lessons learned with us and hold a new refreshed view of life for quite some time. While our lives may not be as exciting and adventurous now, we will certainly hold fast to whatever adventure we can find in everyday life. It really is all about how you view things.

And with that, we say goodbye...dear blog followers. You have been so encouraging and made us feel so special-the whole journey through. We will miss knowing that you are silently riding along with us.

Much love.

Lucy and Nate

Day 66, km 2656

"Behave yourselves boys, they're from the colonies" he declared in his thick Welsh tones. Former colonies, I thought to correct him. The one that got away. The regulars had just arrived. It was at this canalside diner tucked away amongst the twisted trees of the Welsh mountains that we took the time one cold and misty morning to have our first proper English Breakfast. A "jacket" (baked) potato filled with beans and cheese. Lucy had the more traditional and omnivorous "full breakfast"(bacon,sausage,egg.hashbrowns,beans,toast). Either way they juiced us up for a good 7 hours of riding, only stopping for a piece of cake(that Linda so graciously packed up and gave to us for free) after a mountain's worth of uphill at what probably would have been a breathtaking view had we not been amidst the clouds. After a good 45 miles we arrived at our destination, a cattery campsite, just in time for showers and dinner before the sun signed off and things got cold.
(Nate trails off...lucy starts writing)

Our days in western England and Wales have been mighty beautiful, hilly, rainy, miraculously cloudless, and friendly. The cycle path we took from London to Bristol was very peaceful and quiet-only occasionally a pleasant interruption from some friendly passersby. One father and son who lived in the area and were cyclists told us a bit of history around the county we were in--apparently the Devizes castle was deemed the most beautiful castle in the days of its birth. We also learned that the county was the least populated in Britain. The next man we stumbled upon was an......
AMERICAN!
We had yet to meet any americans on our trip, let alone cyclists! He was a funny old man-seemed he spent nearly all of his days cycling between winters resting up in Las Vegas. In typical American form he rattled off all the places he had seen-horribly mispronouncing every French place, and asking us very few questions ... It was great to meet someone from 'home' though.

We passed through Bath after a few nights spent at small farms/B and B's where we ended up being the sole campers. The ride into Bath was the most impressive of all. A misty morning slowly clearing and leaving the bright green hills in its place. Lovely old houses hovering over the village center. Mm. I liked western England.

It's funny, every new country we enter seems a bit strange at first. We just got used to the accent/language/culture/grocery stores of one place and then bam, you are now in Wales! We do slowly warm up though. In England we started off cursing the traffic and hills but found it lovely after London. Wales was a bit different. As we crossed the majestic white 2 mile bridge into the country, exactly halfway across it started to rain. It wasn't bad rain though, it was beautiful big sunset sky misty rain -and then it stopped and the sky cleared. We spent the next 2 days in sunny bliss before the day Nate referenced at the beginning of the blog. The character of Wales has continued to elude me, people here are so friendly, but apparently some western Wales folk can be a bit exclusive to foreigners. It supposedly rains all the time..but we've had some incredible sunny skies and wonderful rocky coastal views. And get this-they have more of an Irish accent than English, I would have expected more ties to Britain but who knows. Either way, I have really enjoyed my time here, I doubt I would have ever gone out of my way to see Wales if it weren't on our route...but I'm really glad I did.

I think I'll end with a (now) amusing story. It's called the day Lucy and Nate lost each other. Perhaps it is not a story, but really..how do you lose someone you are cycling with for 2 whole hours!! It was no one's fault really, just a case of good old timing and 'bad' luck.

I was cycling along, pushing hard up a hill when I did the occasional look back to see where Nate was. He wasn't behind be at the top of the hill so I waited a few minutes while I caught my breath. Hmm, I thought, maybe he is resting down there somewhere. I went back down the hill to see and he was nowhere to be found for the next mile. I frantically asked a man if he had seen a cyclist and while we conversed, I realized I might have missed a sign posted route 4 (the cycle route we are following) sign before the hill. I raced back up , heart pounding with anxiety and aerobic speed, saw the sign I missed, and took the turn. In my head, Nate must have been ahead of me so I must hurry!
What happened was this: Nate took the proper turn, didn't see me ahead and turned back and went up the hill to see if I kept going. Meanwhile, I was already back down the hill looking for him. Long story short, mapless Lucy kept on route 4 hoping to see Nate ahead. Nate rode in circles around the same spot that we lost each other for an hour, recruiting help from another cyclist and ultimately using a gas station attendants cellphone to call me. Alas, we picked a point to meet and found each other. I have never felt like that before-completely alone and really with nothing (no wallet or tent ) in a foreign country on back country roads. Gave me a fright for sure. Now it's just funny that we could have lost each other. OH DEAR! What a trip this has been.

We are now on a ferry to Rosslare, Ireland. About 3 days riding from our final destination, Dublin. We are spending a few days exploring (by foot) the Wicklow Mtns and staying at a bed and breakfast for Nate's Birthday (the 19th). We have arranged a stay with a nice couple in Dublin through Warmshowers and we will pack our bikes and fly home next Wednesday. Only after we properly sample lots of guiness and hear some Irish pub music. Shouldn't be too hard.

Take care and see you soon Americans!

N L

Chance, circumstance, and luck.

These are all things I have been thinking about quite a bit since I've been reading Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers'. In the book, he argues with some very famous examples (Bill Gates, famous lawyers, Joe Flom) that people whom we usually classify as super extraordinary can be broken down and seen as just a bunch of lucky circumstances combined with the ability that matches so many others. I found his book fascinating because he talks about luck but then shows that it is not this intangible thing.. Sometimes it's just having had the opportunity to spend 10000 hours becoming a master of somethng before others had the chance.

Perhaps this doesn't directly relate to anything in my life right now... But everyday we think about the chances of rain, finding a campsite, not getting a flat, or hit by a car. We think about luck a lot too- when we get to a site and it then starts raining, when we happen to choose a nice scenic route, and most recently-on our ferry ride to England.

We arrived in Le havre after a ride down the coast from Etretat ( a small town with georgous cliffs we were LUCKY to stumble upon)...and were quite early for our ferry. There are only 2 per day-5pm (5hr ferry) and 630pm (3hr ferry)... We were set for the fast ferry, and were just lounging around the foot passenger checkin until we asked if it was too early to check in. The woman tells us then that our ferry scraped a dock a few hrs ago and has a huge hole in the side-won't be sailing anywhere today. Back up 5 hrs- Nate says to me 'I had a dream last night that our ferry had a hole in it somehow, and we couldn't go today'...'Nate! Don't jinx it!!'..'When did you become so superstitious?' ...(after we saw two black cats cross in front of us earlier and I got scared)

What are the chances of that?? Well, as luck would have it ... We ended up on the 5pm ferry after a few tricky maneuvers. We were told to go wait in the car line and to hurry bc they would take people on the slow ferry but only so many would fit. After we waited for 30 mins ... They stopped taking people. Everyone got out of their cars and demanded an explanation from the poor security people. One many finally told everyone what had happened and that they could drive to Brittany and catch a ferry there...'excuse me sir, we're on bikes' ....so he told me that we could catch a morning ferry. We rode away worried because where would we stay? And what about the nice person who was picking us up late at night at the other end of the ferry and letting us stay at her house (its like couchsurfing for touring cyclists- warmshowers.org).

We ended up being 'lucky' because we went back to the foot passenger checkin and a nice security man said 'Ill get you on'...buzzed us through the forbidden entry doors... And we rode on to the ferry...without tickets even!

It seems luck is a bit like the whole psychic phenomenon where you are stunned when they say things that are true, and quickly forget when they say things that are false. I supose we are all lucky then, if we only think about the 'good' luck and forget the 'bad ' luck (as we did when we rushed on to that ferry). Gladwell's point is that there really are no outliers, just a handful of people that happen to have been born at the right time, in the right culture, with suportive families for certain opportunities to be available. It's inspiring because it means that just because you aren't famously successful... Doesn't mean you aren't as qualified...there are just so many things we don't have control over. Phew! That's a relief !

I digress. But as far as our trip goes, we have been cycling through England with a short stopover in London. The roads here are very narrow and it is a bit stressful riding with so many cars. We ended up training into and out of the center of London bc of that, probably a choice that prevented 'bad luck'. We have seen some beautiful views though-rode through a national park on the way to London and now we are following the Kennet Avon cycle route along a towpath of a river/canal. Much needed quiet stretch after busy London!

By the way, the city was really neat. We stayed with my cousin Nick (yess family, he is alive and well) in his 12 person house and had a blast. He had off work so it was a great chance for him to see some more of touristy London too. We went to 3 museums (including the science museum) which were all free and lineless=amazing. We also wandered our way to some cool neighborhoods - brick lane which has a huge indian population and amazing curry; and Camden markets which is this area along a canal with people selling everything in stalls (one free stall too that I scored a hat and a book at)...every cultural food you could imagine too! I had pizza and a burrito, Nate had a gourmet veg burger, and Nick had a fajita burrito. Well done Camden. We also wandered though beautiful parks and saw ornate things (buckingham palace and London Tower)...all between some crazy tube rides. It was great to see so much of the HUGE city and visit with my cousin all the while.

So like I said, we're breathing in this country air, enjoying car free roads, and just taking in this last leg of our journey through western England and Southern Wales. We ferry to Ireland on the 15th... Crazy that we have about 2 weeks left! Can't wait to see you all...

Goodbye and goodluck!

Lucy

(ps. I wonder how my view of luck will change in ireland...)

Pictured: church in Rouen France, fresh butter/eggs from a farm we camped at in Normandy, Us in Etretat cliffs, Camden and th doubledecka busses.