Warp

For 2 days straight we drove back from whence we came, all of our
stuff in the back of our rented budget van, with an improvised bed
consisting of all of our bedding and a weird strap that dianne devised
to serve as a "bedbelt" of sorts -never needed, but would've been
effective in case of anythin but the most devastating accident, plus
we had a "helmet on all the time while riding in the back" rule... No,
just kidding about that. I slept so well back there though, with the
quiet rumbling vibrations of the highway under my head - fantastic!

Being the only nondriver (liscense suspended in '02 for too many
"moving violations" in a 3 month span, mostly due to a faulty
brakelight I kept getting pulled over for, fixing, and having break
again - I refused to take a 8 hour driver safety course to get it
reinstated, and now bike places, viola!) meant I napped, and
entertained the drivers as well as I could.

Not too much interesting stuff happened on this last leg of the trip,
though we talked about stopping by somewhere neat just to break up the
drive a little, monetary limitations (this was at the height of the
gas price spike, like 4.30/gal) and just wanting to warp back
surreally got us back to Springfield, Mass on the eve of my 30th
birthday where we returned the truck to budget (after getting as lost
as we'd been anytime in the entire trip and right in our own backyard
to boot!), and wandered up to a tavern for a celebratory beer while we
waited for my Mom, her partner Mark, and my sister to come pick us an
all our stuff up, which only seemed a little silly as we could easily
have biked the last 30 miles ourselves, but were grateful to not have
to... Though perhaps mark, who had the privelege of driving with the
majority of our gear, would've appreciated our having ridden it, as
out gear smelled so terrible (completely unbeknownst to us till he
announced it!) after all that riding and weeks without a proper shower!

We apologize to anyone we came into contact with in those last few
weeks in particular! We just didn't realize!

We had ice cream and pie at my dad's place that night, and in the
morning rode with kurt partway back to his house, then turned off and
took a scenic route back to greenfield..

I had a birthday party that night at my sisters house and the next
morning I was 30, dirt poor, home, and stranded with Dianne in
Massachusetts.

Sweet.