You wrote "When I was younger I prided myself on being able to replay the entire tour, remembering every stop and some detail of each place we stayed". That's an amazing feat.

By the middle of the second week of my trip this summer I sometimes had problems remembering in the middle of the day where I had started from that morning or where I was headed for the evening. Although the text of my daily entries generally helped establish those facts, the titles didn't tell the story of where I was or had been.

Scott & Rachael: Your daily journal will be missed; it was a morning ritual... coffee with your daily report.. all the great photos, videos and commentary. Looking forward to more! Best to you on recovery to life stateside.

For some time I have followed a Swedish guy on Youtube, named William Taudien. He has traveled and video blogged all over the world, but not by bike. In a recent entry he muses about why he is travelling, and also about why he is documenting it. You might be interested to have a look. He grows philosophical at 1:09 of the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_vDKT9BoE

I’m so glad I’ve been doing this. When I was younger I prided myself on being able to replay the entire tour, remembering every stop and some detail of each place we stayed - where we parked the bikes, typically. It’s how I would put myself to sleep when I had insomnia - better than counting sheep.

It doesn’t quite work any more though. To many places and too many years have gone by. I tried that on the plane after the iPad died and I needed something to do, trying to list out every place we stayed for the last nine months. If I didn’t write it down, it would be gone.

The time change is strange for me too - for myself of course, but it’s a little disorienting seeing when comments filter in now.

The Lake District was pretty wonderful alright, as were the Yorkshire Dales and Wales. It’s country that would really work for you, I’ll bet. I hope we get another look ourselves some year.

Thanks, Graham. It’s a good question, and I could probably count posts and SWAG a number, but I don’t think I want to know.

Well, a few folks already know, so there’s no harm in making it public. We’re going back to Italy in the spring. We’ll spend the first 4-5 weeks in Sicily again (we already booked our lodging, because it’s around Easter so we wanted to be sure) but after that we don’t have a plan yet other than to fly home from Bologna up in the north.

We’ll be in Tucson from 12/29-1/29. It’s a new place for us, but a neighborhood we’ve stayed in before - on W 4th, over in the Dunbar Springs neighborhood. I don’t remember - will you be down for any of that time?

Another number: I wonder how many hours you spent writing the journal. You deserve a medal.

You always wrap your journals up so nicely. I had to be sure to come back and read this page.

Where are your tickets to in the spring?

Are you at the same airbnb in Tucson as last year, or something new?

Welcome home!

Be assured that people will and do find these journals years from now. I for one am still discovering and enjoying journals on here that were written way back. And what's more they also provide valuable and useful information if planning a similar trip. So some of them are scrutinised in great deal and read over and over. I've very grateful to all of you who take the time and effort to write about your journeys. It's opened up a whole new world for myself.
That was such a well written and thoughtful summary Scott!

My head is spinning from all those amazing statistics. Twelve thousand photos is a statistic that really stands out. And I can understand your reluctance to name the very best of the best from your tour, so I'll do it for you. MY favorite part of your tour was the part in the amazing, view-blockerless Lake District of Great Britain.

I'll miss the daily doses of The Continuing Adventures of Team Anderson. It'll also be weird to be two or three hours ahead of you rather than six to nine behind you.

That was a fantastic nine months indeed! I'm looking forward to the recaps. My poor memory will be glad to be reminded of all the places you visited.

" ...we want to do and see more, but we have the capacity and drive to do less."
When planning or reflecting on every trip, I am always very aware of the fact that we are getting older. I ask myself what are we still up to, will we be able to do that same or a similar trip next year? So we adapt and make allowances for our aging bodies (and minds).

Nicely written reflection, and good work putting all the tracks onto single maps. I am planning to go back and create such a map for each of our past trips, because we can no longer remember the answers to questions like "When were we in Lyons?" despite all the struggle we may have done to reach there on several occasions.

It's also admirable that you sort through the photos and organize them after the fact. I have accepted that if a photo, however good, does not make it to the blog, it is basically lost to the world, jumbled into a USB drive with all the out of focus and uncaptioned riff raff.

The blogs themselves are interesting entities. We often find ourselves re-reading one, amazed at the clever writing and at the adventures described. But is the blog equivalent to a book, something that someone may find and enjoy years from now? And even if so, do we care?

Well these are the type of thoughts we may have when stuck back here in the rain and gloom, instead of out on the glorious road. But I will be clinging still to Cycleblaze, watching for your next entry!