Scott and Rachel,

More commonalities: On several occasions we have done six month stints. Six months with no fixed address except for your bike saddle. The first time we did this we few from Dubrovnik after spending a week there. We loved itWe rented our home on these occasions rather than selling it as our jobs at Deer Valley took us back to Salt Lake every winter.

And one trip included sailing in Greece. We loved that too and reading your journal makes us want to go back. Now, however we have a shorter tether, namely my eyes and the need to see the retinal specialist theoretically once a month. I can talk her into two months if things are going well and I am aiming for three, the length of the Schengen visa.

Thanks for your journals. We are cooling off in Santa Monica, a good choice as it turns out with respect to air quality which is important to us.
Here at sea level we are riding our little sport, racing bikes but when we return home we are going to spend the fall dissecting your Southern Utah rides into old folk chunks and see how we do with our new ebikes. We have reservations in Moab and St. George and are looking forward to it as we are to continuation of your adventures.

Scott and Rachel,

Maun and I are currently in Santa Monica in the land of fancy cars. Yesterday we saw a Mclaraen parked right on the street marked as a bike route in Venice Beach. And the day before while waiting to cross the street to get to the Getty Villa we saw an Alfa Romeo with the model name "Stelvio." Is that a sign?

While riding on the Neckar it was important to me to stop in Tübingen because one of my favorite professors had taught there. There was, of course, a Fest with no rooms to be had so we ended up in a splurge hotel a few minutes away from the center. We were in an annex and had to go to the main building for breakfast. We parked our bikes right next to a beautiful silver gray Porsche, pretty close to exactly the same color as our titanium bikes. As we ate I speculated as to who it belonged to but couldn't guess. But we left at the same time so we were getting on our bikes as he was unlocking the car. I said to him that our Porsches were the same color but he reminded me that his would go much faster.

Scott and Rachel,

Maun and I are currently in Santa Monica in the land of fancy cars. Yesterday we saw a Mclaraen parked right on the street marked as a bike route in Venice Beach. And the day before while waiting to cross the street to get to the Getty Villa we saw an Alfa Romeo with the model name "Stelvio." Is that a sign?

While riding on the Neckar it was important to me to stop in Tübingen because one of my favorite professors had taught there. There was, of course, a Fest with no rooms to be had so we ended up in a splurge hotel a few minutes away from the center. We were in an annex and had to go to the main building for breakfast. We parked our bikes right next to a beautiful silver gray Porsche, pretty close to exactly the same color as our titanium bikes. As we ate I speculated as to who it belonged to but couldn't guess. But we left at the same time so we were getting on our bikes as he was unlocking the car. I said to him that our Porsches were the same color but he reminded me that his would go much faster.

An Italian cricket! I’ll bet he was hoping for a ride back to his home. Good thing I spotted him before hauling him all the way to Trieste! For some reason this brings to mind that fine old song: Poor little robin walk-in, walk-in, walk-in to Missouri; he can’t afford to fly.

Looks like a tree cricket. I poked around the internet and think maybe it might be an Italian tree cricket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oecanthus_pellucens

Oh, sure. Easy when someone passes you the answers!

Considering it's only your first day (jet lag and all) you got some beautiful photos.

Have a great trip (new life)!

Can confirm.

A little known variant of the umbrellensis rufus family of urban vegetation. Famous for being one of the varieties which unfurl in a non predictable pattern. Most often found in urban environnents, also fiund in sububan or rural back gardens. Enjoy your new life. Dodie, and Steve

Could work, but then we’d need to acquire extra storage for the BoBs too! I’m kind of enjoying the challenge anyway, and it’s incentive for us to rethink how much we really need some of this stuff we’re shuttling to storage and back. We’ve got some metrics to work with now - how many loads can we work our way down to?

You realize BC is known as the land of Gore-tex and fleece for a reason?

This summer, though, has been different (as was summer 2017). It seems like the entire province is on fire and we are all hoping for rain--soon.

You just didn’t notice it before. Rodriguez looked this way in Canada also. Rachael’s Straggler was completely fender-free though. We didn’t feel the need for them because we were assured that it never rains in BC in the summer. We felt a bit betrayed by our friends in the north when this proved not to be true.

So the real mystery is why mine has one, instead of zero. I’m puzzled about that myself.

Not wanted her either, but as long as we’re stuck with it we might as well enjoy its upside.

I noticed you didn't have fenders on your bike for your BC trip and now you have only a rear fender! Any particular reason?

It may be pretty, but it's not wanted in BC https://bcinvasives.ca/invasive-species/identify/invasive-plants/purple-loosestrife/