It is nice here today! Much better than flying home in a bomb cyclone. Timing is so important.

And Portland is surprisingly nice - at least in the downtown area. It’s really significantly cleaner than when we left last spring.

It would be cheaper to store them there really, when you factor in the baggage fee cost (both ways!) and in this case the cost of the sleep-and-fly lodging that was more than we would have spent otherwise. It did help that they threw in a roll of tape for free though.

Bringing them home for the winter is the right decision for us though. For one, we don’t really want to start off in Barcelona again next year. More importantly, her BF is really the only bike Rachael likes to ride so we need it here for the winter months. And they both need overhauls, something easier to manage over here.

I’m sure that if/when either of us goes electric we’ll leave them over in Europe for the winter. Neither one of us is quite ready for that yet though.

Oh, shoot. I forgot we have more than one Patrick on the hook here. This was a tweak at Mr. O’Hara, who questioned whether my ad hoc repair would hold for the last two months of the tour: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/taeurope24/to-marseille/#56060_b9fp7hse05pb3ljg9s51ev20hy4.

I was really pretty confident though. Now that we’re back, I’ll scavenge stiffeners from a pair of old bags in our storage unit to replace the cracked ones (the one in the other bag is cracked also). I knew there was a reason I hadn’t thrown them away yet,
.

We are ready for part two!

This Patrick doesn't know what you are talking about. But it is definitely broken.....

I got my money's worth with this entry, reading it twice to get a fix on the complex logistics described. The writing is clear, so it must just be that we accidentally bought decaf coffee at our last grocery outing. Something that did get my attention on the first pass was €50 per bike box. Our storage locker cost at Valencia was €42 per month. Taking into account the airline baggage fees, that probably makes store in Europe vs ship home an equivalent cost. (Some unknowns in this: storage fees that we checked in Marseilles and Paris were a lot higher, but also airline fees for bike boxes are sometimes very high too.) The Bike Friday in suitcase answer is no doubt still best, but oh my, there is also the suitcase shipping cost for any non circle tour!). For us, so long as we are using the full size bikes vs the Ligo equipped Fridays, taking bikes back and forth on planes makes no sense. But sitting here with my (non decaf) coffee and muffin reading your post, I have the luxury of putting myself in your shoes.

I'm guessing you are home by now. Hope you are enjoying the momentarily dry weather.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Karen. I can’t decide if this is poor or good timing. It portends an unpleasant flight home, but it didn’t disrupt much of the tour and I’ve got a doctor’s appointment next week.

PLEASE be ok! Heed your inner voice and be well for yourself, Rachael and all of the CB’ers who admire you both!

Too bad you’re not feeling well. But that tire doesn’t look like it could do another ride either!

Got your money's worth out of that one, as my father used to say...

We love your blabbing. So don't hold back! :)

...and now you have to go down all those steep bits!!

Hope the flight goes well and it does sound like you need a break. I’m missing you already! All your hard work is so appreciated and enjoyed.

Thanks, Patrick. A break will be nice, but I suspect it won’t be long before I’ve got something I feel the need to blab about.