So we’ve been home nearly a week now, I’m pretty much beyond jet lag, and finally feel clear headed enough to get back to this and wrap it up.  You’d think that with a week to think things over I’d have come up with some deep insights about what the last five months on the road have meant to us, but you’d be wrong.  All I’ve got are a bunch of pretty shallow thoughts, but here they are:

1. If you’re going to put everything in storage for an extended period, do something about the moths.  I almost lost my glasses as soon as we returned to Portland, because I picked up a wool Pendleton shirt from storage and apparently my glasses fell out of the pocket at a cafe through a new hole in the fabric.  The shirt actually has several new holes scattered around.  I’m afraid to look at anything else that was in storage yet, but something obviously needs to change.
2. There are worse things than sitting around Portland in the winter.  It’s nice to be back.  We’ve gone to four films in four days, are getting reacclimatized to the cold and rain, and we (mostly Rachael, but I’m starting to get back into it) are finding enough clearing spots to get out on the bikes.
3. A correlary to point #2.  For us, it was a mistake to stretch our touring season too far to avoid the extremes of Portland’s weather.  We would have enjoyed the tour more by shortening it at both ends.  Croatia was too hot and humid at the end of August and early September; and Taiwan would have been better a few weeks earlier.  
4. Five months was a bit long for us.  We’ll try three or four month blocks for awhile, and see how that goes.  A bit long to be on the road and away from home, a bit long to keep the blog going, and a bit long for spending so much time locked into each other’s lives and schedules.  I’m enjoying hanging out in the morning at coffee shops, and Rachael is especially enjoying not waiting around for me to complete the day’s post.
5. We need to get out earlier in the day more often.  Especially when our days were short anyway, we too often didn’t get out the door until 10 or 11.
6. We really liked having more flexibility in our schedule, and having more multinight stays.  Some of the issues in both Croatia and Taiwan were because we had prebooked our lodgings.  We’ll really try to minimize how much of that happens in the future.
7. The blog is a lot of work, but we’re so glad to have it to go back to.  There is so much detail that would have been lost forever to us without this.  Thank you all so much for following along and giving us encouragement!  I hope the time will come that we can meet up in person someday.
8. All of the above notwithstanding though, what an awesome experience!  We’ve got a long list of places we would dearly love to return to, some of which look like they would be a great base for an extended stay.  Come spring, we’ll be ready to pack our bags and hit the road again.

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Jen RahnCool shot!
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5 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Jen RahnThanks, Jen. I was really pleased with it too. I took it as an afterthought, almost on our way out of town. I was really surprised when I looked at it later.
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5 years ago

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Ride stats for the tour: 798 miles, 33,400’