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As each province has its own distinctive characteristics, I'm generally in the habit of dividing my Big Tours into chapters named after each province visited.

However, riding with Dr. M was uniquely a "riding with Dr. M" experience that is neither a Shanxi nor a Shaanxi experience but is entirely a "riding with Dr. M" experience that I hazard a guess to say would be the same whether we were going south along the banks of the Yellow River or someplace green and relatively lacking in history (such as Hainan or Yunnan).

With the exception of a fear of downhills that makes me look like a daredevil, she's a substantially stronger rider than I am. However, unlike many strong riders I've met, she's one of those people who has effectively internalized that you not only always go at the pace of the slowest person in your group you also don't bitch about it.

Over the years, there have been a total of seven previous occasions where I spent more than a day or two touring with someone else. The  usual complaint is that I'm too slow and too prone to hare off on interesting adventures that aren't even tangentially related to churning out the maximum possible number of kilometers in one day.

Some of these rides have led to rock solid friendships. Others have cemented pre-existing friendships. Dr. M, however, is the first one where both of us have said "I'd ride with her again."