"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"

That, as many of you might know, is one of Mark Twain's more famous quotes...

...although it is likely that he never said it at all. Still, if I am going to end my Huckleberry Finn journal with a quote, it really should be a quote from Mark Twain. So, lets pretend he did say it.

If you want to know the truth I didn't have high expectations for the bike portion of the trip. I didn't really know what to expect.

I thought it would be more buggy, and aside from a few areas I was pleased that the bugs weren't horrendous.

The heat and humidity were worse than I expected and I felt better when the locals were moaning about it too, saying, "it is much hotter than usual."

As far as the route, I enjoyed some parts but other stretches were a bit narrow with a lot of traffic. In fact, one of my favorite parts of the ride was the last two days, riding on the Northern Tier route through corn fields and farms. I guess I am just a wide open spaces kind of gal.

With that said, I would do the ride again. In fact some day I wouldn't mind riding all the way to New Orleans. However I would do it some day if, perhaps, I am retired or something and didn't have that pesky teaching job that doesn't allow for off season travel. It would be nice to leave the headwaters at the beginning of September, right after school starts and move south with the nicer weather.

Some day. Some day.

Until then, I will dream of summer trips.

Where shall I ride next year?

Hmmmm.....