November 21, 2019
Day 64 - Back home in Canmore
The Long March - Part 2 - Victory Declared!
In my books a trip is not over until the bikes are hanging back up in the garage.... that means not quite yet but we’re 99.9% there.
We are back home, about to collapse into bed after 23 hrs of travel. The bikes are still in the back of the car in the driveway and they will get hung up tomorrow (after I get the winter studs put on - it’s winter in Canmore!!).
Although it was a long day of travel, everything went like clockwork. Both K and I continued to be impressed with the Rome Airport. It’s nothing like we remembered it 17 years ago.
We arrived at the airport at 7:30 and by 8:30 we had retrieved our bikes from the luggage storage, checked in (very efficient and friendly- didn’t weigh the bike boxes or look at them, just congratulated us on our trip!) and were sitting in the departure lounge waiting for our flight.
The connection in Toronto was tight but everything worked well and when we arrived in Calgary, our bikes did too! Our son Callum met us at the airport and we had the bikes loaded up and an hour and a half later we were in the winter wonderland of Canmore!
I’ll write a few post trip observations... favourite days, things that worked, things that didn’t, and of course a whole bunch of stats for the quants out there... over the next few days.
Thanks to everyone who followed along. We really appreciated the comments. They do keep us connected to the rest of the world and buoyed our spirits on the miserable days, and we had a few of those. However the great days far outnumbered the miserable ones and I think we can declare this trip a success!
Song of the Day, Home For a Rest by Spirit of the West. It was going to be something else, but when we arrived back in Canada we heard the news that front-man for the band John Mann passed away yesterday at the young age of 57 after a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s. Another loss for the Canadian music scene.
So in his memory, Home for a Rest, a classic Canadian party sing-along song from the 90’s wins SOTD. It also pretty much sums up how we feel right now too. Great to be back home.
K was worried that folks might read too much into this though, as we closed every day with a shot of us with a drink in hand. She thinks some folks might take the lyrics “these so called vacations will soon be my death, I’ve been drunk for a month, I need home for a rest” too literally! We need a rest ‘cause of the biking and travel ... not to dry out!
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Ken from Kamloops here. We loved the photos and the Canadian humour of the “91/2 weeks” blog. Great Job and it was nice to have you on the CycleBlaze site. You may see us in Canmore next July when we start the Great Divide route. Cheers K and J
4 years ago
Thanks for reading along and also thanks for pointing us to Scot and Racheal's journal from this spring. It played a big part in our trip planning! If you need a place to stay in Canmore when you start the GD next summer you're more than welcome to pitch up with us if we are around. Stay in touch.
Regards,
Kirsten & Lyle
4 years ago