Our 18 COUNTRY trip is finished!!!
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2006
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Trip End
Sep 16, 2007
THIS IS THE END OF OUR TRIP..., Netherlands
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
(we fly from amsterdam to vancouver, BC- and will pedal our way down to seattle, to visit with awesome friends. then we take the dirty dog (greyhound) to the bay area.
we have traveled through 18 countries in total (including a few minutes in monaco), seen some amazing things, met some incredibly neat people, fended off some incredibly curious and forward animals, learned some valuable lessons, damaged some integral portions of our bodies (nothing too terrible), cultivated new smells and bacterial growths, pushed our bodies to the limits at times, and also got to spend some high quality times with our parents in our homeland to boot. in total, we will have pedaled over 7,000 miles by the time we arrive in the SF Bay, and it has been exceptionally amazing! lucky lucky us.
get ready to see us in the Bay Area in late July or early August 2007... that seems so soon! we might be stinky and we might be disheveled when we arrive, but we clean up really nicely.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR US, YOU ASK??
-staying with our brother and sister-in-law during august.
-seeing everyone we have missed these past 10 or 11 months!!!
-finding new and exciting jobs in the bay area
-finding a great new, permanent place to call home in the bay area
-signing up for a ccommunity garden plot in oakland or berkeley, and growing lots of cucumbers and tomatoes
-going on camping trips and bike rides with our dog, elektra.
-writing and illustrating a book about this incredible experience and trip!
-and making sure to keep a good balance of work/school/and play!!
we would like to thank everyone who has been keeping tabs on us, sending words of support, worrying about us, and being generally encouraging when the mountains and heat got overwhelming. We are really REALLY excited to see everyone when we return to the Bay area- it's been 11 months!
We especially wanted to thank our amazing sponsors who were kind enough to donate, or offer at a reduced rate, our incredibly necessary, useful, and durable gear... If you are planning a long bike trip and want top quality equipment, please check their websites out below. Our 18 country tour was definitely smooth and trouble-free thanks to the following:
-Schwalbe: indestructible tires that rarely need patching
http://schwalbetires.com/company
-Phil Wood: smooth rolling hubs that last a lifetime
http://www.philwood.com/
-Ortlieb: waterproof durable panniers that we would not tour without
http://www.ortliebusa.com/
-Tubus: strong racks that carried all of our gear without problems, never wavering
http://www.tubus.com/
-Paul Components: brakes that never break, brakes that kept us safe on steep downhills
http://www.paulcomp.com/frmbrakes.html
-The Bent Spoke, in Oakland: the best used bike shop in the SF East Bay area!!!
(see Ty and Timm if you need used or scratch-n-dent bikes at good prices!!)
http://www.shopinberkeley.com/b/bentspoke/
-The Pedaler, in El Sobrante: another terrific bike shop which we hit up for miscellaneous parts prior to departure
http://www.theped.com/
Ofcourse we also want to thank all of our friends and families: who were supportive and helpful when we ran into troubles or needed advice!!! (especially Dave, Jake and Steph, Jula and Ondra, Molly, Molly's dad, Diane, Dale and Dennis (for taking care of Elektra), Ben (for taking care of Kitty), Vinci-Emily-JimComey-Jean Jacques, Sarah from Portland, Mike from Airtech, and everyone else who surprised us with appreciated and always useful care packages and donations). ThANksTHanKSTHaNKs!!!
Comments
done.
for some reason i read this entry first, maybe it's an asian thing, reading right to left, or wanting to know how it all ended safely. ;)