I’ve been back for over two weeks now. It still feels a bit surreal, although I am grudgingly stepping back into my former self. School has begun and my thoughts turn to final projects, Master’s reports, and life after I graduate in December. I long for the summer when my worries were few, the scenery was breathtaking, and free time was spent frolicking about the countryside with friends, both on and off the bike. Luckily, I still see the T4kers quite frequently…we’ve had a lot of celebrating to do, especially Tess, Lorig, and Brett, they’ve done so much to help the transition. My friends and colleagues in Austin have also been wonderful and have made it easy to remember why I love this place. And my short stint in Chicago with my family was just what the doctor ordered.

I’ve been taking time to organize photos, before the chronology gets foggy. I’ve been sifting through my pictures as well as Tess’s, Brett’s, Merriweather’s, and Bredt’s, since they’re all living on my laptop. I’ve pulled ones that I’m especially fond of to print. Aside from a few I’ve already posted, here is the last installment of my T4k pics. A couple are mine, the rest belong to the aforementioned parties.

Actually, this photo was taken by a newspaper in a town outside of Oklahoma City. Tess wrote a note in her journal about how she thought she might be featured in an article and a woman at the newspaper sent her an email with this photo attached. This was a rest stop, and we had been through a lot by this point in the day. There were about seven or eight of us that found ourselves lost on the way out of town, I think we went about 10 miles out of the way. We still had mobile phone coverage and so Lorig and Andy used a computer to chart a route for us back in the right direction as we asked locals at the McDonald’s where we were. It just so happens when we reached this rest stop, in the rain, Limbo Rock came on the speakers of the van and we had an impromptu limbo party. The newspaper caught Tess rocking the limbo.

Carly, me, and Lorig braving the winds of Wyoming.

Team Friday at the lunch stop in Big Sky, Montana. Montana was easily the most beautiful state I rode through. Everyone has their favorite, but it was truly impossible to take a poor picture.

Lorig and I.

Tess was back on the bike by the time we rode through Banff. You can barely see Meg behind her. I got a flat on a sweet descent and the girls waited.

Tess and I, tiny against the mountains.

Our rest stops were strategically placed near places of interest, like this stone skipping spot. Everyone had a go, here are Carly, me, Adriano, Lorig, Andy, and Brett.

You can barely see Lorig and I on the bridge. We were all trying to watch men spearing fish in the roaring waters below.

Me, Tess, and Carly.

From the canoe in the middle of Meziadin Lake.

This is one of my favorites, Lorig and Tess, our first morning in Alaska.

It was a wild ride. Andy wrote “Don’t be sorry it’s over, be glad it happened.” I have learned so much this summer about myself and others. I remember the weeks before leaving Austin and how worried I was to be spending perhaping the most challenging summer of my life with total strangers, those strangers became friends, and then those friends became family. I expected much from this summer, but I could never have prepared myself for the kindness of strangers, their willingness to give to us, and to share their personal experiences with cancer. I’m sure the future holds many more bike tours for me. For now, I’m content to return to my life with a fresh outlook and a brand new bike posse.