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2000 Cycling Season, August 2

Return Home!

August 2,2000, Wednesday - Return to Denver

Today we packed up the bike trailer into our monstrous green duffle bag and checked out of our last European hotel of the trip. Before heading to the airport we stopped by the BEA office to pick up our bicycle, and to say farewell to our expatriate friends who unknowingly brought us to Amsterdam, and our new Dutch friends.

Then it was on to the first familiar surroundings we have found in three months… Seven years with United Airlines flight benefits and four years as a traveling consultant have made me very at home onboard any United flight. So somehow, I felt like I had reached home the moment we boarded the United 777 in Amsterdam. I got to enjoy the familiar surroundings while leafing through the Sky Mall catalog, and reading my Hemisphere's magazine - even though I've missed 2 issues, which is unusual for me lately.

Familiar Surroundings Of A United Airlines 777

Familiar Surroundings Of A United Airlines 777

The long flight home somehow didn't seem so bad after some of our long train journeys. We encountered huge delays between Washington D.C. and Denver so our trip from the hotel in Amsterdam stretched out to a grueling 19 hours before we arrived at our house in Denver.

When we landed at DIA we were surprised to see Marti Mills, a friend from work, standing there to meet us. I was even more surprised when Jeff Ryan, and Jeff Peotter walked by after returning from meetings at BEA Corporate Headquarters in San Jose. What a greeting! Too bad we looked and smelled like we had been traveling all day.

Lots of work ahead…

Traveling the world for 3 months, living on credit cards, and cash from ATM's is fun while it lasts, but now we get to pay - both literally and figuratively! The first thing on our agenda is to get over our jet lag, move back into our house, and sift through 3 months worth of mail - ugh!.

Before our trip, we moved out of the top floor of our house and stored everything at my Dad's, so the caretakers could make themselves at home. So in addition to simply unpacking everything we've been lugging around with us, and the stuff we shipped back, we also have to move back in to our house - before we can change into fresh clothes!

Garage Full Of Boxes To Unpack

Garage Full Of Boxes To Unpack

Stuff We Shipped Home

Stuff We Shipped Home

Obviously, before leaving we made lots of administrative preparations, like putting all of our bills on automatic payment, and leaving checks for scheduled things like quarterly estimated tax. We also recruited Dorothy's mom to filter out the junk mail, and watch for unexpected problems. However, even with all our preparations, I'm sure everything didn't quite go according to plan. The big job ahead is to sift through our stack of mail to pull the administrative part of our lives back together.

Stacks of 'Important' Mail

Stacks of 'Important' Mail

Conclusion

It's hard to summarize three months of travel in 4 countries... All in all we had a great time and learned a lot on our little adventure. We learned a lot about European history, lots of interesting cultural things, how to trust strangers while still protecting yourself, and other subtle things that are hard to articulate. Most importantly we perfected our ability look at our every day challenges, which were numerous, and simply say, "It doesn't matter how we got into this situation, what is the best course of action from here."

Three months on the road moving every three days, while carrying everything with us has been hard so we're glad we're home and we're looking forward to seeing all of our friends again.