Well, I’ve been home almost 48 hours now, and am still reeling a bit.  I’m finding the transition to home life a bit tricky.  We vacation a lot–I’m a real pro–but this has been a harder return than most.  I guess partly because I was by myself, instead of with my family, but also partly because it was sort of a surreal experience, just pedaling and camping and eating and chatting.  My voice is hoarse, my nose is peeling, and I think I’m still a bit dehydrated.  But my legs feel pretty good after 2 good nights’ sleep; I’m actually feeling a bit like I want to hop on my bike and go for a spin.  I just might do that if I ever get to the bottom of the laundry pile.

Friday was great.  I headed out of Smithfield with Cindy and James, from Norfolk.  Turned out we had a lot in common–they’ve done some brevets (the Sauratown 200k out of High Point, and James has even done a 300k and 400k) and other really cool cycling stuff.  I convinced them to do their good deed for the month with me.  The 32-mile rest stop was in Dudley, NC, about 200 yards from Brogden Primary School, where my mother is a kindergarten teacher.  (For the record, that stop was also about 2 miles from my high school, but 2 miles is a lot further off course than 200 yards!).  My mother’s class was away on a field trip on Friday, but the PE teacher, Mary Franklin, was there with several classes of kids, and it turns out she’s a cyclist herself–a Tour de Cure rider, as well as a bike commuter–yay for Mary!  The world needs more teachers like her.

Anyway, Cindy and James and another guy, Dale, and I took a slight detour to say hi to the PE class.  They came out and lined the driveway, cheering and clapping for us as we rode up.  We went into the gym and spoke to them for 15 or 20 minutes, and they were such great kids.  They were well-behaved, engaged, attentive, and asked great questions.  I truly enjoy sharing this passion of mine, and children relate so quickly to bicycles, that speaking to groups of kids just means the world to me.  Thank you, Mary, for having us (and for feeding us fabulous snacks!), and thank you so much to Cindy and James and Dale for joining me.  You guys went WAY above and beyond, and I appreciate it.  You did a really good thing.

Afterward, Cindy and James went on ahead, but I rode to the next rest stop with Dale, and really enjoyed chatting–at least until the skies opened up.  We got caught in a pretty torrential rain, the kind that gets whipped around by the wind so that it stings when it hits your skin.  We were both in pretty good spirits, though, and just took it in stride.  I headed out of the next rest stop ahead of Dale, and rode the last leg by myself, through the wind and rain.  I think it was a fitting end to my CNC–it was the only time I rode alone the entire week, and I had time to think about the ride, and the people, and the whole experience.  I felt strong, almost to the point of euphoric, and rode hard all the way to Kinston.  As my husband pointed out later, I do thrive on adversity.

So my dad met me in Kinston, loaded up my bike and my bag, and took me to his house, where I showered and ate and started slowly moving back into reality.  Later in the afternoon, my husband picked me up from the Cracker Barrel in Clayton.  I really hated to miss the last day into Emerald Isle, and I know the party at the end must’ve been fun, but I had to come home to see my brother graduate.  He finished the Executive MBA program and UNC-Chapel Hill, and I couldn’t miss it.  I can ride CNC again another year.  We’re proud of you, Chip. 

So now I’m home.  We had to go out immediately Friday night and buy a new washing machine–ours died while I was gone, and let me tell you–that week’s worth of smelly, soggy cycling clothes needed to be washed ASAP.  So today I’m doing laundry and buying groceries and trying to remember how to be Mom again.  I’ve taken care of no one but myself for the last week, so I need to (quickly) turn that experience into a rejuvenation, rather than just regret that it’s over.  I’m already trying to figure out how to get my husband to go with me some year in the future.  I’m also thinking about all the emotions that I brought home with me, and trying to gather all my disparate observations into something coherent.  I’ll work on that, and you can read all about it here.

After I get the laundry done.