Day 22

We are now on the return leg. To spice things up this morning, despite cloudy skies, light rain, and the early hour, we detour to Devil's Tower. Movie fans will remember it as the location of the final scenes from “Strange Encounters of the Third Kind”. The Devil's Tower was America's first National Monument. It was created by Teddy Roosevelt. Was it a good precident to set? Who knows.

The Devil's Tower is the remains of an ancient volcano. The hole that ran up the middle and spewed lava and destruction around the area. Oddly, the molten lava in the core of the volcanic cone, hardened and was much harder than the cone itself. Over the millennia, the cone eroded away (don't tell Al Gore, he'll be taxing us to replace it) and all that remains, now, is the hardened core. It looks like a giant tree stump.

We are on I-90 and have, after much debate and consideration, decided to stay on it to Troy, NY when we will cut straight across Vermont and New Hampshire to Seabrook. From where we are, and despite warnings of construction and the ever odious tolls, it seems the shortest and cheapest route back. The only hurdle is Chicago and, depending on when we hit it, it won't be that bad.

Of course, things change and stuff happens.

Today we gobbled up 760 miles.

Most of the pains with which I started the trip are gone. My yoga continues to ease my back pain. My knee gets a little stiff but is obviously healing. And, finally, my left rotator cuff appears to have strengthened under the constant but gentle demands of piloting my steel horse.

In two days, all that will be left is the clean up. The bikes look irrecoverably beat up though they were washed once, already. But, amazingly, they will return to their former glory with just a little soap, water, and polish. It looks like the decay of ages but, in fact, it's just a little dirt. Same for the riders. In a few days, nobody will recognize the look of the adventurer.

So it goes ...