Washington, DC

3,785 miles. That was the final reading on my odometer when we reached our final destination in Bethesda, MD. It's a lot of distance to cover on a bike. But I don't feel tired or relieved that the trip is over. If anything, I wish I could keep going. But good things don't last forever.

I can definitely claim we finished the tour with a bang. Or two bangs, rather. I heard them right behind me as we were descending from the last hill into our campground on Monday night. We were approaching Otter Creek Campground, about 12 miles south of Wrightsville, PA, it was getting dark, we had just stopped for wild raspberries and were beginning to look around for the entrance into the camp. But as we started down the last hill, Mike and Tomas's wheels slipped from under them on the freshly paved asphalt and they crashed, about 2 second apart from each other in the opposite lane. My threaded tires held up better on the sharp turn but Tomas and Mike's bald Bontragers just couldn't maintain the grip on the slippery surface and the wheels blocked at the press of the brakes.

Luckily, there were no oncoming cars at the moment, we didn't hit any sign posts or trees and no one got seriously injured. A bruised ankle and knee, and a smashed helmet was pretty much all the damage. The bikes were mostly fine, save for the bruises on the handlebars and panniers and Mike's busted rear wheel. I am not sure how, but he managed to get the rim so buckled that it was rubbing against the fork. The rear brakes were no longer functioning because of that, so we knew we couldn't use the bike as it was for any much longer. Luckily, the friendly directors at the campground, Lori and Wayne, offered to drive me to the nearest town with a bike shop so I can get the wheel fixed. The guys at the bike shop told me the wheel was damaged beyond repair but they did have a new wheel of the same dimensions. We replaced the wheel, duct-taped our torn bags and got back on the road the next afternoon.

We had just two days of riding left until our final destination in Washington, DC, so we took slowly to let the bruises and the swells ease off a bit. On Tuesday night, we camped in the rain on a lawn behind a firehouse in an small village of Butler since there were no campgrounds in the vicinity. And on Wednesday, we finished the last 70 miles into the city, feeling quite worn out and sticky.

We jumped in the pool (before taking our clothes off), ate and got a lot of sleep, and got up to watch the time trial stage of Tour de France. All that's left to do for me here is pack up my bike and take it to the airport. The time to return to reality is nearing quickly.