Ride2ADV Twins Wander Europe, Where to Now? Chapter 22

When morning came, we were in no rush to get out of bed.  We both knew that our little adventure would end today.  All we had to do was to ride back to Barcelona and drop off the bikes.  Much of the riding would be on larger and more traveled roads, particularly as we got closer to Barcelona.  Neither of us rushed to get ready for the day, it was like without saying anything to each other, we were both trying to avoid the inevitable.  Our wandering adventure would soon be over.

“It’s almost over Kim.  I can’t believe we’ve used up two weeks already.  It doesn’t feel like we’ve been traveling two weeks, but I know we have.  Soon we’ll be back to the grind, doing our workday things and dreaming of another adventure.  I can’t wait until the next one.”, I said sullenly.

Kim, as always was more upbeat than me.  “We’ll be on another adventure soon,  don’t worry. We’ve ridden all over the world so far and there’s nothing stopping us from doing another adventure.  Don’t feel bad, we’ll be riding somewhere else in the world in no time.”

I paused and thought for a while.

“Thank you Princess, you always make me feel wonderful.  You are so positive about everything, you always encourage me to look at the bright side. I love you so much.”

I don’t know what was getting into me, but it seemed each day on this trip, I loved Kim more and more. I thought I couldn’t love her any more, but each day on this trip, the depths of my love for her became deeper and more vast.  I didn’t know how she did it, but she made me feel more in love with each day that passed.  I had to ask myself, “How lucky could a man get?  To be able to ride all over the world with someone who shared your love for out of the way places and have that travel be accomplished on a motorcycle.

I had to break myself out of my thoughts and get us onto the road.  We had a light casual breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant and made arrangements to have our bikes freed from the hotel’s garage.  Fifteen minutes later, we met the hotel receptionist in front of the garage and she opened the doors for us.  It didn’t take us long to load up the bikes and we were quickly underway for the last time on this adventure.

The ride back to Barcelona was very quiet over the communicators.  Neither of us said much of anything to each other.  I think we were both lost in our thoughts about where we’d been and what we’d seen.

As we rode, I was truly re-living our wandering adventure of Europe.  Even with an open visor, I barely heard the wind noise as it rushed through my helmet.  We’d been to new places and met new people.  The bikes had faithfully carried us wherever we’d asked them to never skipping a beat.  They hadn’t only been our transportation, they’d been our partners on this journey.  They’d introduced us to new places and even new people as the locals often came to us to chat about the bikes.

The miles melted away as we rode and before we knew it, we were approaching Barcelona.  But we wouldn’t arrive without one last adventure.  Less than an hour outside Barcelona, the winds began to rise.  They were not insignificant and they were not steady.  Heavy gusts pelted us from various directions, causing the bikes to shimmy and weave.  The problem for Kim was worse for Kim since she only had a little over her 100 body holding her bike in place.  Even with my 200 pounds on the bike, it was moving considerably.

It was actually better to have our speed up to make maximum use of the gyroscopic effect of the wheels to stabilize the bikes.  On a different trip, we’d ridden though the Chile and Argentina and faced the Patagonian winds on our way to Ushuaia.  Those winds were far more intense, but they were constant and on barely traveled gravel roads.  Here we were in four lanes of traffic with wind battering us from all directions.

But we soldiered on and soon found ourselves on the outskirts of Barcelona.  Now the traffic was heavy and we trundled along in the right two lanes.  As a sort of last challenge, we rode across a long high bridge.  Totally out in the open, we got the maximum impact of the winds.

The winds blew from all points of the compass.  In fact it blew so strongly that my head was involuntarily shaken left to right by the swirling wind.  This was getting a bit intense.  We knew that we did not have much farther to go and pointed ourselves towards the center of the city.  The closer we got, the weaker the winds became.  Finally, we were able to relax and enjoy the end of the ride.

We exited the highway, and quickly found the hotel.  We pulled up onto the sidewalk and parked the bikes.  I slowly got off the bike and pulled off my helmet.  I walked over to Kim.  As soon as she had her helmet off, I gave her a gigantic hug.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  What a wonderful ride.” was all I could muster.  “Thank you for coming along with me.  It’s been a wonderful ride.”  Kim just smiled at me and I could see that she was getting a little emotional.  Truth be told so was I.  We hugged again and started to unload the bikes.

As I unloaded my bike, I looked at Mr. Cotton.  He was still there, none the worse for wear.  He wore the same smile and accumulation of stubbly beard.  His left hand still had its homemade hook fastened with tie wraps.  He’d lost his first hook somewhere in Patagonia (but that’s another story) and he had gotten a new one while we slept.  He stared back at me as if to say, “That’s it?  We’re done already?”

We’d carried all we needed for the two week wandering of Europe, and now it was time to bring it back home.  Arms filled, we walked into the hotel with our gear and checked in for the last time.

After freshening up, we decided to grab a quick dinner in the hotel, pack our gear into our luggage and turn in early.  We had to return the bikes early the following morning so we could catch our flight back home.

When morning came, we put on our helmets and rode the short distance to where we had rented the bikes.  As I got off, I looked at Mr. Cotton.  He was still there, none the worse for wear.  He stared back at me as if to say, “That’s it?  We’re done already?”

I looked back at him, grabbed my little wire cutters and freed him from his place on my handlebars.  “Yes, we’re done for now Mr. Cotton, but we’re going to have many more adventures until you retire.  So you should rest up because this was an easy trip.  I know you yearn to be back on the gravel roads of the world and I’ll make sure that you have more adventures in more remote places next time.  I wouldn’t want you to jump ship like you did at that other cold place.”

I stuffed Mr. Cotton in my pocket and went inside to complete the final paperwork on the bikes.  Our hosts were very accommodating and had us underway in no time.  As we walked back to the hotel, our wandering adventure was truly over.  But as I told Mr. Cotton, there were many more places to go and ride.

All we had to do was to figure out; where to next?

February 19, 2014 | Categories: Adventure, adventure motorcycle, Adventure Motorcycling, adventure ride, adventure riders, Adventure Rides, adventure riding, aerostich, couple, couples, dual sport, enduro, Europe, France, marriage, married, Motorcycle, off road, Overland, people, photo, pictures, R2ADV, relationship, relationships, Ride2Adventure, Travel | Tags: adventure, adventure bike, adventure ride, dual sport, enduro, europe, kimike, motorcycle, motorcycle gear, off road, overland, photo, photography, picture, ride report, ride2adv, ride2adventure, travel | 1 Comment