Sevilla,Spain

May 2

My year-long adventure around the world makes a stop in the states later this month.

Many of the 200 plus riders who remain will no doubt consider this a sort of "spring break".

When we land in Washington, D.C. a number of us will leave the group for a few days to be with family and friends. It will give us time to reflect on where we�ve been and where we're going.

For me, this trip has felt a lot like rapid eye movement. A special moment that many of us would normally talk about for years(like seeing the Pope during Easter and during a Jubilee year) is quickly replaced with the next special moment. We've been to 15 countries and five continents in four months. In that time what I've seen and done I will never forget but there are a few things I wish never happened.

I've become accident-prone. If there's a hole, I'll fall in it...if there's a curb I'll fall off it.

An electronic sliding glass door in Cape Town, South Africa didn't see me coming and hit me in the head. I saw stars for hours.

In Pucon, Chile, I managed to hike up to the top of a volcano and then fall down the side of it on the return trip.

I've contracted a sinus infection, staph infection, throat infection, exercise induced asthma and knee problems.

I've caused a couple of international incidents using gestures I didn't know were obscene. The "OK" sign means anything "butt" in some countries.

I've lost two pairs of sunglasses, a gore-tex rain jacket (it's on a train between Carcassonne and Nice, France) and bike parts (sometimes I wish my bike.)

I've lost my temper and my willingness to see--in no particular order:

I've lost, briefly, the desire to visit one more country except my own. It's called being travel weary.

It helps to do what I'm doing now. I'm writing this on a park bench in a plaza in Sevilla, Spain. I'm watching the world go by at the same frantic pace I was trying to keep when I was trying to make sure I saw everything.

My spring break will give me a chance to take a deep breath, re-pack my bags the way I should have in the first place and consider what the next seven and a half months will bring.

I do know I'll bring more aspirin, band-aids and money.

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