Day 6: Mission Accomplished

Day 6 Full Flickr Photo Set

Wow. The last 5 days have been amazing. We accomplished our goal and Banged! Boston. Originally, we planned to ride back, at least to New York, then bus home from there, but, unfortunatley, there are several concerns that have made it prohibitively difficult to do so...

Finances:
We've been eating about $70 in food per person per day on the road. All this cycling takes a lot out of you. On top of that, we have to split the cost of motel rooms and there's the occasional cycle repair fee which have basically made it tough to financially survive a ride back home.

Mechanical:
We've had pretty good luck on this front so far, but there's always the possibility of a major mechanical failure which, at this point in the game would set us back a lot in time and money.

Time:
We took longer than expected to get to Boston due to several factors (mechanical repairs, unexpected terrain, etc...) and at this point it would be a race against the clock to get back to Philly in a reasonable spand of time. People have jobs waiting for them back home, ya know. Also, the longer it takes us to get back, the more we have to support the financial burden of being on the road.

Physical:
OK, I won't lie, as much as it pains me to admit it, I was NOT looking forward to biking that 80 mile CT stretch in reverse. I can be as stubborn and meat-headed as the next guy when it comes to taking the physical challenge, but that ride serious wiped me out. Although I think we could do it, it would be a lot harder the second time around and may push us to our respective breaking points.

Mental:
As I've seen in the past from being on tour in bands, as much as you like the friends you surround yourself with, there comes a point after spending every waking hour with a group of folks that it becomes a little much. I was impressed that there were no arguments on this trip as of yet, especially with the high physical demands and occasional stressful situation. I'd say we faired better than I had expected, and I was proud of us as a team. However, that being said, there were times when tensions ran a little high, and as much as you enjoy the company and commeradary of your fellow teammates, you need to know where to draw the line and give each other a break. I think we could stand to use some time apart at this point, which should in no way reflect poorly on our friendships... it's just realistic.

For all of these reasons, we decided it was best for all if we went our seperate ways from Boston and not bike back. So now I will recount the events of our tearful goodbyes...

Today we decided to break up the band. Peter had his sights set on heading back to New York to hang out with friends a little more, Jeremy (still wallet-less) was ready to head home to ease his financial situation, Kevin wanted to break off and be a tourist in Boston, and I wanted to hang out with Marianne, Sarah and Mary in Boston, then maybe pop down to New York to hang out with Bree and Sonya a bit.



































So, we all agreed that going our seperate ways was probably best. Since Kevin and I would be staying in Boston, we saw Peter and Jeremy out the door and off into the sunset...



































Bye guys! See back in Philly for Twisted Tuesday!