This is not a bike trip but a trip around the world seemed like a big thing so I am going to add it to my blog. Karen and I are taking 7 seven weeks to circle the globe. We are stopping in Boston, Tunisia, Jordan, India, and Bali. Boston involved a conference at MIT and lots of visits with Boston friends. Tunisia and India are Overseas Adventure Travel tours and we are doing Jordan and Bali (recovery) on our own. The other bonus is that all the plane travel is with frequent flier points.
We are currently in Tunis and have met our tour group. They seem to be a nice group, but time will tell.
But before I start to describe our foreign travels let me say something about our week in Boston. I was there for an MIT alumni leadership conference. I spend three days attending meetings and one leading a discussion group about how to select venues for meetings. I also had meetings at various times with people from the school over the net three days. Two groups that meet via conference call met face to face for the first time because I, the only member west of the Hudson River was in town.
Initially left on her own Karen became antsy, made additional arrangements to see long time friends and did much better as the week progressed. She is also a little concerned about her knees. We stayed in our time share in the Boston Custom House and on our last night entertained six of her closest friends from college. She and two other college friends had driven a barge along a canal in southern France this summer. Being with friends you have know for 40 plus years can do wonders to your spirits.
We also had time to have dinner with my best friend from college, Dave deBronkhart. During my first cross country trip he was fighting for his life after being diagnosed with stage IV meastatic renal cancer. As I rode across the country to my reunion in 2007, he was being given a new treatment that works in only 20% of patients who receive it. It worked for him and we both made the reunion. Dave has written a book about his experiences, Laugh, Sing, and Eat Like a Pig: How an Empowered Patient Beat Stage IV Cancer (and what healthcare can learn from it).
We saw Dave on Sunday after he had packed for a week trip to the West Coast.