thank you all. Our last trip was such a highlight of our lives - all four of our lives. My boys don't know any different - biking 9300 miles when you are 8/9 is just "life" for them. It will be interesting to see how this affects them once they are grown. I just got an email from a friend this morning and he said,

I have this vision of your sons in a career later in life when somebody expresses some doubt about being able to do something. The response would be "I biked over 7000 miles at age 10 and Alaska to Chile at age 12 and you're
not sure you can do it before you even try?"

I truly hope that is the case - that they learn there is nothing that can stop them! Even though our trip was tough in a lot of ways, the kids learned (and I mean REALLY learned - internalized and all that jazz) that everything works together. We joked about how the journey was "chicken soup" - there are some yucky ingredients int here, but they all work together to make a great big pot of yummy soup. On those tough days, we simply joked about the chicken soup and how those days make the rest even better. The kids reminded us of that on a number of occasions when John and I were down in the dumps. "Daddy! Why are you complaining about hte head wind?? It's just part of the chicken soup!!"