5/29 - things rarely go as planned

This was the first year we planned two trips in one calendar year in large part because I was on sabbatical during the spring/2023 semester and available to travel. There's more about the sabbatical in another blog, but overall, it was a productive and enjoyable spring.

The trip to a warm weather location was to Cuba in March. (Again, a separate blog about that trip.) Short summary: fabulous trip. My favorite trip to far.

The summer 2023 trip is to Greece. Previous trips were to more heavily traveled locations such as Italy (twice), Spain, Portugal, France, and Croatia. We usually use VBT (vbt.com) and we know that we can handle their most challenging trips (labeled "moderate"). We're usually the fastest riders in the group. Compare that with our trip to France where we were the slowest. Besides Croatia, Greece is the only other VBT trip in their catalog labeled "moderate". 

For a few weeks leading up to the departure, I was feeling pretty out of shape and I wanted to get some difficult miles into my legs, so we planned a few pretty strenuous rides in the weeks leading up to the trip. The weather on the Memorial Day weekend was looking particularly good, so we planned a couple of 40-milers with about 2000' of climbing.

On one stretch of one of the rides, Walter and I were on our own and Walter hit a patch of gravel. He wasn't going very fast and the sight lines were good. It was just one of those moments, and it happened so fast, I didn't even see it happen. I just saw him on the ground. Besides the usual road rash, he was having trouble standing and it didn't seem to be the result of a concussion (although he probably hit his helmet on the ground). It turns out he fractured the neck of his femur and two days later, he had a new hip joint. 

Here he is trying to convince Marilyn that he can't do any yard work. Slacker!

Now I need a new roommate. Anyone want to go to Greece?


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