We stayed up till 1:40am playing real life Tetris in order to pack our bikes in unnecessarily small boxes we got by mistake. Then we basically rethought every item we packed and culled some and added some.

Here are our updated stats:

David’s stuff—38.5lb

Sarah’s stuff—46.1lb

Departure Day

After Greg dropped us off at the airport with such rockstar energy, we struggled to the line with bike boxes in tow, juggling our panniers that serve best as bike luggage and not airline carry ons.

Alexi, a little girl behind us said hi and shook our hands. She immediately said David handsome and me-beautiful, and that we made a lovely couple. She asked me what my favorite number and color. And I asked her if she thought 6-7 was still cool. She did. She said every time the numbers 6-7 were mentioned in class, they went wild, but not everyone. Axolotles, lububi, something about toilet, and cute kawakas followed as we scooted and snaked our away closer.

As invasively friendly as Alexi was, she did distract us from the mind-seizing anticipation of the weight scale and the gamble of the kindness of the ticket agent.

The agent was very kind. She didn’t charge us $75 each for the checked bikes and she simply said to David, “Your bike must be heavier” when his bike turned up 2lb over the airline luggage limit.

We said goodbye to Alexi who was on her way to see her dad in Oklahoma. Her grandmother wishes Alexi was shy. I agree.

After a layover in Atlanta and another puzzle of configuring our limbs in a way to try and sleep, we arrived in the Madrid airport in the middle of our night and very sleep deprived.

I worried about the state of my bike because in Atlanta, I saw the bottom of my bike box breaking open as it came off the plane.

Arrival

When we started to unpack our bikes in a space off the side of the baggage claim, I literally freaked out and involved more people than necessary when I couldn’t my bag that included the front wheel axle sewer, bike tools and bolt. Without these my bike is useless.

David reassured me that all those metal pieces could be easily replaced. I had done everything I could to see if it was still on the plane and gave my information to the airlines in case a small bag with tools was found.

As David continued to assemble his bike, all I could do was start packing up the stuff I could. To find anything, all you need to do is pick up something you thought you already picked up before to find out that you hadn’t. And that’s exactly what happened! I found it!

Lesson to myself: don’t jump to the worst of every situation and get more sleep!

We were now able to ride off into the heat of Madrid to find our hostel.

Thank you for coming to our going away party. The sun showed up in full heat and yet you still ventured out to send us off. We felt the love and warm wishes of adventure and safety.

For those of you who couldn’t make it or are far away, let's bring the party to you.

We had a bike and gear weight guess with closest guess to be awarded either a free bike tune up or cake! (When we get back.)

David's gear - 40.4 lb

David's Mesarunner bike - 38.4 lb

Sarah's gear - 41.4 lb

Sarah's ‘Frankie’ bike - 34.0 lb

Grand totaling to 154.2 lb!

Kelly wins with a guess of 160 lb! We had quite the range of guesses from 50 lb to 297 lb. We appreciated everyone who followed their heart, even if it was way off. We assume your heart is useful in other contexts.

As an aside, I wanted to celebrate my birthday early so david made a decadent lemon blueberry Bundt cake that got devoured onsite, mere hours after leaving the oven.

Thank you for helping us name our penguin mascot. His official name is now Gabriel Penguin Spirit or GPS! Close seconds were picture below. We appreciate, but politely decline, Ellie and Eric’s offers to legally adopt.

Thanks for showing us off! We will take your good penguin spirit with us.

We will post about our final departure moment soon!