Slight change of lineup, or, "pinch rider"

Yesterday I mentioned that my riding partner, Robbe, had to pull out of the trip (or at least most of it) due to a class he is taking that requires his undivided attention.

As soon as this came up, I reached out to another friend, Kirk, to see if he might be interested in doing half of the trip, with Robbe doing the other. I am pretty much uninterested in going alone, as when I attempted this same trip (on foot, not on bicycle) 14 years ago, I was alone, and didn't finish the whole thing.

Well, Kirk confirmed with me today, that not only is he into it, but he's going to do the whole thing with me! Robbe will still join for the second half, so then we'll be riding 3 deep!

I'm very excited about this development for many reasons, but one is that Kirk and I actually planned this trip 7 years ago, but cancelled it less than a month out in favor of a trip to Europe instead, haha. Ah, to be young (and willing to spend a shit ton of money at the drop of a dime) again. It's cool though, to finish what we started.

Generosity throughout this process has been amazing, and not just financially but also generosity of heart. Kirk and his wife have a young daughter at home, so I'm grateful to their whole family for the sacrifice of having him away for 4 days.

I think this process is revealing more to me than I expected...