May 2, the end.

We had a lovely closing banquet last night. great conversations with joyce, liz, janine and karen c. funny speeches by nancy and carolyn. sunnye and I repeated our song with one new verse. just a general feeling of pride, contentedness and accomplishment. cathy gave a funny speech for her birthday, liz gave another one. just lots of happiness and laughs. this morning at breakfast, the atmosphere was a little more subdued. the first people started driving home. bikes were loaded for the bike shop and the remainder of us stood under the roof of the motel waiting to say our final good-byes. the realization had hit us that It truly was over and many of us would never see each other again. there were lots of hugs. some tears, and many lasting memories. I'm sure some of us will stay in touch, some of us will probably even ride together again. but there's no way that an experience such as this could be repeated. how funny that my first roommate,helen, was also my last. she just boarded her plane across from my gate. what a great way to end the trip._________unser letztes abendessen zusammen war toll. nicht traurig, sondern humorvoll mit viele gute geschichten erzaehlt. heute beim fruestueck ging es ein bisschen trauriger zu, als die ersten sich verabschiedeten. jetzt sitzte ich I'm jacksonville flughafen und warte auf meinem flug. wir haben wirklich was geleistet. wir koennen dieses erlebniss nie wiederholen.