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Afterword The sun refused to shine. It was cold, but nowhere near Edmonton's minus twentysix degree temperature. We hadn't missed that cold weather in the least. Sharon and I had gone soft. It was sixteen degrees Celsius and we were complaining. How soon one forgot. We were devastated from Mom's news. She had come as close as she ever would to asking us to come home. At that moment, the conclusion of our trip seemed like a very long time away. And Christmas was all too close. We decided to return home for Christmas. Our dreams would have to wait. We were travel weary anyway and a break would do us both good, give us time to think, regroup and plan the next stage of our journey. Most important-it would give us time to visit with family. It was a whirlwind trip home. I had visions of planes, trains and automobiles. We took a twenty hour ferry ride from Rhodes to Athens with very rough seas. The rhythmic rocking of the boat, warm stuffy air, combined with the constant cigarette smoke was a sure formula for travel sickness. Sharon was almost as ill as she had been from that chicken on Sardinia. After an exhausting, dehydrating ferry journey we spent a day in Athens purchasing plane tickets home. That evening was devoted to transporting ourselves and our bikes to the Athens airport where we spent the wee hours of the night preparing our luggage and bicycles for air travel. After a long flight to Vancouver, we arrived exhausted and with nowhere to go. We hadn't told anyone we were coming back. I phoned my exroommate. Tim arrived in a van to pick us up. The guy was a lifesaver. We stayed with him, his wife Bernie and their three children for a week of recovery, then transferred to my brother's place on Dunsmuir. Mom and Dad came to Vancouver for one of Mom's chemo treatments. When Dad walked through the door I thought he had turned into a guppy. His mouth was opening and closing but no words were coming out. After the shock wore off, we had a joyous family reunion. We were riding rainbows after all. |
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