Bumps in the Road

After putting together almost 60 previous Ghostrider overseas adventures, I have learnt one thing - that it isn't over till it's over.

It seems that just when you think that all the little ducks are finally all lined up, then we are thrown some sort of a late curveball. In the past this has taken all sorts of forms. Sometimes it is a surprise failure of a part of my body that has never given me trouble before. Sometimes it is one (or more) of our participants having a medical emergency.
Just before our 2023 European rides, one of the ladies fell over in her own shower and broke her femur. Her trip was over before it started.

On our 2024 Epic Elbe Ride, another of our riders fell over while sightseeing around Hamburg. She never even got to get on a bike. She spent the next several weeks in a hospital having surgery to repair her broken leg.

This trip has actually been almost two years in the making, and I have repeatedly instructed our participants to take care. The last thing I want is yet another, pre trip casualty.

And yet here we are, with a little over three months to go till we finally get underway, and we find that the biggest threat comes from the inept, orange faced muppet that is occupying the White House in America. For some reason his senile ego decided that it was a great time to start a war in the Middle East, thus ushering in a period of global uncertainly and fuel shortages.

While I still have no doubt that our adventure will go ahead, it has added a level of stress that we could all have done without, especially when my plane tickets remind me that I will be travelling through the very epicentre of the conflict. Who was it that once made that famous statement that "Life was not meant to be easy"?
Of course sometimes we need to be reminded that the things that cost the most (not in money, but in time and effort), bring the greatest rewards. Putting together this trip has taken almost two years of blood, sweat and tears (metaphorically at least), so I can't wait to finally reap the pleasure of seeing it all finally come to pass.

This morning I rechecked my numbers to discover that we will have a total of 38 riders, some doing multiple sections and some only doing a part of the total ride. Our riders will be divided into three subgroups, each starting two days apart but following the same itinerary. This makes for very complex logistics. In fact, it will probably be the most complicated trip I have ever put together, rivalled only by our 2016 Odyssey Ride from Bruges to Budapest. Now that was a trip to remember !
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