We may stop scheduling our 48- (or 50-, depending on whom you ask) state bike ride. Version 1.0 was a couple weeks away from launch when Doré’s procedure on April 19, 2016, to fix her aneurisms went awry. Year and a half delay, with time-out for cruising the world.

Version 1.1 began with a practice ride in Minnesota about 10:00 am, Sept 17, 2017. It was a 51-mile round trip from the Falls and Pinnacle Condos, where we have been house-sitting for anyone who wasn’t home.

Across Minneapolis and St. Paul (St. Paul has hills.) to the Gateway Trail to the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter, which happened to be a very German restaurant and Oktoberfest, just outside Stillwater.

So far so good. Then on October 1, we would put the Cannondale on top of the car and head for Bismarck, N.D., to start biking in a state we hadn’t done. We had shown ourselves we could do a fifty mile bike ride again. We had room reservations in three or four states. The weather was great, even in North Dakota. And our current house-sitting gig was ending.

About 2:00 a.m., September 21, Doré fell: 911, ambulance, hours in an emergency room, 36 hours of waiting for the surgeon, (apparently we should have scheduled,) a few days in the hospital, and several months of rehab.

The break has healed fine; the surgeon never wants to see her again. Damage to the nerves and muscles from the surgery are a much longer recovery. And of course it was the same leg damaged by stroke. Rebuilding confidence in the leg may take even longer.

As a bit of a side note, even though our condo is rented out until April, 2019, and our house-sitting was ending, Doré probably should not have told the hospital social worker that “We are homeless.” That seemed to worry her a lot, four weeks in Cancun and three months in Malaga not withstanding.

Bike America 1.2 will start sometime after we get back from Malaga on May 1. We aren’t going to set a date; just wake up some morning and slip out of town.