Well, you did say "road trip" as opposed to "car trip" so I thought I'd enter as well. We've spent hours on our bikes over the years but the highlight of all our trips must be when we found ourselves in Northern Spain intent on riding all the way from St John Pied de Port to Santiago. It was late July and the whole route was packed with walkers. So we tended to keep to the main roads. Drivers in Spain are very patient and polite when dealing with cyclists although there was one hairy moment when we were on a main road and two huge pantechnicons full of cut logs raced passed us at breakneck speed. Quite by accident, we arrived in Pamplona during the Bull Run week. Fortunately, it was late afternoon so we didn't have to compete with the possibility of meeting a group of overly excited bulls. Instead, the whole city was alive with market stalls full of enticing goodies. People were singing, dancing and generally rolling out of the pubs (and this was at 3.00 in the afternoon). Everybody was intent on enjoying themselves.
At one time on the trip, I was ready to give up and go home (I had just discovered that Santander - and their nice ferry - was closer to us than Santiago). I rattled off a quick message to our son, sister and one of our granddaughters. My sister didn't reply. Our son wrote back "don't be such a wimp". Our granddaughter made the decision for us when she wrote "You can’t give up now, you’ve reached your halfway mark. Please don’t give up, you can do this. Just because the temptation is pulling you away, doesn’t mean you have to give up!". Beautiful girl and because of her encouragement we did make it to Santiago. It had taken us just under 3 weeks and we had had some amazing experiences. To top it all, we both earned a certificate proclaiming that we had managed our very first Pilgrimage in style.
