FINALLY: back home in North America. After the tribulations of the airport experience in Urumqi we expected things to go smoothly in Beijing, well we hoped they would anyway. I had discovered the day before we left the hotel in Urumqi when I tried to check-in online that we were booked each for two flights from Urumqi to Bejing and one flight from Seattle to Vancouver, BC. No flights from Beijing to Seattle however. After more emails between Jack & myself he confirmed with Expedia and Delta that we were going to Seattle from Beijing and NOT to Vancouver at all. Confirmation code is correct. However Delta in Beijing didn't have that information handy. Fortunately I did have a printout of the confirmation showing the flights and they eventually found them. Then their system wouldn't recognize Sally's valid passport. Then they couldn't figure out how many bags we could check or the weight limit: can economy class really be so difficult!! Finally, after an hour at the counter, they were complete and we had our boarding passes. From there on everything was like it should be: straightforward with no problems. Until we landed. Somehow we made up an hour on the 11.5 hr flight and landed at 4:30am. Since immigration doesn't open till 5:30am we got to sit on the airplane at the gate for an hour. At least that gave the baggage people time to get the bags to baggage claim before we got there!! So you claim you bags, go thru customs, put bags back on another conveyor and pick them up at the main baggage claim in the main terminal. Only they forgot to send the bike boxes to the main terminal baggage claim so we ended up waiting another 30 minutes for the bikes. However, trusty Marlin was there to pick us up. We spent yesterday doing laundry and taking it easy and more of that today. Tomorrow we'll go down to Tacoma and see college rowing buddies for a few days, put the bikes back together and hit the road again. We have 6-8 weeks before getting to Anchorage so will ride Vancouver Island visiting more friends and then ride somewhere in the greater Pacific Northwest before heading home to Alaska. As usual it's good to be home where things are familiar, the air and water is clean, no trash (minimal at best), a healthy change in diet, beer with flavor, ice-cream, butter and all the simple joys of life that we take so much for granted. It was a wonderful trip; as I said earlier not necessarily life changing. But as a friend wrote me it was "life enhancing"! We are looking forward to the next ride, we hope that to be Central Asia in the late summer/fall of 2013. We've heard so much so positive about the area from Marlin & Christine and others that we want to get there ASAP before there are too many changes. The world, and the developing countries in particular, are changing so fast in their rush to "catchup" that a lot of the "charm" of these areas is being lost to rapid development and the inevitable changes that result from "oil revenues" or foreign influences. I don't deny the people their opportunity to improve their lives and standard of living but I don't like to see that development at the expense of the environment and their individual freedoms from oppressive regimes. China and Vietnam in particular where exciting places to visit and the local peoples we met were wonderful but the oppression and lack of basic freedoms that we take for granted in our Bill of Rights were a sobering reminder that most of the world is not as fortunate as we are. We are grateful to live where we do and to enjoy our freedoms, despite all the problems we have with our political systems in the west. Enjoy your privileges and get out and see the world - by bicycle if all possible! Stan