This short post, which I am writing on the eve of departure for a two-week tour of Sicily, will be missing my innate, self-ironic distance from everything—especially from unexpectedly beautiful events.

It seems that the power of beauty can sometimes be so strong that it softens even the most hardened cynic (perhaps because a cynic is, in fact, an incurable romantic who has been badly burned?). Be that as it may, in these past few days since Bryan’s arrival, I truly feel as though I’m living a fairy tale—a fairy tale about two madmen, pedal-lovers on two distant continents, brought together by a shared dream of cycling around the world. I leave it to the imagination of any potential readers of this blog to picture what kind of fairy tale it is.