Major Alterations

So we've made a lot of changes the last couple days, unfortunately it means we're not on the road but in the end we'll be happier.  Sam no longer has to have a trailer behind him and instead is sporting panniers and Ryan now carries Sam's trailer instead of the cargo trailer, with all the kitchen stuff in there.  Sam was so excited and demonstrated how fast he could fly up the hill clocking himself at 14 m.p.h. We have knocked off over 45 lbs. and have streamlined significantly.  We also traded the Burley trailer for the girls and got the Chariot instead because of storage problems, they seem way cozier and it's red which is my favorite color.  We're itching to get going but this is good stuff.

Bend, reunions, and fortune cookies

We had the most wonderful time visiting here with folks in Central Oregon, staying up till 4:30 in the morning, visiting a Yerba Mate shop, which is about like solid gold in my books, laughing our guts out, playing in the sunshine with the Love family, beauitul reunions with our roommates, the Harris's, and lot's of reconstructing of our load.  We have shaved easily 30 lbs. of gear and 15 lbs. of trailer, we've totally reexamined our load after learning alot crossing the Cascade mountain range, and gotten alot stronger.  Ryan's legs are totally morphing, he has some crazy, mutant calves and his thigh muscles are just plain sick, they start jutting out right after his knee in a super-heroisc fashion. All the children have the same wild muscle stack on their legs and also are noticable stronger looking.  I feel good and look forward to riding more, but  it will be hard to leave everyone here.  We really feel like we are leaving our familiar territory and venturing out into the unknown,we've always hung near the coast and E. Oregon is foreign.  We've been shown so much kindness by complete strangers, giving water, places to stay, money and just time, wanting to stop and talk to us and know our story, in Terrebonne, outside Smith Rocks, the owner of the local Thriftway came out and was asking us questions, she herself was an avid biker who has pulled off several, 400 and 200 mile races, a wiry and energetic lady anmed Bonnie with a shock of blond hair, she asked us all kinds of questions and was so fascinated with the whole touring aspect of life with a family, she is taking pictures of us and jumping about excitedly and could tell she was so thrilled she could have busted out of her skin. "Is there anything you need?" she asks "I own the whole store, you name it" I was just flat taken back, "we could use some water out of your faucet to fill our bottles" I tell her, she goes inside and comes back with the jug filled that I gave her and a bag full of Powerbars and snack-y stuff for everyone. She is standing there talking to us and notices my arm covered with poison oak and runs back in and brings me calamine lotion and cotton balls to take with me, she wanted to aid us in whatever way she could,and when she could see we were in need of nothing else, she gave us money,  her kindness was so precious to behold.  People we know have been equally amazing in their  giving of themselves to us, pampering us, encouraging us, letting us keep them up all night, and putting us up.  The Bray family that we've bee staying with here has nothing short of just plain doted over us constently, they gave us their bed to sleep in, made meals and treats, loved on us severly, and smile the whole time, we will never be able to repay their kindness.  Rachel Harris wanted to take me out for coffee in Bend and took me to this little tiny place called the Sparrow bakery and got me the most amazing breakfast sandwich on the planet, a poached egg on a homemade croissant with a giant slice of peppery bacon and covered with arugula and garlic aioli sauce, I just groaned the whole time I ate it, and they had an amazing execution of an americano, it was all just way too dreamy.  The Harris family watched our bunch while we went out for the last date we'd be having in a long time, we grabbed last minute items and went to a Chinese restaurant and talked about the next jaunt over tea and dinner.  We also had a chance to cut hair, Ryan and the boys probably shed 3 or 4 lbs. of hair and are now looking way more streamlined, Jessica did a great job but the hippy in me was kind of sad to see all the locks come crashing to the ground, maybe the birdies will make sweet little nests with it.  The next stretch is going to take a lot more planning as there are alot less ways to secure water and towns seem more spread out but we are excited.  I know we've been well taken care of and the Father's provisions have been more than enough and that never ceases to amaze us.

Obby and his new pals Octavius Steen (9) and his brother Darius (6) taking us back home with them to their cool, desert oasis home outside of Sisters. This is about the hardiest bunch I've met in a long time. They are a rare breed. These boys met us at the road and chased our bikes for three miles with no hesitation. They know these parts like the back of their gnarly little hands. Obby and Sam had no problem getting cozy with this bunch.
   The boys Dad, Peter Braun is an avid climber and woodworker who has crazy knuckles like knots in a pine tree from climbing but is the sweetest gentlest soul who loves babies. and gives the greatest hugs in the world.  Peter and Dorris have a sweet house nestled in a lonely canyon with their 4 rowdy boys, Octavius, Darius, Cannon, and Dax and lot's of rabbits, cats, chickens and turkeys.  Dorris carries a dagger in a leather case on her belt loop, I of course loved her instantly, it was very hard not to linger here for days, weeks maybe. I hope I see these ones again.

Anny is enjoying some time running around on back roads to break loose from the trailer. On our way down the 3 mile driveway in Central OR to our new friends house, Octavius Steen (that's really his middle name) and his brother Darius escort us to their home in the McKenzie Canyon area outside Sisters. The Deschutes are a beautiful and I can't believe all the views, Smith Rocks (famous climbing spot), rivers, snowy peaks, sprawling ranches with cool barns and the healthiest horses in the world and all these animals are running majestically up to the fence to seemingly greet us, I feel special.

Our Flagger over the pass

I gotta shut you down
-police officer of the Cascade Range area

Real men wave pink ponchos
-Jelena Steen

These guys are hardcore

Santiam Pass

We wake up in the morning spent at Koosah Falls and pack up, getting a good early start, all of a sudden Joe Bray and Mike Harris pull up in Joe’s little car with bikes strapped to the back, it is so nice to see Mike, we shared a small house on a farm near Portland with he and his family this winter, we were thrilled to see his mug. “What in the world are you guys doing here?'” we inquire, Joe states very assuredly that we are not climbing this pass without assistance, he designates his vehicle as the pilot car, he and Cammie were driving home around 1 in the morning from visiting with us over back home over the Santiam Pass and Cammie has a whole new perspective of this road after considering a family of 8 trying to pass it, or maybe it’s the late hour and strong coffee, whatever the reason, they are passionate, they are helping get over this monster.  Mike wants to ride bad, I somehow have this tinge of guilt about not taking the Pass like the rest of them but think about the babies and very probable snow storm on the way up and consent, he’s taking Abby up while I drive the cars with the girls. So we get suited up and get going, “so what’s the plan here?” I ask Joe, “O.K., so I am going to ride until I can handle it and after that I am going to sit on the roof of the car and wave the traffic around” I am thinking, this just does not sound legal at all and tell him to be prepared to get pulled over, he doesn’t seem to much care, he’s more concerned about our safety.  We take off and I follow in the car, this feels odd, driving with exerting much effort, before long Joey is off the bike and on top of the car waving cars by using a bright pink rain poncho, I think we are fetching more dropped- jawed looks from passerbyers because of Joe’s theatrics rather than the kids on bikes over a giant pass.  Slowly they creep up the pass, the kids are doing great, they stop every few miles to rest and drink, but keep on grinding.  The weather is looking ominous with huge, swelling clouds settling all the way around and sure enough it starts to first hail than giant snow flakes start flying down.  Even with the car with behind them with hazard lights and a man on top with the pink poncho just a wavin’ there are a few that race pass way too close and fast for the crazy conditions, I  am now fantasizing  about having a stack of rocks on my lap to chuck at them, or some other damaging, shocking thing I could do to deliver these people back to the reality that there are children right there next to there monster SUVs, instead I just pray fervently.  This pass is brutal, the Cascades are the first of three mountain ranges, so we are curious how this goes over, it appears to be endless, up and up, after you think it’s over, no, there’s more.  My guts are aching for them all, I wish I were suffering with them instead of this car, but I look back at the babies all dry and warm and the gear ( to lighten their load) and feel a little bit better. I am still waiting for the cops to show up any second, at places there is zero or negative shoulder and I’m hanging out in the road making the traffic move around us and it feels precarious.  Finally, we reach the top and the sun comes out, there is snow on the ground and everybody is so happy, we play in the snow, the kids build a snow girl with pine needle ponytails and take some pics and start heading down, I continue to follow them with the hazards on, we want to get down as far as  possible to escape the weather and they are making great timing, then it happens, a cop coming the opposite direction turns around and tears after me, I pull over, “Are you the one following those bikers?” he asks, “yes I am” I tell him, “ those are my kids there on those bikes and there getting away from me here” I tell him, temporarily forgetting his position over me. “do you realize that what you are doing here is illegal?”  he says patronizingly, “I wondered” I tell him apologetically and sheepishly, “i got to shut you down” he says emphatically (yes, these were his words verbatim) “I gotta shut you down” he repeats, “we’re getting calls from folks up the mountain about you”, yeah I could see why, if he had been here 15 minutes earlier, Joe would have been on top of the car and we would most definitely would have been extra excited. I explained to the officer that I realized this looked bad but I was a little protective about their vulnerable position on this pass with these nut ball drivers, he agrees, they are nut balls and says he has to respond to these calls and lets me go after telling me to meet him up the road when he catches up to the bikers so he could scholl us on the dangers of our venture, I meet up with him and the rest of the bunch on a shoulder and he explains that there are a lot of people coming back from their weekend trips ( it’s Sunday) and they are being rude and impatient and suggests we get off at the next camping spot, Suttle lake resort until the traffic dies down.  We thank him for his mercy to us and concern and head back down, this time I leave the hazards off and meet them periodically on shoulders, we passed Suttle Lake as it is totally surrounded by snow, not great for camping, and head lower, now I envy them, sailing down the mountain, Obby looks back at me with a look of complete elation, smiling so hard he’s going to bust his cheeks.   The weather is getting warmer and drier and we settle into the high desert, we are stoked, a 30 mile day, we find a camp at Indian Ford campground, make a fire to warm everybody up and Joe and Mike take off, we settle in and I am totally savoring this dry air, after days in the driving rain, this desert stuff is welcome, we dried all our soaked gear and went to sleep, I didn’t sleep much, I am still itching bad, blasted poison oak.  

Amazing Times

After our day of resting we are ready to get going, took us awhile to get packed up but I believe we got off at 11 or 12 in the noon and set off down the road, drizzly rain and traffic up narrow mountain roads uphill coupled with soreness, itchiness and cold fingers put me in funk and after a couple hours we stop at a small store to get something to eat and I am just praying for this rain to stop before we take off again, this sucks, no more rain, I can’t take any more.  We sit down to some really nice table and chairs the kid in the store set up for us under cover and watch the rain and eat, read the newspaper and eat some more, it’s still raining, we eat some more and all of a sudden it breaks and gets sunny, we could take off right now except the lady in the store comes out and tells us to wait just a second she has a free pizza for us that she accidently browned alittle too much too sell, so we wait and she comes out with this pizza that is perfect and hot, so we eat some on the spot and while we are eating it starts bucketing again, if we had taken off during that short break we would have been out there in that torrent she we sat down and ate more pizza and I got some hot tea as the coffee in these small stores tastes like recycled tires and waited, finally the sun did come out and we went for it, some old timer while we were sitting there at the store told us if we made it up the road to Blue River that the shoulder would be wider, that was all the motivation Ryan and I needed to here, just 20 more miles, and wider shoulder was our mantra, the usually pacifist Ryan had been devising inventions in his mind of spring-loaded metal claws that would scratch the tar out of any vehicles that got too close to our bikes.  We were making good time for a while until I am riding along and my seat is feeling noticably different, I get off and realize my Brooks saddle that we bought used and had noticed it was cracked when we got it was now torn in half, luckily a good friend was on his way to see us and  is really into biking and said he could pick up a new one, do I want to go with a new Brooks saddle or get a new soft tissue relief, yes that is really what they call it, saddle with a hole sanctioned in the middle to preserve your seat area from frictional warfare and create airflow?, seeing I had poison oak, I opted for the airflow as I had gotten so desperate a would pull my bike shorts over the horn of the saddle to get some relief from the itching and burning that the cold air would give.  In the mean time Ryan took my seat and did a quick roadside repair with Lilly’s leather punch and thread and some duct tape and we rode on, making good timing considering our late start because of the rain and set up camp at McKenzie Bridge Campgrounds and were joined by Seth and Evan Finnley and Titus Wenger, good mates from our town. We had a rip-roaring good time with them but had to say goodbye to Bob because his knee was bugging him, he had a friend come get him, we will miss ol Bob.  The children just about cried.  Seth had delivered my new Terry seat and I was so excited to try it I set off through the campsite in the middle of the night to test-drive it,  l like it. In the morning , Evan and I took off in his little volvo to find some winter gloves for the kids in the likely chance we run into snow on the pass, we check both local stores and both of us are amazed at the variety of goods they have to offer, everything from super ornate dragon daggers to toothpick dispensers, but no winter kid’s gloves, I ask around and somebody told us to go up such and such a road to the St. Benedict’s Catholic Church where somebody named sister John had some sort of thrift store, we find the church and we walk in to a small group of ladies making flower arrangements and ask them if this is where the thrift store is, they are confused but when we mention sister John they make an attempt to get a hold of her by phone, no answer. I explained while we are waiting why I am looking for the gloves and the ladies set to work scouring the trunks of their cars, fishing around for gloves, they sadly tell us that there aren’t many kids around but produced 5 or so pairs of leather work gloves from the shed of the church and the priest gaves us about 5 pounds of chocolate covered pretzels and a bag of rice crackers with wasabi peas, we thank them and head back to camp. By the time we get back camp is pretty well packed up, we parted ways with Seth, Evan and Titus, I don’t know when we’ll see those guys again and that makes me sad to know that but who knows where life will take us, at this point.  We set off that morning with hopes of taking the McKenzie Pass but discovered it hadn’t been plowed all the way and had to take the longer, steeper Santiam Pass and pass the day traveling up beautiful old growth woods, rivers and lakes.  We get a phone call that the Bray Family is on their way to bring dinner to us in the evening, we are excited to see them, they also have 6 children and the same as us, 2 boys and 4 girls and around 4 p.m. or so they come rolling up in their giant 15 passenger van, Joey is yelling at us from the driver’s seat, “What’s wrong with you people?” in his crazed manner. We tell them to turn around and meet us up the next campground so he turns around and starts driving towards it and a short while later returns giving us the stats on the distance (Joey has stats on everything) and pulls up and tells me to jump in the van with Cammy while he tackles the last leg to give it a shot.  I start heading towards the campground with her and this hill just keeps going up and up forever, by the time we get to the camp, I estimate they won’t be along for a couple hours and start exploring this place and discover an amazing waterfall called Koosah Falls just a couple hundred yards away, the Bray kids and I killed time looking around the falls and all the cool trails around it.  After a half hour of looking around, Cammy and I decide we should walk over to the main road to meet up with the bikers and really don’t expect to see them right away, but here they were coming up and we cheered them up the last parts to the entrance, Joe is most definately beat, he had some back injury at Costco where he works and was seriously out of commission for a year, but he made it although he was several shades redder and sweating bullets.  The kids set to work building a fire and Joe and Cammie in their typical fashion, make quick work of making this campsite into a full out comfort zone, they’ve got all the ammenities to make this place like home, screened tents that fit over the entire picnic table, reclining camp chairs, tarps for setting up rain/wind blocks, games, whatever, you name it.  Cammie had made barbeque chicken and SALAD, I love salad and we ate heartily, we had pulled off a 30 mile day with hills, even though we got such a late start, so we were all hungry and it had to be about the best meal on the planet.  The Brays had brought water, gloves and Joe’s own trail mix blend, beef jerky and fruit for us all for the ride the next day, I was so touched.  We sat around the fire, talked well into the night and drank strong coffee while the children got to watch a movie in their van on their crazy 25 inch monitor rigged to a small laptop computer in their giant van that was like a spacious theatre with rows of seats.  I was sorry to part with them but we did eventually have to get to bed, we had the pass to conquer the next day.

Up the McKenzie River (Day 5 or is it 6, I don’t know)

We had a good night’s rest there in our camp spot but the next day I hear Bob up in the morning chopping firewood and carrying on but a had no ability to get up, I am getting rocked by this gnarly sinus infection, I am way itchy in my nethers, it is raining out and decide I am feeling about like road kill and lay around a bit longer than usual.  Ryan and Bob make coffee, set up a rowdy clothes drying system near the fire, yes, in the rain, they are drying clothes by setting forked branches in the ground and running a stick across that the perfect distance from the fire and it is totally drying stuff out, and the kids are playing and talking near the fire, way cozy and nice, I try to join them for a spell but after awhile I retreat back to the tent and fall asleep for awhile.   Around noon Mrs, Millard comes to see us, a whole 45 minute day from their place, bearing 3 giant foot-long sandwiches,fruit and some dinky items I had forgotten at their house, seeing that I wasn’t feeling well or just wanting to spend time with them, she took the kids up the road to see the hatchery she grew up going to where they raise 20 ft. long sturgeon, I slept the whole time and when they came back several hours later, they had all kinds of stories to tell about the fish and all the amazing treats they got, and Mrs.  Milllard even brought back a pizza, by now Ryan had canned any idea of getting down the road and he and Bob spent the day swapping stories and collecting firewood.  We all ate pizza around the fire and sadly had to say goodbye to Mrs. Millard again, we are all going to miss her she is a truly incredible woman and I won’t ever be able to repay her kindness to us, what a helpless feeling. When I went to bed that night I was so thankful thinking about how people you hardly know come out of nowhere and completely bless the socks off of you. How absolutely amazing!!! What an encouragment to know that everywhere we are the Almighty is not leaving us without astonishment, so many levels of love, coming from every angle, layer upon layer, I am stoked about what we will see.  The children go to bed telling exciting stories about what a blessing people are, how we prayed for things and they happen and all the rain, semi-trucks, and itchy, burning kiesters seem not to matter in comparison.

Back to civilazation (for now)and the Millard Family

So we entered into Eugene after our time through the Smith River wilderness and I can’t say that was too thrilling, all of a sudden we’re swept into traffic, noise, and chaos.  Thankfully a good friend had arranged a place to stay for us, a large family(9 children) right there in the city, the Millard family.  I have to admit that it’s kind of hard for me to put myself in a position to depend on perfect strangers for a place to stay, eat, wash-up, and in any other given circumstance I would have been hesitant to put somebody out (especially an already large family) but that was before, and nowadays these rules no longer apply.  So thanks to Eugene’s lovely bike trails we made it there smoothly and roll up to the Millard’s spacious home right off the trail and a huge city park, this family took us in and had a big, beautiful dinner made for us when we arrived, a room all prepared and took immediately to playing with the children after dinner so that I could get a much needed shower in.  What an amazing sensation this was, you’d think this was the first one I’d ever taken, I lingered way too long, at least 20 minutes.  We were told about how notorious Eugene/Springfield was for bike theft and this family testified to that, they had 5 or so stolen this last couple years, they insisted that we bring them into the house for the night, are you sure I asked, we’re not talking about a couple bikes, this is a full-on mess of trailers, bikes, trail-a-bikes, panniers and cargo, they still insisted so we started bringing the whole set-up in, taking up a significant portion of the dining room area.  The Millards were about some of the sweetest bunch of folks you could meet, they rolled out the red carpet for us, washed our laundry, made beautiful meals, read to the children, on and on. Ryan spent alot of time running around grabbing last minute stuff and I got to spend alot of great time getting to know this neat family,Sam got to know their son, John, and they were off the whole time exploring the bike trails and BMX track.  Cathy (the mom) was just the most gracious hostess, never growing tired of cooking for her own family of 11, but our whole family of 8 and the endless stream of people dropping in all day and night, Cathy and Paul Millard’s children range from 30 on down and most live there with them, Daniel (19) is in nursing school and offered loads of first-aid advice and stocked us up with a fully loaded kit with everything from blood clotting powder for severed limbs to butterfly bandages for small cuts and a lot in between.  Mrs. Millard took me to the grocery store to pick up some dehydrated bulk foods and ended up buying several different kinds of snacks for us and when we got home they got bagged up individually with each person’s name on it for the trip.  I was excited to get back into the wilderness but very sad to leave these amazing people, we fell in love with them, the whole family just radiated joy.  At the last minute our good friend Bob Locus decides to go with us and follow us on bike to Bend, so Bob runs home the evening before we left to get ready and comes back the next morning with home-made bucket panniers made from Fresh Step kitty liter buckets, a full size backpack and another bag, I was feeling a little better about how loaded down we were after seeing this single man with such a load, he straps everything down and we say our farewells to the Millards and we were off with giant storm clouds brewing.  It had been raining the past few days on and off but we had decided to take the plunge anyhow.  About a 2 hour ride with rain pelting us the whole way, we pulled off in some small town at an abandoned mini mart to eat the sandwiches that Mrs. Millard had made for us under the shelter of the awning of this store when the most torrential rains just start pouring down, pretty soon the winds pick up and it is blowing rain at us at about 45 mph, soaking everyone to the bone, I throw the girls back in their trailer with their half eaten sandwiches where they can keep dry and Ryan had pulled out a tarp which everybody was huddled behind with the wind sucking it right against them and flapping in their faces violently while they’re trying to finish their sandwiches, I am standing there beholding the whole thing halfway on the verge of tears and just start laughing, what else can you do, this whole thing looked way too funny, pretty soon everybody is laughing their guts out.  When the storm let up, we all booked it down the road, we were making our way through a nice McKenzie riverside community with gorgeous houses lining the whole way, it’s still raining and when we pulled over again I had to pee and since there were so many houses around I quickly find a semi-hidden spot to go and in mid-stream I look up to see that I am completely surrounded by poison oak, I panic and get out quickly hoping that maybe it didn’t actually make contact with my skin get on the bike and head on.   We make our way up the McKenzie River rd. and the whole time the shoulder seems to kind of disapear and the trucks just seem to get bigger and the rain just seems to keep coming down, it’s getting quite demoralizing, I have a wicked sinus infection that seems to produce a wide range of different colored snot and we stop at about 5:30 p.m. at a small mountain general store to buy some chemical warfare for my head and ask about good camping, the guy there at the store didn’t seem to know a whole lot about where to camp and suggested we go up the road for a few miles and turn off on a road that might have somewhere to pitch a tent, so we head down the road following his directions down a road and quickly realize this is not the place to stay and start back and about halfway we are met by a lady in a SUV who meets us in the middle of the road, I’m behind a little bit so when I roll up it appears that she is just tearing into Ryan, “You’re on the most dangerous road on the planet, your wife and son are sick, it’s pouring down rain and you obviously have no idea where you’re going!, I have a 3 year old grandbaby and if I knew she was in……..” wait, I’m thinking, how does she know all this stuff, yes Obby had threw up the night before, and I’m sick, I have a 3 year old, but who is this lady and how in the world had she figured all this out???  “Now listen” she says, “I have a place down the road, showers, horses for the kids to play with, water, you can either come home with me or down the road there is a piece of property you can camp at, you decide” she declares authoritatively  The whole time Ryan is standing there stone cold like a kid in the principal’s office and I think Bob has his mouth wide open in disbelief and I’m still trying to figure out how she knows all this stuff.  “Thank you” we tell her when we finally figure out that all this is an invitation and not a prelude to an arrest, just her own mother hen way of letting us know that she cares, so we follow her and opt for the property to camp on because it’s closer, we thank her again as she assures us that if we need anything, she’s right down the road a couple miles, herbal tea, water, anything.  Thanking her up and down, sort of like when you get pulled over by the cops and escape a ticket, we part ways and set about making camp behind a grove of trees in this absolutely stunning spot, after the tent is set-up  and a fire is made under the trees, it just starts dumping rain again but the trees around us are so thick we hardly notice.  We  go to bed that night just so thankful for this great place to stay, we’re dry, well-fed, warm, everything seems just too perfect, except my butt kind of itches.

Trucking along

Made it over the Santiam Pass with snow and hail and sittin purdy in Sisters OR done up in old western style, good americano here at Sisters Coffee Company.  We will fill in the blanks as far as blogging goes as soon as we stop somewhere where they have internet. Enjoying the high, dry desert after days in the pouring rain.  Lots of amazing things to catch up with, it's been both sweet and bitter, can't wait to tell ya'll bout it. Making good time right now on some much-appreciated flat ground, gotta go. Peace.

Smith River

So we left Coos Bay with a short stop at Moe’s Bike Shop for last minute items, and Al at Moe’s called the police to escort us across the North Bend Bridge, that was fun being followed by the cops with lights on and not having to stop .  After he left us we made our way up the coast with tons of head wind and lots of traffic.  I would have to say the scariest part was the climb before Winchester Bay with no shoulder, but coming down made it all worth it.  When we made it into Reedsport we stopped at the grocery store and got some snacks.  We had decided to go on Smith River Rd to Eugene upon the recommendation of Al from the bike shop.  So about a mile after the grocery store we started to head east on Smith River Rd.  It was an immediate relief there was no wind and practically no traffic.  It was starting to get dark so about 3 miles down the road we spotted a beautiful camp spot next to the river with picnic tables, a fire pit, and BBQ, complete with a canoe.  We drooled over this site, but there were no trespassing sign all over it.  So Ryan decided to go ask at the house above.  So Ryan walked up to the door and asked the man that answered “Is that your camp spot down there.” and the man replied “Yes it is”, and Ryan asked “Could we stay there for the evening.” and the man says enthusiastically  “Knock yourselves out” We ride down to this totally picturesque spot and start unloading our gear, this man comes down in his pick-up and jumps down and lets his dog out, “now, this is Toby” he says, “I knew he was going to want to come down and see ya’ll so I brought him down to meet you.” this kind-hearted soul named Studebaker Jim (he’s got a sweet icy-teal Studebaker in his shop) told us to load his giant fir-pit up with cedar from the gigantic stack next to the pit and take the kids out on the canoe but made sure they all had life jackets on first,.  So I made dinner on the BBQ of fried rice with dehydrated veggies and egg in it in our pot that we had brought and Ryan took the kids out on the canoe, the sun was setting and it’s warm and just plain gorgeous in this place, everything is just too perfect, our tents are set up and dinner’s almost ready, I just want to pinch myself, is this dreamy or what? Toby the dog is a great fetcher of sticks and me and the children had a great time playing with this sweet tempered dog who loves water and can play dead when you pretend to shoot him.  Studebaker Jim is so sweet and loads the children up with snacks, I mean any kind of thing you can imagine, Atomic Fireballs, pistachios, smoked almonds, Reeses peanut butter cups, York peppermint patties, snack mixes, drinks and on and on.  This man is a big, burly logger with a solid heart of gold,  he’s such a special guy who’d give you the  shirt right off his back.  We were thankful, now normally I don’t allow the  children to eat a whole lot of sugar, but these guys are working their little rear ends off and I really felt they deserved the pampering .We went to bed very happy campers that night. Sometime in the middle of the night I had to get up to pee and stepped outside the tent that we set up earlier on dry land and now the same spot was covered in a couple inches in water, I totally soaked my socks and had to wring them out, later I could hear Lilly get up from bed and splash around, totally shocked, the girls landed  their tent in the deepest spot of a tidal pool.   When we packed up the next morning after a short visit by the fire with the Avery Family (on their way up to Washington) and they even brought cold O.J. which really helped with the bad sore throat I had and a great raw breakfast and then we rode on up to Jim’s place before taking off down the road, Jim hugs everyone vehemently and frantically searches around for some bright material to strap to our bikes to make us more visible, emphasizing how careful we need to be on these roads.  We all say our goodbyes, we will never forget his kindness to perfect strangers.  We ride on down the road just completely shocked at how amazing this place is, just like paradise, every corner we turn just awes us, we stop about 12 miles down the road at a remote little store and the guy that owns the place tells us that we can order whatever we want, Jim had called and arranged to buy us lunch.  We ordered 2 orders of French fries, a chicken basket (also with fries) and the snack basket (fried zukes, mushrooms, onion rings and fried jalapenos) yes, everything we ate was totally fried. We ate and took off up a steep incline which made me feel a little better about horking down that heavy lunch and made it to that evening to our goal, Smith River Falls, just before making it to the camp, a man pulls up behind us in a car and asks us where we staying that evening because he wants to drop off the load of wood in the trunk of his car for us at our spot, we ride up and he had a big pile of wood waiting there for us, Jim had told him about us.  That night Jon and Stef and Katie-Bug Alhers drove 1 ½  hours to come see us and shared the fire with us and we explored the old Smith River hatchery, sweet time, even after riding 30 miles the kids were totally bouncing off the walls with energy, Jon calls them the Energizer bunny children .  The next day we get an earlier start, 11:30( we have to get our systems down a little better) .  We had a short time of reading the Bible and praying, we asked the children maybe some things we could pray about, they thought about it and came up with water(the campsite we were at didn’t have any), food and a place to stay. We head down the road, beautiful day, perfect weather we just ride and ride. We pulled into a campsite and asked an older couple staying here if they knew of a faucet to get water out of, they said no this spot didn’t have water either but they were leaving and had tons left over, filled all our water bottles and gallon jug and had small bottles on ice they gave to everyone  , around noon we are having lunch on the side of the road and a man drives up and asks what we are doing, he told us he saw us the day before sailing down the hill with smiles from ear to ear and had to know what we were up to, he listened and then told us he had to question our sanity but give us some apples and bananas and slipped us some money, we were so thankful for some fruit after all the cooked rice and quinoa.  We just kept riding, climbing some major mountains and kind of got carried away sailing down the mountain and sailed ourselves straight out of all the river front sites that we could have camped at and wondered where we were going to stay where there was water.  We definitely did not want to turn around so we just kept going straight through this kind of dry looking place getting a little nervous as we had emptied all our water again.  A couple miles we thankfully came across a little creek and a grassy little road tucked next to it, we got baths, Obby made a great little fire we cooked our quinoa over, washed some laundry, tent was up and all of our stuff covered with tarps(we had heard it might rain) and sure enough it starts coming down, so it’s raining out now we are all in our tent warm, dry and happy.  We asked the children at dinner if God had heard our prayers today, they got all excited recounting about the water, the apples and bananas, and the sweet spot tucked in the trees with a creek next to it.  So they are all sleeping, we had a great day riding 37 miles and actually succeeded in wearing the children out, that was my answered prayer.

So our first real day on the road was both exhausting and educational.  We did thirty miles from Bandon, OR to Coos Bay OR, and anybody who knows this route knows that it is both uphill and packed full of headwinds coming off the coast. We weighed ourselves on the way out at a truck weighing station and we were all impressed with how much weight you can stack on our bikes.  So we left our good friends, the Fedders house at about 1:30 p.m. after getting a bit of a late start and headed out making great speed for having the wind pushing us backwards until we hit the first hill right outside of town, not only could I feel the full 400 lbs of gear, bikes and riders, but my bikes starts slipping gears until I had to stop and figure out what was wrong, luckily our good mate Jon Alhers pulls up right behind me there on 101 and asks what the problem was, thankfully he had tools in his truck and alot of know-how about mechanical things, being a plumber and all-around crafty guy and Ryan who had made his way back from the lead and they soon had it working again.  Well, about 6 or so miles up the road there is a serious hill, 6% grade for 2 miles and we hit that and again my bikes starts up again with the splipping, Obby and I got off the bikes and start pushing our load up Beaver Hill, I am amazed how this feels, making slow progress
with my calves on FIRE, thanking God that whole way that I have good lungs so I am not keeling over, and looking ahead for the top, I think it was just cruel thing to do to my mind, to look for the top, it just wasn't ending, it was the neverending hill, or so it felt like with the girls and their accessories sitting in their trailer eating snacks and enjoying the scenery and mine and Obby's bikes.  The whole time my mind is racing with thoughts of things I could unload, I mean, do we really need 2 sweaters or any extra clothes for that matter?  Why can't we just bring the clothes on our backs? I got to thinking, do the girls  know how hard I'm working here while they are squabbling over who gets the water bottle?  I chaulk it all up to good character building material and just keep lugging.  Finally we get to the top and everything seems easier, life just seems full of ease, straight downhill at scary speeds, this has to be illegal, I've got this massive train ending in a trailer with two toddlers in it hitting speeds of what felt like 80 mph, can I get pulled over for this?  Obby is just loving these speeds were achieving, "Faster" he's yelling, like I can even do this, the very bike itself would start rattling bolts and nuts off.  So the rest of the trip in was a exercise in faith, semi trucks whizzing by and parts of road where there is no shoulder on what has got to be the world's most popular tourist byway, I mean, semi- trucks are hard enough, but R.V.s and their aged, hearing and seeing impared handlers, WITH A CAR IN TOW!!, now they are scary, shouldn't you have to go to school for a couple years to drive something so massive? but no, anybody with a driver's license and enough money to buy one can, chilling!  Thanks by to the Almighty who quickens the minds of those traveling with us on these roads, we got there no problem.  We had to walk our load up Newmark hill, which is like a 90 degree angled road but had fun with this one, Abby and Ryan got to the top first and Abby came flying back down to push everybody up, she seemed to have super-human strength and an awesome attitude of servatude.  When we finally got to our friends house that night, my first order of business was to tell all the children how proud I was of them, 0 complaints and really helpful the whole way. My heart was full of gratitude for the people that they were, real warriors, adventurous, mighty, and sweet as pie. I sure love them. Second order of business was to eat, I was famished, we left without eating lunch, and made up for it by eating 2 protein bars on the way.  About half way up Beaver hill I was thinking, we're going to be staying at Stef Ahlers house and she's a great cook, I really hope she makes a big salad with homemade dressing and sunflower seeds and rice pasta with red sauce and some kind of sprouted bread, guess what? that is exactly what she made!! I was flat stoked and ate a mountain.  Thirdly,I wanted to take a shower, and I got one which I made last about 20 minutes. Life is good, Thanks be to God.  We stayed overnight and planned on leaving in the morning bright and early but Ryan got to thinking that he wanted to tear his Burley child-turned-cargo trailer apart and rebuild it from the basic frame, he is outside right now buzzing away with Jon's power tools and making a whole new unit, it should be done tonight, he even bought new Kevlar tires for it to replace the old mismatched, knobby numbers that were there before, got me front panniers to replace the hobo-looking mound of cargo strapped to the front of my bike with bungees, got Sam the new mustache handlebars he wanted so bad and Lilly got a sweet basket for the front of her bike, that tried to tell me would be perfect for the stray cat she found down the street, don't think so.   We look forward to taking off tomorrow, we got news of a great alternative route up the Smith River that we plan on riding that will take us to Eugene with hardly any cars, starting in Reedsport. We look forward to that even though dodging senior citizens in R.V.s is quite a rush.

5 Down 4195 to go

So after a lovely visit in Bandon OR we've finally got our first day in, a whopin' 5 miles.  We've spent the past few days visiting with friends and doing a little bit of packing on the side and today we scrambled all day getting things shoved in bags, bungeed down, unpacked, reorganized, bickered a bit, repacked, discarded, crammed, jammed, cried, and a bunch of other verbage, until we set off at 4:30 in the afternoon with a 25 mile destination ahead and few hours of sunlight. We started off to town and had to stop at the truck weighing station to satiate our curiosity, Ryan weighing in at 450, bike, trail-a-bike, and trailer, myself weighing 400 with a similar load, Sam at 150 and Lilly 100. Lilly looked fully road savvy with her bucket panniers covered with stickers and an Oregon license plate to boot.  We had to stop a few times to stop and adjust our loads on the way into town with headwinds coming at us the whole way and all the shifting, we figured that at the rate we were going it would be dark by the time we got there. Even though we were expected to be at some friends house for the evening, we decided it would not be worth the risk, major readjusting sessions and other delays, I could just see us trying to set up camp in the  dark on the side of the road and trying to disconfigure our all set-up and that just settled it, we pulled over and decided to stay at some good friends right conviently at the edge of town.  I was not real excited to stop but could see the wisdom in getting a good early start in the morning since we have some serious bugs to work out.  Basically it boils down to having way too much stuff, too many clothes in particular, I think we all had to make some major sacrifices today, Lilly and her life-size doll, got enough of those, my hand drum, which I tried to strap unsuccessfully to the front of my bike and removed after I realized it was screwing up my steering, Ryan was an exception who says he really didn't dicker with leaving any of his belongings, the rest of us however were not that detached from material hang-ups.  I have to say though that it is quite satisfying and frightening to see all of your worldly possessions moving down the road, pretty trippy, especially considering that I have been a bit of a packrat the past several years, collecting magnets, plastic army men, lamps, books, marbles, etc. not to mention all of Ryan's tools, our furniture, kitchen stuff, on and on, all of it gone and in it's place, a seriously loaded band of bikes and trailers. Thrilling! Even if it was 5 miles.