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.