Right now we’re sitting at some up and happening coffee shop in Hood River, sharing a large coffee and unashamedly taking advantage of the free wifi and available power outlets. Let me now regale you with tales of our first days on the road:

We hit the dusty trail early (okay, perhaps a little later than anticipated)on Friday morning. Our combined family members & friends behaved like ruthless paparazzi and bombarded by taking roughly one trillion photos and we made ready to take off. It was actually really bittersweet saying goodbye to all the people we love, but everyone including us are real excited about this crazy nut-job tour we’s gunna do.

Down the road  we stopped at Stink’s friend, Tessa house & said more goodbyes. Then off we went… till I had to take a potty break right away in Newberg. (I was so nervous/crazy/excited that I forgot to pee before we left).

We cruised on up Rex hill & things went quite smoothly. I couldn’t get into my granny gear (the super tiny gear up front)so Stink made some minor derailleur adjustments for me once we reached the top. Then, more smooth sailing all the way to Portland waterfront park. The endless hill on Barbur boulevard was … hilly, but we did quite well for ourselves. Beef took sporadic & bumpy naps in the beefbox as we rolled along.

I had hoped to connect with a reporter from the Portland Tribune once we got in to Portland, but he texted & said he was too busy writing about Obama because he’s cooler than us. Whatever. haha. While we were chillin’ out at the waterfront, we met a few interesting characters: Ludwig Sears (Ludwig’s ears, he says), who rapped us some spoken wordz, bike dude who I don’t think we got the name of, a friendly family, and some rat folks.

After a good meal of peanut butter, bagel, and Momma Sue’s vegan cookies, we trekked on across the river and over to Stink’s sister, Heather’s apartment. Heather toured with us a couple years ago up to the top of Washington & then back down to Napa Valley, CA. Anyways, we blew up her & Cody’s back patio with all our crap. Stink went off to her pastor Jeff’s graduation, and Heather got bike tube patching lessons from me & Cody. Good jerb Heather!  Later, my friend Mariah & her boyfriend Jeremy came over with ciders, and Jer chopped off most of my hairs. We all hung about & had a good time as it was a good crowd.

Then they headed out and we all immediately went to bed & passed out. In the morning, Heather & Cody made us a delicious breakfast with vegan sausages, eggs, strawberries, and fresh breads from the bakery down the street. After gorging ourselves on free fodder, we finished packing up and rolled on out of Portland.

We had some wonderful riding and views of road side waterfalls as we climbed to the Vista house on the Columbia river gorge. We scoped out all the beautiful lands about us, ate some snacks, and cruised on outta there, riding the old Columbia river highway on over to Multnomah Falls. Stink ran into a friend from George Fox there, so we had that merry bit of kismet. Leaving the falls, we eventually stumbled onto a bike path that paralleled the highway. It was nice cruising along without cars, and we stopped & ate lunch/rested/wrote/mapped for a bit along the way.

But then, after a nice descent, we turned a corner and BAM! Four flights of super steep stairs we had to creep the bikes down. Duuuuumb, but we managed to do it between fits of laughter at the absurdity of having to cart 100 pounds of crap on wheels down stairs in the middle of bum-truck nowhere.

I was in communication with my brother during all this, as he wanted to meet up & camp together that night. Stink plotted out where we’d be to get our quota of 55 miles, and found a state park there in the Oregon side of the river. So we skipped out on the Bridge of the Gods (which wasn’t as impressive looking as in my head) and headed out towards the park. At one point we were following a road when it forked and we were pondering with path to take, and a nice man in a pickup truck pulled up and asked if he could help us ladies find where we were going. He gave us good advice, got us on the right road, and had a badass feather collection dangling from his rearview. Thanks helpful stranger!

We rolled on for many more miles, then arrived at the park….

This is where I sign off because it’s now eight o’clock at night & I’m in the tent about to pass out. Will continue this riveting tale tomorrow, sorry for the word vomit, just kinda journaling it all right here.

PEACE HOMIES.

ALSO, HERE ARE PICTURES:

columbia river gorge. just a bit before vista house

Okay, nevermind, only one picture because it doesn’t want to let me upload any more at the moment.. Tomorrow! pictures! you’ll see!

BYE.

-lizzy/wikki/lizbits

So, the day has finally arrived. We’ve got our bags packed, beefy’s house is complete, and we’re freaking scrambling our brains doing this that and the other thing an hour before we hit the road.

this is like, us all, right now. two seconds before we leave

Tommy’s; represent, yo.

We’ve been so super incredibly crazy insanely busy, that I don’t even know what to say right now, but, give us some time and I’m sure we’ll find words to describe these nerve-racking ecstatic feelings.

On Saturday, Stink graduated with a double major from George Fox University (she REAL smart). One Sunday, I had a farewell gathering with family and friends. Monday, I finished moving out of Momma Sue’s house. On Tuesday, Stink & I met up at her house, packed up our cycles, and rode out to her final youth group meeting in Carlton. The sun was shining, the road was gently rolling, and many songs were sung in Beef’s honor (foreshadowing of many more to come). Wednesday, I… I can’t even think of what we did Wednesday. A trip to Lowe’s… saying goodbye to folk around town… going to Tommy’s to get new chains, spare tubes, and spokes, but then Pat wouldn’t let us pay, because he’s tooo nice. Thanks Pat & Ben! You rock! One last ice cream at Serendipity, deodorant purchasing, saying farewell to Master Gardeners, among many other things. Thursday… Thursday was even crazier. Stink put on the new chains, wheels, sured up all the bolts, bits, and bops on the bikes. She a good lady. I finished building up the Beef box, too. Stink’s parents got her a crazy great guitar as a graduation gift, and we all went out for yummy dinners. We ran at 11 pm to get the final snacks and foods and rushed home to try to finish up & get to bed before midnight (was not accomplished). This morning has been super hectic too. AHH! As you can maybe tell from this scatterbrained blug post. My brother Derto came over early this morning before works to  say goodbye too. Annnd now, it’s really time to go, so I’m signing off!

early morning brother. lovelove

stink jams. she gunna miss new guitar…

We also want to say a big thank you to the Sanderlins, the Millers, and Kathy Gillespie for their generous gifts of tour funds for foods & bits. SO SO NICE OF YOU GUYS.

Okay, I seriously need to leave, like right now.

LOVE LOVE TO ALL OF YOU & EVERYONE & OKAY, BYE BYE FOR SEVEN MONTHS.

  While talking to a friend the other day it finally sunk in that tour is rapidly approaching. In our last few days at home Lizzy and I are tying up some loose ends and preparing for life away from home. Both of us are in the process of moving (which is kind of funny), I’m finishing up the last two days of my undergraduate career, Lizzy is shoring up the Beef house, and we both are running through some interviews by local news sources. The McMinnville Newsregister was kind enough to give Within Biking Distance some publicity, as well as McTV’s Howie Do’in. The local radio station is planning on talking with us about Watsi this afternoon. (Hopefully we’ll have our TV interveiw up on the site within a couple of days) 

Coincidentally, Lizzy and I were both up in Bellingham last week–neither of us realized the other was going to be there. I was able to meet up with some old friends and summit Buckhorn Mountain on the Olympic Penninsula. It is good for the soul to be on top of a mountain, and I am incredibly greatful to my friend Mary for teaching me that. Mary is a linguist, mountaineer, and Tolkien fan who loves Jesus– and I love math and history and have been reading books covering the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Japaneese Fugo project. . . so you can imagine the hours of invigorating, nerdy conversation that followed us up the mountain.

Mary and her husband Ben are preparing to move to Paupa New Guinea within a year or so and work on a language preservation/Bible translation project. If you are interested in their story, you can follow their blog by clicking Here . 

Thanks for bearing with us through this countdown, it seems we’ve been saying “only a couple more weeks” for a year, but I assure you, we will actually be leaving on Friday the 8th– that’s merely 8 days! YIKES!

Amanda, creater of Worthy of Hessed, a blog to dialoge fatherlessness

Up and up.

Bigfoot crosses the water.

Mountains for days!

While up in the mountains, Mary found this mine. This is the Tubal-Cain Mine, named after Tubal-Cain the copper smith in the Bible. This was a copper mine that opened in1902. It was too far from civilization to be profitable and a few years after it opened, a landslide crushed a significant proportion of the mining operation. The miners simply walked away leaving a big ol’ mountain hole. We camped at the mouth  and explored it a bit in the morning. Fortunately no goblins came out of it in the night!

Click on Mengistu’s picture to head on over to the Watsi site and see him & all the other patients currently in need.

MENGISTU’S STORY

“Mengistu is very likeable and intelligent,” says our medical partner, Ortho FOCOS (OF). “He is currently in stage 1 at a local school and dreams of becoming a doctor!”

 

Eight-year-old Mengistu lives in Ethiopia with his two siblings, father and step-mother. “The family lives in a two room mud house and does not have access to electricity or running water,” says OF.

 

Mengistu has kyphosis- an exaggerated rounding of the back. He has trouble standing straight and is developing a hunch back. He walks at a very slow pace.

 

For $1500, OF can correct Mengistu’s kyphosis and allow him to live without constant pain and discomfort. He is also expected to regain full mobility.

 

“At such a young age with such a severe deformity, this surgery will save his life,” says OF.

 

Let’s help make it happen!

As always, if you enter the Watsi site through https://watsi.org/welcome/within-biking-distance/within-biking-distance your donation will be tracked in our campaign. If not, that’s cool too. We just want you folks to help folks.

-Lizzy

P.S. This kid is the cutest. The end.