Thursday, July 3, 2014

Outward bound

So many things and experiences have happened since Portland.... I was going to title this entry "The kindness of strangers" but the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that their really aren't any strangers out there. In the country we've covered in the last 2,200 miles(!) we've met all sorts of folks. And the bond that ties us all together is not just our bikes but that we're all people. Real people. This has helped me discover and decide that it's not strangers out there. It's people. New friends. Friends that are so excited to see us take a journey like this, that they can't help but gift us with their kindness and sometimes a cold Bud Light out of their cooler. This isn't what strangers do for one another, this is what friends do to care for one another. Examples of this have been presenting themselves left and right. When we went through Hood River, I needed a snap rivet attached to my helmet, as the original got ripped off, along with the face shield by the wind on Hwy 26, going into Portland. I tracked down a sail repair business and the guy fiddled with the snap bracket but realized that he didn't have the tools needed to connect everything to my helmet. 5 minutes later, we found ourselves downstairs in an independently owned motorcycle shop and Jesse, the owner and operator had attached my rivet free of charge. From Portland on out, we've received blessing after blessing from folks like this. From small towns in Idaho, to the national parks in Montana and Wyoming, everyone we've met has been nothing but kind, warm, and generous. Even as I type this, I'm sipping a beer in the lodge in the Grand Tetons thanks to the generosity of a couple we met on the side of the road outside our campground. It's these perpetual gifts that give us the fuel to carry on our way. Oh! And I want to thank you all for your patience! Wifi I've discovered is a tricky thing to find out here, so I'm keeping up as best I can. Stay tuned, y'all! I'll have more to share as soon as I can!

4 comments:

  1. Am enjoying your FB page and pictures, as well as your blog.

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    1. Thank you, Jim! And thank you for reading and following us!

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  2. THE UNKNOWN FRIENDS
    By Edgar A. Guest
    From: The Path to Home, 1919

    We cannot count our friends, nor say
    How many praise us day by day.
    Each one of us has friends that he
    Has yet to meet and really know,
    Who guard him, wheresoe'er they be,
    From harm and slander's cruel blow,
    They help to light our path with cheer,
    Although they pass as strangers here
    These friends, unseen, unheard, unknown,
    Our lasting gratitude should own.
    They serve us in a thousand ways
    Where we perhaps should friendless be;
    They tell our worth and speak our praise
    And for their service ask no fee;
    They choose to be our friends, although
    We have not learned to call them so.
    We cannot guess how large the debt
    We owe to friends we have not met.
    We only know, from day to day,
    That we discover here and there
    How one has tried to smooth our way,
    And ease our heavy load of care,
    Then passed along and left behind
    His friendly gift for us to find.

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