The bicycle move of a lifetime!

Decisions

         Have you ever had a wild and crazy idea? We have it was a decision to leave my wonderful husband's birth city and state. We threw around ideas about how to get to the state I was raised in. Oh yes before I get ahead of myself let me introduce my husband and I. He's known as Tony and I'm Debra. Nice to meet you all. I hope you like this true story. Anyways we were tossing around ideas about traveling to Arizona. Casa Grande to be exact. My sweetheart was born and raised in rainy Portland, Oregon. I was born in Sunny San Diego and raised in the the beautiful state of Arizona. He wanted a change since we had lost so much in this horrible place. Lots of people love Portland because of all the venues and crazy nightlife. Not us we had had enough of it. He was forty-four. I was thirty-eight. We thought of flying out, taking Greyhound, and even bicycling to Arizona. Bet you can guess the crazy and wild choice we took.

       Well decision one made now to decide what to take and have once we got where we were going. Then getting bicycles we could trust to get us there. Also had to get a trailer to haul everything we would need and want. Decisions made. Packing up our stuff into the trailer was crazy. Picture this we put the heavy stuff in and it ended up being pushed to the back of the trailer. We then put our clothing and bedding in next. Then the food and last the tent was packed up. Anyways we tested it and my husband's bike lifted up in the back lol. Had to repack everything again.  We wanted to start out at seven lol oops nope we didn't leave until noon.

    Oh boy was this making me regret our decision 😂. Anyways we got about three blocks away from where we started and the trailer started causing my husband's bike to lift in the back again. Oh brother everything shifted again. Here we go again with unpacking and repacking the trailer. Can you tell we never did this before? 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂＼(°o°)／Well we got it right this time and made it to the bike trail that would lead us to Walmart to get a few things that we still needed to get. It was March 4th, 2009. After we left Walmart we headed towards Sandy, Oregon. LOL we ended up in Sleepy Hallow, Or. I realized that I lost my phone in the dark and I cried. Pictures of our children were in that phone. Not realizing we were off track. Anyways it was dark so we found a place and put our bedrolls down and fell asleep.

         Well we were up with the sun and packed up and ready to go by 6 a.m. We started out and ended up in a completely different place than we expected to. Really nice people helped us and put our bikes and trailer into their van and gave us a ride to the road we needed. Then we started out again and made it to Sandy Oregon. I replaced my phone and I promised never to lose it again. So after Sandy we were headed out again and boom a severe thunderstorm started we were soaked to the bone in seconds. A wonderful lady named Mary told us to set up our tent in her backyard and come out of the rain. She let us stay there for 5 days while the rain came down in torrents. She fed us everyday and let shower. She was the sweetest lady I have ever met. Her son came and went over the trail we were going to take to Bend, Or. and gave us an alternative route to go. Because the route we were going to be taking had a huge hill. Remember one huge hill. We were going to go through Moppet, Oregon instead of the other way around. Anyways we got to Mt. Hood and it was getting dark so we found an area to sleep that night.

       We were up with the sun and packed and ready to go by 7. Started riding up Mt. Hood again it was steep. Anyways someone with a pick up stopped and said that he could give us a ride to the top and part way down since he was turning the other way. We accepted the offer and I will be forever grateful. Anyways we got out and started down  the east side of Mount Hood and we made it to a really small town called Moro and ended up with flats in both our bikes. We ended up staying there for a week. They were nice to us and gave us things we needed and let us do laundry and take showers. Then we started out for  Moppet and we ran into a huge group of mosquitoes. We sprayed bug repellent on ourselves and started riding again. We entered Moppet around 3 pm and stopped by the Safeway there. Ate and talked with some people and found out about the hills we were going to be climbing not riding up like Mount Hood. You got the message right about one huge hill on the other route and Moppet it was three hills not one😭😭😭. Anyways we started up the hills and found the first was a mile almost straight up. A 90 degree angle. Then we hit the second hill and it was the same as the last one 😂. We finally got to the top and found a place to set up the tent. We made dinner and got ready for bed. Laid down and fell asleep, but not for long. We awoke to yips and whines from coyote and we're shocked because they left us and our stuff alone and slept by our tent for the night. When we woke up they yipped at us and whined. I opened the flap and one poked his head into the tent. I was shocked because they didn't attack or do any aggressive act.

         They left and we went about eating and getting everything packed up and ready to go again. A mile later we were at the third straight up hill and I sat in the dirt on the side of the road and cried and cried. I told my husband that I was done I was staying right there and I wanted a divorce lol 😂. He hugged me and kissed my head and promised me that I could get a puppy once we got to Bend if I would try to get up this hill. LOL a puppy 😂 got me going again. Anyways it was still 16 miles away to Bend and we started riding again I was never so happy to see the end of those hills. We rode for about 2 more hours and finally entered Bend. We stopped for lunch and started riding again and boom my bike had a flat again.😢

      We fixed the flats and headed to the police station to find out if they would allow us to set up a tent. We weren't considered transients since we were traveling to Arizona and not exactly homeless lol moving this way made me feel bad for the homeless people who didn't have money or a real home. Anyways they told us about an area that we could set up in for the night. We headed to it and set up the tent. For some reason I couldn't understand at the moment I was uneasy and couldn't sleep. I was reading a book trying to relax when I heard a thump and sat up just in the nick of time, because a pointed rock landed on my pillow right where my head had been 😫. I could have been hit by the rock I woke up Tony and was scared. He jumped out of the tent and threw rocks back at them. He got one of them because he cried out when the rock hit him. Yay😍. My hero! The police came out and took a report. Also they stayed there so we could sleep. We would be seeing a lot of police lol as we traveled.

     The next day we went to Walmart and got tape for the holes in the tent and more inner tubes for our bikes. Also the bike trailer broke and we bought two new ones. We met a lady who let us stay at her house for a few days after what happened that night. We stayed in Bend for two weeks. Poor girl didn't want us to leave. She was very excited to have a female friend. I cried 😭 with her when we were ready to go again. Bend, Or. is beautiful. Now it was April 1st and we needed to get on the road. Couldn't find a puppy yet 😢. Anyways we started out and Traveled 39 miles away and stopped in a clearing to eat and set up or tent. We had an hour before dark and I was in a bad mood. I had a huge headache 😫. I think it was the stress of camping out after the rock incident. The next morning we got into our first argument and left a few things like the book I was reading.  I hate getting into a book and not being able to finish it.😭 Yeah I cried when I realized it was gone, also left my husband Tony's favorite shirt.  At least we didn't leave anything important.

A/N. This is the first part of the road trip so if you like it let me know and I will be posting the second chapter very soon 😊. Please vote only if you really like it. Comments are appreciated and I will try to answer any questions you may have. Hopefully you will enjoy this book as I update. Bye for now.