The Good. The Sad. The Power of Pie + The Power of Love

MARK AND MELODY UPDATES

MARK UPDATE: Day 8 and 9

Day 8
Destination: Prairie City, Oregon
Today’s mileage: 55 miles. Total: 447

My new riding buddy, Yoram Ephraim of Israel, and I used this as a nice and easy training ride. After our 88-mile run the day before, we were happy to pull into Prairie City in the early afternoon. We set up camp at the Prairie City Depot and RV park. Melody, me and Yoram set up our camp under the shade of some sweet old trees and within earshot of the gurgling stream that passed nearby. The campground had decent bathrooms — and even showers! — so we were set for the evening.

We had a couple of beers, we ate some brats and hot dogs from the grill, and we talked until the mosquitoes went into attack mode.

Day 9

Destination: Brogan, Ore.
Today’s mileage: 80. Total: 527

I told Yoram I was feeling melancholy as we parted early today. We made one nice climb, up to about 5,400 feet, descended and said goodbye. I’ll miss that guy. He is a special one.

(Read the rest of Mark’s post on his blog here).

MELODY UPDATE 

I’ll be honest. Living out of our small car isn’t easy. I’ve had so many problems. I’ll write more  in another post about some of the things that have happened (some pretty embarassing) later.  Also all the cameras I am juggling (5D, iPhone, GoPro) and several hard drives, batteries and microphones. Something is always not working or lost. Stress!  But …before I go to bed at night, I am reminded that each day I get to see Mark accomplish something incredible! I am beaming with pride for what he is doing.  I love seeing him so joyful.

Also, every day I get to meet some interesting people along the way.  This adorable couple found love again late in life and they are getting married in a few days!  I was lucky enough to meet them today.  I hope to have some time to edit my videos soon, but for now I can tell you that he is a retired truck driver and she is a poet and they each have several marriages behind them.  They both say that this one is going to be different.  And I believe them. Talk about feeling alive! 🙂

Leslie and Debra holding their marriage license