Matt
Joined: 22 Sep 2005 Posts: 102
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 9:47 pm Post subject: Miserable Day Ends Well Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:44 pm |
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Some days are just tougher than others. This was a rough day.
When we woke up at our roadside campsite this morning, the cold of the desert night still chilled us. The sand and lack of moisture of the high desert caused my contacts to really bother me as we got started this morning. Once we got on the road, the desert heat pressed down on us. The desolate landscape added nothing positive to the experience.
Along the way, two people offered us refreshments to cool us down and keep us going. One lady stopped as she was driving by and gave us water and M&M candies. A man we met near a gas station gave us cold Gatorades. Their generosity picked up our lagging spirits.
With a single-minded wish to get to Bend by early evening, we pushed on. We only made one lengthy stop and that was to fix our handlebar. This time the other side of the handlebar snapped. We fixed the handlebar by jamming a battery into the bar and topping that off with the ever popular duct tape. Later in the day, apparently our axle wanted to join the handlebar in breakdown heaven, as it too snapped. Rather than stopping immediately to try to fix the axle, Brandon opted to tip the stroller and push it on just the back two tires. We trudged on and thankfully said goodbye to the high desert area.
By 6:30 p.m. we were in Bend. We found the Robertson home, which seemed like an oasis to us. We are EXTREMELY HAPPY to be here. For the first time in a week, we were able to take showers. It took a long time to get clean as I aggressively scoured away the dirt accumulated from a week in the desert. To be clean again felt wonderful! The clean clothes Mrs. Robertson washed were also very much appreciated. After we showered, she took what remaining dirty clothes we had and is washing them tonight.
The next luxury provided us was a wonderful meal of fruit, vegetables, steak, salad, and sourdough biscuits, followed by mint chocolate chip ice cream. The food was so good! Much of the food was fresh from the garden as the Robertsons had earlier in the day gone to their friend Ruth Tolfer's home to get the fresh vegetables and steaks. Ruth's daughter Mary looked up this Website and printed copies of some of our posts, so they knew all about us. After supper, The Tolfers stopped at the Robertson home to meet us. Knowing that Brandon is a loyal Packer fan, the Tolfers told Brandon that Bend, Oregon is the hometown of Packer kicker Ryan Longwell.
According to our calculations we have 187 miles to travel with less than a week to go. We are now thankfully out of the high desert area. However, we have a couple of quite desolate stretches to go (national forest) before we get into an area with lots of towns.
Tonight we are so grateful to be in a comfortable home surrounded by kind, thoughtful people. Thanks so much to the Robertsons and the Tolfers. We are so grateful. What started as a miserable day has ended so well. |
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