Day 12 A man named Murry

While travelling east through Idaho on Hwy 12, we had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Murry. We had just bathed in the brisk waters of the Clearwater River and were beginning to be on the lookout for a place to bed down for the night when we zipped past Murry while he was walking along the road side with the largest pack I've ever seen on his back. We soon found a beautiful little wayside that was littered with wild daisies across the highway from  river. After exploring a bit and snapping plenty of pictures, we began to set up our tents and up walked Murry. He asked if he could share our spot and there was plenty of room, so of course we told him he could most definitely camp with us. I'm so glad we said yes to the universe and had the opportunity to share the evening with this man. He has been hiking all over the country since 2010 and shared with us the most incredible stories about his adventures. Not only were his stories fascinating but Murry himself was one of the most interesting people I've ever met. The way he knew the flora and fauna surrounding us, his philosophies of life, and the way he told stories were enthralling. At one point late in the evening while we were sitting around the campfire, Murry began to lament the death of his violin. He then recounted he numerous McGyver repairs he did on his instrument until sadly, he got caught in a heavy rainstorm, which caused the back of the violin to pop off and it became beyond repair. He then told us about how he worked for a time as a piano tuner's apprentice at the Berkley school of Music in Boston and that with time, all piano tuners became alcaholics. He believed it had a lot to do with listening to all those partial chords all day. When Adam and I told him about our musical background and the instruments we played, he became very excited. Especially about my playing the accordion. He asked me all sorts of questions about different accordions and their size versus ability. And then with a twinkle in his eye he told me about an opera he's been working on. You see, with all this time on the road to yourself, you have a lot of time to think. Murry is working on an operatic version of the Iliad. And with great gusto and an incredible voice, he sang us the opening song, explaining first that the scene opens with Homer's son playing an accordion. As I've said, this person was fascinating. I've never met anyone like him and I believe that I'll be hard pressed to meet anyone like him again. Meeting Murry on that highway in Idaho was such a gift. Not something tangible, of course, but a gift none the less. Something I will remember and treasure for many years to come. So Murry, if you're out there reading this, thank you for the time you spent with us while on your journey. May your days continue to be filled with wonder and adventure.

Waking from the deep Winter slumber

    Clearly there's been a bit of an absence around here. Frankly, that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm learning to let it go. So now the sun is coming out and riding season has begun for those of us that are blessed enough to call Southern Oregon our stomping grounds. We all seem to be shaking ourselves out of our long winters' nap and are ready to come out and play. Not to say that we weren't all getting down to business these past number of days. In the time since my last entry we have (in no particular order): posted our first video to YouTube, finalized our basic route around the country, held a number of shop days, made impressive headway on the documentary, finalized our parts list and started ordering parts, and increased our Facebook Likes from 55 to 114. In addition to all this, we've been preparing for and planning a fundraising event due to go down on April 5th.

    We've also been spending a lot of time sharing our story with countless awesome folks in our lives- including our employers. I've been so blessed to find the job of my dreams teaching preschool at the Medford YMCA. Such is my luck to find such a gem of a situation at such a complicated point in my life. Adam and I both have been so very blessed with the outpouring of love and support we continue to get from all of our friends and family members. It's so nice to remember when situations get strained.

This is where we spend every free moment these days

    As we worked and worried, something spectacular happened; After a short time of installing a donate button on our Facebook page, someone donated. Someone donated! Someone out there gave tangible, uplifting, and encouraging support to our project! A HUGE shout out of appreciation to the lovely Liz Chapman for being the very first donor to My Trail 90 Crew!

   We had another miraculous event happen this evening while we were all replacing our tubes and tires. The neighbor across the way gave us a nearly new, super light weight Big Agnes packing tent. For free. Due to a little bit of a language gap, he doesn't really understand our trip- he, as he told us, knew we go camping a lot. This kind gesture from our neighbor just put some much needed funds back into our road money account. A bit later, that same neighbor wandered by and we chatted about our bikes. "One day you'll have brand new bikes. when you're rich". We halfheartedly agreed and he told us, "Yeah, when your rich, you know. In a couple weeks". I'm taking this good omen and I'm running with it.

    I confess, in spite of all the serendipitous opportunities we've had lately, I still get swept up in personal and professional deadlines, stress of the unknown, and the pressure from the ever ticking clock. I remind myself that we all spent so much time planning for the future of this trip, that we now need to revel in the greasy hands and long days we're finding ourselves in right now. It's finally time to get our hands dirty, and as they say, put the rubber to the road!

Sharing is Caring

In our bike gang, we always share with our friends!