Back to Reality.

It has been more than a week now since we dipped our front tires in to the Atlantic Ocean, completing our bike ride across the country. It has been a whirlwind of a summer, but one that we will for sure never forget and one that has definitely changed our lives. The experiences shared, the relationships built and the memories created will hopefully stay with us forever. I am just going to throw a few post-tour thoughts out there to wrap up this blog and I will probably never write a blog again.
It is amazing to think that 10 weeks ago we dipped our back tires in to the Pacific Ocean in Seattle, beginning the tour and having very little perception of what we were getting ourselves in to. While we surpassed the amount of training we did prior to the tour in the first week of the tour, it took another week after that to convince ourselves we could actually do this and to settle in to the biking lifestyle. This is a lifestyle that no one would completely understand unless they have been a part of something so frigging amazing! As the tour was coming to an end, we may have thought that we were ready to be done and were perhaps sick of the lifestyle, but boy were we mistaken. ha.. reality blows.. just kidding. There were days we dreaded getting on our bikes, but honestly, what could be better than waking up and only having the goal of riding your bike to the next check point by the end of the day? That's right, not much.
So, the aftermath of the tour is this. It is an abrupt transition back in to reality and the past few months feel pretty surreal. For some, it is back to school or work and for others (like me) it is stepping in to a perhaps daunting unknown future; or as like to call it, a world of possibilities. Figuring out life is not one of my most favourite things to do, however, if there is one thing I have learned over the course of the summer, it is to trust God in everything. He is the one that holds the future, we just have to let him lead us there even if it is not always what we have in mind. So, that is what I am doing and hoping He shows me soon : )
While the bike tour can be seen as a huge personal accomplisment for each one of us, even more we hope and pray that the money and awareness raised will help make a dent in the cycle of poverty because this is the real reason we were riding. The scope of poverty is something that we were challenged to keep in the forefront of our tour and what we've learned, I hope we will take in to our every day lives. Poverty is way too huge of a problem, but it is only through every small effort that we can hopefully one day make poverty history. Until then, we are called to serve those less fortunate than ourselves and we need to make it a priority to do so. Counting the many blessings in my life and having faith that justice will one day be a reality here on earth!
Thank you for being a fan of Denise and I this summer! Thank you to the entire tour staff for making such an amazing, amazing experience happen! What a wonder to be a part of. So many thank yous for all the prayers and support from our home churches and all our friends and family! They were so much appreciated along the way and were for sure felt!
And that's a wrap, it has been a pleasure!

There's no place like home.

Well, we gotta say it, Ontario did not disappoint. We had been anxiously waiting for this week for such a long time and it always seemed so far away.. as we climbed the Rockies and powered through deserts and rolling hills. We are finally here and home never tasted so good! Our entrance in to Canada was a true warming Canadian welcome. A large spread of Tim Hortons delicacies awaited us upon crossing over on the ferry in to Sombre, as well as a mass of pleasant smiling faces. It was far more than we could have asked for and the party has not stopped since. This entire week we have been treated like celebrities. Every town we hit has been more than accomodating and the streets were lined with excited cheerers!
We hit good old London on Thursday where camp was set up at the Christian High directly across the road from our home. So, Denise and I got to stay in our own beds that night which was ever so glorious! We did not want to leave the next morning. The tour just about ended for us right then and there.. however, we were brought back in to our little biking bubble once again and decided our ride was not complete yet. We continued our journey through Ingersoll, Woodstock and Hamilton where we were met by throngs of familiar faces and an abundance of hugs and food! We were interviewed for the radio and the Sentinel Review, made a number of more stops along the way at various church locations and finally made it in to the old stomping grounds, Redeemer University, in the later afternoon. It was a rather long, whirlwind of a day, but all the work that was put in by our home church, Maranatha CRC, as well as all the many other churches was so exciting and so much appreciated! We thank you so muchly for all the support!
We have now made it to Beacon in St. Catharines for the weekend and will be preparing for the celebration service this afternoon. We got to go down and see the falls last night, which was.. pretty well the same as the last number of times we've seen them and they are still flowing quite nicely. We are pretty exhausted this weekend from all the excitement of the week and have been catching up on sleep for most of it. We are hoping for a pretty good show for the service in a bit and then we will be heading back out of this beautiful country bright and early tomorrow morning. One more week to go and I think it is safe to say that we are quite ready for our arrival at the coast in New Jersey. It has been such an amazing experience to be a part of this summer and yet it is definitely time to get back to reality.

it was a hit and run.. kindof

So, sometimes I trick myself in to thinking that if we just leave the blog for another day or two it will be less work to get it out there again.. too bad that is not the case. Alot has happened this week and it is going to be tough to get it all in this blog, so I will just give you all a run down on perhaps the biggest event of the week. It was a typical Tuesday. Denise and I awoke in our trusty tent, feeling quite at home in Woodstock, Illinois. We got ourselves together, meaning a quick peanut butter cinnamon-raisin bagel for me and a blueberry one for Denise, we threw on our shammies along with some butt butter and took off on the road probably by 7:45 am. We were prepared for a relatively easy day of 100ish kms. Well, as it turned out, the bike trail we were taking for most of the day led us, as well as quite a few others, completely astray.. and we ended up in Wheaton.. way off the path we were supposed to be on.. I hate Wheaton. Fortunately we love biking so much, the extra 20 k was just a scenic detour for us.. pfff. Well, we met a very friendly man along our detour who corrected us and sent us back to the Fox River Trail where we should have been on. And upon finding it back and thinking we may have fallen completely behind sweep and perhaps even the sags, we were ever so relieved to meet up with Peter Rabbit, Kevin and Jody just lounging out by the river. So we continued the ride with them for the day. Lost Kevin along the way.. as per usual. However, riding along 75th street, closing in on Trinity College which was our destination for the night, we got to see (perhaps a little too close) the extent of come pretty insane-o Illinois drivers! As we were approaching a green light at an intersection, a woman came up from behind us and nearly drove me off the road by making a right hand turn directly infront of me. When she at the last second noticed the bikers on her right, she slammed on the breaks causing Denise to collide straight in to the back of the vehicle. Then the driver proceeded to drive away. It happened really fast, but not fast enough that we didn't get her license plate. Anyways, the cops took care of the situation and everyone came out with minimal injury. Denise got a replacement bike for the rest of the ride and we ended up getting in to Trinity as dinner was just winding down. What should not have been a ridiculously long day turned in to one of our longest yet - though not completely unenjoyable. We were blessed with a delightful billet for the night and were able to catch up on a bit of the Olympics.. good show Canada.. as well, we got to sit on a couch!
Our last two days have been thoroughly enjoyable to ride. Wednesday we got off to a really late start, having to hit a bike shop to look in to the damages on Denise's bike, but we were riding with a really super group of people which made the day entertaining. We had a few delicious church stops along the way which is always the highlight of our days. They fed us to the nines and we lolly gagged our way in to the Indiana Dunes where we were camping for the night. We took a dip in Lake Michigan and were also greeted by a massive spread of only the most delicious brownies and baked treats we have had in our entire life. I am quite sure we polished off the entire tray. Thank you all you wonderful churches who spoil us insanely!
Today's ride was scenic and .. for lack of a better word.. nice. We followed the lake for most of the day and arrived at camp early on in the afternoon, even after having lost an hour today. We have made it to Michigan! And it is feeling more and more like home is right around the corner. We are quite excited! That is all for now.
ps. Happy Birthday Lawrence : ) you are a star.

A taste of reality

Well, coming off a triple-long day marathon, we were much in need of Saturday's ride. We were blessed with Eric Stehouwer as our riding buddy for the day. We started out on a retarded bike path made of sand and mould.. that Eric happened to like.. but I hope people of Wisconsin do not actually pay to use that path. We were hit by a few rolly polly hills, but all in all it was a beautiful ride in to Madison. We got to the park where all the bikers were meeting at to ride in to the church there together and who should meet us there, but some of the fam! It was such a surprise to see mom and Emily and Aunt Grace and Anita there in the park right around the same time we got there. This means we got to hotel it for the night! We always forget just how wonderful bed really is. We enjoyed Saturday night and most of Sunday with them. We even hit up a mall on Sunday, however, despite my convulsing desire to be in a mall for the past month.. none of us were much in a shoppy mood and saddly we walked out of there with not much. I am not sure this is a positive effect of the bike tour.. confusing is what it is. So we were spoiled all weekend and were almost ready to just stay in that world with them. But then we realized we still had a few weeks to go here.. so it was back to the grind today.
Today's ride was perhaps our most delightful ride of the tour to date. The entire ride was beautifully painted through the backroads of Wisconsin; the weather was absolutely perfect for biking and I think we can honestly say we thoroughly enjoyed biking today, which is not something I can say every day of the tour. A church prepared a nice lunch for us and we cruised right in to Illinois with smiley faces! We are really feeling the home stretch now and can not wait for the next two weeks as we enter the homeland and then finish up the tour! It is amazing!

it's about time for a tailwind

Well, we just gotta say it, we love Iowa. Iowa is seriously an endless array of cornfields and not much else, but we can honestly say that the people here are noticeably warmer than those in Nebraska. The truckers even wait patiently behind us until it is safe to pass! We have also experienced a significant upgrade in road conditions which is making our bums much happier. Why anyone would want to live in Nebraska is a mystery to me.
So, we started the day off in a torrential downpour. Well that is a lie, but it was the most rain we have hit all trip. It made the day nice and cool, but it also made our feet unpleasantly wet. What was anticipated to be an unbelievably long day turned out to be actually a great day for many! We fought manya fewer hills today and we were also accompanied by our long lost friend, the tailwind. As noon rolled around, the rain cleared up, the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and the wind picked up at our backs. What a phenomenal combination! Once again we see God is truly looking out for us here. : )
Well, the only downside to the day is that Denise and I had to set up our tent for the first time in seven days. We were going to see how many consecutive days we could go with out putting it up. Sadly enough, this elementary school has no suitable room for us to set up bed. You see, whenever there is opportunity to stay inside a school, church or other form of building we take it, no questions asked. While some may call this lazy, in actuality it is genius. No energy wasted putting it up or taking it down. Just using our resources.

Day of Rest

Sprawled out with Kaitlyn, Theo and Denise watching our second movie for the day. We are having a sleep over in the church here in Fremont, Nebraska tonight. These people have been so great today haha.. you don't even know. They have so graciously openned their doors to us and we have been bumming around this place literally aaaall day today just napping and watching movies.. making as minimal movement as possible.. and these lovely women have been honestly baking up a storm the entire time! They have come out with new batches of brownies and cookies and a whole spread of food the entire day. It is really quite something. So, we have been fed ridiculously well today and are all prepped for a big week ahead. We have officially soaked up every relaxing moment we could of the weekend.. most of the camp was feeling the kilometres put on this week.
Anyways, we are so pumped for some more beautiful scenery as we enter Iowa tomorrow. Can't imagine it beating what we've already got to see in Nebraska. ooo boy, what a treat. Well, that's the blog for the day, I hear it's becoming more in demand and we appreciate all our fans. Thanks for the support! And we also want to thank the people here at this Lutheran church in Nebraska, they have been way more than amazing to us and it's been such a blessed treat! Good night from all of us! Can't wait to get in to the shammy again in the morning! Love yous muchly.

Headwinds suck. alot.

So Denise and I get off to a pretty early start this morning for our 150 km day. We get on our bikes and hit the road only to be met immediately by a devastating headwind. Exhausted, we barely make it to Corey's first sag stop 30 km in. It is quite a daunting task to mount a bike with a very sore bum and knowing that you have over 120 k to go yet.. in to the wind. We are moving enragingly slow along the rough shoulders of Nebraska, when who should go sailing by, but our dear saviours, the Stehouwers. They scooped us up in their draft and took us the entire rest of the way. From what looked like could have been the longest day of our lives, these are the guys you need to make any day brighter. We got in to York, Nebraska at around 3:30 this afternoon and got reeses pieces blizzards from McDonalds, obvi. We are staying in York College tonight where we have been hooked up to the internet all evening in air conditioning! It is the weekend and we are so looking forward to it. Just 153 km standing in the way. 

A few things we've encountered/learned this week:

If you lose your map, just head into the wind and you're sure to be going the right direction.

We no longer butter our bread, just our butts.

No need to go to Egypt, just come to Nebraska and you can literally get hit with the locust plague every day.

Showering is no longer effective as sweat begins to drip again the second you get out. 

Ice cream has never tasted so good.

The prairies are not flat. 

The day we beat Matty in to camp.

Well this week has been filled with ridiculous heat and too long of days.. yesterday was a toughy the heat was insane-o, but we made it once again. Today Denise and I had a much better day. We got off to an early start.. well not quite as early as some.. but an almost sane hour anyways. We pretty well booked the entire ride, made only the necessary water fill-up stops at the sags and made it in to Minden, Nebraska by 2 pm right before the gear truck. Never thought I'd say I am in Nebraska.. Nebraska is full of nothingness and apparently has a serious infestation of grasshoppers. It is yucky. And, having made it so speedily in to camp, we also beat our fellow competitor, Matthew Zantingh. He claims this tour "is not a race", however, we know better than that, don't we Matt? Don't beat yourself up over it though, it's not like we're actually that much faster than you. : ) Well that adds up to another successful day for the Bentums.

We are half way! Can't believe it! We are being eaten alive by mosquitoes right now so signing off for the night!

Denver, Sweep, and Today!

Wow. We have had quite the past three days! Let me tell you.. Sunday in Denver we had the celebration service at a highschool football field down the street in the morning and we were sweating our faces off in the bleachers! We had a nice lunch there and then headed back to camp. Papa Kalamazoo was so gracious to do our laundry with theirs at a nice church member's house who lived nearby. That was phenomenal and it allowed for us to make the shuttle bus going from the school to downtown Denver! We toured 16th Street Mall for the day - a whole street of shops and restaurants - with a good bunch of people: PEI Brian, Matty Zantingh, Sarah, Zinger (on the bus), Jody, Paul/Doug, Florentine, and our new friend Laura who paid our bill! What a nice woman! We hung out for a bit in a really neat restaurant called the Hard Rock Brewery... they had 9 sample beers for $5 - some were good, some were not. Then we headed down to the Tattered Cover Book Store which was the best place of my life! no jokes Denise was in all her glory. Then we found our way back to the highschool on the train. For the rest of the evening Denise and I blogged like crazy!! We got some pics up! You are welcome mom. We slept in the school for the weekend and did not get sprinklered on. It was quite a slumber party.

Monday was THE most action-packed day of our trip thus far. Okay. So, it was our sweep day and therefore we ended up leaving camp at around 9:30 once all the gear was loaded up and everyone was out of camp. We lost a few dear members of our team this weekend.. Henry, Tyler, Kerri, Sylvan ( but he is coming back some day) and Dave - you will be missed. And so we gained a few stragglers for the day; Theo-the-last-one-to-leave-camp-always-Bandstra, Kaitlyn-my-precious-lamb-Kuipers, Kevin-i'm-a-baby-Pasma, Doug/Paul and our dear I-have-no-expression-ever-Lawrence. We got a late start to the day and made an immediate Starbucks stop on the trail. Kaitlyn had a teeny tumble. We tried to get in to the Bronco's stadium.. unsuccessful. Lawrence had two flats. The sags went on without us. Quick stop for $2 Monday margaritas! Had some Heidi chain issues, which Lawrence was quick to fix. We then thankfully hit Walter (our dear sag man) for a water stop. Then battled a ridiculous cross wind on the interstate with a looming storm on the left. We beat the worst of it. Made it to the free-food cafe (the owner took care of our bill as tithe to the trip : ) We waited out the downpour as well as our full bellies. And then took off for the last 30 k to camp in Fort Morgan under a pretty rainbow. We thought we had finally made it with no more problems.. buuuuut.. once we were in the city Lawrence was trying to be the trusty navigator, looking at his map and somehow a parked car ran right in to him! He was okay and insisted we bike on.. the car took the worst of it i think. Anyways we arrived at camp that night at around 8:00pm and could not quite believe our day. That is a 13 hour day for us, mark that down for the books.

And today is Tuesday. We had another somewhat late start to the day, battled a rough headwind for most of the day and arrived at camp just before sweep. This somewhat tough finish was balanced out by a refreshing swim in the near by pool! Equipped with two wicked awesome waterslides and a springy diving board, it was free and we had the whole pool to ourselves! Very fun for sure. We are now heading in to beddy for an early morning start tomorrow is predicted to be a scorcher of a day. Good nighto. 

Made it to Denver!

Wowzers, what a week! We've had some brutally long days and we've climbed a whole lot of mountains! Yesterday was our one short ride for the week and we all just soaked it in. It was a total of 55 kms from Kremling, Colorado to Winter Park where we stayed at an interesting location.. seems to be that the States don't know what camp sites are.. we find ourselves pitching our tent in a ruckas of shrubery and weeds.. haa.. but we're getting good at this roughing it thing. It's surprising what you can do without around here. I haven't been in a mall in a month!
Today was our last mountain pass for the trip and we are happy about that. Though today's ride was really beautiful and it made for a really enjoyable ride. We arrived in Denver at around 3:30 today and were welcomed by a huge welcoming committee! It was so exciting to ride in to the Christian Highschool here with cheerleaders by the road and music and tons and tons of treats for us! Denver is so delighful! We also were showered with packages and cards from home when we got here, which is always soo refreshing! Thank you so much everyone who sent us cards and whatnot! It is such a treat to hear from home and what goes on outside of our little camp.
Well, it is time for ice cream social, these people are feeding us to the nines : ) Thank yooooou Denver. Love you, miss you byes.

"you'll coast right in to Dinosaur"

It is quite amazing how your perception of "flat ground" changes when you are on a bike. We have conquored a large number of hills these past few days and we are definately feeling it. It is sometimes hard to fully take in God's glorious creation around us as our thighs are burning and our bums are just about numb.. but it does give us the time to appreciate the flats as well as the ride down hill after the climb.
So, we get in to a small town on our ride yesterday and look for the closest location to pee.. it turned out to be Aaron's furniture store. We talked to the woman there about the tour and whatnot, she gave us some ice cold pop which was so refreshing and she had it in her mind that the rest of the road to Dinosaur, Colorado was all down hill and we would just be coasting in to the town. Well, needless to say, our elevation chart spoke differently and it was far from a breezy walk through the park. The last 20 kms proved to be the most enraging kms of my life! It's so strange how you can be working so hard to get somewhere and yet with a headwind and a bit of a hill, you could be walking faster than you are biking. But, we made it! And have now completed one more day!
Today was another looong ride. We had a beautiful cloud cover for most of the day and were also blessed with a little bit of rain this morning! Ever so refreshing. Denise and I biked with a pleasant little group for most of the day, however, sticking in a pace line up hills proved to be rather difficult. However, we made a few much needed stops along the way and are now in Craig, Colorado - finally a town with a real residential neighbourhood and a Walmart! no jokes! So, one more brutal day tomorrow and then we have a bit of a break on Friday. We can not wait for it. And that, is two new posts in two days! We are doing so well : )
Ps. Thank you Aunt Grace for the card and treat in Boise! Totally haven't mentioned that yet. It was so very exciting! Love you a lot!

Dinosaur, Colorado!

Whew! Today was a toughy. In fact, the past few days have been challenging. Since I'm sure most of you reading this have probably already heard from others about past days I will try to keep the update short.

Friday was our day to sweep. It was a very long day for us even though the ride wasn't too bad in itself.  The headwind slowed us down and we also made many stops on the way. Thankfully we had Theo and Eric pulling us along most of the way. It still ended up being about 12 hours from the time Heidi and I woke up to the time we got into camp. So! We were pretty exhausted that night.  Just looking at the map for Saturday was very daunting. 

Saturday was one of the toughest rides of the tour.  After 100 km of riding we still had to conquer 2 mountain summits and a few hills afterwards. We passed through Salt Lake City and moved on to Park City - a small but very beautiful (and wealthy) tourist town that housed some of the Olympic ski runs.  It took us about 12 hours on the road to get to Jordanelle Park where we camped for the weekend - we arrived at 7.  The park was absolutely stunning, although very spacious with a lot of walking to get from place to place. 

Sunday was a much needed day of rest. The service was at night so we got to sleep in! We toured the town most of the day and just relaxed. It was fabulous. 

Monday was another grueling ride. We're convinced Ed didn't provide us with an elevation chart for a reason. However, we made it up over the mountain summit - an elevation of over 9000 feet. A huge plus for us that day was cloud cover which kept the temperature down.  At the top of the mountain we took a small hike off the road up to a patch of snow with all the Stehouwers to have a small snowball fight. The wild flowers at the top were beautiful and the ride down was breathtaking! However, at the bottom of the descent we still had a long ways to go, including a few smaller climbs.  The last portion into camp was a welcomed descent that overlooked Starvation Lake. We made it into camp late in the afternoon again. 

As I mentioned before, today was tiring. The first 2/3 of the ride were fairly enjoyable, although the shoulder of the highway we rode on was a bit tight in places. Dodging glass, gravel, roadkill, and bits of tires while trying to avoid the rumble strip and angry drivers was a bit challenging. However, the last part of the ride got a lot tougher. The last 30 km were uphill and against a strong wind.  About 10 km outside of Dinosaur many people were losing hope quickly. Our destination was so close and yet so very far away. We still made it into camp at around 3:30 where there was delicious watermelon waiting as usual. 

Hopefully we will keep this blog a bit more updated in the future - most of the time we are just so tired coming into camp and internet is always a challenge. I am quite amazed at all those who can blog so faithfully. Hopefully we will get pictures up in the near future as well.

 Thanks for all the support and prayers! We can hardly wait to get into Ontario! 

 

Biking biking biking..

Well, yes i suck at this blog thing. First blog ever and i'm realizing it's hard to keep one of these guys up, but that's also because our internet situation is very off and on, and more often off than on. Anyways, we're in to day ten already! wowers, that's hard to believe actually. I am finally writing at a decent hour of the day having arrived in Baker City, Oregon this afternoon and had a nice little dip in the river here.. the past entries were written in exhaustion in the first few days of the tour and I realize they were a little incompetent at times. So the tour! It's been quite a ride thus far. There have been some really tough days and some really not so tough days, so I guess that balances out, however, the tough days at times never seem to end. Like yesterday, for example, Denise and I were on 'sweep' which is the groups that helps with dinner and breakfast and then are supposed to be the last ones to camp at the end of the day. So this can turn out to be a very veeery long day for some. It was a 92 km day yesterday and it was quite a trek up twisty hills and having to pick up the rear can be exhausting. Making it to the top though is always pretty rewarding cause the view was beautiful and then you have the ride down which was so so so beautiful yesterday! So the pain of the climb can be set aside and you can really enjoy not pedaling on the way down. 

Denise and I are currently flat free which is quite a blessing! A few other tidbits from the past few days aare.. we finished last week with a few easier days which was really nice after the mountains we climbed earlier on. We have played some pretty intense games of spoons, we were welcomed by a church in Sunnyside, Washington with tons and tons of yummy cherries! We ate an awful lot and tried to carry on with the ride for the rest of the day. The weekend was awesome to have a day off. We had a nice service in the morning and went to a pool of one of the members of the church there for the afternoon which was so refreshing. So! We are making it through.. meeting tons of great people and having probably one of the best summers of our lives, eh Neice? yes we are. : ) 

July 1, Tuesday

We were one of the last groups to leave from camp this morning, which was understandable considering a few of our group members. ha ha.. juuuust kidding. Denise and I were not quite prepared for the glorious mountains.. however, we took our time and made it up despite the fact that it kicked our faces. The ride down was a delightful treat. Well, were pretty sore tonight. Just had a delicious dinner and are so ready for small groups! woo woo. anyways, thats the lastest updates here.. it's going to be a bit challenging to keep this up throughout the tour since Denise is ever so helpful. But we're going to do our best. for mom's sake : )

June 30, Monday

Had a bright and early start to the day, got everything loaded in to the huge sea to sea truck and then made the 13 km trek down to the beach for dipping of the tires ceremony and a lovely breakfast provided by some churches. We were sent off in our 'safety groups' for the day which proved to be a test of our patients at times, however, it turned out to be a great start to the tour and, despite a number of crashes, falls, and popped tires, we all made it to Sultan, Home of the Turks. We set up our tents (with a little help) and went for a little swim in the negative degree water. It was refreshing, we had dinner and were once again, ready for a little slumber party in our pretty two man tent. : )

June 29, Sunday

Sunday is a bit of a blur having to be from one place to the next and having not much time for anything else. We got some sweet bike safety instructions, orientation for the tour and had a nice celebration rally on campus that evening for sending us off the next day. We were still feeling the jet leg and were once again ready for bed by 7 pm. ha. 

June 28

Woke up at 3:30 am Saturday morning to what was to become a rather long day. We finished up some last minute packing of the truck and headed off to the Pearson Airport. Right when we hit the 401 we were absolutely dumped on.. the entire way there. Our bike boxes got drenched which led to a somewhat stressful departure. With very little help to get the boxes repaired, we were forced by the tape lady to give up the packing tape and the wet boxes were shipped on to the plane.. left in the hands of the Lord. We had a connecting flight in Chicago before making our way to Seattle, Washington. Met a nice young marine sitting next to us on the flight and he entertained us for most of the trip. We were greeted by some huge sea to sea vans at the airport and were trucked over to U of W. It was beautiful there. We built our bikes (with a little help) and fell asleep like precious little lambs.