New pics just came through!

Stopped for a free breakfast of fresh cherries near Hood River, OR.  These are our competitors!
Biking along the road!
Donuts and Bacon?  Hmmmmm..... where were you boys raised?
First day in Hood River, OR, waiting to hear from Dad and getting sick on Ice Cream.

Hood River, Log Cabin, Amazing Connections!

Last night I got the update on the trip from Portland out to Hood River.  The guys had hoped that Dad could arrange a place for them to sleep with one of his friends, but Dad was having trouble connecting with them via phone.  

Levi and Jordan took off on bikes and had spectacular scenery as they rode along the Columbia River gorge.  They decided to stop off at Multnomah Falls for a couple of hours, hoping Dad would call with contact info, but after swimming, having lunch and taking a nap and still no call they decided to head on into Hood River.  Arriving at a grocery store after some 30 miles of biking and hitching a ride the last 30 or so miles, they were starved.  Jordan promptly bought a quart of ice cream, or was it a half gallon?.  Their thought was to again wait at the store until Dad told them where to sleep, but Dad was traveling and at this point on a plane and unable to call them.  They kept waiting, and eating.  After they had finished half of the ice cream they felt sick so Jordan calmly walked over to the Ice Vending Freezer and stuck the container of leftover ice cream into it, for later, he thought, as if it was his own freezer at home!  Entering the store, they bought and consumed chicken and several other items and felt much better, so they decided to try out the ice cream again, for dessert, of course!  Well, the freezer and other customers had cooperated with Jordan's confidence and had left it alone so they dove in and finished it off.  Now feeling completely and irreversibly sick, they waddled off to their bikes and waited some more.

Now it was dark, and they began to feel that they must take matters into their own hands and find a campground.  Asking around they discovered that a nice campsite existed just on the other side of the gorge, and that there was a convenient bridge right down at the bottom of this hill to cross over.  Just as they were about to take off Dad calls with the news that the guy he hoped to have the boys stay with was actually in a moving van heading south - - his internship was over at Insitu Corp.  Well, the boys were not too disheartened because they had found a campsite so off they went, down down down the hill to the bridge.

Upon arriving at the bridge, however, they discovered that no pedestrians and no bikes were allowed across this particular bridge so they went up to the bridge guard and asked for advice.

"Hitch a ride" was the only hope he offered, so Jordan reluctantly began to stick out his thumb when, to their surprise, a truck pulled over and told them to hop in before Jordan had even finished his posture.  The guy was friendly and outgoing, easy to talk to, so the guys struck up a conversation quickly.  Turns out this guy was a Mechanical Engineer and worked for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle company there in Hood River.  "That's funny", levi said, "What's the name of the company?"  "Insitu Corp", he said.  "Weird!" Levi said, "My Dad has done work for that company!"  "What's your Dad's company?"  "Quatro Composites".  'No way' says Brian, I know them, what's your dad's name?' 'Ken', says Levi. "Ken Gamble? I know him!".  And so the conversation went.

 Wow, this is too weird.

So, in the end, the guys camped on the 20 acres of this man who also had a beautiful log cabin, who Ken knew, that worked at the very company Ken had tried to arrange for them to stay with!  So amazing!  Life connections.  Maybe hitchhiking is an amazing walk of faith, and a blessed one at that.

They hope to wind surf today.  All For Now

Multnomah Falls!!!!!!

Riding their bikes from Portland out to the Hood River, the guys stopped by these beautiful falls for a swim and a break.  Griffin is missing his brothers!

Northern Oregon and Hood River bound

So, the last couch surfing home in Otis, OR was a nice reprieve from the previous one.  They stayed with these people for two nights, enjoyed great food (all freshly cut up and served), and then got a ride all the way to Portland.  Once in Portland they enjoyed traveling by the city train or tram and were impressed by the high tech system the city has for the movement of people.  

Here in Portland, Levi was able to connect with the parents of one his friends at Western Washington University so they are staying with them until Jim Buttrick, Ken's friend from Boeing days, comes down to the Hood River for windsurfing and vacationing.  The guys plan to meet up with Jim this weekend, stay with him and catch a ride up to Seattle for a ride home.  So much for the rest of the bike ride, eh?  I guess high winds, hot weather, sore bottoms and dangerous roads have made them want to get to their destination and find friendly paths to ride.

They hope to get to Duvall early next week and enjoy some time in the Washington Cascades, camping, biking and hiking.  These are a couple new pics I've gotten, seems as though the recumbent is looking more appealing now with their sore shoulders and bums!

Made It to Hillsboro!!! Yummmm

Bike Ride Diary Update - August 17, 2009

Hello again from Levi and Jordan,

Some very tired bodies but doing well.  I believe I last left you in the Redwood Forest, where they were awoken in the middle of the night by the rangers, telling them they were camping illegally.  Apparently they had only hiked about 200' off the main road and hadn't entered the national forest yet!  Oops.  After checking IDs they let the guys sleep and just asked them to clean up the next morning.  Easy enough, they thought, but the next morning they discovered that the park had a pipe break and there was no potable water to be found.  Wondering around, near dehydration, water bottles empty, they finally came upon a ranger station and a kind ranger who had a couple of bottles of water.  They eagerly drank it up, cleaned up and hit the road.

The coast has high winds but they pushed through some 30 miles before begging for a lift.  This person gave them a lift all the way into Crescent City where they met up with Ms Gilbert and her family. Her children (college students) were home for the summer so the guys had a great time with the gang.  They called from the coast where they had all gone to get fresh tuna, enjoy the port and do some tourist stuff.  Her husband mentioned that the Oregon coast was a must see by bicycle but that the wind blew south the whole distance of the coast - - quite trying by bicycle, so he offered to drive them all the way to Washington and let the guys ride down the Oregon coast in style.  Then, he said, when they arrived back in Crescent City, he would drive them back up to Washington and they could go on from there. Levi and Jordan were dumbfounded by his generosity and offered to help him build his home before they took off.  So, they spent the week there doing
projects, helping around the place and trying desperately to earn their keep.  Ms Gilbert was an exceptional hostess though, and they went away feeling very indebted to them for their kindnesses.

They also decided not to take him up on his kind offer.  Instead they were taken about 40 miles short of Coos Bay, OR and rode their bikes into their first 'Couch-Surfing' host in Coos Bay.  These folks actually didn't have a couch to share after all, but they set up a tent in their backyard and lent them some earth.  The guys were delighted, especially with the flying kittens.  You see, every time they moved in their tent, the kittens were thrilled and would fly at the tent and try to grab the prey!  The guys were laughing and said it was quite cute.  They were thankful for a tent as the wind kept up consistently right there on the coast.

The next morning they again set off for the first 30-40 miles on bike, with the goal of Florence, OR, directly west of Eugene, in view.  They had another couch-surfing host set up there as well. This was a grueling stretch as the 101 came right up against the surf and the barreling southbound winds pummeled their bodies.  Even though the shoulder was wide, the trucks zooming by and wind pushing back on their shoulders made their pace incredibly slow.  They finally stuck out their thumbs and were grateful to see a big old truck pull over with an elderly couple in it.  These folks were from Spokane, WA and had come down to the coast for a summer vacation.  They were bored where they were so they had decided to head north into Florence and buy a donut but about a mile before meeting Levi and Jordan they had lost interest in their donut and decided to turn back around and go home.  Upon turning around they realized that they didn't know what to do when
they got back to their vacation cabin so they turned back around and headed up to Florence again.  Less than a mile later they came upon these two bedraggled bikers with their thumbs out and decided to make life interesting!   The boys had a great time visiting all the way to Florence and they blessed these elderly folks with some great stories.  All in all, another great hitchhike!

Florence was something!  The couch-surfers were wild and Levi and Jordan's mouths hung open as the events unfolded for the night.  First the guys threw everyone in the house into some cars and headed down to the beach.  But wait, they needed pallets for the bonfire.  No problem, they said, I'll just jump this fence and steal these.  Levi and Jordan were sure they would be spending their first night in jail with these guys and sunk down in their seats, looking pale.  After the guy returned with his spoils they rounded a corner and saw piles of pallets available for free and wondered what in the world the guys had to steal for?  Adventure?  So they went down to the beach and started a fire that was massive.  Here is his quote: "We lit about 4 pallets under some giant drift wood and the wind was blowing hard enough for a super hot flame. It was crazy and huge and hot."  See photo attached!

I'll not go into details but this was a hard drinking, swearing, partying lot who had lived lives that the guys had only heard about in books or movies.  AS they sat around the fire and listened to their experiences of living in ghettos the guys felt sick.  On top of that, the couples really threw them for a loop with their relaxed commitments and activites.  The guys had had enough and were really ready to get out of there and Jordan went away saying, "Is that how college is going to be?  Will everyone be like that?"  

Interjected Counsel to Jordan: No, pick your friends wisely and your experience will be who you choose to be with!

At any rate, they had a good rest and took off the next morning on their next 80 mile stint, this one to end at their next couch surfing host in Otis, OR (at the 101 and 18 intersection, west of Salem).  They passed some beautiful coastal views (see photo attached), got a good hitchhike lift for about 40 of the miles and Jordan broke a spoke during the biking section.  Hobbling along, they arrived at their next host home, very tired.  See photo of Jordan at 101 and 18 intersection.

I haven't heard from them yet tonight but I'll expect an update tomorrow.  Their plans are to now cut over into the Portland area and head north with a focus on hitchhiking.  They are tired of the constant wind off the coast of Oregon (just as Ms Gilbert's husband had said) and want to get up to Washington by the 22nd.  They hope to get to Duvall sooner than later, drive up to Bellingham and do some local rides in some beautiful and friendly terrain!  We shall see, eh?  Such is the life of the adventurer.

Keep on praying!

Bike Ride Diary of Levi and Jordan-August 9, 2009

Greetings to all of you from Levi and Jordan Gamble!
 
 
So, the guys took off from Redding, CA, after an awesome conference, and their friend drove them out highway 299, over the highest peak in the Shasta area to a town called, 'Weaverville'.  There he left the guys to fend for themselves and they started off on their trek.  
 
Here is a google map of their route: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=redding,+ca&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&split=0&gl=us&ei=FN9-Sq3JA4_KsQOlz6HuCg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1
 
This road was very scary, they report, as there was no shoulder and giant semis seemed to think that there was no reason to move over.  Many times they thought they should be sucked in by the wind of the semis and crushed but they arrived in Willow Creek, still alive, amazed.  At Willow Creek they decided to try hitchhiking, which Jordan had had some experience with on his bike trip in Arizona, and Levi had had some experience with on his trip in Europe with Peter Kler.  
 
They were delighted to have a guy in a truck, headed to the coast, pull over just a couple minutes after they put their thumbs out and drive them ALL THE WAY to the beach.  They called me from the beach, announcing, 'now that is the way to take a bike trip!' This was their second day and Levi's bottom was sore and his legs hurting.  Jordan had been training for a couple of months and to his joy, has
discovered that he is not sore at all.  However, he has a lot of empathy for levi because he had been there before his training rides.

The wind was powerful at the coast and they soon found themselves crawling at a pace similar to an uphill climb, even though they were level, but they pushed on.  Then came the hills as they neared Trinidad.  Up and up they went, struggling against wind and hill.  They stopped for awhile and stuck their thumb out but no one stopped so on they went.  Up and up, wind in their faces until finally, they pulled over in a turnout and said, 'Enough!'.  Jordan began doing something with his bike that alerted drivers to their need for a ride (I didn't get clarity on what they were doing) and Levi sat forlornly by the side of the road with his thumb out. They said that it took a long time for someone to finally stop, but when they looked at their watches they realized it had only been 15 minutes.  How slow time goes when one is waiting for a ride.
 
This time a Subaru pulled over and a Humboldt University student headed to the Redwood National Park picked them up and helped them dismantle their bikes and squeeze everything into the little car.  Off they headed, the student excited
to share with them this awesome camping spot off the 101, and the guys thankful to be driving!  Again, Levi reports, 'It was nice to have the wind blowing in my hair while I was doing nothing but watching the scenery race by!'.  This pickup was done somewhere near Trinidad and this student drove them all the way to Orik, in the Redwood National Park.  Then he led them to an off-the-road spot where one could camp along this river without a permit and could build a fire.  The guys were really happy.  They called me from their camping spot thrilled with their blessings and the
beauty of their spot. 
 
So that is all I have to report thus far.  Their plan is to get to Crescent City tonight and stay with the biology teacher from Ramona's Mountain Valley Academy.  She was a favorite teacher of my sons and she has moved to Crescent City since the 2007 Witchcreek Fire, in which her husband was off saving other homes as a fireman while his own home burned to the ground. :(  Anyway, Janet is excited to see the boys and they are feeling likewise.