May 13, 2001.
East Wenatchee, Washington.
Send-Off
Party/Mother's Day.
It's hard to believe that this time next week we will actually be through
with all of this preparation. Today we had a gathering of family members for a
send-off BBQ and Mother's Day celebration. Our kids, grandson Braden, and
Marilyn's parents all attended. Jennifer, Zoe, and Sam brought flowers, Colin decorated a home-made
carrot cake for "biketrip2001" good luck, and Marilyn's mom made a
great potato salad.
Grandson Braden tries to
put the moves on our carrot cake.
In a scene very
similar to the one before our son Colin's 1996 10,000 mile bicycle tour, family
gathered in the basement to help us fit our bikes and as much of the rest of
our accumulated things as possible into our duct taped, cardboard bike boxes. This year
Colin will switch places with us. He will stay here, manage the house, and be our support system
from home while we are off traveling. Orientation to Basic House-sitting, map
review, photo processing instructions, and attendance to many miscellaneous
details were all
on the agenda. We spent the rest of the time being thoroughly entertained by Braden,
now 9 months old.
Despite all of this,
we still have many things to do before we leave, only 5 days away!!! Our
next note should be from Virginia.
