Thing I see

This sign appears along the shores of Lake Chelan which leads to the community of Manson. The sign is there because a cow actually fell on the roof of a car from the cliff that is on the opposite side of the road. I have driven this road many times to visit the schools in Manson . I often had concerns about the possibility of a large rock falling from the cliff but would have never expected a cow.

Talking about traveling, I turned in my 1991 Buick yesterday. It was just getting broken in, it had 315,000 miles on it. I will miss that car; it has been very faithful. Other than brakes and tires I spent $250 dollars on repairs over the duration of its life with me. I hope the bike I'm riding across America will be just as faithful.

Go Leroy Go

We had two send off parties. The Dollars for Scholars Board and a group of friends from our church in Sunnyside

Harvest Festival

Saturday before Labor day is always spent setting up the park in Wapato for the Annual Harvest Day Festival. We at least had a nice cool morning to get all of the work accomplished. We were blessed to have several trustees to help us set up. There was a day when we had enough Lion Club members to do it by ourselves, but we are now down to about 12 regular members that are still able to do hard labor.

In addition to setting up the park, enough taco meat was cooked to make 1200 tacos. Vendors set up their areas, the carnival is in place and the storage area organized.

Libby stayed home to bake pies for the pie booth. When I came home I enjoyed a piece of blueberry/peach pie fresh from the oven. Cherry, raspberry/cherry, apple, dutch apple, blueberry, peach and blackberry complete the list.

Tonight is the Miss Wapato Pageant where the lovely young ladies will showcase their talents and will be selected to represent Wapato for the upcoming year. It is always a very entertaining evening as it catches up the older generation on just what is now in style as well as what kids enjoy doing with their spare time. Lots of talent, multi-cultural representations, and energy is displayed by all those vying for the coveted spot.

In between these many events we are slowly packing for a leave time of noon on Tuesday.

Final Preparations

We have had a very busy past few weeks as we prepare to be out of the area for two months. It all sounds very easy to be gone for a couple of months until you start to take a close look at what it is you do each day. I have tried to make sure I have meet with or left notes to everyone but I am sure the cell phone will be ringing from people wondering about things I forgot to share with them prior to leaving.

My bike is currently in the bike shop getting it's final adjustments. At this point the bike has carried me over 5,000 miles and my exercise bike was over 2,000 miles in preparation for the ride across America.

We currently are at $45,000 in fund raising and hope by September 2 to be at the $50,000 level. I had an opportunity to speak to all of the Toppenish and Wapato school district staff members and I fell confident they both will kick in for their students.

This weekend is the big Wapato Harvest Festival, once it is over I will be free to get on my bike and ride

Wanted to post what I believe will be my schedule for my ride. There my be lots of adjustments made as we confront various barriers crossing this great country.

Seattle to Portland

I finally got some pictures back from my Seattle to Portland ride and I thought I should at least post one of them. As you can see by the fact I'm still wearing my jacket when this picture was taken early in the day. By 9:00 AM it was warm enough to get down to a single layer.

This past weekend I attend my 45th class reunion. I will post a few pictures when they become available just to show what happens to you when your age and graduation date are the same "63" We had a great time and it was nice to see "old" friends. I also had an opportunity to ask my classmates to contribute to the scholarship program which is the real purpose of this 3,300 mile ride I am training for which will start September 6 just a month and a couple of days from now.

We stopped on the way home in Monroe to visit other relatives. I shared with one of my relatives I had now pedaled 6,000+ miles getting ready for the ride across America. His response was,"To bad those are all wasted and don't count towards the actual ride". It is nice to have sympathetic relatives.