Moving Out

Days 169 to 177, September 17 - 25, 2011 – Moving Out

Route from River Bend Campground to The Russian Bonita – Guerneville, CA

No bicycling

Worst Moment – No bicycling for over a week.  It seemed that the times I’ve tried to ride, have made my hand more swollen, so, I’ve not bicycled for over a week and I can’t really tell that this is helping things heal faster or not.  Of course, we’ve been moving and that probably hasn’t helped healing things.

Best Moment – The shower at home is the best of the entire trip.

Our Russian River home was rented through September 17, but you’d better believe that we were hear ready to start moving in at noon on Sunday – the check out time.   We’ve moved most of the stuff out of Ruby and stored her at an RV camp in Duncan’s Mills.  The River Bend Resort would charge us $20 a day to leave it there, while the other place is only $5 a day (or $50 a month.)

It was sort of disappointing to see the condition of our home.  The carpets were filthy, filthy, filthy.  We mentioned it to the cleaning person on duty Sunday, who agreed, but didn’t do anything to make it better.  When we mentioned it to the management company, they said that their head of housekeeping had told them to prepare us for the shock of the appalling condition of the flooring.  We had left Spot Shot for them to use, but the cans were still full.  Spot Shot really worked to get the worst of it looking better.  I still had to shampoo the carpets on Monday.

Chris had moved a load of boxes up here in June and I’ve been moving them from the basement to the kitchen where Neita is in charge of unpacking.  It is sort of amazing to see the stuff that we thought that we couldn’t live without, but haven’t missed for the last six months on the road.

This weekend is the Russian River Blues and Jazz Festival about a mile down river from us.  We can hear the music and get to watch the entertaining parade of boaters, rafters, and kayakers head down the river to get closer to the music.  Friday night there was an underpowered motorboat towing a barge downstream to be nearer where the action would be at Johnson’s Beach.  The barge had a huge bonfire burning on it with folks toasting marshmallows and themselves – all on the barge.  Every few hundred feet the boat would stall and the driver would curse, get it started again and continue slowly downstream. 

All things considered, it is good to be home.

Plans are in place for the “Ride-In” to where it all began on six months ago.  I will be riding 65 miles from Wickenburg to Paradise Valley on October 2 – exactly six months after the start.  I plan to arrive at 7815 N Ironwood, PV around 3 p.m.  It is fitting that October 2 is also Livestong Day and a day to wear yellow.  Please join me for the ride or consider joining us for a beer to celebrate this Big Ride. If you plan to join me for the ride, or just the post ride celebration, please drop me a line at billcomings@hotmail.com to let me know to expect you.   

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.