Biking with Gpa

This has been quite a journey so far.  If I waited to photoshop the pictures and write a coherant dialogue, I would never get this posted so here goes some random pictures  and thoughts:

First of all, there have been some very sweet moments remembering where we have come from.  LeGrand was not well.  We were in Ogden for a year and he inherited a women's 10-speed bike from Ronni when they moved.  I told LeGrand we should fix it up in case anyone wanted it.

He worked on it for hours, then took it for a spin in the Ogden Even Center parking lot just above our apartment.  A few more mechanical adjustments and a ride around the block.  The next day he took a little ride on the Ogden trails.  From there he rode the trails all over Ogden.  Before we left, he took the plunge and bought a new Costco Schwinn Hybrid men's bike for mountain biking and road biking.  He loved that thing.  He became an Ogden legend.

We bought a bright green t-shirt and sewed a pocket on the front of the chest so he could listen to his iPad.  He had a little knit cap he wore tied under his chin.  His water  bottle was an empty Mountain Dew plastic pop bottle.  He wore his baggy sweats and gym shoes.

Then we moved to San Diego to stay with Kellie for six months while Scott was at Dive School with the Navy.  He continued to fall in love with biking.  Other bikers were amazed with this old guy on the Schwinn.  They "encouraged" him to get some biking clothes and a real water bottle.

David gave LeGrand his Gary Fisher bike and his world changed.  He decided a more expensive bike really functioned better.  No more pop bottle.  He even changed out his pedals to clip-ins and went through the embarrassing learning curve of how to use them while trying not fall over at every stop sign.

Yesterday, I was so proud of my awesome husband as I saw him bike the Glacier Mountain on the steepest climb--5,000 feet in 30 miles!  People were so cute at the top as he came in the parking lot at the Visitor's Center. He was an instant celebrity.  People came right over and asked him questions about his ride--"What kind of bike do you have?  What tires do you ride with?  How OLD are you?"  I watched with tears in my eyes knowing that only a few years ago, a ride around the block was hard for him.

I hate that biking is dangerous.  People don't give bikers the space they need and half the time, they don't see him on the road.  But without biking, LeGrand would not be a strong cheerful happy person.  I guess I love biking.

I will keep posting more pictures, but for tonight, this is all by blog post will let me attach.  

More about the trip tomorrow!

SMOKE from the fires in Washington and Oregon.  Columbia River. Pelicans.

Puget Sound.  Beauty unparalleled.

Dad biked the second largest Island in the continuous United States.  Magnificent scenery.

 Seal watching while riding the ferry.