2021
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My Bike was Taken!
September 22nd! It is the Fall Equinox, the end of summer, and my son’s 30th Birthday! I was preparing to head home and close out my nearly four month journey in my Truck Camper, with my electric bike as the tow vehicle.
What I feel I gained the most on this journey was resilience. I learned to take things as they come and not create a big drama about anything; even if those things felt big at the time.
I had a blow out, bad rim, another flat, my bike fell off the rack several times, things broke and needed fixed, the truck was in the shop twice, for minor things, and still here I was, loving the journey! Because I was going to let those things that happened, make me stronger, more solid and not rob me of my joy!
On my last bike ride, it was a lonely country road in the high desert of Idaho, riding along the snake river. I was in bliss and ironically there was a road sign that said ‘Bliss 14 miles.” I knew I wouldn’t get that far, so may as well be in bliss now! I road about 12 miles out of the small town of Glenns Ferry, where my truck and camper was parked at the Y Knot Vineyards. I got a flat tire. My first in over a thousand miles of riding.
I pulled out my handy, dandy bike pump and patch kit and went to town, only nothing was happening. I didn’t have the right adapter for the bike pump and I was stuck out here 12 miles from town. I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt stressed. There were no taxi’s or ubers around here. I didn’t want to drag a heavy bike with a flat tire along a twelve mile journey. If I got a ride, the bike would be an issue. So I decided to leave the bike behind and come back to get it.
I put the bike in a ditch. Assessing the traffic along that country road, there wasn’t much and the traffic I did see they were all speeding along, they wouldn’t notice my bike in the ditch. So I took the heavy battery, stuffed it in my backpack and started walking. I was fully prepared to walk the whole twelve miles if I had to, but I hoped I would manifest a ride, and soon.
I walked about a mile and a half and a little truck stopped right ahead on the highway. Having already put my life in God’s hands, I said thank you and went up to the window. It was a young man with his pack of cigarettes who looked like he was just off the farm. And he was. He told me he was coming from his ranch just up the road and was going to Glenns Ferry. I said thank you and jumped in.
The rancher talked about the ranch and his three son’s and how his Father wanted two promises of him before he died. One was that he could die at home with his family around him. The other was that he would keep the farm going and pass it down to the next generation. I asked him if his son’s wanted to farm and he said yes, they are all excited about inheriting the farm. When we got into town I told him I was staying out at the Y Knot Vineyards and he said “Y Knot” it is” and he drove me right up to my truck. I thanked him beyond words for his kindness and generosity and he seemed pleased he could help.
I prepared my truck camper for travel, unplugged it and drove out to get my bike. I was so grateful I didn’t have to walk. I knew exactly where I had left my bike and even took a picture of the cross streets. But when I came up on where I had put my bike, it was gone.
At first I was in denial. No! Nobody would take my bike? Who would do that? Once again, I found my self standing in that exact same spot where I got the flat, only my heart sunk ten times deeper, because it felt like all hope of seeing my bike again had just left me.
I called 911, because I didn’t know what else to do. I told them I was standing out here in the middle of nowhere and needed to report a stolen bike. They found out where I was and said the Sheriff was on another call but would be out after. So I sat in my truck and decided while waiting for the deputy Sheriff I would call my son, who is also a deputy, and wish him a happy birthday. I got his voicemail and wished him a happy birthday and told him a bit of the story of where I was at. He called back within minutes and we talked up until the Sheriff came.
I gave a report and he asked me to send him photos of the bike and the serial number. So as I was getting images from my phone to send him, the Rancher came back up in his truck, on his way home from town. I told him my bike was stolen and the Sheriff had just been here and he expressed genuine concern.
We talked a bit about what had happened and then a man on a motorcycle, that looked more like a dune buggy, rode up and asked me what part of Arizona I was from. I told him Cottonwood, and he said he was also from Arizona, staying with a friend here in Idaho until the end of October. My bike was stolen party was just beginning. I now had a sheriff, a rancher and a biker wanting to help me find my bike.
The rancher made a few calls and posted on facebook. He also offered to store the bike for me if it is recovered after I leave. The biker offered to bring the bike to me in Arizona if it was recovered by the end of October. I felt taken care of.
I went back home and posted on craigslist lost and found. I didn’t know where else to post. I put photos up and within 24 hours I got a call from a man telling me he thinks he might have my bike. He bought it from a young guy with a truck with a “Boise State” sticker on it. He only paid 125.00 for it and talked the seller down from 250.00. I was thinking, “I will give you 125.00 for that bike right now!” and went on to tell him there was a police report filed on the bike and the serial number was given. He seemed a little odd after that. I got my hopes up but the Police said it was probably a scam and I realized he was right.
Turned out he was just passing through and is now in Tennessee but he could ship the bike. When he told me he called the shipping company and they could ship it for $110, I’m thinking “that’s cheap!” So I said great, could you please give me the name and number of the shipping company and I will call them and see if I can pay them directly. He told me I couldn’t, I had to pay him. He started to get agitated with me and told me he was trying to help me out but I was putting him in a real bind because the bike is stolen property. I asked him calmly, if he could please explain to me how asking to speak to the shipping company to see if I can pay them directly was putting him in a bind, and well, the rest is history.
I spent my last two nights at the County Park RV park in Twin Falls, which was very beautiful. The weather was perfect. There was a walking trail and so I started walking again. I hadn’t been walking much because I was always on the bike.
My time in Twin Falls helped me to process the bike ripped away from me so quickly at the end of my journey, on the first day of Fall. I was in the place I was to take my last big bike journey, on a bike and walking trail that went along the Snake river canyon. But that journey would have to be another time.
I went down the metaphysical road looking for any possible understanding of what losing my bike meant. What was I suppose to learn from this. And the thought came to me “maybe its just something that happens to people and today it happened to you.!”
But I also saw the kindness and generosity in people. I had a new connection with my son that comes with both of us growing up, and I have a heart full of beautiful experiences from the journey I had just taken.
My neighbors at the Twin Falls County Park both had electric bikes and I told them about my experience. They told me they had a buddy system where they both would always have each others back. I said that was beautiful but I was flying solo!
My friend Bern said “Oh Kaleah that bike was your wings!” And yes she was right. My bike, and my truck camper, were both my wings and the journey transformed me! It helped me to realize I could deal with anything life brings. I may not like it! But I dealt with each hard lesson life brought me with courage and strength. I stayed present and just did what I needed to do.
Yes, I could do things better, in hind sight. But maybe as I put a little distance on it, I wouldn’t change a thing, because each experience, the good, the bad and the ugly were all part of the journey to show me my own resilience.
And so I go home, about 72 pounds lighter. But I have decided to buy another bike exactly like the one I had. Meet me in the next chapter!
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Harvest Host Camping in the Vineyard
As I write this post, I’m sitting up in a vineyard, far above Lake Chelan in Washington State, which is one of my favorite places to come when I was young.
Lake Chelan is a fifty mile lake , deep and blue with a road only going the first 25 miles of the lake. You can only go further by boat or float plane. At the end is a little village called Stehekin, which you can access through a tour boat called “The Lady of the Lake.” I’ve been to Stehekin many times and really love it there. But today I sit on my perch, far above the world and enjoy the silence.
I came from a campsite on the Wenatchee River, which was nice, but there was a busy highway on one side and a functioning train track on the other. Quiet it was not.
I truly love the sound of silence. I thought when I arrived, I would take my bike and go for a ride, but after driving up the mega hill to get here, I decided it would drain my battery to bike back up the hill. And without electricity, I have no way to charge it back up.
The place I am parked is the Amos Rome Vineyards in Manson, Washington, on Lake Chelan. Amos Rome Vineyards is part of the Harvest Host, RV program where members pay an annual fee and can sign up to stay at participating orchards, farms and vineyards. We are expected to buy something from their gift shop, such as a bottle of wine, in exchange for our one night stay.
Amos Rome Vineyards was the first place I stayed in the program and it will be hard to top. Such an incredible view.
But I have a few more on my journey ahead and look forward to visiting others during my year membership.
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A Thousand Miles on the Bike
The day I hit a thousand miles on my bike, a friend asked me “are you getting the chance to ride much?” I told him how today was my thousand mile mark and I was celebrating a milestone. I had indeed done a lot of riding, from Islands to country roads, to river trails and Parks. I never get tired of being on the bike. It is like sailing, with the wind in my hair and the most beautiful scenery all around me.
As I write this I am closer to 1100 miles but I told you there would be a celebration at the thousand mile mark.
When I crossed the thousand mile mark I was on a gravel trail at Hovander Park in Ferndale, Washington. I recorded part of the 999 mile but found that recording on my phone while riding a heavy bike didn’t go well. The gravel was bumpy and difficult to ride with one hand, but I did it anyway.
I’ve had a lot of amazing rides this summer but I have to say Wenatchee, Washington gets the award for being the most biker friendly place I have visited. They have over twenty miles of bike trails along the river on both sides. That says a lot about this town. In its development it preserved that precious real estate for the community, instead of being private homes. And, the community is really out enjoying the trails.
Wenatchee, Washington is the Apple Capitol of the Country with every kind of apple, pear, cherry and other fruits and veggies that grow in abundance in this fertile community. Wenatchee also gets over 300 days of sunshine a year which encourages getting out on those bike trails. There is a confluence of the Wenatchee River and the Great Columbia river meeting right at the edge of town. And there is a State Park called the Wenatchee Confluence State Park with the bike trail going right through it, traveling the edge of the Columbia river.
I’ve really enjoyed riding the river trails. It is nice not to have vehicle traffic to deal with. And in some areas of the trail, heading out of town along the Columbia river, on the way to Lincoln Rock State Park, I had the trail pretty much to myself.
I’m not finished yet. My journey continues.
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Biking the San Juan Islands
This past week I set up camp in the land of my birth, Anacortes, Washington at Washington Park, a very awesome place to spend a day, a week or even two. For me it was five days, which is all I could reserve for back in May when I made my reservation.One of the days I had plans to take my E-bike on the Ferry to Lopez Island, one of the most popular biking Islands because, although not flat, it is less “hilly” than the others. Although cold and foggy in the morning when I climbed aboard the Ferry, it cleared up nicely and ended up being a really beautiful day. I biked through meadows, farm lands, and long country roads with amazing views of the Bay. I brought my lunch and ate it on the far southern end of the Island at a little park overlooking the Bay and then headed to Lopez Village, hoping to find a little coffee house to have a cup of tea and linger for while before the evening Ferry arrived. All the shops were closed by 3pm and so I went instead to the State Park near the Ferry Terminal and hung out on the beach until it was time to go catch the Ferry.
By the time I got to the Ferry my battery had only one bar and it was flashing, alerting me to the unhappy reality that I may not have enough battery power to get home from the Ferry. I had biked over thirty miles with some hilly areas where I used more of the pedal assist and thought I was doing okay, except when I was on my last stretch, the reality of my battery life hit me.We deal with batteries on our phone’s and our laptops and it is never convenient when a battery dies, but with a 72 pound E-bike, trying to ride without pedal assist is near impossible, when there are hills involved. Fortunately I had met a group of people who were also biking Lopez on their Rad E-bikes, but they didn’t ride nearly as far as I did. So they had more battery life left. As I was leaving the Ferry Terminal, with my one flashing bar, I realized I wouldn’t make it back. A couple in the group said to me “why don’t we lend you one of our batteries and we will come to your camp after we get our bikes loaded and swap it back out.” I jumped at the opportunity and had plenty of battery to get back to camp. They arrived shortly after, we switched out the battery and said farewell. It was nice to know I was being looked after. And I learned that I can’t always trust my “bar reading” on my bike. I needed to be more careful in the future.
I spent the next day working and boarded another Ferry the following day to Friday Harbor, on San Juan Island. I decided to bike to Lime Kiln State Park, the best Whale watching place in the area, which was only an 18 mile round trip, but had some really long, steep hills. I felt confident I would have plenty of battery power for this trip. It was a beautiful ride, once again through farm lands, berry fields and amazing views of the water. I was a little embarrassed as I quickly rode by bikers, who were obviously very seasoned bikers on bikes that were NOT electric. At one point, going up a long hill, I passed two men on bikes and they looked at each other and started laughing. Yes, I was cheating, but it was so much fun. I always wanted super powers, and now I had them.
I spent an hour at Lime Kiln park, starring out over the water, hoping to see a pod of whales, or at least a whale, but no such luck. A friend told me they were spotted in her area near Bellingham, a week or so earlier, but today wasn’t the day. So I took the nine mile ride back to Friday Harbor, again thinking I would grab a coffee and chill. But the shops were all closed once again. I found a little park at the Marina where a Marimba type band was setting up for a concert. I waited there for the Ferry and enjoyed the music and Island culture, talked to Island locals and enjoyed the beautiful day.This time when the Ferry arrived back in Anacortes, I had plenty of battery power to get back to camp.
It just so happened that the next day was an annual art fair in Anacortes, where the main street was blocked off for many blocks to accommodate the rows and rows of art booths. I met with a client for a coffee that morning and we decided to check out the art show, which was fun. After that I stocked up my groceries and went to Deception Pass where I made breakfast and chilled for a couple hours before heading to the Port Townsend Ferry where I would be going to the Olympic Peninsula on the long road to my Sister’s house.
This week was a lot of Ferry’s, beaches and long country roads. It was a trip I was really looking forward to and very much worth the journey.
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The Girl on the Bike
While in the Bellingham area, I connected with an old boyfriend whose band was playing at the Vineyards that I ride my bike past every day. I hadn’t seen him in ten years or so and he texted me from the stage asking “are you the girl on the bike?” He ended up coming over to my camp after the show and I made us dinner and then we took a drive to Birch Bay to watch the sunset. He told me that if I wasn’t the girl on the bike, he was wondering who was that girl? It wasn’t where is Kaleah? It was “who is the girl on the bike?” Funny how some things don’t change in twenty years.
We talked about life, our relationship from the past and what went wrong. Being emotionally detached, it was easy for both of us to have that conversation. There was no longer a charge for either one of us where we couldn’t tell the truth without being triggered. We were just honest! Ironically, we didn’t have the same story or remember things the same way at all. We both were living in two completely different realities when it came to our past relationship. Perhaps this is how it is for so many couples. They live in their own story about what is happening, and their stories don’t match up.Maybe a great relationship is one where the couple can live in the same story together. Maybe they can be detached enough from triggers to always tell the truth about their individual stories and find a way to really create a great story they both can share in.
I realized in my past relationship with this man, we had very different stories, although he did tell me he takes full responsibility for the things he said and did that were hurtful and destructive to the relationship and he jokingly promised he would never do it again. I found myself telling the story about where I was, on an emotional level back then, the things that really effected me, and eventually caused me to walk away.My story was that he was unphased by our breakup, went on to the next and never looked back. His story was that he always wondered what really happened between us and why I left. He joked about how many years it took him to get over me. He said he learned a lot from the relationship and when I asked him what he learned, he couldn’t tell me. He seemed to feel it was too complex to put into words. I told him our relationship changed my life; and that was true. We had a connection that seemed to span lifetimes and even though we have gone our separate ways, and that needed to happen, we have never forgotten what we were to each other and the child we birthed, in the form of a beautiful musical CD.
As we were driving in his van we were singing songs from our CD. We would start to sing a part of a song and get so far and forget the words and start laughing. We talked about the profound lyrical messages and how they really depicted the beginning of my spiritual journey. “From the Shadows” was a collection of songs I had written that was, at that time, more about being in the shadows and not knowing how to get out. I told him how at that time in my life I was more the caterpillar who had no idea the process I would have to go through to become the butterfly. I said that only now am I really beginning to emerge from that cocoon.An important part of my journey was in walking away from relationships where I didn’t feel loved, honored or respected. This was how I loved, honored and respected myself. I talked about how I just didn’t have the confidence in myself back then that I do now, and he said “You were pretty confident then. You never took shit off anybody.” We both finally found a place to put the past with each other and recognized, through all our differences and all the conflict we had together, the love and the connection would always be there.
I suppose in the end, love is the only thing that matters, and the only thing that is real. Everything else just brings us the lessons we need to learn to heal the pain, let go of the trauma and live our best life.When all is said and done, and we have healed the pain and the trauma from past relationships, the things that mattered so much at that time, don’t matter at all anymore. It is all water under the bridge, and in the end, I am just the girl on the bike.
(you actually get to see photos of me this time, because my friend took them while we were at the beach.)
