Post Wedding Plans...

As many of you know, Luke and I are getting married! The big day is only 2 short months away on September 5. We are excited to share our special day with many of our family and friends in God's great outdoors. After that, we are anxiously looking forward to beginning our life together, kicking it off with a big adventure. Where to? you might ask. Well, read on to find out!





Our journey will begin days after our wedding with a flight to Quito, Ecuador on September 8. Accompanied with our bicycles, we are excited to finally land in South America, a dream that has been stirring in both of our hearts for years. You may be thinking, wait a minute, did she just say BICYCLES? I did indeed! Through our lives in Portland, Oregon, Luke and I have both become quite the bike aficionados and lovers of bike touring, mostly in Oregon and Washington. Therefore, it only seemed logical to pack our bikes up and take them with us while going to explore some new places.



How long will we be gone and where will we go? We are both finishing up Americorps jobs this summer, putting our lives in Portland on hold and leaving to learn more about each other and Latin American culture. Hopefully, that will bring us back to Portland in spring of 2011. The route is flexible, but as you can see in the map above, we hope to visit Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. On the map above, the red route is the part that we hope to bike. Somewhere around Christmastime, we hope to trade our buckets and bungees for backpacks, following the blue route by bus. Paraguay will be our end destination, as Luke spent 4 of his growing up years there with his family, while his parents were missionaries.



We hope to find God's kingdom breaking through the people, the nature, and the experiences we encounter along the way. We plan on being flexible and joining in where we find opportunities. We encourage you to research a place, project, or story in any of the countries we may be passing through, and SHARE IT WITH US or encourage us to visit it (you can vicariously live through our adventure!). Also, if you happen to know of an available couch, let us know.

Test Run: 10 days in southern Oregon

Praise the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.
He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains. (Psalm 104)

Who would have thought that southern Oregon would be such a great place to bicycle in? Not I, until this last week when we rode from Florence Oregon, to the redwoods, then back in to Grants Pass, and then in Ashland before coming back on the train. Among the RV-Park-Every-4-Miles and gun-loving truck drivers, bikers are more than welcome in this part of the state. In fact, the trip is better by bike! Stunning road-side sights: ocean, mountain, massive trees, caves, hippies, cliffs, swelling eyes, wild-life (dead), and sunsets were all part of this camping, biking vacation. Oh, and a special thanks to Benji, our greatest southern Oregon friend!



kat's knee after she took a tumble.



the signs that guided our path down the coast.



the southern oregon coast lends itself to some of the most stunning scenery.



we pale in comparison to the redwoods.



to see more pictures, click here.