Back to it

Exactly one week later, we are back in the same campground we were in
when I got the call from Cathy about Eleanor's passing. If you knew
her, you know that she loved throwing parties. Well, her final 2
parties were nothing less than wonderful. The memorial in Asheville
was packed; many standing against the walls. It was moving; dancing
and singing. People took turns sharing memories and thoughts about
Eleanor.

She buried a relative this past winter on the mountain above her
mother's home. I recall her returning home to Asheville telling me
that she would one day be buried right next to her relative. No one
thought it would be so soon. Eleanor helped me to adopt my most recent
motto: "life is long, slow down." I have a tendency to fly thru the
days and rarely slow down enough to take anything in. She used to
always say "be... here... now." Ahhh how I hated that. She had that
special gift of telling people exactly what they needed to hear.

Unfortunately, Eleanor's life was not as long as most of us were
planning for it to be. I am confidant that her spirit will live in and
through those whose lives she touched. As was told to me, "look back
and be grateful, look ahead and be hopeful, and look around and be
useful." I know she would have us all do so rather than wade in our
morbid reflection. Carry her spirit with you.

For those who couldn't attend, her funeral was lovely. For starters,
she got her final joke on us all: her casket didn't fit. A couple of
guys jumped in and got to digging. Anyone who chose to was allowed to
grab a shovel and fill the grave. I'm not sure how common this
practice is but it seemed to be healing for me and a great many
others. In conclusion, her marimba band played while many danced. It
was a beautiful celebration of Eleanor's life.

It took a while but I finally got back to Omaha. It was raining when I
landed at 1am and I was told that it had been raining all week. I
thought: great, maybe the rain is behind us. Well, that may be but I
had no idea that NE had been declared under a state of emergency on
Friday due to flooding. We thought the ride today would be a bit
monotonous seeing as it would be our 3rd time riding it. Turns out
that it was an entirely different ride. There were lakes and rivers
that did not exist the week before. We had to ride on several sections
of closed roads which were flooded; I got some awesome video footage.
It's kind of thrilling riding into a river over a road with an unknown
depth.

We saw 2 peacocks today and we adopted a lost Lassie imposter that was
hanging around our camp. Sweet pup, hopefully we find the owner.

70 miles today. We'll be on the Cowboy Trail tomorrow

Updates... apologies. If you didn't get this one in your email, the
blog is at caopacity. You'll have to check it the old fashioned way.
Also, there seems to be a "subscribe" button all the wat at the
bottom. Anyone have any luck with that?

--
Sent from my mobile device

video from today...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njzL0sZsf-o

videos from the day after.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIFjFGfbJVQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtJB4qLH28

as always, more pictures can be viewed at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2329052&id=25524058&l=f3dbbfaf53