Over dinner with a couple of friends a few weeks before our departure, we mentioned that we wanted a motto for our trip but we're having a difficult time coming up with one that we liked. They suggested something like "the friendship expedition". We liked it but thought it might be a little presumptuous. After the experiences we've had over the past several weeks, it may be an appropriate motto.Deb's last day at work was July 6, David's was June 30. We had to be out of our house by noon on July 8. After months of selling, packing and giving things away we finally saw the end in sight. On Thursday, the house was nearly empty so David was doing some final maintenance on the bikes. While attempting to lubricate the clutch cable on Deb's bike, he found the adjuster screw had seized and then broke. He put it back together and thought it would work until we got to Canada where he could get a part from the BMW dealer in London, Ontario. We returned to cleaning out the house. On Friday morning, David was moving the motorcycles from our driveway to the neighbor's driveway next door, about 20 feet away. He discovered that Deb's bike wasn't roadworthy and we had to order a part from the BMW dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of the last items we sold was Deb's car - to the neighbor. They let us keep our motorcycles in their garage overnight and take the car over to Dan and Lynn's house with whom we had already made arrangements to stay. The next morning we drove to Cincinnati to pick up the part and were back in Indianapolis by noon. David had the motorcycle repaired and we were ready to leave by early afternoon. Several of the neighbors stopped by to see us off. Deb was a little nervous with an audience considering she hadn't ridden the motorcycle fully loaded yet. We took two laps around the neighborhood and honked at everyone then left. We feel very fortunate to have had such wonderful neighbors for the past 13 years.

Our first stop was the other side of Indianapolis, about 15 miles from home. We stayed with friends Cindy and Sam on Saturday night and we had a wonderful feast with crab cakes, grilled steaks and homemade pies. The next morning it was another feast with pancakes, omelets and watermelon. We didn't know how it would be before we had another home cooked meal so we really appreciated their generosity.

On Sunday morning, we returned to Dan and Lynn's because we had dropped things off at their house while we still had the car and had to figure out how to fit everything on our motorcycles. We threw some things out and finally crammed everything we could onto the two heavily loaded motorcycles and left Indianapolis.

Our next destination was Handy Camp at Camp Woodsmoke, about 70 miles southeast of Indianapolis. This is a summer camp for developmentally disabled adults at which we had been volunteering for the past 6 years. There were 32 campers and about 50 other volunteers present, they were companions, cabin moms and dads, summer interns, kitchen crew, woodcrafts, the nurse, etc. Deb was an assistant camp director and cabin mom and Dave was the head cook, something he had never done before. No one starved to death although there were an unusually large number of peanut butter sandwiches ordered in lieu of the meal. It was an incredible week as always. Among the campers were many of our closest friends that we saw on a weekly basis through a Friendship Bible study program. They were what kept us on an even keel, teaching us that there is much pleasure in the littlest things in life, that it is ok to be vulnerable and never take anything too seriously. We don't know how we will manage without them. The campers each had a companion assigned to them, most of which were teenagers. The companions stuck beside their campers day and night for five days and saw to their every need. It never ceases to amaze us at how these teenagers live up to the challenges and exceed our expectations. The combination of the enthusiasm of the campers and the energy of the teens made it a really fun week. It was hard to say good-bye on Saturday when everyone went home.

We stayed at camp for part of the second week. This time we were kitchen crew but still managed to spend some time with the campers. One day, Dave borrowed a bicycle to go down to the caretaker's house and wiped out, injuring his shoulder and getting road rash on the right side of his body. I borrowed a car from one of the summer interns and took him to an immediate care clinic. The doctor checked him over and said she there was a very slim chance that anything was broken and sent us on our way. This happened two days before we were supposed to leave. He was still in great pain on Thursday morning but said he could ride. Several of the camp leaders were there to see us off and Pastor Paul said an emotional prayer for us and off we went.

The morning ride was very pleasant with cool temperatures and a deserted, winding road along a riverbank. By lunchtime it was hot and we stopped for lunch in Farmland, Indiana hoping for relief from the heat but the restaurant was not air conditioned. We continued on all afternoon in the scorching heat, finally arriving in Lima, Ohio for the International BMW motorcyle rally. To our surprise, even though it was only Thursday, 4,300 people had already registered and nearly every square inch of grass was covered with either a tent or a motorcycle. We searched until we found a spot at the base of an electric pole with a large huge transformer. After giving it considerable thought, we decided to keep looking and eventually pitched our tent right next to a picnic shelter. By the time we were finished setting up camp, Deb was in a foul mood and announced 'I just want to leave', in front of all of our new camping neighbors. After dinner we heard that a thunderstorm with wind gusts up to 85 miles an hour was headed our way. We scrambled to get the tent staked down and the rain fly put up. It got very windy and rained horizontally. The picnic shelter was crammed with people but most ended up getting wet anyway. It was kind of a bonding experience. The rest of the evening was very pleasant. On Friday morning, as Chain Gang members, we sold 50-50 tickets to raise money for a local children's shelter. The BMW riders were very generous and the prize for the noon drawing was over $1300.

We packed up and left the rally on Saturday morning. David's shoulder was still causing a great deal of pain so we stopped after 30 miles at the hospital in Findlay, Ohio and this time he had x-rays taken. The diagnosis was the same, no broken bones or dislocation, just a severe contusion. Since we hadn't got much sleep at the rally, we rode another 40 miles to Toledo and got a hotel room. It was the first time in over two weeks that we slept in a real bed with sheets and real pillows and it felt wonderful.

On Sunday, we awoke to a forecast of rain and severe thunderstorms. It wasn't raining in Toledo so we packed up and got on the road. Just as we pulled off the highway for breakfast, it started to rain. We stayed inside for about an hour and then continued on after it stopped raining. We must have been at the back end of the front because it was very windy the rest of the day. At one point we were in Pontiac, Michigan and planning to go north toward Lapeer but somehow missed a turn and ended up further east in Flint. We were annoyed but got on interstate 69 and made up the time pretty quickly. Just as we were getting ready to pay the toll for the bridge into Canada, a car behind us honked. Yea, yea, we're moving as fast as we can. It honked again. It turned out to be our friends Dan and Lynn from Indianapolis! How exciting. We just about got blown off the Bluewater bridge by the strong winds but after crossing through customs, we pulled over to the side of the road and hugged each other and took pictures. They were on they're way north to Kincardin and we were going east to London so we didn't stay long. It was our first border crossing of our trip and a very happy one indeed!