As I left Spokane I was so excited that I could hardly stand it. I was trying very hard to stay in the moment, but my mind kept racing 100 miles ahead to the time when I would pass Mandy and her parents and then pull over for her to come meet me. I was so distracted, in fact, that when I made my first stop at a gas station I forgot to put the kickstand down and wound up laying my bike over on its side. (No damage, except to my ego.) I was embarrassed, but it didn't really matter.
As I proceeded west I sent a message to Mandy at every stop and she would respond with their location, and with each message we were a little closer, and right on target to meet just east of Wenatchee, WA. It was perfect.
To be honest, I remember very little about the ride and what I saw except that there were lots of farms, then a valley where it got hot, then a big hill down toward the Columbia River. When I started down the hill I knew we had to be close, and I was right. As I rounded a corner I finally saw the car I had been looking for all day and Mandy was hanging out the window waving frantically. Finally! It had been a long ride.
I pulled off into the first turnout I saw and waited. And waited. I knew she had seen me and I looked up the hill and could see her parents car on the side of the road, but they weren't moving. I panicked and called Mandy - twice. When she answered they were on their way back down the hill. Turns out she'd needed a pee break so I had to wait. Sheesh.
They pulled up and got out of the car and Mandy and I mauled each other. Man, was it good to see her! Feeling her body in my arms was sort of unreal and we were both shaking with excitement. Then I stepped back, put my hands in my pockets and said, "I have two things for you. The first one is this." I pulled my right hand out of my pocket and handed her this:
"It's a Montana heart rock. I found it on the bank of the Missouri River."
She smiled and started rolling the rock around in her fingers nervously and I said, "This other thing has a bit of a story to it. On this trip I have learned a lot of things about the world and about myself. One of those things that I know for certain now is that us meeting at the twelve and twelve was not a mistake. And I would be honored if you would spend the rest of your life with me. So," I paused and pulled my hands from my pockets and dropped to one knee and opened the silver box in my left hand, "will you marry me?"
Mandy jumped back and then lurched forward to look in the box and said, "Absolutely!" Then she paused with her fingers inches away from this:
"Can I touch it?" she asked.
"Absolutely, it's yours."
She pulled the ring from the box and felt every bit of it and then Becky, my stepmom, (I'll explain in a minute) said, "Well try it on sweetheart."
She slid the ring onto her finger and it fit perfectly. I've never experienced a moment so perfect and true in my life. Mandy's smile and mine could have lit a room. I've never been so happy in my life as I was when she said, "This is the absolute best day of my life so far."
After she'd already said yes I walked over to ask her dad, Jerry, if it was OK with him and he just shook my hand and said, "Congratulations." Whew, I hadn't asked beforehand because I wanted it to be a surprise for all three of them, and it worked. Although they all had their suspicions.
So here's how this all worked. For most of the trip I've thought about marrying Mandy but didn't really have a plan. Then somewhere around Tennessee I decided that it would be soon after I got back and I started looking around for a ring but nothing I saw looked like Mandy at all. Then I remembered that my mom and I had talked once about her wedding set and that maybe it would be appropriate for me to use sometime. Well, this was the time, and with the blessing of my father and my sister, it was settled. Only problem was that we didn't know where they were. We knew they were in my mom's house somewhere, but we didn't know where. Alison was already planning a trip to Los Alamos and she said she would look while she was there and I decided that if she didn't have any luck I would just change course to go find them. Thankfully, Alison asked my mom for a little guidance about where to find them and then she found them in the first place she looked!
With the rings located I decided, somewhere in Montana, that it would be pretty great if I could ask Mandy right when I first saw her, I just had to get the rings to me. With friends in Spokane I thought that would work pretty well, and then I remembered that my dad is retired (some days) and my stepmom is on summer break so maybe they could get the rings and meet me in Spokane and be there when I ask. They agreed and the plan was set.
We met in Spokane on Friday and they would follow me west on US 2 until I saw Mandy and then all the parents could be there to see. Some people might say that's too much pressure to put on Mandy, but if you understand how right Mandy and I felt from the start, and that meeting each others families was a pleasure and not a curse then you know that it was the right thing to do.
The result was that somewhere on the side of Highway 2 her mom and my stepmom were both crying, and our fathers were smiling, and it was the happiest moment of my life. Thanks to both of our families for making this possible, not to mention making us so that we fit so well together!
Once she said yes it got awful hot, awful fast on the side of the highway in the desert and we all caravanned to Wenatchee for lunch. I'm not really sure what anyone talked about because I was busy looking at Mandy smile and stare at her ring. But everyone was happy and there was lots of laughter.
I found Mandy and I a place to stay for the night in Wenatchee so we could make the trip home together on Sunday. Once we got checked in and said our goodbyes to our families we set out for walk to a 5:30 meeting. When we got to the church there was no one there, and further investigation revealed that the Saturday 5:30 meeting was a birthday potluck meeting and only happens one Saturday a month, and this wasn't the one.
I looked for another meeting and there was only one and it was a fair distance from the hotel so we would have to get on the bike in the heat so we decided that hanging out with each other was sufficient. We had tried to get to a meeting, but what we really wanted was a quiet evening alone because we hadn't seen each other for a month.
We made our way back to the hotel, had nachos and ice cream (not mixed together because that's gross) and just enjoyed being back together again. It was the perfect end to the perfect day!
