Got Into a Pickle with our Motorsickle

Church, Fedex, Moto

As has happened a few times during this trip, we got into a mechanical problem. When we arrived in North Dakota to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we began to set up camp. We went to unload our motorcycle and noticed that the ramp we use to load and unload it was broken. A hinge in the middle of the ramp had cracked. Still, we needed to remove the bike if we wanted to explore this National Park. So we did. (This is where we got into the pickle.)

Some of the shenanigans we got into in this maneuver are hard to describe, but suffice it to say, I got scared for Henry's safety and may have yelled loudly (I did). Thank God for concerned neighbors. A fellow camper came to our rescue immediately. His name was Mahmet Ali (like the prize fighter). He was traveling with his family during summer break from school. Thank God for him and his brother-in-law Ali because they successfully helped Henry get the bike off the trailer without killing himself! But now we have a broken ramp and no way to move from here until we replace it.

We spent the day online shopping for a new ramp. We found one that could be ordered and would arrive here within the week. We ordered it. Now we wait. We had many exciting adventures in the park as we waited (see "Close Encounters of a Bison Kind"), and then the day arrived when the ramp was to be delivered. No ramp. Online it said that it was "undeliverable due to the wrong address." What? We checked and rechecked, and yes, there was our mistake. We had typed in East Highway 10 instead of West Highway 10. The ramp was returned to the delivery hub and was awaiting instructions. More online finagling, and we got the correct address to the shipper.

Finally! We decided to take a walk around our campsite area. There was a church in the neighborhood that had a beautiful carillon that played on the hour. We decided to find it. After Google Maps sent us on a longer-than-necessary journey, we found the Catholic Church St. Bernard's. It's amazing that as we arrived, the FedEx truck was making a delivery there! Henry approached the driver and asked if he had tried to deliver a ramp earlier in the day. Yes! He had! The Fedex Driver relayed the whole story of the wrong address and jotted down on paper where we were and where he would be delivering it tomorrow. Can you believe it? Just at the moment we decided to visit this church? There's got to be a little miracle in there somewhere!

So we went into St. Bernard's church and cooled off from our longer-than-necessary walk and thanked God for our good luck. Now we wait again for our ramp to arrive. The sun is shining, we are healthy and happy, and we get to do this fun trip and see beautiful things…even though we often get into pickles!!

Sure enough today about 9:00 AM, the package arrived at our campsite via Fedex. It was the same driver we met yesterday at St. Bernard’s! His name is “DJ” and he explained that he updated the correct address on his arrival to the Fedex facility early this morning. Apparently as he said, “The office people were not doing their job, even though the shipper had called in the address correction yesterday, it was not corrected.” Clearly there is a higher power watching over us.