An ordeal is over for us. Two days now O&I had our asses handed to us...by our own bikes.

 We were hired to do gigs really far from our house.Yesterday we had to push our double loaded bikes up a mountain and today we had to get up early and ride from 39th and Powell to the St. John's bridge (to do the last episode of Portlandia).
 That was really rough. We got lost a couple times, got sunburned, muscle fatigued etc. 

At one point we were inching our bikes up a huge 45 degree hill, exhausted and knowing if we slipped our gear would be toast and possibly wipe out the other clown along the way. We would make it to the top, turn and there's another, and another. Hearing and seeing each other suffer was really harsh, but at least it was us doing it to ourselves. Olive did great pulling a full trailer. 
Both gigs really wanted our bikes so we had to ride hard. At one point while climbing the steep hill a man in a fancy car drove up smiling big "are you two March Fourth?" 
The good part was both gigs paid us much more for the travel than the actual gigs.The party paid us over 3X our rate and the tv show paid us for the whole day when we only spent about an hour actually working.

 I'm really glad it's over and glad Olive and I survived the trial by fire intact and feeling good about each other. These things really make a couple stronger. We laughed together, cried together, watched each other broken and helped restore our partner. Many people shout how much they love us every day, a few like to tell us mean stuff. It's been quite the epic week.

 So far we hung out with TV stars, Syrian refugees,rich, poor, rural and urban folks,and even been in a parade. 
Now its all about hugging and resting up for whatever is next on our plate.

Last night the TV show called while we were nursing our wounds. 

They wanted us on the outskirts of the other side of town early in the morning. I said. 

"No way, even if I wasn't tore up I'm not an "extra" I'm my own thing. 

Also we have both our kids showing up for several days. I told them that I'm sure I can find a couple of people who live near St.John bridge who would want to ride tall bikes for them. 

They said "Will they be Olive and Dingo from TV's Portlandia? No thanks if not." The show has been good to us. We had been on 3 times before (not always as ourselves) and they even made me a web page. But kid day is kid day. I needed to be a Dad today. I was OK poo pooing the deal based on logistics but Olive kept negotiating. 

She approached me a few hours later looking like she just sold our cow for some magic beans. 

"Um, they want to pay us for the entire day for an hours work, as well as feed us and Uber our kids around where ever they needed to go. It's the signature bookend episode and they need specifically Olive and Dingo. 

I thought about it for a nanno second and started stretching my legs and gathering gear. lol. That is exactly how to talk me into stuff.

Great hustling on Olive Rootbeer's part. Bravo.

oliveanddingo.com