Day 37 Fulton, IL to Sabbona State Park, IL

I started out the day alone again and one mile from camp, it started to drizzle. I had to break out the rain jacket and it stayed on me all day. The rain was on and off for most of the day. The rain had stopped when I arrived at camp, but started again when dinner was served and it has been drizzling all night.

Along the route today, we crossed a wooden covered bridge that I took a picture of. It is the only picture of the day because of the rain.  

We are camped at a remote state park. Tomorrow we make our way to Illiana Chr.High School in Lansing, IL. It is another long ride, about 91 miles. We are hearing about the schedule for this coming weekend in Holland and Grand Rapids and we excited to be in our home area.   

 

 

Day 36 Coralville, IA to Fulton, IL

Today was a tough day for me. In additional to the 94 miles we needed to do, I had an upset stomach during the night and did not get much rest. When I got up, I still did not feel the best. I decided to “gut” it out and try to get the day in. It was a very long day for me. I rested as much as I could at each SAG stop, but just did not have much strength. I rode alone for most of the way, so I could go the pace I felt the most comfortable. At the end of the day, I joined a couple other bikers and we crossed the Mississippi River from Clinton, IA into Fulton, IL.

 I was so beat when I arrived in camp, that I could hardly move. I managed to get a shower in and then slept until dinner time. I was so beat that Julie went and got dinner for me and I ate in camp and crawled back in bed and slept the rest of the night. I did not get to meet the local people who put us up at Unity Christian High School and provided the meal. I did not get any pictures taken today.

We have another 87 miles tomorrow, so I am praying for strength for one day at a time. “Give us THIS DAY our daily bread”.

Day 35 In Coralville, IA

Most everyone slept in late and enjoyed a break from the hussle of our normal mornings of getting ready to ride for the day. It was very relaxing. Some rode their bikes, some walked, and some rode vehicles into Iowa City to see the downtown and U of Iowa campus. Julie and I took some people in a SAG vehicle and we stopped to tour the Old Capitol on the campus. It is the original Iowa capital building that served for 11 years, before the capital was moved to Des Moines. It has been totally restored and has many antique furnishing. It is the focal point of the U of I campus and is beautiful.

We had a very pleasant surprise visit this afternoon. Joan VandeBerg (sp?), a friend of my niece Kerry Lombardo, stopped in to bring us and Adam a plate of homemade cookies and greetings from Kerry and her husband, Michael, and son Sam. They had lived in Iowa City some years ago and the two gals had worked together and stayed in touch. What a great encouragement!!

At 5:30, we joined New Life Community Church for a worship service and then back at our camp, they served us to a spaghetti supper. Nothing like loading up on carbs before our near 100 mile day for tomorrow. Thank you to New Life! Tomorrow our camp will be just across the Mississippi River in Fulton, IL. We are always blessed by our Sundays to recharge physically and spiritually.

Have a great week, and we will be home next weekend!!

Day 34 Pella, IA to Coralville, IA

Some of us decided to go without breakfast this morning and wait for breakfast until about the 20 mile mark at Sulley, IA. The CRC church there provided a great pancake and bacon breakfast for all the riders and it was much appreciated. That was a good jump on our long 94 mile day to Coralville (Iowa City).

I rode with Dan Kiel and considering the long distance day, it went pretty well, though there were many, many, did I say many, hills to climb. The wind was mostly from the northwest and helped a bit. There was one 15 mile section that it helped a lot and we averaged over 20 mph for that section. Later we had to turn north for several miles and the wind had really picked up and that section had some very steep hills. That was really tough and could not get over 6-7 mph a lot of the time.

At the 83 mile mark, Dan had a bolt break off that holds the derailer together and he had to call for someone to take him in for the rest of the route. He was able to get the part he needed at a local bike store and is ready to go for Monday.

We are camped at a city park for the weekend. It has a great outdoor water park with lots of slides, but the temperature dropped so much yesterday, that no one has used the pool. Instead, everyone is in jeans and sweatshirts. We are glad to be into the weekend with a day off tomorrow to rest up from a high mileage week.

Day 33 Chariton, IA to Pella, IA

We had a relatively short day of 52 miles today, but the up and down hills made up for the distance. We stayed off highway 14 as much as we could because of heavy traffic. We did need to ride it for about 7 miles and the 2 feet right of the rumble strip was often littered with gravel that we needed to be very concentrated on and not look around and allow some space to react from the biker in front of you. During the day today we passed the halfway point of mileage for the tour from beginning to end and we all had our picture taken at the exact spot. We had a rain shower during the night and all the tents needed to be packed up wet and are now out on the lawn in Pella, drying out.  

We had a great stop at the Celebration Church in Knoxville at 30 some miles. They had coffee, fruit, pastries, and several kinds of pies. The church is almost across the street from the Knoxville Raceway, a big stop on the Sprint Car circuit…..there are races every week through the summer.

We passed the Red Rock Dam on a bike path on the way into Pella. It holds back the large Lake Red Rock. There are not a lot of lakes that we have seen during our tour of Iowa and this one is very large and gets a lot of use by fishermen and boaters. The town of Pella is very neat and the downtown area has a large square area with many Dutch architecture styled buildings in the center part of town. It has many Dutch themed stores and shops. We are staying in the dorms on Central College’s campus. Tonight, the college is hosting us for dinner and there will be a short praise service after that. Pella and Central College remind us a lot of Holland, MI and Hope College.

The annual RAGBRAI bike tour across Iowa went through Pella as a breakfast stop yesterday, so we did not get to see the extravaganza. There are about 20,000 registered bike riders in that tour. I am including some pictures of a giant windmill that is made of various bike parts that is on display in the city square for the RAGBRAI event. Our Pella planning group for our stay had a giant Sea To Sea card out on the city square when the RAGBRAI riders came through and any riders were asked to sign a card for our tour and almost $300 in donations were received for Sea To Sea.  

Julie and several other volunteers were treated to a pedicure this afternoon as a gift from a donor. They had a really relaxing and good time, I am told.

We had the praise service with the Faith CRC of Pella tonight and had a great time and their pastor was very encouraging in his short message. Tomorrow, some of us riders are doing without breakfast for the first 20 miles, as a fast to remember the cause we are biking for. The pastor referenced Isaiah 58 and that we are not to look at just our fasting, but to look for ways to break the chains of injustice in our world, and to release the oppressed. He reminded us that we are doing that in a way by the funds we are raising because of the tour. We also heard from a local board member of Partners Worldwide and the work they have been doing in Honduras the past eight years with helping small businesses get started with loans to individuals. Partners Worldwide is one of our tour sponsors.  

The temperature dropped this afternoon with a stiff breeze. Tomorrow is only supposed to be in the lower 70s and again a NW wind. We have a long mile day and nearly 4800 feet of climb, so we are ending the week with a tough ride.

Only one more week and we will be stopping by our home!! More to come when we get to Iowa City tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 32 Diagonal, IA to Chariton, IA

Today’s ride was 75 miles over more Iowa hills. The hills were not quite as long as the past 2 days and Dan Kiel and I made it into camp by about 1:30. We had stopped for coffee in a real small town (Humeston) and when we checked out the small downtown area, we were surprised to find a rather upscale small café and gift shop. We each had a scone and something to drink.  Adam and John had sweep team duties of cleaning up breakfast and were not ready to leave early.

Last night, after the pie and ice cream social, we had about 5 of our small groups present skits that they have been thinking of ideas for the past couple days. It was really a good time and we will have to have some other groups present some other night. My small group is the one that put out the challenge to the others and we hosted the show last night. Jerry Pols and I were the applause-o-meters, judging scores from the crowd’s response.

Tomorrow, we have a short 40 some miles into Pella. We also cross the RAGBRAI route tomorrow and wonder if we will see some of the annual bike across Iowa extravaganza and huge throng that participates. Pella has some things planned for our group tomorrow and tomorrow night. There is also a chance for a few people from our group to donate time at a local resale clothing store. There is an evening praise service planned.

We are not officially into the second half of our trek across the continent in calendar time. I believe the mileage half way point is tomorrow. Time seems to have sped up the past week or so, getting closer to home. We have not had web access the past couple days, so will try to get this posted today, if we can find an internet access source.

Love to all. 

 

 

Day 31 Sidney, IA to Diagonal, IA

Today’s route has us going basically eastward. The length was 86 miles of grueling, long rolling hills. The wind was light and the temps were comfortable, so even though a tough day of biking, it was a beautiful day and we saw beautiful vistas of green fields. The prime crop in this area seems to be soybeans, and a close second is corn. The crops look  in great condition and the corn is over your head (I know from wandering in occasionally for nature breaks) and tasseling. Someone said we climbed 3,700 feet today in up elevation.

Tonight, a local church group is offering homemade pie and ice cream for purchase and tomorrow morning, offering a hot breakfast for a price. It is a money making project for them, for groups that pass this way. I included a couple photos from the pie and ice cream social we had. One man was making ice cream with a 1940 McCormick Derring one cylinder engine geared to turning the ice cream maker. The route we rode today was a RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa) route used a few years ago. We are camped just outside of Diagonal, at Fogle Recreation Area. It has a small lake for fishing, and a campground with showers.

As a group, we count how many flat tires we have each day. Since leaving the Southwest, the count has gone done significantly. We have had less than 10 a day for the past several days. In the Southwest, we had many recap tire debris flats (from tiny wires in tread that we happen to ride over) and goatheads (thorns).

Nearly every day our group collects a donation or two for our cause from the public we rub elbows with in coffee shop, etc. When they hear our story, some are moved to donate. That is great to hear about.

Two of our riders returned to join the tour….Roger Feenstra’s wife had successful surgery for an emergency eye issue and Rudy Folkerts and his wife Shirley returned. Shirley had a leg injury and still cannot ride, but Rudy rode today and Shirley hopes to in future weeks.   

 

Day 30 Firth, NE to Waubonsie State Park, IA (Sidney)

Last night we had some time to interact with the kids that are attending the Bible camp we stayed at. They attended the end of our peleton meeting and Jane Brouwer explained what poverty was and why we were riding across the continent. Jane did such a good job and the kids were really into it and had a ton of questions for her. Later we joined the kids and some of the camp staff for praise singing around a campfire (it was 90+ degrees!!) and the kids made smores for everyone. It was a good time.

This morning I was awoken by bikers rushing to take down their tents and get their bikes inside the camp’s community building. I found out that there was a storm front bearing down on us and the horizon looked pretty dark. We had our breakfast inside the building and waited out the storm front. It did rain some but was not as bad as it looked. We were kept in camp until 8:00 a.m. to allow the weather to clear some.  All the bikers were pretty bunched up on the roads today, as most left within a short period of time.

We had many hills to climb in Eastern Nebraska today. We finally reached the Missouri River crossing bridge near the town of Nebraska City. Just before that, a group of us stopped at the Lewis and Clark Welcome Center. It was interesting to look around there into the history of their expedition on the Missouri River, looking for the Northwest Passage. It is amazing the amount of exploratory evidence they collected in so much detail on navigation and surveying and the study of animal and plant life that they encountered.

Just after the Missouri River crossing, we entered Iowa, our 7^th state. There was a 6-7 mile flat Missouri Valley and then the Iowa hills start abruptly and it was a steep climb up them to our campsite at the state park.  The day was not easy, but the wind was not as bad as was predicted and the rain did not last too long this morning.

I was really bonking near the end of today and took a good nap this afternoon and feel a lot better. Thanks to all of you for your comments on my blog and the encouragement and prayers you are offering for us. Your interest is so encouraging. I got nearly 400 hits on my blog on a day earlier this week.   

Day 29 Fairbury, NE to Firth, NE

We had a great Sunday of refueling, spiritually and physically. We were invited by First United Presbyterian Church to worship with them and they provided an unbelievable lunch spread for us. The pastor, Steven Frazier, did a lot of preparation to include our Sea To Sea cause into his message and service. It was another huge lesson for us in hospitality. Every member brought 2-3 things for the buffet table. There was so much to choose from and so much left, that they packed it all up for us and we took it to camp for our evening meal as well! I had my camera along, but forgot that my battery was back in camp getting charged. So, I do not have any pics to attach today.

Today we had a short 51 mile day and it was great biking condition. There was a slight tailwind and the terrain was relatively flat, especially after what we had experienced last Friday and Saturday. I arrived at our camp at about noon. It is about 4 miles outside of Firth, NE at a Bible Campground. There is a group of kids attending this week, so we need to give them space to do their activities.

As you may have heard, we have had some medical issues and accidents over the past weeks. We have lost 2 recumbent bikers to leg fractures as the result of accidents involving only themselves. We had one of our riders experience some heart artery blockage and required emergency hospitalization to have 2 stents inserted. He was back with us on the tour within a couple days and today resumed riding a short portion of today’s route. Last Friday, a couple girls get their tires tangled and had a bad crash, but fortunately, they are both doing pretty good and one resumed riding a portion of today also. The other has a sore shoulder yet and hopes to ride again soon.  We also had one biker that needed to go home for an emergency surgery for his wife. He plans to return to the tour as soon as he can.

I rode with Adam , John Noorhof, and Dan Kiel again today. We stopped for a sweet roll and coffee in downtown Beatrice, NE. Adam declined the stop and continued on and beat us into camp. There was a 15 miles bike trail option today on a hardpack surface that some elected to take. I understand it was pretty good and no problems. I had elected to stay on the highway.

It is 95 degrees already today in early afternoon. We are trying to get used to the humidity in the air that we have been experiencing the past few days. Up until then, humidity was not an issue.

God’s blessing to all of you.

Day 27 Red Cloud, NE to Fairbury, NE

Adam and I agreed to ride together again today to regulate our pace for a tough climbing day of 77 miles. It was a lot of up again, down again hills in Nebraska. There were many showers in the area today and Adam and I managed to stay in the middle of them, without getting wet. We had sprinkles for a while, but stayed dry. Many of the others either before or after us got drenched. A group behind had to hold up in a restaurant for a couple hours waiting for the weather to clear. Julie was with them.

We ran into a headwind about halfway through the day. Adam and I switched off leading and breaking the wind. It was tough, but we worked together and got it done. We make a pretty good pair, trekking across the continent!

We are camped in the city park of Fairbury, NE for a much needed rest over the rest of the weekend. There is no CRC or RCA church in the area, but we are going to a local Presbyterian Church and they are serving us dinner. After the last 2 challenging days, we are all ready for a little down time and rest. 

Day 26 Norton, KS to Red Cloud, NE

Today was another century mileage day. It was also a hot day with the temps right around 100 degrees. Adam and I rode together at our own pace today to make sure we did not over-extend and to make sure we could finish the day. We left at about 6:30 a.m. and arrived in camp about 3:00 p.m. That is a long time sitting on a bike seat.

Our 1^st SAG stop for the day was a Prairie View Reformed Church…..about 22 miles out of camp. It is a small town church in a rural area. They had a great spread of baked goods and fruit for us. That was a very enjoyable stop. Besides our own SAGs, at about 66 miles, a cousin of one or our bikers offered all the bikers free ice cream at her diner in Smithfield, KS. I really needed that as I was so hot. The air-conditioning and the treat really revived me.

Late in the day we crossed into Nebraska, our 6^th state. By the time Adam and I reached camp, I was again very hot and immediately stepped under our outdoor shower with my bike clothes on, to cool down. No sooner did I finish that, than we heard kind of weird thunder rumbling overhead. Within a couple minutes, it started to pour and blow really hard. The bikers that had arrived in camp were all huddled with their bikes under the city park picnic shelter. While Adam and I were standing there, a young robin kind of flew in with us. I picked it up and held it to get it warm as it was really shivering. Adam took out an old Calvin cheer rag he uses for cleaning his bike and we wrapped it in there. When the rain had almost stopped, Adam was showing the robin to someone and it hopped out and flew into the park lawn. It left a deposit in Adam’s Calvin rag. Dan Kiel, a Hope grad, commented about why the robin left the deposit…..being that is was a Calvin rag!

Many of the bikers arrived very wet and tired. Most of the gear had been unloaded and was not covered from the rain and the rest of the gear was already set up as tents. Everything got just soaked. The city let anyone who wanted to, could camp in the gym of the adjoining community center. That was very much  appreciated.        

Day 25 Colby, KS to Norton, KS (Prairie Dog State Park)

Wow, what a ride today! We had a strong tail wind or at least partial tail wind all day but the last mile. We were running at 20+ mph for a good part of the day and reached our camp that was 76 miles away by noon. I forgot to mention that yesterday we entered our 5^th state and 2^nd time zone.

We are camped at Prairie Dog State Park on top of a hill overlooking a reservoir/lake below. It reached about 99 degrees today and the wind was really whipping through camp. It was a hot afternoon and I just jumped in our outdoor shower to cool down before getting ready for bed.

I am including a picture of Adam’s clothes drying method and a couple pics of our camp here at the state park. There is actually supposed to be a prairie dog colony at the entrance to the park, but I missed it coming in and will look for it tomorrow morning on the way out.

The entrance into the park is about 2 miles long and we had to turn due south to get in the park and into the strong wind we had been benefitting from all day. I don’t how we could have done a whole day into such a strong wind.

We have seen many combines on the move in convoys the past days. The wheat harvest is completed in this area and they are moving on to the North.

All the bikers are anxious for our day tomorrow as it is 100 miles with high 90 degrees and some hills. We are moving breakfast ahead by one half hour to get an early start.

I also forgot to mention that we saw Rachael Geerlings in Colorado Springs on Sunday night. She shared an apartment in college with one of our bikers and those two hooked up for the weekend. Unfortunately, we were just starting our evening peleton meeting and did not have a chance to talk with her. She is the daughter of Brian and Marlys Geerlings from our church at home. It was neat that she looked for us.

 

Day 24 Burlington, CO to Colby, KS

Today we had another ride through the high plains. The route was 68 miles long. The weather was cool and overcast which was nice for biking. We again has the strong southerly wind that pushed us sideways all day. We are camped in a nice green city park with shady trees. The weather cleared out this afternoon and it got warm and sunny with cotton ball clouds floating by quickly.

We were treated to ice cream drumsticks for desert tonight.

We are writing this blog entry in MacDonald' s and just had a long talk with some older local residents that were interested in our trip.

There was not much to take pictures of again today in the wide open prairie.
I am including a picture of some fans that watched us go by today and a look at the wide open prairie with grain elevators far in the distance, about 10 miles away.

Day 23 Limon, CO to Burlington, CO

Today we had a full day in the rolling high plains. You can see grain elevators from approaching towns at least 10 miles in the distance. The elevation chart showed that most of the day was slightly downhill, but is was filled with many hill climbs as well. I rode the day alone, but within sight of other riders most all the time. I missed the 2^nd SAG stop that was off to the side of an exit we took. So, I trudged on until I reached Julie’s 3^rd SAG stop at 63 miles. I really needed that stop by then, as my internal fuel tank was on empty. The total route today was 78 miles and we had a gusty southern wind constantly pushing from the right. Well, that is better than a headwind. Tomorrow’s forecast sounds that same, with the temperature climbing a bit each day. Tomorrow is supposed to reach 89.

I didn’t take any pictures today, as there is not a lot to see other than open high plains for as far as the eye can see, with very few trees. We are staying at a city park that is nice and clean and green. There is a pool with showers and a fast, high slide that I enjoyed after getting into camp at about 12:15.  We rode on I-70 for about 45 miles today and we had to pay for 2 state troopers to watch over us and 2 signs they had put up warning drivers of our presence.

We are missing our family back home and the activities they are involved in.

Please continue to pray for our safety and health. Love to all.  

Day 22 Colorado Springs, CO to Limon, CO

Well, today we left the Rockies behind. I was hoping to be able to watch them disappear throughout the day in my rear view helmet mirror, but it didn’t work out that way. It was overcast with a little mist first thing in the morning when we hit the road. To get out of Colorado Springs, we had to climb over a ridge line through city streets and it was very steep and tough. Once we got to the north side of Colorado Springs, the mist turned to downright rain. We had rain/fog/mist for the first half of the day and then it cleared out. This was the first day that I had to get out my rain gear, but by the time we stopped at the first SAG to put it on, we were already soaked. I rode with Dan and John again today.

So, we never got another look at the Rockies and now we are in the high plains. We stayed at the high school in Limon. We had our Peleton meeting in the beachers on the football field and I thought it fitting with the whole group sitting in the stands, to lead them in a cheer…..like we were at a game.

Give me an “E”……give me an “X”……”L”…….”A”……”X”. What does that spell?.......”ExLax”!

What does it mean?.........”GO, GO, GO!!”

Well, I was just trying to have a little fun!

 

Day 21 at Colorado Springs, CO

We are resting today and worshiped with the Cragmor CRC congregation, a few blocks from our camp location. They treated us to a lunch at the church after the service. Julie and I sat next to a Mr. Sterk who has lived in Colorado Springs for many years, but he grew up in Friesland, WI, very near where I grew up. My mom maybe remembers him from years ago. The Sterk Road is named after his family, just outside of Friesland.

We had a wonderful service and we had communion with the congregation. Several elders that are on the tour helped with serving communion and a couple bikers shared their story with the congregation.

Tomorrow we leave the mountains behind and head toward the great plains.

Julie and I will be driving a different van from now on as our old 79 Ford van will be used to pull a open trailer that has all the gear bags on it for each day. It has a big engine and is more suited for that pulling. We now have an older Chevy van to drive that we need to get all our gear switched over to this evening. It is all decked out with blue and white Sea To Sea logos.

Day 20 Canon City, CO to Colorado Springs, CO

Today we had a relatively short ride in mileage of about 50 miles. It was however, over the foothills and it was no walk in the park. I rode with John Noordhof and Dan Kiel again. We were in at the new camp before noon. We are staying on the grounds of the Colorado Springs Christian Schools. The campus is a group of buildings for K-12 and they are built on a steep side hill. You have to be part billygoat to negotiate the parking lot from bottom to top!

From our camp, we have a great view of the Rockies and Pikes Peak. We had a group of about 5 young bikers that in addition to our ride for the day, also took on Pikes Peak and completed the climb! It was very cold on the top, about 45 degrees and the mountain was in rain clouds much of this afternoon. We actually spotted a funnel cloud near the peak from our camp. There were others from our camp on the peak with a van and they took the bikers back to camp.

We had a problem with our van again today. Julie and I were making laundry runs with campers and also needed to get a new tent for one of the campers. The van stalled in a busy intersection, and of course would not restart and we were in the middle of 5 lanes of traffic. George, the guy who needed the tent, and I pushed the van across 3 lanes of traffic and Julie guided it into a bank parking lot. After about an hour, we were able to get it restarted and it then ran fine.

Tomorrow we are worshipping with a local CRC congregation and we have a day to rest up!

Day 19 Poncha Springs, CO to Canon City, CO

Today I rode with Dan Kiel and John Nordhof and we decided to sleep in a little longer and skip breakfast in camp and have breakfast in the first town of Salida, which was only 5 miles down the road. Our kitchen staff is amazing, but we were ready for some good fried and scrambled eggs for a change. So, we were the last group starting out. We caught some bikers and passed many more that had stopped for coffee along the way.

The ride today was absolutely spectacular! It is the prettiest scenery so far I think. The route was downhill for most of the route following the Arkansas River through a beautiful long canyon. There was white water rafting and fly fishing going on all along the route. The rock formations were beautiful. What a creation God has made for us to enjoy!

At the end of the route, we had an up climb over the Royal Gorge area. It was a workout, but we are kind of getting used to that in the mountains. After the climb, we descended into the Canon City area in the valley. We could fell the temperature rising and it was 103 degrees in town by noon. When I entered the city, I was approaching a left turn on the edge of town and there stood a mule deer buck, wanting to cross the 5 lanes of busy traffic. Everyone stopped and he crossed right in front of me and I got a photo of him and a brother that stopped on the other side in a small green space park. That was neat.

We are camped on the grounds of a former abbey and there is actually some nice green grass to camp on. As always, a good shower feels good to wash off the road grit. Julie was a little over heated from her SAG duties when I got to camp, so we went to Macs and sat there for a while to cool down.

 

 

Day 18 Alamosa, CO to Poncha Springs, CO

Our route for today started with about 45 of flat, straight as an arrow on county hwy 17 and later joined U.S. hwy 285. We had a tail wind and racked up the miles quickly. The surrounding valley was between two mountain ranges and we slowly approached the end of the valley where the two ranges came together. Adam and I rode in a group for the first half of the day and we all took turns leading and breaking the wind. The Great Sand Dunes National Park was off to our east by about 10-15 miles, but we could not see it as it was in a depression between us and the mountain range. The later part of the day was a climb up Poncha Pass to just over 9,000 feet. The tailwind certainly helped us make the climb. After the peak, we had an all out “let her fly” descent. The descent was about 6-7 miles on a wide road that was in good shape and everyone descended very rapidly. I posted 47.1 mph on the descent and Adam was a little more bold than I and post 50.7 mph. That is really moving on a bike! We were really on an adrenalin high when we reached the bottom.

The camp was on a fair grounds with hardly a patch of green grass, so some chose to sleep on the concrete floor of a building available for us. We had a nightly peleton meeting in a horse barn, as it was raining and gusty again (as usual in the summer mountain region). Also, there was a women’s roller derby going on in a neighboring building that we could watch. Wow, is that rough.

We are reminded each day of God’s protective care. There is a lot of interaction of the bikers with people along the route each day, and we are able to tell our story. There have been many donations give to riders when they hear what we are doing. They are not huge, but in a couple cases, maybe the only cash the person has on them.

 

  

Day 17 Chama, NM to Alamosa, CO

Today we entered our fourth state, as we crossed into Colorado. Today’s ride was another challenge. There seem to be a lot of those lately. We needed to cross over the San Juan Mountain Range today and that was the first order of business today, as the first 21 miles were climb miles to get over two different peaks, both in the 10,200 foot range. The climb was very steep at times and I spent most of the time in my lowest granny gear, which means only about 5-6 mph. So, your head starts calculating how many hours it is going to take, just to get to the peaks and then we had another 56 miles after that. I don’t know what my heart rate was beating at, as I can’t count that fast!

The scenery was absolutely breath taking today, especially during the climb. I am including some pics of the valleys we left behind in our climb. The route had an old narrow gauge railroad track alongside for much of the climb miles. It is no longer used, but is being saved for historic purposes. Adam and I also experimented taking some photos of each other while riding. After the climb, It was a very steep decent to the valley below. It was very curvy and the road condition was not the best, so we could not let the bike go as fast as it wanted to. We had to ride the brakes on and off most of the way down. After the steep descent, most of the 56 miles left was slightly downhill and we gained a tail wind for a good part of that section. Adam and I rode together today and we picked up Joel Stehouwer on one of the SAG stops after the mountain descent. We got in camp about 2:15.

We are staying at a very nice community recreation center, with 3 basketball/volleyball courts, an exercise/weight room and several community rooms. It is very nice.  We are all very tired again tonight. I should mention that some of the bikers behind us after the mountain descent got caught in torrential rain, lighting, and hail storm. Julie’s SAG station had the rain, but no hail. My group just had a few sprinkles and stayed just ahead of the storm. We were glad we pushed it to keep ahead of it.