My brother and I began the day waking up in a real bed, 100 miles from our bikes. We spent the night at what was our grandparent’s home in Cheshire OR (about 20 miles west of Eugene), and is now being restored by my adopted uncle, Tom.
As I began in scripture before getting out of bed, I read this in Matthew 17:
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of this mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.”
I needed this word all day. We fought a lot of traffic making our way back to our bikes at the Coos Bay airport. As a result, we didn’t start our ride until 2:00pm (and we were aiming at 80 miles today). In addition, my left Achilles tendon has been growing more and more sore as we’ve gone on. This slowed us a little, though we were able average about 15mph on our 65 miles today. By the time we showered for bed, it was 9:00pm and dark enough for bed. (I’m writing this post on my iPhone, in the dark of my one man tent, so forgive any typos)
Our ride began with a ride through town to Charleston OR and a leg of our trip called “The Seven Devils.” They are seven significant grades that stairstep their way from sea level to a vista view up along a ridge. Some of the “devils” would only be beaten down with stand up pedalling in low gear (at least for me). We decided that the mega downhill after these seven tough climbs was sort of our seven saints ride of triumph! Most challenging stretch so far.
That leg ended in the seaside town of Bandon where, on a kind of wharf area, Dan and I enjoyed some fresh salmon with garlic butter. Absolutely amazing. I bought a bag of Ice and laid my left foot on it to try to help my achilles a bit.
From there on, we were blessed with a good tailwind that really helped on the flats. We able to bump our average speed closer to 20 mph in that stretch. We had dinner overlooking the beauty of Battle Rock State Beach (see the picture link on my Twitter page), then rode about five more miles to where we set up camp at Humbug State Beach.
Other memories:
• Continuing to be struck by the simplicity of living with about 20 pounds of stuff I’m carrying with me on the bike (tent, sleeping bag, thermarest, a few extra clothes, my “carry-on” toiletries in a quart Ziploc, and a few other items. I need much less than I think.
• Answering thoughts and feelings that this trip was becoming impossible for me today with the word from Matthew 17–nothing is impossible. It has been great to have such a word each day.
• what a remarkable travel tool this iPhone is! I’ve been Ble to locate many places we needed along the way.
• reaching nearly 300 miles on the week this evening, something I would have called impossible for me a year ago.
• the amount of food I need to keep going at this pace. I’ve craved sugar and carbs at a new level. My appetite has been ravenous. (And for hose of you assuming I’m losing lots of weight, I’ll almost certainly end the trip within a few pounds of my starting weight. The kind of fuel needed for this level of work comes from what I’m eating now, not from fat I’ve been storing. Fat takes too long to translate into fuel.)
• learning in the face of the greatest physical challenge I’ve undertaken in my 48 years that NOTHING is impossible for me as I draw on God for all I need.
