Monday, July 31, 2017

Facebook Posts

Regrettably, I am not finding time to write blog entries on this tour.  I try to post a brief update on my Facebook account once in a while.  If you'd like to follow our progress, please friend me on Facebook.   Thanks.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Sunday afternoon

I wrote this on Sunday but couldn't past it until now.

Even though Sunday is the first day of the week, today feels like the end of Week 1. It truly is a gift to have a day of rest while on the tour. 

It is so very warm here in Vernon.  It looks like we'll have more of the same heat throughout the next week. Since it is cooler in the early morning, I did some laundry in a bucket before breakfast. It reminds me that we are fasting from some of the normal comforts of Western life in order to provide justice, food, shelter, clothes, etc., for people around the world.  Check out the work of World Renew and Partners Worldwide on their websites and the Tesfa Foundation on Facebook.

There is WiFi here at the school, but for some reason, it's not connecting on my phone and the signal is too weak for data.  I'm not sure when I'll get to post this.  Life is like that on the road.

I sometimes post a few pictures on Facebook, so feel free to friend me there as well as checking the blog here.

Have a wonderful week, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Settling In

We're already at the end of Day 4 on Sea to Sea 2017.  Everything is going well--no accidents or injuries thus far and only 8 flat tires. For some reason they have us report our flats and keep a running tally.

Wade and Meika came to White Rock, BC to see us off on Monday, along with Rudy's mum and sister-in-law, Wendy.  We also got to see several of the Folkerts' nieces and nephews on Sunday.

Tuesday was an uneventful 60 mile ride with a stop in Rudy's hometown of Chilliwack.  Rudy's mom even biked with us for a few miles.

Yesterday we biked from Hope, BC to Manning Park, BC.  We climbed over 6,000 feet in about 42 miles.  Some of it was 9% grades. Yes, it was steep!  I felt better at the end of the ride than I expected, but my legs were a little sluggish today.  Tomorrow we'll bike 81 miles. 

Tonight a local Baptist Church here in Princeton, BC made supper for all 90 of us and told how they are serving people in this community with their food bank and their firewood ministry.  Once a year they have a picnic out in the woods and everyone brings their chainsaws and they cut and split wood to be given away the following year.  

We're getting used to the group camping thing again and are amazed at how quickly 60 pounds of gear (what we're allowed per person) can become so disorganized!   I just heard another rider say, "I gotta get organized here!"  My thoughts exactly! 

That's it for tonight.  Thanks for checking in!

Friday, June 16, 2017

T minus 9

The journey has begun!  Today we are on our way to bring our car near to the ending point of the bike tour.

We packed last night.  Okay, so maybe it would be more accurate to say we packed, weighed, added it all up, unpacked and repacked a few times. (Read: many times.)  We get to  bring 60 pounds of gear per person, including the tent, air mattresses, sleeping bags, clothes, spare parts, electronics, etc. We got to a point where both of us were too tired to trust our decisions about what to take and what to leave behind.  We went to bed knowing we still had to downsize. 

Things always look better in the morning, and this morning our weigh-in showed we had pounds to spare!  We must have been too tired to even do the math correctly!  But this was good news, because we could now use our heavier, wheeled duffle bag.  Every morning and night we will carry our gear between the truck and our tent site, so those wheels will come in handy!  Some days we'll lug our gear only 50 yards, but other days, it might be over 200 yards.

It seems that precious little has gone like clockwork in preparing for this tour.  We've had bike problems, backordered items, scheduling issues, end-of-school stuff, fundraising challenges, crazy windy weather for training, and the list goes on and on. 

When all the planning is said and done, all we can do is bring ourselves to this tour just as we are--feeling unprepared, questioning if we brought the right gear for the unkown weather conditions (especially in the mountains in June!), and realizing in the end that . . .

It is what it is.
And we are who we are. 
This tour will be what it will be. 
We're looking forward to it--the known and the unknown.
Through it all, people around the world will receive God's love in action.

Thanks for journeying with us.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Training Ground and Wealthy Privilege

This was the view from my training ride this morning.  52 miles.  Moderate wind.

I would never use the word "wealthy" to describe myself, but when I think about the statistics of poverty--nearly half the world's population lives on less than $2.50/day--I realize I am a wealthy Westerner.  Having the option to give up a summer to ride bike to raise money for others is a luxury.  Being able to choose to forgo the comforts of home and live with just 60 pounds of possessions for the summer is a luxury.  

I'm feeling some wealthy guilt today. (You know, like survivor's guilt.)  This started in 2013 with our first Sea to Sea ride and it's coming back again as I train, even though we've made some adjustments in our life style (smaller house, one car, less stuff).

These were some of my thoughts while riding today.

I'll keep this short--I'm writing this from my phone, like I hope to do when we're on the road.