As we rode south of Brownsville, Minnesota on Wednesday we passed a sign that told us Caledonia was 20 miles away. Made me feel like I was a lot closer to home than I was, but it was a good feeling.
As I was climbing up the hills in northern Iowa the thought occurred to me that Iowa is supposedly flat. Let me assure you that there are large parts of Iowa that are not. We climbed more than one 12% grade today but when we also rode along the top of several ridges today.
The shapes of the land, the colors and different textures in this very rich agricultural area was a beautiful scene. It reminded me of the hymn "This is My Father's World" so I sang a couple verses when I could get the breath to do it.
Sorry no mileage info, etc. Can't find it right now.
Dan
Friday, July 25, 2008
July 25
Today I rode 93 miles, averaged 14.7 mph with 6.5 hours riding time.
Our route ran along the RAGBRAI route today. This is a ride across Iowa that has been going on for years, having grown to thousands of riders. People come from all over the world to participate in this event. We had some fun conversations with many of the 20,000 riders as they were riding their sixth day of seven. Stuart and I talked with Retha, who was riding bandit (unofficial rider) from a local community. She and her husband rode across the country East to West a few years ago unsupported together. It was great to talk with her about all the unique challenges and blessings of a ride like that.
We also talked with a couple at one of the larger rest stops in Mechanicsville. Both were very interested in the purpose for our riding sea to see and we received a $20 donation on the spot.
At the end of the day today we encountered a real detour and had another detour on that route. It turns out that everyone else rode through the first detour as it was passable with a bike and had only 75 total miles. As you read at the beginning of our blog, we rode 93 miles. That proved to be a costly decision for us.
We are hosted tonight by two churches in Muscatine, Iowa.
One more day of riding this week and we will be enjoying a weekend visit from Ronda and a few of Zack's friends.
Talk to you later.
Dan
Our route ran along the RAGBRAI route today. This is a ride across Iowa that has been going on for years, having grown to thousands of riders. People come from all over the world to participate in this event. We had some fun conversations with many of the 20,000 riders as they were riding their sixth day of seven. Stuart and I talked with Retha, who was riding bandit (unofficial rider) from a local community. She and her husband rode across the country East to West a few years ago unsupported together. It was great to talk with her about all the unique challenges and blessings of a ride like that.
We also talked with a couple at one of the larger rest stops in Mechanicsville. Both were very interested in the purpose for our riding sea to see and we received a $20 donation on the spot.
At the end of the day today we encountered a real detour and had another detour on that route. It turns out that everyone else rode through the first detour as it was passable with a bike and had only 75 total miles. As you read at the beginning of our blog, we rode 93 miles. That proved to be a costly decision for us.
We are hosted tonight by two churches in Muscatine, Iowa.
One more day of riding this week and we will be enjoying a weekend visit from Ronda and a few of Zack's friends.
Talk to you later.
Dan
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Things That Are True
Ronda loves me.
She misses me.
She is coming to see me.
It is a wonderful and powerful thing to be loved deeply and completely by another person. The three statements above still amaze me sometimes (I am not always easy to love) but they are true nonetheless, I have no doubt.
That there was a point in my life where I found myself looking into the eyes of a beautiful woman, with love, and realized that she was looking back at me...well it's a gift from God.
I will be riding to meet her in a couple days as she drives to Kewanee, Illinois to meet me.
Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.
I am a blessed man.
Dan
She misses me.
She is coming to see me.
It is a wonderful and powerful thing to be loved deeply and completely by another person. The three statements above still amaze me sometimes (I am not always easy to love) but they are true nonetheless, I have no doubt.
That there was a point in my life where I found myself looking into the eyes of a beautiful woman, with love, and realized that she was looking back at me...well it's a gift from God.
I will be riding to meet her in a couple days as she drives to Kewanee, Illinois to meet me.
Absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder.
I am a blessed man.
Dan
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19
As we rode out on Saturday morning, we were accompanied by Pastor Brad and Hank Larsen, the host that Paul Bayfield, Mike Scott & I stayed with. Hank was 68 years old on Saturday and rode at the front for 10 miles before he and Brad turned back. Hank is celebrating by competing in a triathalon today (Sunday). He has a very cool racing bike and recently averaged 21 mph over a 25 mile race route. Way to go Hank! An update later on how he did in the triahalon.
It was wet in the morning and rained lightly on and off. Things cleared off in late morning and we had hot weather as the afternoon went on. I rode strong in the morning and then seemed to run out of energy after lunch. I rode with Mike the last two-thirds of the day, which is kind of like having GPS on-board except that Mike can actually carry on a conversation. We always have a good time when we ride together. During lunch this day, Ralph King, a local farmer stopped by to chat with us. Ralph is 85 and was out for his daily 2-mile walk when he saw our vehicles. He was pleased to hear that we are riding to help tell more kids about Jesus' love. He encouraged us on our way and committed to pray for success and safety.
Mike's navigational skills notwithstanding, we could not find the bike path where it should have been, 3 miles from our destination in Northfield. We ended up coming in on County Route 246, or something, and before we knew it we had joined the route of a local 300-mile fundraising ride. The picture top right is me with the three ladies that encouraged us as we arrived in Northfield and finished off our 77 mile day, averaging 14.3 mph with 5.5 hours of riding time.
An entertaining, unique end to the day.
Dan
It was wet in the morning and rained lightly on and off. Things cleared off in late morning and we had hot weather as the afternoon went on. I rode strong in the morning and then seemed to run out of energy after lunch. I rode with Mike the last two-thirds of the day, which is kind of like having GPS on-board except that Mike can actually carry on a conversation. We always have a good time when we ride together. During lunch this day, Ralph King, a local farmer stopped by to chat with us. Ralph is 85 and was out for his daily 2-mile walk when he saw our vehicles. He was pleased to hear that we are riding to help tell more kids about Jesus' love. He encouraged us on our way and committed to pray for success and safety.
Mike's navigational skills notwithstanding, we could not find the bike path where it should have been, 3 miles from our destination in Northfield. We ended up coming in on County Route 246, or something, and before we knew it we had joined the route of a local 300-mile fundraising ride. The picture top right is me with the three ladies that encouraged us as we arrived in Northfield and finished off our 77 mile day, averaging 14.3 mph with 5.5 hours of riding time.
An entertaining, unique end to the day.
Dan
Friday, July 18, 2008
July 18 Ice in my shoes
Today we rode 80 miles, averaging 16.5 mph. We had a 4mph tailwind for much of the ride and made the most of it. We arrived in Glencoe, MN riding faster than our average. It was a good day.
Tonight we are staying at the home of Hank & Judy Larsen. Hank is a former teacher/track coach. He suggested I ice my feet to relieve the swelling I am having from all the peddling. I am not sure which hurts worse, the "hot feet" sensation I get toward the end of the day or the ten minutes of icing to ease the swelling in my feet. He is confident that this will help my situation and he certainly seemed to get a kick out the look on my face as I dipped my feet in the ice.
We crossed the 2000 mile threshold today with a total of 2031 miles so far. It has been the incredible challenge and opportunity we had hoped for and we are so grateful to be able to experience this together.
Good night.
Dan
Tonight we are staying at the home of Hank & Judy Larsen. Hank is a former teacher/track coach. He suggested I ice my feet to relieve the swelling I am having from all the peddling. I am not sure which hurts worse, the "hot feet" sensation I get toward the end of the day or the ten minutes of icing to ease the swelling in my feet. He is confident that this will help my situation and he certainly seemed to get a kick out the look on my face as I dipped my feet in the ice.
We crossed the 2000 mile threshold today with a total of 2031 miles so far. It has been the incredible challenge and opportunity we had hoped for and we are so grateful to be able to experience this together.
Good night.
Dan
Thursday, July 17, 2008
July 16 & 17 Hanging Out in New London, Minnesota
We rode 58 miles on the 16.
Averaged 13.7 mph with a few miles of tailwind that helped us to 25mph for a little while. Obviously a short while with an average speed of half that amount.
We enjoyed an extra day of rest this week on the 17th to participate in The Sonshine Festival near New London (in Wilmar). We shared with several hundred people that stopped by our booth to learn about our ride and the minsitry of YFC. There are 20,000 in attendance and it looks like they will have beautiful weather for the event. It was blazing hot today.
Stuart & I enjoyed the hospitality of Graden & Becky West, members of Peace Lutheran Church. Their home is built on a 24 acre piece of property that used to be a cornfield (in 1979). If you visited here today you would not ever suspect it. Since they purchased it, they have planted approximately 7,000 different trees and had several "volunteers" show up on there own. They moved around a lot (16 times) and chose to return to New London upon retirement. We took a driving tour last night around half a dozen of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota and learned a lot about the history and connectedness of many of the lakes here.
Graden is an avid outdoorsman and I learned a lot about fly-fishing. Makes sense with 10,000 lakes around you. He is also a bow hunter and makes his own bows and arrows in his basement. It was fascinating to learn all the detail and the steps involved in making a wood bow.
Becky is a wonderful cook and we enjoyed two delicious dinners with them. Wednesday night we had pan-fryed Bluegill & Crappie. I had the leftovers for breakfast today. Tasted great both times.
A frivolous comment:
Becky had a grandfather who always went by the name "Captain Dan". Stuart has a fascination with nicknames for me, can't tell you why. I am certain that I have not heard the last of this one. :)
Thanks for your prayers and for all your support.
Dan
Averaged 13.7 mph with a few miles of tailwind that helped us to 25mph for a little while. Obviously a short while with an average speed of half that amount.
We enjoyed an extra day of rest this week on the 17th to participate in The Sonshine Festival near New London (in Wilmar). We shared with several hundred people that stopped by our booth to learn about our ride and the minsitry of YFC. There are 20,000 in attendance and it looks like they will have beautiful weather for the event. It was blazing hot today.
Stuart & I enjoyed the hospitality of Graden & Becky West, members of Peace Lutheran Church. Their home is built on a 24 acre piece of property that used to be a cornfield (in 1979). If you visited here today you would not ever suspect it. Since they purchased it, they have planted approximately 7,000 different trees and had several "volunteers" show up on there own. They moved around a lot (16 times) and chose to return to New London upon retirement. We took a driving tour last night around half a dozen of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota and learned a lot about the history and connectedness of many of the lakes here.
Graden is an avid outdoorsman and I learned a lot about fly-fishing. Makes sense with 10,000 lakes around you. He is also a bow hunter and makes his own bows and arrows in his basement. It was fascinating to learn all the detail and the steps involved in making a wood bow.
Becky is a wonderful cook and we enjoyed two delicious dinners with them. Wednesday night we had pan-fryed Bluegill & Crappie. I had the leftovers for breakfast today. Tasted great both times.
A frivolous comment:
Becky had a grandfather who always went by the name "Captain Dan". Stuart has a fascination with nicknames for me, can't tell you why. I am certain that I have not heard the last of this one. :)
Thanks for your prayers and for all your support.
Dan
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
July 15 The Best Bike Path
Today we rode 78 miles but I don't have a figure for average speed or ride time. What I can tell you is that we rode 37 miles on the best bike path I have encountered in recent memory. From Dalton to Alexandria we had a paved path, 12 feet wide. It was mostly flat but had only long gradual up & down grades. The best part about this path was the lack of intersections with automobile-driven roads. It was mostly driveways and tractor paths that we crossed and the visibility was so good at the crossroads that we rarely had to stop or even slow down. It was relaxing to have the whole "road" to ourselves and not have to stop every mile or two as is often the case on bike paths.
The roads today were definitely better than yesterday as well. Once in Alexandria, we visited the local bike shop, watched some coverage of The Tour de France and enjoyed two large party subs provided by George, the shop owner, who also owned the local Subway shop. It was very cool to hang there with George! He was very knowledgeable and got us on the right track with the foot problems Zack and I have been having.
We spent the night at Hampton Inn & Suites, through the generosity of a local supporter of YFC. I spent two hours in the evening with maintenance & repair issues. With Paul Luedtke, our riding mechanic, I repaired my second broken spoke in a week ( he commented that this was likely due to the amazing strength in my legs as I pedal? or maybe that was me suggesting that). Anyway, we also got the rear derailer shifting properly and have not had to mess with either of those issues since.
OH HAPPY DAY!!
As it turns out this has given me time to deal with foot pain issues for both Zack & me. His seem to be solv-able, but expensive. More on this later I am sure.
See Ya!
Dan
The roads today were definitely better than yesterday as well. Once in Alexandria, we visited the local bike shop, watched some coverage of The Tour de France and enjoyed two large party subs provided by George, the shop owner, who also owned the local Subway shop. It was very cool to hang there with George! He was very knowledgeable and got us on the right track with the foot problems Zack and I have been having.
We spent the night at Hampton Inn & Suites, through the generosity of a local supporter of YFC. I spent two hours in the evening with maintenance & repair issues. With Paul Luedtke, our riding mechanic, I repaired my second broken spoke in a week ( he commented that this was likely due to the amazing strength in my legs as I pedal? or maybe that was me suggesting that). Anyway, we also got the rear derailer shifting properly and have not had to mess with either of those issues since.
OH HAPPY DAY!!
As it turns out this has given me time to deal with foot pain issues for both Zack & me. His seem to be solv-able, but expensive. More on this later I am sure.
See Ya!
Dan
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