Category: On the Road

June 26.

We left Craig, CO early in the morning, and it was a beautiful day.  First we headed toward Steam Boat Springs along the Yampa River.  At Steamboat, the climb up to Rabbit Ears Pass began.  Several of us took the van up to the next rest stop in order to skip the giant climb, and I was among them.  I was planning to do that.  The summit was over 9000 ft. and we crossed the Continental Divide today.  I wonder, however, if I am taking myself out of the game too early.  The day that I really lost it because I thought it was my fault that the support team was stretched too thin may still be affecting me below my conscious awareness.  Because whenever the sweeps catch me, I feel like I should hurry up and jump in the van—even though people tell me that I don’t need to do that.

We had lots of beautiful green scenery as we progressed up the mountain.  I got to see the “rabbit ears” that Rabbit Ears Pass is named for.

The most exciting event today was that the van broke down just outside of town.  They had stopped to take pictures of the riders as they came in, and then the van wouldn’t start again.  We ran shuttles to unload all our gear and food.  Luckily, we had an extra vehicle to help, as Wes and Cheryl had friends visiting who had a big SUV.  They could carry a lot of gear.

Once the stuff from the van was brought in, the dinner team was able to get something delicious put together.  Henry and Grace were stuck out on the road for quite a while.  They tried to get help from AAA, but that was not working well.  Finally, a local person who was good with cars was called.  He believes in divine intervention and wouldn’t take payment.  He diagnosed the problem as a bad starter.  A couple of our media interns were dispatched to Silverthorne to buy a starter and the mechanic came early in the morning to install it.  Everything worked out well—except someone took my sleeping pad and I had to use one that wouldn’t blow up—either that or wait ’til every pad was claimed and take one of the leftovers.  I was too tired to wait.  Turns out that someone took mine thinking that every one in use had already been claimed.  Oh, well.

Today was quite challenging and we got to see all kinds of terrain through the day!  We started off in Sacramento and went along a river on a bike path for quite a ways.  It wasn’t a rail-trail, so it had more hills and bumps than a rail trail does.  It was beautiful and a fun ride.

We began our climb out of the valley and got up to some high prairie lands.  As we were coming out of Folsom, we were looking for a road called Prairie City.  I did not know there were any prairies out here.  There were a couple of stretches when we had a headwind, so that added a bit more to the challenge.

Pioneer is a little town in the foothills (?) of the Sierra Nevadas.  I decided to take the sag wagon in to our destination after about 46 miles of riding.  I was not the only one, and I was glad I did once I saw the parts that I was missing.  Probably about a third of the participants took the sag wagon.

I got to ride with Macy today, and really enjoyed visiting with her during that time.  I started to let some negative self-talk into my head–also one of the major challenges of a trip like this–but Macy was pretty good at helping me through it.

Tomorrow is a doozy of a day, up into South Lake Tahoe.  I honestly don’t know if I will be able to do it.

I was hoping with all the training that I did that I would not be the slowest rider on the trip, but I think that I still am.  Our second day of riding went better than the first for me.  I had some pretty bad cramps on the first day.  I tried a new product which did help, but I was stopped in my tracks by intense cramps a handful of times.  The second day we went farther and it was also hotter, but I didn’t get any cramps at all.  It’s true that dry heat is not as hot!  It was 92 degrees out, but felt more like 85 since I am accustomed to heat always accompanied by humidity.

I did get a flat tire near the end of the day.  (I can fix my own flat!  For a long time, I couldn’t do it because I didn’t have the hand strength to get the tire back on the rim.  YouTube saved me, and I learned a trick that doesn’t take oodles of hand strength!)

We went through the Sonoma and Napa valleys, and within a couple of miles of the Jelly Belly factory, so one of our support team members stopped there and bought a Jelly Belly sampler!

In the evening we stayed at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Vacaville.  We received a very warm welcome, and church members paid close attention to our presentation about the Fuller Center.  The more I learn, the more impressed I am with the Fuller Center and the work they do.

Donate to the Fuller Center

Right before supper, I decided to have another jelly bean or two, felt something strange in my mouth and discovered that a crown had come off one of my teeth.  This is definitely a circumstance where a smartphone comes in handy.  I Googled “emergency dentist near me” and got a phone number which was actually a kind of clearing house connected to 1 800 dentist!  I got an appointment for the next morning, hoping that someone from our team would be able to take me to the appointment.  (The person I was told to ask, Phil, was out marking the trail for the next day.)

My tooth is now fixed.  I was disappointed to miss the day from Vacaville to Sacramento, because it looked like it would be really fun–very little uphill climbing to do, and there might even have been tailwinds.  But, riding with Phil, mine was the first bicycle to reach our destination–something that is unlikely to happen ever again!  We also had a good day, even though we did no cycling.

It seems a little crazy to have a day off after only one day riding!  Nonetheless, that is what we did.  We rode on Saturday to Novato, CA where we stayed overnight two nights at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.  I was able to attend a worship service with them on both Saturday evening and Sunday morning (no wonder my brother and sister call me Church Lady!)  I was happy when the sermon was slightly different at both services–same structure but a little different version.  At the Sunday morning service, I was astounded by the view that I had not even noticed the previous evening.  In addition, the light coming in the stained glass in the morning sun was wonderful.  I had left my phone/camera in the other room so I wasn’t able to get a picture.

One of my favorite things on this bike adventure, is going to be the chance to attend different churches each Sunday for worship.  As a United Methodist pastor, I don’t often get the chance to simply be a part of worship without having to lead it or plan it.  This was Pentecost Sunday, remembering the story when the Holy Spirit came with power (Acts 2) and rested on the 120 disciples who were gathered for prayer.  The spirit drove them to proclaim the great deeds of the Lord—and each one present heard the proclamation in their own language.

I was moved to tears when, during the reading of this story, people started talking.  I wondered if I had missed something and was supposed to be reading along, but I soon realized that they were reading in foreign languages.  Many of them had come from other countries and were reading in their mother tongues.  The babble was very confusing and I was as confused as people were in Jerusalem that day.  We also were a part of the confirmation of a girl from the congregation, and I was able to pass on to her a blessing that I received as I began this journey, from Paul’s letter to the Colossians:  “asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father,”

Another thing that I am really looking forward to is the chance to meet people from all over the country.  I want to understand something of what has made us so divided as a nation, and I want to be part of the healing.  I believe that God has called me to this journey, and that God will be able to use it in some way.