Renewed faith in humankind

I had an experience tonight that renews my faith in humankind. I was out riding after work and I always have my rear pack mounted on my bike. It is roomy and I keep my stuff in it like billfold, sandals, rain jacket, tube, pump, etc. Well it is a snap-in attachment and I had it once that it fell off, but noticed it right away. Tonight I was about 15 miles into my ride and looked behind me and the pack was gone. PANIC! Not only my stuff mentioned above, but my hearing aids that are worth about $4,000! I turned around and retraced my route and boy did I pedal hard.
Nothing was lying along the road all the way back home and my heart had sunk and was already thinking about cancelling credit cards, new drivers license needed and all the other things involved. I just prayed that some honest soul had found it and would call in the next day or so. I went in the house and the answering machine had a msg on it. It was from a Michelle whose husband had been out for a bike ride and found it along the road. What a relief and what renewed confidence in humankind that there are good, honest people out there.
I went and picked it up and all is well!

Prayer Requests.....

Want to get involved in the SeaToSea Tour but don't know what you can do?

Well we sure could use some prayer warriors! For a list of current items to pray about, go to the seatosea.org link on "My Links" and on the home page, click on "Get Involved", then click "Prayer Requests". We have seen some amazing answers from God for several items already!

Winter Training

So, what does a person do during winter months in the North country to get in shape for biking across the country? Beats me....I have never done this before!
I have developed my own array of muscle building and cardio training. I have the following equipment that I trade off on.....
---A loaned Schwinn AirDyne from brother and sister-in-law, Rick and Bonnie.
---A loaned bike trainer stand that I have my trail bike on, from Pete Drost.
---My own treadmill for jogging/walking.
---My son's rowing machine.
---Arm weights.
---Exercise pad for doing back and abdomen strengthening exercises.

I hate jogging, so I have been spending most of my sessions on the Schwinn AirDyne, riding 20 miles at level 3, which takes about 70 minutes. I have found this to be harder than level terrain bike riding and is a real workout, as if you were riding uphill the whole way. This gets my heart rate up in the 150+ area. I am trying to do this 3-4 times a week.
I have dropped about 15 pounds since last Fall and hope to trim some more off before Spring comes and the more enjoyable outdoor training begins.

Riding for a Cause.....

More important than fulfilling my dream of riding in a cross-continental bike tour, is the cause for which we are riding. The primary purpose of the tour is to raise awareness of global poverty and raising monies to break the cycle of poverty for one person, one family, one community at a time. Read more about this and where the monies go, on the tour website at www.seatosea.org. As participants, we will need to keep that primary in our minds, as there will be plenty of temptation to turn the focus on ourselves and what we are doing. It needs to be all about doing what Christ would do and told us to do.... helping the hungry, the poor, and oppressed.

The beginning of a blog.

Well, here I go....creating and maintaining a blog is new to me!

I have been involved with getting ready for the SeaToSea tour since the Summer of 2007. When I received a postcard announcing the tour, I knew I had to check it out further. I checked out the early web site information and Julie and I obtained our home church's, Haven Christian Reformed, sponsorship approval in August. We applied and I was accepted as a full tour, coast to coast, cyclist and Julie as a volunteer for the tour as a SAG (support and gear) vehicle driver. Since then, I also gratefully received the sponsorship of South Olive CRC as well. As a sponsoring church, that congregation promises to pray for the cyclists and tour, encourage them, and support their fund raising efforts with scheduled offerings.