SPOKIN' HOME: A Great Day!

June 7 continued and June 8 - Leoti, KS - odometer at 3 miles.

Nate, I promise we will be home for your birthday!!!

Although Jack loves to post this blog I thought I would share a few observations. Everyday we have faced some physical obstacles, heat, hills, and WIND, but everyday we have had the strength to get though them and it does make us stronger. We are grateful for this and for the beautiful scenery we have encountered.

The first three days we could look up and see the snow capped mountains, seeing the mountains is always uplifting. In addition we often had a stream, river, or waterfall at our side. It was awesome! When we got into the high desert country with its mostly brown terrain there were patches of orange poppy colored cactus blooming. They were beautiful! Today we passed green blowing fields of wheat.

I also want to share that a trip like this humbles you, I have lost all sense of vanity! When I take off my helmet I have a perfect mullet and it has not stopped me from going into restaurants, I kind of feel sorry for Jack that he has to go in with me. When we get home I will share all of my bathroom experiences!

Well that was Mary Kay's blog update. I know she thought I was being too negative and maybe coming across as complaining a little too much. That may be, but I couldn't do this without her, even with her mullet. And the bathroom experiences best be left to face to face conversation.

I left off last night saying we had a great day of meeting and sharing experiences with people, even if the heat, humidity, and wind had its affect. We started the day in good shape with just a little wind and good road. Not too far into the day we came across a lady who had a flat tire on her car. I was able to do something for others. After all we have had done for us it was good to do something for someone else.

Later in the day we rode into Sheridan Lake, CO. There was a great little convenience store that was in the right place at the right tine. We got a good lunch of submarine sandwiches and planned to say an hour or so to make a decision as to what the rest of the day would bring. More heat and more wind were predicted. A young biker came in and we talked to him for an hour and a half. He was riding to Minnesota to meet "his lady" and start work on an education degree. He was riding solo and had ridden in Australia and other places. He was very interesting and talked quite a bit about his biking routine. He often sleeps along the road anywhere and averages 75 miles a day. The three of us then got into a discussion with a truck drive who wondered why we thought we should be on the road with him. He and other motorized vehicles pay the gas taxes for the roads and we don't. He was concerned about safety and to be considerate of his opinions you also have to know that he had to make a choice a few years ago, of hitting a biker or hitting an oncoming car going out of its lane on a hill. Fortunately the biker lived, but it did have an affect on his outlook. After a pretty long discussion I think he had a better appreciation of what we were trying to do and we had a better appreciation of his concerns.

Well we needed to make a decision about what we were going to do. Outside of the store we made our decision quickly. We were staying in Sheridan Lake the heat and wind were too much for us. Our young friend took off, and hopefully got another 20 miles that afternoon. The whole night was extremely windy. We were very fortunate that a local church has a ministry of helping bikers. They offered their nursery room for us for the night. It was a beautiful church, air conditioned, nice kitchen, and Internet. It was a great night. There were 75 members of the congregation and the pastor was from Village Ministries. They place non-denominational pastors in small communities needing a pastor. The ministry raises part of the cost and the church the other part. They were also having their vacation bible school this week. The parents had really gone to great lengths to organize and decorate the church with their theme. Everyone from the community, church, and the pastor's family were extremely nice to us. We have found wonderful people in many different types of places on this trip.