Pedaled 88 miles today after doing 98 yesterday and we will do 80 tomorrow, so we will get to Portland, Maine on time!! Today was a wonderful day. It was cool but sunny, with no wind, flat roads, great scenery, and very little traffic. We are in Rensselaer, Indiana tonight.

We left Illinois and entered Indiana and still there is bazillions of acres of corn.! We crossed the State line while on a little country road with no lines on it so I don’t have a picture of “Entering Indiana” though Mary Ann and Patty made one on a piece of paper so I could get a picture, but it just wasn’t the same!

the ladies are flying home tomorrow so John and I will be on our own. It has been very nice having them stopped along the road every 10 miles with snacks for us to eat. Though I haven’t lost much weight since they have been here!

I will write more tomorrow. Very tired and sleepy tonight. Love you all. Dee

We have seen hundreds of wind Turbines as we have been riding our bicycles across Illinois. I was curious so I googled it tonight and read that Illinois has over 2,500 wind turbines which supply electricity for over one million homes. It sounds like the goal is to supply 100% of the States electrical needs from the wind eventually. There certainly is a lot of wind!!!

The other thing that there is a lot of is corn. Corn is everywhere. I can’t believe the bazillions of acres of corn there is in this State! The corn makes great cover for a potty break and because it is everywhere and right down next to the road waiting for a rest stop or gas station is not necessary, cool!

Today was very cold. 38 degrees when we started this morning, but I had my long underwear under my biking shorts and three long sleeved nylon athletic shirts on. The one next to my skin was soaked when I took it off this evening and Patty made quit a fuss about what it smelled like! It was sunny in spite of the cold and the wind was light and from the North so it was a non factor today.

We had our most miles so far on the trip today, 98 miles. It was so close to 100 I thought seriously about biking up the road a ways to make the century mark, but I was to tired to do it or really care. We are in Pontiac, Illinois tonight. One more day and Patty and Mary Ann fly home.

i love you all very much, Dee

Because of weather, hills, wind, and old tired bodies we got one day behind on our schedule. Today is our rest day so John and I took our maps and iPad and we spent some time recalculating the rest of the trip and by picking up a few miles each day we have it figured to end right on time, we will make our plane and be home October 3rd! Yeh!

i have a cool App on my iPad where you can put in pins of the route from our paper map that I purchased from Adventure cyclist Association of the sanctioned route called the “Northern Tier” that we are following. Each time I put in another pin it gives me the total miles to that point for that route for the day. When it goes over 70 miles we move to the next town that would not be over 90 miles that has a camp ground, or a Warm Shower host, or a cheap motel and begin sending texts and making phone calls until we get something lined up. We then type the name of that town in on our list along with the address and phone number where we are staying. We got the entire rest of the trip planned out today while drinking 3 cups of coffee.

I enjoy planning the future, and making plans on how to accomplish something like what we are doing. Often the planning is as fun as the doing is for me. Planning gives me a feeling of confidence and replaces a nervousness or even fear of the unknown with a great and positive sense of anticipation of adventure and accomplishment.   But, all plans are subject to change. Reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses in Proverbs, “The mind of man plans his way, but The Lord directs his steps”. Proverbs 16:9

God expects that we will do all we can to be successful and to do well, being wise, diligent, and responsible, but we also acknowledge that He is in charge, and so we are flexible and submissive and trusting at the same time. Being diligent to plan but being genuinely flexible and trusting when our plans  change without getting uptight is a fun way to live life with God.

I love you all very much, Dee

Left Muscatine, Iowa this morning and entered Illinois, and the most observable fact was it was pretty much flat!! Yeh!! A few minor rollers, but nothing to difficult. The biggest difficulty today was it was very cold. Didn’t get above 50 degrees today and the wind was blowing at 10 mph from the North. We were pedaling East so the wind was hitting us on our left side. Didn’t hinder our riding much, but it did seem to blow right through us. By the time we finished riding today I didn’t think I would ever get warm again, but a very hot shower thawed me out and warmed me up good. We pedaled 80 miles today and saw corn, more corn, and more corn. I have never seen so much corn in my life. We are in Kewanee, Illinois tonight.

I am enjoying Patty being with us, and hearing all of her praise about my muscles and good looks 🙂 but she flies back home on Monday ;-(

Tomorrow is our rest day so I am going to sleep a lot, read a lot, do some writing, spend time talking to Patty, but I won’t even look at my bicycle!!

i love you all very much! Dee

Here is a picture of the Mississippi River from a high point above the river that we have biked along for almost a week. It has been a very beautiful part of the bicycle trip. In fact all of the trip has been so great in terms of seeing the country. Pedaling along at 10 mph you see everything and smell everything on both sides of the road. It truly is an awesome touring experience. 

Another aspect of a bicycle trip like this is the hours and hours of solitude, and the thinking, pondering, reflecting, creative thinking that goes along with that solitude. It is marvelously renewing and rejuvenating for me. I am very much an introvert by nature and though I love everyone at JBC very much, I get drained emotionally little by little over time and lose my passion and fire for ministry and don’t even realize how much until I get away on a trip like this, and start to feel the fire coming back with more heat each day. Pastoring is a teaching job, but mostly it is a leadership responsibility, and the leadership is a modeling style that requires enthusiasm and a contagious attitude that draws and attracts people to a way of living. A tired and dull man doesn’t motivate and attract much. 

This trip has been an experience of a lifetime and I am so thankful to The Lord and all those in my life that I have been able to experience what most just dream about. 

Today we we started pedaling at Dyersville and finished at Muscatine, Iowa. We went 87 miles in about 10 hours. Rained a little at the start and was overcast all day but cool is good when you are pushing hard on those pedals all day. Some favorable winds today. The worst was a side wind that occasionally would swing around and give us a good push. Lots of fun having a 13 mph tail wind occasionally. The hills were as many but much less steep and tall. We had a good day. The ladies drive up 10 miles ahead of us and when we get to where they are parked reading, talking or sleeping they jump out with water, bananas, gator aid, cookies, etc, and I always get big kiss from Patty, and a comment on how macho my legs are looking 🙂

tomorrow morning we cross the Mississippi River into Illinois and say goodby to Iowa. We are planning on an 80 mile day. The roads look way flatter and it is forcast to be clear but cold with a high of 60 degrees.

I love you all very much. Dee

We pedaled to Dyersville, Iowa for lunch. Nice having Patty and John’s wife Mary Ann along with us. We finished lunch and they took off in the rented car to find a camp site for tonight. We heard from the owner of the Resturant that big rain was coming tonight so we called the ladies and said, let’s find a cheap motel instead so we don’t have to camp in the rain. They were very much in favor of that. We left Dyersville and pedeled 20 miles to Farley and found the road we needed to go on was under major construction and closed. We asked around and found out that the only way to get where we wanted to go was go back to Dyersville and take a different road. The ladies called and said that they could find no camp sites, or motels any where near where we wanted to be and the only place that had anything was Dyersville. OK, back to Dyersville. We were planning on 88 miles today, but only ended up with 60 that counted. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Looks like we will be riding in the rain tomorrow, but the hills look like they will be much smaller from the profile of the route on my iPad, and wind is minimal. The goal is 90 miles tomorrow as we try to reach Muscatine, Iowa. We have been heading South following the Mississippi River, but when we get to Muscatine we head straight East into Illinois. Flat maybe??? We can only hope 🙂 love you all. Dee

Here is what the day is like. I thought Iowa was flat!!! Lots of 8 % hills up to 2 miles to the top. Plus 10 mph head wind. We are used to it but we can’t get the miles we need to stay on schedule. We have one more sluff day and we can skip a rest day if we need to, and last resort would be to spend $150 to change our departure date. The hope is we will get some flat and some tail wind and make up some miles. I have lots of energy now with my Patty smiling at me 🙂

Wow, what a nice surprise!!! Patty flew in and joined us. I was totally surprised!! What a great wife 🙂

Today there was no wind, there was no rain, there were no bugs, there was no heat, about 70 degrees most of the day, there were no hills, and there were no panniers on our bikes, Mary Ann had them in the car. We bicycled 70 miles in about 5 hours. It was the number one easiest day of the trip. Very, very nice enjoyable day. We are camped tonight on the Mississippi River again at Lansing, Iowa.  Iowa is corn, corn, corn and more corn.

I said no bugs, but there was one exception. I had a bee or yellow jacket fly into my mouth. I didn’t know what kind of bug it was and I was trying to spit it out as it buzzed around frantically in my mouth. He stung me and I chomped down on him and then spit him out. Boy, that hurt like crazy! 

We pulled into a gas station to use the bathroom and just as we got our bikes on the kickstands about 50 motorcycles came roaring in and parked all around where we were standing. Being an ex motorcycle dude I started talking to them, and I got the coldest, rudest response. One of the young girls with the group said don’t mind them, they think that because you are riding a bicycle that you must be some kind of environmentalist or something!

tomorrow we will be going about 80 miles and it looks like from the weather report that we will have a 10 mph head wind, and the profile shows a bunch of big hills. Oh well, I guess one easy day is all we get this week. 

Love you all. Dee

Today, Saturday is our rest day and I am enjoying it very much!! We were at a campground last night but this afternoon we moved to a Motel in Winona. Several reasons we did that. First reason is John’s wife Mary Ann is flying in and renting a car and will be with us for a week, and she hasn’t had a chance to buy any camping stuff, so, you know, we needed to stay in a Motel, at least that is John’s story and he is sticking with it. The second reason, and this is very important, is so I can watch some football!!!!!!!!

Every year in October I set my goals for the year. I set the goal for this bicycle trip last year. I set 65 goals because I turned 65 last October and this year I will set 66. A lot of the goals are basic discipline goals that I set every year like my Bible reading goal, pray with Patty 3 times a week goal,  pray for all my kids, their spouses and grandkids everyday goal. I have job/ ministry goals, fishing goals, honey do goals, etc. I also set at least one BHAG, a “Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal”, a goal that is very hard, stupid possibly, and a real stretcher. This bicycle trip was my BHAG for this year. It will be October 3rd when I get home, so I have been thinking a lot about my new goals as I ride.

Goal setting where you write your goals down clearly described and measurable, goals that you read every day so as to motivate yourself to pursue them, goals that are an expression of the desires of your heart, and most important, goals that you have seriously thought and prayed about until you are convinced they are God’s will for your life, are incredibly powerful to living a focused life,  that results in doing and accomplishing significant things with your life so that you have a great sense that your life matters. Goals also are powerfully effective to producing rapid life change and character development in ourselves so that we become the person on the inside that we want to be and we know God wants us to be.

So the burning question is, what should my BHAG be for this next year. It doesn’t have to be physical, a number of years ago my BHAG was ” go to school and get my Masters degree”, but because of having Parkinson’s, and wanting to do all I can to slow the progression down I have made exercise related goals the focus of my BHAG, and probably will for the next several years. So again, what should my BHAG be?

At this point, I think it will be to sign up and participate in the Ironman Triathlon in Coeur D’ Alean, Idaho, June 25th, 2015. This requires that you swim 2.4 miles, bicycle 112 miles, and then run a marathon. I am a terrible swimmer so I have signed up for swimming lessons that will require swimming an hour, three times each week, and I have worked out a schedule where I will bike and run 14 hours each week. I have purchased 3 books written especially for beginners and wimps, and I have signed up for an “on line coach”. My goal will be to complete the race in 15 hours; 2 hour swim time, 8 hours for the bike ride which will require riding at an average speed of 14 mph, and 5 hours for the marathon which will require that I run the 26.2 miles at a 11.5 minute a mile pace.

My intention is not to lose the physical conditioning that I have achieved on this bike ride, but to start right out with my training schedule the day I get home, well, OK, I will take a couple days off. This BHAG will probably be as difficult as this ride across America, just not so crammed in a short amount of time and I can stay at home on this one.

The one thing I still need is another person who would want to do the same Ironman Triathlon so I have someone to help motivate me, compare notes with as we train, and that I could compete in an informal way, comparing times etc.

After my birthday, October 27th you can have a copy of all 66 goals if you like.

Love you all. Dee