You all know that I did this trip with John Smith. He retired recently from an Oregon State job, and he and I are in an accountability group together with a number of other guys that meets once each week in the morning. When I started talking about the trip he expressed interest in going with me and over the course of several months made the commitment to go. A number of other guys also expressed strong interest in going but family and job commitments prevented it. So, John going along just “happened”, it wasn’t anything that I planned or thought about. I fretted a great deal about it before we left because I knew 2 months was a long time, and getting along well with anybody who you are with 24 hours a day for that long is difficult if not impossible. But in spite of my worries, his being on the trip with me was a very positive part of the trip, here are a few reasons why.

john was very patient with the limitations that I had because of having Parkinson’s. This was a big worry of mine before we left because I knew that he was an experienced bicycle rider and in shape and 10 years younger than me. He never created a spirit of competition or rivalry that made me feel like a wimp, and treated me as an equal physically that was honoring.

John and I are both natural leaders who intuitively shift into a higher gear when a crisis or problem arises and think quickly about the problem and make decisions about what to do decisively. The problem is that it is easy to “run over” others in the process of fixing things. He and I worked well together as we made decisions and practiced deference with each other that didn’t create hurts or offenses. Everyday there were decisions to be made about how far to bike, where to stay, etc and the decision making process was mutual and unified and fun.

john didn’t talk a lot. One of the main reasons that I go on trips like this is to practice solitude so as to recover from the emotional energy drain that comes from my job and ministry of working with people most of the time and who often have problems and issues that need solved and help. We were comfortable with silence without feeling the need to fill it up with chit chat. We did talk and our conversations about our families and goals was enjoyable.

We were on the same page when it came to our faith in Jesus and our desire to faithfully read the Bible everyday and to pray together several times each day when we ate asking God for protection, guidance, and thanking Him for our wonderful trip.

This trip, as I have said several times already has been an adventure of a lifetime, and John has been a key reason why. The Lord blessed me by Soveregnly working that out.

i love you all very much. Dee