I am a big believer in the character trait of "Grit", "Toughness", and, "Endurance", of being a person who goes after their goals without quitting. I am also a big believer in the character trait of "Flexibility", which would be a cross between endurance and wisdom. Endurance would be picking the destination and pursuing it, flexibility would be picking the best route and plan. It is important that flexibility isn't used as an excuse for laziness, and in thinking about choices in life carefully thinking about our motives is important. John and I decided to practice being flexible and take an extra rest day today because we were both not feeling well, John with a pretty serious case of the flu, and the last several days have been particularly exhausting with all the hill climbing. Normally we would have stayed where we were last night, but because of the difficulty of finding campsites we didn't want to cancel the spot we had reserved for tonight because we wouldn't have had a place to camp , and we would have lost our money that we paid for the site, so we decided to drive today's route. MaryAnn drove and John and I slept. We kicked around for a couple of seconds the idea of sitting on our bikes in the back of the pickup, and having the back tires propped up off the floor so the wind would blow them around and our bike computers/gps would record the miles. I think that would have violated the spirit of being flexible. The bad thing was that even though it was 88 miles it was almost flat, I love flat!! And about half the miles were on paved bike trails, I love paved bike trails!!! It has been a very relaxing day here in Glenyan Campground in Ashland, and we will have a great day tomorrow riding 66 miles to The KOA Campground in Klamath Falls.

It doesn't seem like we have been riding now, for 10 days, but that is what the calendar says. 10 down and 20 to go!! Today we rode up the mother of all monster hills!! We went from sea level to 2,500 feet with a bunch of rollers in the process, and half way up it got hot, 98 degrees. We have been riding down the coast for the last week and the mid 60's sounds super right now. We rode up the Redwood Highway along the Smith River and the road was windy and often there was no shoulder, so we had cars going around us VERY close. For the most part people were patient and courteous as they often waited to pass us until they could see ahead of us a ways. It was nerve wracking but I focused on the white line because often there was no guard rail and a long fall down to the river if I wandered over the edge. That white line became my own personal road and I tried to stay right in the middle of it.

We are camped in a very nice campsite in the town of O,Brian on Hwy 199 not to far before you get to Cave Junction. Tomorrow we will ride 88 miles to Emigrant Lake just past Ashland. It looks like from the profile on my IPad that it will be relatively flat, that will be super after the last couple of days. We will get up and be on the road at 6:30 am to try and beat the heat.

One of the major challenges has been finding campsites. It seems that Oregon is getting swarmed with people who have come into the State to watch the eclipse. I said something to someone that this particular Campground was a ways from the main track of the eclipse, and they said they just wanted to get close enough to drive to where they could see it in less than 5 hours. I said, well you still have over a week and they wanted to get a spot before they are all taken, which is exactly the problem we have been having. We have already made some adjustments to our route and schedule because of availability issues.

Planning the next day's route and camping location has become a major activity each evening, and many phone calls are being made in the process. The Lord said that if we trust in Him with all of our heart and life that He will direct our path. Now that is an awesome promise.

Today was by far the hardest day for me. There are a couple of numbers among the half dozen that we get on our bicycle GPS each day that are a pretty good gauge of a day's difficulty. One of them is the average speed for the day. The slower the average the more difficult the ride. For the fist 8 days we averaged about 12 miles per hour, and today we averaged 11 mph. Another number is the total number of feet climbed for the day. This is not a net amount of feet climbed, but the total of every foot that we climbed even if we went back down again. We have been in the 2,000 foot range most days, but today we climbed almost 6,000 ft. One would have thought that riding along the coast would have been flat, but that sure is not the case. Sitting here in my tent writing this I am more fatigued than at the end of any other day we have ridden. I am hoping the good meal, the hot shower, the ibuprofen, and the 8 hours of sleep will make me feel like a new man tomorrow morning.

We are camped just across the Oregon border in California at the mouth of the Smith River, and tomorrow we head up the Redwood Highway, Highway 199, 72 miles. We will leave at sea level and go steadily up for 40 miles where we will be at 2,500 feet in elevation so it is going to be another tough day of biking. I expect that as we follow the Smith River up that it is going to be a beautiful ride.

Today we stopped at a little food mart along the way. As we were working at getting the bicycles up on the sidewalk to lean against the building I was still straddled my bike, and I inadvertently stepped off of the edge of the sidewalk and lost my balance and fell over on the ground with a thud with my bicycle on top of me. The worst part was there were lots of people standing around who saw the whole thing. Very hard on a guys pride!! The only other damage is my left elbow is a bit swollen having landed on it when I fell. It should be as good as new in a couple of days.

It has been pretty cool, even cold at times along the coast, but tomorrow as we head East the temperature will increase. It is 56 degrees at 7:30'pm where we are this evening but where we will be camping tomorrow it is 91 degrees at the same time!!! I haven't put any sun screen on so far and I have been wearing a long sleeve wool shirt as I have been riding my bike, I think that will change tomorrow.

Today we biked 66.6 miles, and it included the "Seven Devils", which are a group of 7 monster hills one after the other in a span of about 15 miles. Today actually felt harder than yesterday's 105 miles, but I am sure it was because I started out today short on energy because of yesterday. We started out this morning in the fog and it was a bit chilly as well, but by the end of the day the sun was shining, though I have my sweat shirt on as I sit in our camp site. We are in a nice KOA Campground South of Bandon, and it has a super nice Hot Tub that I sat in for 30 minutes, oh my, it felt soooooo nice, but as I walked back to our camp site my legs felt like jello!

Patty and I are sleeping in a 4 person dome tent, and in the evening we tip the pads we sleep on, up against the inside of the tent and put our 2 lawn chairs inside, and sit and read and write in the evening. When we get ready for sleep we put the lawn chairs outside, lay the pads down and put out the sleeping bags and pillows, and just like home. Because it has been so dewy outside Patty has a line strung in the tent that she hangs all my bike cloths on so that they will dry out from all the sweat that is in them, and they are handy to grab and put on in the morning. The tent is fairly well ventilated so the smell isn't to bad.

Tomorrow we are riding 76 miles with a bunch of killer hills, and we will end up in California just North of Crescent City. Our campsite will be on the Smith River so maybe I will have a little time for some fishing.

Some of you may be a bit spooked by the 66.6 miles and our riding up 7 devils mountains. No problem. A thought to ponder though on the subject of the devil. His goal is to get people to be bad, to rebel against God, to deny that He even exists, to be their own bosses, and make up their own rules. What kind of people does he target that are "easy"? The answer; those who are passive in their relationship with God. The Bible says he is always on the lookout for those he can devour. To be passive is to take God for granted, to presume upon His goodness and love, to assume you have a relationship with Him because you "believe" in Him. The promise of God is that those who actively seek Him will find Him, He will bless them, and He will protect them from the devil.

Well, today John and I road 105 miles starting in Lincoln City and ending at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Campground just outside Winchester Bay. Besides the 105 miles we also had three killer hills and one of them had no shoulder and it was very curvy. This is the first century ride that either John or I have ever done. When we got into camp at 5:30 pm after leaving this morning at 6:15 am I felt pretty good, but after a warm shower and dinner I can hardly keep my eyes open as I write this blog, I am totally run out of gas. We have 66 miles tomorrow so we are going to sleep in a little and leave at 8 am. The Oregon Coast is a beautiful ride on a bicycle, and we stopped often for breaks and pictures.

I am going to call that enough for tonight, talk to you tomorrow.

Today was our "Rest Day" so I slept in, and took several naps during the day, and ate a lot, including a big bowl of ice cream. We all went to church at Faith Baptist here in Lincoln City this morning, and our good friends the Bruggeman's were at the church giving a Missions report, and also Katrina Beranek who attends JBC was there on vacation, and sat with us, and then we all went to MO's for lunch and a former JBC'er, Frank Stutzman who manages at MO's paid for our lunch.

Russ Williams who has been riding with us since the start left today as planned, and Doug is to sore to ride anymore, so it is just John Smith and I riding tomorrow. His wife, MaryAnn and Patty are riding together in our "support vehicle" and will get to our camping spot tomorrow before we get there. When we pull in Patty will have our tent set up, the lawn chairs set up and a cold Coke already opened for me, what a woman😀!!

Because of some adjustments we have had to make because of all the full campgrounds caused by all those coming over to the coast to escape the heat, our schedule is off a bit so we are riding 106 miles tomorrow to get caught up, and we have three major hills to climb as well. The good thing is that I got good and rested today, and the weather forecast is calling for winds out of the North at 9 mph, so all I need to do is make a big sail😜!! We will be camping at the "Umpqua Lighthouse State Park" just South of Reedsport.

One of the life principles taught in the Bible is the need for "rest". Our physical body needs rest, we need rest to recuperate emotionally, and we need rest for our minds to function well. The kind of rest that works best is systematic, regular rest, along with activity that is energy renewing. I take these annual bicycle trips or activities like them to "rest" and experience renewal in my spirit and heart as a result of the spiritual, emotional, and mental energy that I use up in ministry to people. It is one of the reasons I plan on continuing to Pastor as long as I still have my wits about me. I am feeling good enough right now to go another 20 years in ministry, but first we will see if I can go 106 miles on the bicycle tomorrow.

Today on our trip Doug Sheets, one of the bicycle riders on our trip had an accident. He was following a little to close to the rider in front of him and as he swerved to keep from hitting him he rolled his bicycle with him on it. He was in front of me so I watched the whole thing. It was a bad tumble and I was afraid that he might have broken something. Within a few minutes a couple of ladies stopped to check and see if everyone was OK. One of them was a nurse and the other was a doctor, and they drove Doug to a local hospital. There was nothing broken, but he will be pretty sore tomorrow from the bruises, and he won't continue riding.

Today was a 60 miler with a bunch of hill climbing and one monster that I thought sure was going to kill me, but here I am sitting on a dock on Devil's Lake trying to catch a fish and writing this blog. The weather has been cool here on the coast the last couple of days, in the low 70's , but I warm up pretty good as I pedal up these monster hills. We are at a friends condo tonight in Lincoln City so we are not doing the normal camping thing. Tomorrow is a rest day, which I am more than ready for. These last two days have really drained my gas tank. We are going to get up and go to church tomorrow and then just lounge around, and eat. Monday we will be off again on our 2,000 mile ride around the State of Oregon.

We won't be at our church JBC tonight or tomorrow, but I am going to spend a big block of time tomorrow praying for everybody in the church. I have my IPad with all the names and pictures of everybody, and my prayer journal with it.

Today was the most difficult day of the trip for me, in fact it was what John and I call a "hit the wall" day." That is where you have thoughts like, "I can't do this anymore", or "I am going to tell everyone tonight that I am done, cupute, finished, near death", or "why are you doing this, you must be crazy". Even though we only rode 48 miles we went up 3 monster hills that were 600 feet each in elevation gain and most of it was 6 % grade or more. When we got to the top of the third I was totally run out of gas. And then today we went through a tunnel. It is dark inside, there is no curb, and the cars, trucks, and RV's are passing with very little space between us and them, and then there is the noise inside the tunnel of engines of all sizes sounding like jet engines, and also those who have this crazy idea that you have to honk all the way through the tunnel. It was more scary than my first time sky diving and when I got out I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, though I acted the tough and brave guy, and suggested that just for fun we go back through it a couple more times!!

I know the "hit the wall days will come", they always do, and though I would really like to quit, I won't, I know that. Why? Through out my life I have had good teaching from my parents, pastors, youth pastors, teachers and friends that have shaped my character into what it is today. There are about 26 character traits and one of them is endurance and grit, and when they are well developed quitting is near impossible to do. One of the ways to make this character trait strong in your life is to choose to do things like this trip. Maybe not quite so crazy, but hard things that will cause us to grow into a strong person who doesn't quit, keeps his promises no matter what, does their responsibility no matter how hard it might be.

Well, tomorrow only has only one killer hill but it is 800 feet in elevation gain, and the wind is forecast to be blowing in our face so we will have a 7 to 14 mile head wind as well, I hate head winds!! One of the major self coaching things we must do to help ourselves grow into this kind of strong person is to commit to never grumbling about anything no matter how difficult or hard. I will work on that tomorrow.

Today we pedaled from Vernonia to Astoria. 70 miles and some very pretty country. There were lots of trucks and logging trucks on the road that we were on with very little shoulder, but the drivers were patient and safe, and we felt very comfortable in our ride. We again got up early and we're on the road by 6 am, and by the time it was heating up at home we were having very pleasant temperatures on the coast. We had one monster hill to climb that was about 5 miles long and steep, but we made it up and the ride down the other side was wild. John got up to over 40 mph, I was going around a corner at 30 on my bicycle and the road sign said to go 20 mph. We will be on the coast now for about a week, and we are so confident that it will be much cooler that we are planning on sleeping in in the morning a couple of hours. We went to Fred Myers and bought some cheap fishing rods, and John and I are at Sunset Lake fishing though we haven't caught anything yet. I am sitting on a bench writing this blog, and reading and writing while I watch my bobber. I am getting a super work out each day for about 6 hours, and I am anxious to lose some weight and keep it off this time!'

I have observed of late how easy it is for people to drift away from faith in God And Christ. Most would have said, "I will never drift away" before they do, and it is that lack of fear that they could, that prevents them from being very careful that they don't. The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament says we should fear that we don't drift away. On this bicycle trip I am careful to spend time in Bible reading, scripture memory, and prayer every day, and I am planning on making it to church each Sunday. I don't have to, but I want to grow closer every day to Jesus, and not drift away, and I know how to do that.

We started bicycling this morning from Champoeg Park where we had camped overnight.  We left at 6 am to try and beat some of the heat again as we did the day before.  It was fairly comfortable until about 11 am and then we went onto the Banks-Vernonia  bike trail.. It was a super nice trail. It was all paved and not much bike traffic and it was almost all in the shade, in fact its was like going through a tunnel of trees so we didn’t really have any problem with the heat.  We averaged a little over 11 miles per hour which was a little slower than the day before but we had some uphill riding today that slowed us down. We rode almost exactly 60 miles and we were finished and at camp by 1 pm.  Tomorrow we are riding  70 miles and the temperature should be less as we get closer to the coast. Tomorrow we will be camping a few miles south of Astoria.

When I got on my bike this morning I was instantly aware that I had rode 44 miles the day before. I was really sore in my leg muscles and my rear end was super sore. I am hoping that tomorrow is better. We will see!

Today we had a lady passing us in a car yell at us that we were fools for riding in this heat. That is a regular comment as we ride our bikes.  The question is “Why”?  Doing something difficult and challenging is one of the things that I really enjoy.  It is sort of a funny thing to think about because I can’t really explain the attraction to these kinds of events that I have. My only explanation is that God made me that way because he knows that produces rapid character growth. I really think He made everybody that way but many have bured the desire.

I am looking forward to some major adventures tomorrow.