August 1st John Smith, Doug Sheets, and I started on our 30 day bicycle trip around the State of Oregon. We started at 6 am to beat the heat, and it was cool enough that I needed to wear a long sleeved wool shirt to start with. Our destination was the State Park and Campground Champoeg. It was just 44 miles with very few hills and no headwind until the last hour. We were in camp by 11 am before it got really hot. It was a great first day to get in shape a bit before some of the long days with lots of miles and hills. Tomorrow it is supposed to be hotter and we will ride 60 miles and climb some pretty steep hills as we head for the City Campground in Vernonia. A cool thing about tomorrow is about half the miles are on a bike trail much of which was a railroad track and the rails were removed and it was paved for a bike trail, no cars and trucks to worry about.

Several weeks ago I bought a little speaker system that fits in my bicycle helmet that Bluetooth connects with my IPhone. I bought several really good books on Amazon in Audio and downloaded them to my phone so I can listen to the reading of the book while I am riding. I don't like ear buds in my ears while I am riding because I like to be able to hear the traffic around me and what is coming up behind me. With this speaker system I can hear the traffic and the audio from my phone at the same time. The book I am listening to is called "Renovations of the Heart" by Dallas Willard who is my favorite all time author. The book is basically about how to cooperate with God as He works in our life to grow in character to become like Jesus in character

Probably the biggest mystery of life to most Christ Followers is what is the purpose of life. The purpose as Believers is to become like Jesus so that when we join Him for all eternity we will be like Him so that we will enjoy our fellowship with Him , and He enjoy His time with us. Some grow rapidly and some do not grow at all, because they don't know how to grow and they are not motivated to grow, because they don't think it will make that much difference in eternity. I want a lot of things in life, but nothing comes close to the desire I have to grow as much as I can in the time I have left.

Anticipation is so much fun! Anticipation really doesn't get exciting if you don't cover it with a good dose of imagination spiced up with some creative thinking. The real experiences that I have rarely come close to what I imagined would happen. I imagine the worst, the best, and the wildest, things possible in my musings about the next month as I ride 2000 miles round the State of Oregon with some friends. Tomorrow morning we leave from my house headed to Champoeg Park Campground. We will leave right at 6 am and only ride 44 miles tomorrow so we should be sitting under a shade tree shortly after noon drinking a coke.

Today as I was packing stuff and getting ready and lined up I set up our tent to make sure it was all there, and I wanted to give Patty some lessons on setting it up, because she will be setting it up and taking it down most days. It is easy to set up but it is a bit confusing trying to figure out what poles go in what holes. When we knew exactly what we were doing, and Patty was pretty sure she could easily set it up and take it down again, we decided to go to town to run some errands and buy a additional things.

When we got home the tent was gone. I asked Patty if she had taken it down and packed it in the container it had come in. She assured me that she had not. I got out of the car and walked across the railroad tracks where a big field of grass seed was being harvested, and way across the field, over half of a mile away was our tent up in a tree. It took awhile, but I finally got it back home, packed it in the dry bag and threw it into the trailer we are taking along with us. I thought, wow, it is starting out better than I thought it would. I can't hardly wait until tomorrow,