I don’t have much service where we are camped tonight so I will make my blog tonight short and go longer tomorrow night. Well we made the 112 miles today and summited 5 different passes, that means we went up and down 5 different times. Here are a couple pictures of the summits.Lloyd

Today we rode 70 miles with lots of climbing, but we had a nice tail wind all day. I think a tail wind is about my favorite blessing while riding all day on a bicycle. Here is a video of me chugging up a hill, and I use the word chugging fairly literally. We are at Tolopah, Nevada tonight and tomorrow we will be in Rachel. Tomorrow we are going to ride 113 miles with 4 big monster hill climbs, in fact we will either be going up a hill or coming down a hill, not much flat tomorrow. We are going to start at 6 am and probably won’t pull into camp until at least 6 pm so it is going to be a 12 to 14 hour day, whoooeeeee. The nice thing is we are going to stay at an Inn so we won’t have to set up tents and all the rest when we get into camp, and we will get to sleep on nice beds, and they have dinner and breakfast for us so no cooking either.

In the 4 previous long bike rides like this that I have done it seems like day 21 is the tipping point. Every day before that is a grind and I mumble a lot during the day about being crazy, and never doing anything like this again, and act your age, and what are you trying to prove, and on on it goes. This year has been similar except that I am expecting that all to change on day 21 like in past years, so I kind of humor myself as I grumble, and focus on the end of the ride and how much more enjoyable it is going to be. My life is like that now, I am well past the “tipping point”, and I am on the end of the trip now. The main difference now is that I have a peace about life and don’t get all uptight about difficulties, unexpected trials, conflicts, and all the rest of the pressures of life, because we have gone through so much and it has turned out. There really isn’t that much new coming around, same old stuff often in a different format, but the same. At this point there is a very strong sense and faith in the fact that everything has happened according to God’s plan and will continue to, so it is all good.

we have been riding through Nevada for several days now and we have 3 more to go before we get into Utah. This is what most of the scenery looks like. It is beautiful in it’s bareness, but it is hard to image anything living in those mountains, but I am sure there are lots of deer, sheep, and probably javelinas as well. We rest on Wednesday’s and Sundays, and in another week we will rest just on Sundays, so today was a rest day. Today I changed my tires, and put on brand new “Gatorskins”. The ones I took off had about 6,000 miles on them without a single flat. I checked and the wear indicators were gone so I thought I better put the new ones on.

I enjoy our rest days very much not only because of the rest, but because of the uninterrupted reading and writing that I get to do. My brain seems to work better than usual when I am doing as much exercise as I am doing now, and there isn’t much else happening in my life now to distract my brain so my thinking and pondering is very focused. The older I get the more I enjoy writing, putting words and phrases together that are a clear expression of what I have learned from life, others, the Bible, and what God has put into my mind and heart over the years, that would have the wisdom to guide, motivate, and teach others who will eventually read it.

I am well aware of the fact that much of what is communicated today both verbally and in writing is foolishness. I don’t write that as a judgmental statement of being better or smarter than others, but discerning that often words are said as an emotional response to an offense, a hurt, or a perceived violation of personal rights, and usually are way out of balance if not simply not true. Those words usually prompt more of the same from others which are out of balance in an opposite direction.

I truly want to communicate wisdom marked by gentleness, and truth that is full of grace.

Today was the shortest in miles that we have peddled on our bikes, than any day so far or yet to come for the trip. We only rode 35 miles, but we had a strong head wind all day and several big hills so it didn’t seem like a light day when we rolled into camp, I was tuckered out. I am really tired every day when when my “Bicycle Mapping Program” on my bike computer says, “You have arrived”. After we go through the formalities of checking in at the office, finding out what spaces are ours, and getting instructions on how to operate the lock on the bathroom doors and what the combination is, how to hook up to the Wi-Fi and what the pass word is, and the other camp rules about pets, fireworks etc, the first thing I do is pull my very comfortable camp chair out of the back of Tom’s RV, set it up in the shade, sit down in it and take a nap! Then after about 20 minutes I go take a shower, change out of my biking cloths, and go sit in my chair some more. If the office that we checked into had a store I will buy something cold to drink, usually a Pepsi. After that little “recovery ritual” I will set up my tent, air mattress, sleeping bag etc, and enjoy the rest of the evening. I don’t sleep very well at home because of my Parkinson’s and rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep so I am always sleepy. On this trip I usually am in my sleeping bag on my 2 inch blow-up air mattress by 9:00 pm and wake up and take a shower at 4:00 am which is 7 hours of sleep. It has been a long time since I have regularly, each night slept for 7 hours, and it is feeling really good. Obviously what is making this happen is the hours of bicycling I am doing each day so I am determined to increase my normal 1 hour of stationary bike riding to 2 hours when I get back home. I can read, listen to sermons and audio books, and pray while I ride so it won’t be time lost. The question is, will I have the self-control to do it? What do you need to do more of in your life? Bible ?Prayer? Make it happen.

Today I tried a new strategy to deal with the neck pain I have been having as I ride my bicycle, a neck brace which I bought at Walgreens in Reno. We rode 77 miles today and this picture was taken at about mile 60 with virtually no neck pain, that is why I am smiling in the picture. The main negative thing was that my neck was hotter than the surface of the Sun. But a hot neck is an easy trade off for eliminating that neck pain. It was so much more fun today riding with little pain in my neck, butt, hands, legs, and knees. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be as good and even better as I get in better and better shape. It was overcast and very cool when we took off this morning so I didn’t put any sunscreen on, and the sun came out and I forgot all about no sunscreen so tonight My face is feeling as hot as my neck did during the day. As we rode South today in Nevada the terrain was high dessert with lots of sage brush, barren hills, and sand. Today was a major challenge because of rumble strips. They were 12 inches wide with about 12 inches of pavement to ride on between the rumble strip and the dirt. It was so high pressure trying to not veer off in either direction and hit the rumble strips and shake the bike apart or go out in the soft dirt and risk wrecking. There was so much truck traffic that none of us felt comfortable riding on the road side of the rumble strip which put you beyond the white line which will earn you many negative responses from drivers, and also those trucks going by us inches away and about blowing us over in the backwash created. The cool thing about a trip like this is that there are always challenges and problems to solve, just like life.

Today was a rest day in Fallon, Nevada. We rode 5 miles to a church nearby, named Grace Bible Church and had a good time worshipping and listening to good preaching. On the ride back to camp it poured rain on us, and tomorrow it is predicted that it is going to rain most of the day. In the morning before we leave at 7:00 am I will throw my tent in the dryer and possibly my sleeping bag as well. I didn’t think it rained in Nevada, but it got right with it today. I bought a neck brace at Walgreens, one of those cheap ones that you buy and use if you get whiplash in a car accident. Several of my Parkinson’s friends have e-mailed me and reminded me that muscle cramps and pains are a Parkinson’s issue and a key is to keep the muscles warm so I think this might help, and I was also going to stop at a Walmart’s and get some of those chemical hand warmers that I have used when fishing, and put it under the neck brace right where the muscle pain occurs. Tom Zilverberg who is on the trip has a 28 foot RV that he is following us with. The campground where we are at today has free Television cable hookup at each sight, and Tom has a Television in his RV so today when we got home from church Tom, Cliff and I watched an NBA playoff game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics, that was a treat, especially since the Celtics creamed the Cavaliers. I think I have told you this before, but Tom’s routine is to leave in the morning, ride 20 to 30 miles, then ride back, and drive the RV to the next camp, he usually gets to the camp about the same time as Cliff, Kathy, and I do. Tomorrow is a 75 mile day, and it should be a great day of riding in spite of the rain that is predicted, I have good bicycling rain gear.

A bicycle is an instrument of pain, the Seat makes your butt hurt, the handle bars make your hands, wrists, and neck hurt, the peddles make your feet hurt, and the whole bicycle makes your legs burn. Why would anybody in their right mind choose to expose their body to 8 to 10 hours a day to such a machine of pain. I played a variety of sports in High School and College, and the training and practice sessions were very intense and hard and brought a lot of pain. I remember guys stopping and throwing up in a garbage can as we ran the bleachers in the gym. Many of my friends chose not to participate in sports because it was to hard. There were several mottos that the coaches used to quote to us over and over, “No pain, no gain”, “Pain is the gas peddle or the brake pedal in our life, we choose”. I hear some people say of themselves, “I have a low threshold of pain”, and I wonder if they think that they were born that way, and that they are stuck there. Our threshold for pain goes up as we choose to move over the line a little bit, a little bit more, a little bit more, and a little bit more. As our pain threshold goes up so does our rate of growth in character and also our potential for accomplishment. Pain is not our enemy, and it isn’t our friend either, but it is an adversary that we compete with, pain wins if we quit because of it or we avoid certain choices because of it, but I win if I endure in spite of it, if I grow because of it, and if I accomplish more as a result of it. Challenge is doing something hard and winning. Someone asked me if I enjoy the pain that bicycling long distances brings, and I responded, “No, I hate the pain, but I love the challenge”

Today was an up and down day. We climbed for 30 miles, some of it the steepest of anything we have biked yet, and then we had 30 miles of the best downhill riding we have had to date. A good downhill is one that lasts for awhile, that means it can’t be to steep or you lose to much altitude to quickly, but steep enough so you go at least over 20 mph without peddling. This down hill lasted a long time and we were usually going around 25 mph with occasional bursts over 30 mph. A big plus was we had a strong tailwind today so even a gradual downhill resulted in good speed. We road 60 miles today and ended the ride in a Super Walmart store parking lot in Reno, Nevada. After doing some shopping we loaded the bikes on the RV and drove through Reno to the camp sight we are at tonight in Fallon, Nevada on Highway 50.

So far we have had 8 ride days and 3 rest days. We have bicycled a total of 560 miles so far with an average of 70 miles each ride day. We are going to take two rest days in a row here, both Saturday and Sunday and start all fresh and revived on Monday and attempt to ride 120 miles with some super steep climbing up to a pass at 6800 feet. There are no camp sights in between those points is the reason for the long trip. What we will probably do when the 4 of us think about it is pick a spot to finish at around 80 miles and load the bikes on the RV and drive the last 40. We could go back with the bikes on the RV to that spot the next morning except that leg is already 80 miles long. Once we get past this section of Nevada the problem of few camping spots is over.

I bought a neck brace at Walgreens today, and I am going to give that a try on Monday and see if that won’t help a bit on the neck pain that I have while riding.

We had our longest day of the trip today, 94 miles. We started at 6 am this morning and pulled into Honey Lake Campground, near Susanville, California, at 3 pm. Everyone was very tired when we got here, my gas tank was totally on empty. I went over to the shower room soon after we got here and took a very long hot shower. After I got dressed I sat down on a bench in the shower room to put my sandals on, and leaned my head back against the wall and promptly fell dead asleep, Cliff wondered what was taking me so long because he was waiting his turn. One of our riders, Gene Anderson, is heading home tomorrow, he could only do 10 days with us, and has to go back to work. His wife Tammie drove down to pick him up and the last couple of nights she has been with us we have had barbecued steak and chicken, I am sorry to see them go. We took a group picture tonight before Gene leaves tomorrow morning. My invention to help keep my neck from hurting didn’t work very well, but I did have a little bit less problem with my neck today, I don’t know if I am getting tougher or if it was the million ibuprofen that I took. Tomorrow we have a 60 mile day, with a long uphill climb of 3000 feet elevation gain, and we will end up at the parking lot of a super Walmart store in Reno. After some shopping for needed stuff we will load our bikes on the back of Tom’s RV and ride through Reno on I-80 for a little bit and end up at Fallon, Nevada at the campsite there. We will be taking a 2 day rest from biking there and recover from an assortment of aches and pains, over Saturday and Sunday and go to church on Sunday.

I was just calculating miles from this trip and the others that I have gone on and as I was thinking about all the variables I realized that I have 6,000 miles on my present bicycle tires with not a single flat tire. They are made by Continental and are called Gatorskins. I don’t know much about them, but I do know that is a long time to last especially with no flats. I have a new pair in my duffle bag in case these wear out on this trip. Tomorrow will be our toughest day on the trip so far. We are going 91 miles and the very first thing is a long, uphill climb at 6% grade most of the way. But it only lasts 10 miles then it flattens out for the next 60 miles and then downhill for the last 20 miles. Plus the weather forecast is for cooler temperatures and a 7 mph tailwind.

My desire is to be like my gatorskin tires, last a long time and have no flats, just keep on rolling along.