Today was 85 miles of bicycling, and over 5,000 feet in elevation gain. Lots of going up and then coming down, we could call today “roller coaster” day. This trip is only 12 days long so we are now a third done. We are in a KOA Campground tonight and they had a big hot tub that felt soooooo good after 85 miles of pedaling a bicycle. Tomorrow we will bike 65 miles to Harris Beach Campground in Brookings. 65 miles will seem like a piece of cake compared to 85, but we have over 6,000 feet of elevation gain which is a super lot!

Today as I rode along I thought about what my next years goals will be. I have a strong desire to do the “Transamerica” which is a 4,200 mile coast to coast bicycle trip from Newport, Oregon to Yorktown, Virginia. I have also been thinking about another bicycle trip to Fairbanks, Alaska. That was the most scenic of any trip I have down, and we saw 92 bears and hundreds of other wildlife including moose, elk, deer, caribou, wolves, buffalo, big horn sheep, and mountain goats.

The problem I am wrestling with is I love to fish, more and more all the time, and I have found some really good fishing places. Also I can take my grandkids with me when I go fishing. My grandson Courage is begging me almost daily to take him fishing. The more I bicycle the less I can fish. A ten day trip like this one would keep my bicycle juices flowing, and I could do some day trips around home as well. But another trip across the USA or up to Alaska would be a nice challenge. I have also planned out a trip 6,000 miles long that would hit all lower 48 States, as well as a 5,000 mile trip from the tip of Florida to Fairbanks, Alaska. Both of those trips would take most of the summer, and would probably be solo trips.

I set 72 goals this year which are designed to use up all of my time, so goal setting is a discipline of establishing priorities, I can’t do everything I would like to do, so I have to choose. How do I decide what is in and what is out? In the goals for next year I will have my fishing, hunting, and bicycling goals, but I also will have family goals, ministry goals, spiritual discipline goals, and “Patty goals”. The goal is to use my time up, and do it in as wise a way possible so that I bear as much fruit for God as possible.