Today the ride was 67 miles from Chanute to Eureka, Kansas. We are staying in a local motel instead of camping because of the heavy rain. The place where we were intending to camp was the city park, but they have no showers, electricity, or WiFi, and there were no other campgrounds or facilities around. The nice thing about these small-town motels is that they are inexpensive and because the town is on the transAmerica Route they are very friendly and accommodating to bicyclists. For the next 6 days we have flat terrain to ride on, and hopefully, the monsoons end soon.

I mentioned this before, but one of the highlights of this trip is all the friendly people we have encountered, especially in these small country towns. Almost every day we will stop at a small restaurant about noon for a coke and sandwich and almost always will get in great conversations with local people who are very interested in what we are doing.

I have mentioned in the past that on these bicycle trips my Parkinson’s almost totally goes away, but that has not been the case on this trip for some reason. I am fine while riding but at night it has gotten worse with the main consequence being that I can’t sleep. I started sleeping in the pickup with the seat back because I don’t role over or move much. My muscles get very rigid when I don’t move and then when I do role over the muscle pain that I feel wakes me up with a start. I envision it like my muscles being water and when I don’t move they turn to ice, and then when I do move the ice cracks.

Sometimes when I lay there at night frustrated and weary because of little sleep, I think about the people in our church who I have been praying for who have cancer, MS, and a variety of other health issues way worse than mine, and I thank the Lord for my incredible life, amazing blessings, super family, and the world’s best church family.

The main thing that I praise the Lord for is the total confidence and faith that sometime soon (at least within 30 years) I will be with the Lord with an incomprehensible and amazing new body, and in the meantime I will rejoice and not grumble, whine, or feel sorry for myself.