We rode from Lincoln City to Waldport today, 44 miles and only one hill. The weather was sunny but cool, with a tailwind the entire day. I was anticipating that we would be riding in a lot of rain when I planned a ride down the coast in May and June, but looking at the forecast for the next ten days, we may complete a month-long ride with zero rain; that will be a first.

My legs were killing me when I rode into camp today, even though we only rode 44 miles, but I took a bunch of ibuprofen, then went and took a shower, turned it on to as hot as I could stand it, stood in it for 15 minutes, and then took a two-hour nap in my reclining camp chair. When I woke up I was feeling good.

For dinner tonight, I ate two cans of sardines and a can of asparagus, and now I am getting ready to pop a bag of popcorn; it doesn’t get much better than that!

We are managing pretty well in our motorhome. Paul sleeps in the bed over the cab, Tom sleeps in the bed in the back bedroom, I sleep on the bed that is the dining room table in the daytime, Ray sleeps on a foam pad that is on the floor, and Cliff and Kathy sleep in the trailer that we are pulling on two cots, we call it the honeymoon suite. Every time someone rolls over, the motorhome rocks like a boat on the ocean. Ray and Paul wear a sleep apnea masks and sound like Darth Vader, Tom and I snore. But despite all that, everyone seems to be getting a good night’s sleep; we go to bed at 8:00 pm and get up at 6:00 am.

Everyone is being faithful to reading their Bibles every day and having a great time with the Lord during the day while riding. There is something about getting away from all the usual stuff, exercising hard, and spending hours thinking, meditating, and praying that is very renewing.

I lost two more pounds of weight which brings me to seven pounds down in total. I check my heart rate all through the day and it stays between 100 and 120 bpm with an occasional jump to 140 on steep hills, so as long as I don’t splurge on ice cream and stick to my sardine and vegetable diet I should keep losing. When I open up a can of sardines I get a bunch of rude comments from everyone else in the motorhome.