The main run of sockeye salmon haven’t come in yet, but have still managed to catch some fish. I am looking forward to the next couple of days when the fishing gets better and better.

It took us 63 hours to drive straight through to Soldotna, 2,846 miles, from our house in Jefferson. The car ran great, no flats on the boat trailer, the trailer pulled great, and the passengers got along great. We got pretty tired sleeping in the car, but kept rotating drivers and managed. The biggest problem was the last 200 miles was very bad road because of thermal frost heaving, which made it very hard to sleep when you bounced out out of your seat every few minutes. But we are now at “Tim’s Place” now waiting for the fish to come in. I am working on the boat getting it ready to take out in the ocean. I am hoping to take it out tomorrow and catch a bunch of halibut. We drove to Ninilchik where they back your boat in the surf with a big skidder and checked it out. It looks like it will be an adventure for sure. We went into local “Sportsman’s” store in Soldotna to buy gear to fish Halibut with. I decided to ask one of the salespeople how to fish for Halibut in Cook Inlet. I walked in and started looking at the gear for Halibut fishing and a young man walked up behind me and asked me if I was going Halibut fishing. I responded “yes”, and I am from Oregon and don’t have a clue what I am doing. He said, ” wow, I am moving to Oregon to go to Western Oregon University, and I have been a Halibut guide for the last 4 years. He proceeded to show me exactly what I needed to buy and what to do. He said he really wanted to go bass fishing when he got to Oregon so I told him I would take him when he got to Oregon and to come to Jefferson to Jefferson Baptist Church and ask for me. He then told me what church he went to and that he was a Christian. It was a great divine appointment.

We have been driving about 5 1/2 hours, and it is just about midnight. Only 45 more hours to go or thereabouts. So far everything is going good, car running good, boat towing good, and passengers being good. I drove the first 3 hours and have been sleeping very sound for the last 2 hours and intend to go back to sleep as soon as I finish this blog. The most beautiful drive in the world is the Alaskan Highway, and we will get into some of the really pretty scenery about the time it gets light. I intend to memorize a bunch of Bible verses and watch you tube video’s on how to catch halibut in Alaska with the time I will have while riding. Well, I am going back to sleep!

I worked all day, daylight to dark on my boat. I sanded some of the spots that had epoxy runs on them, did some bondo work on low spots, sanded some more, and painted the whole boat again. Just wanted it to look pretty. We are leaving for Alaska tomorrow evening at 6 pm. We are leaving then to be able to get through Seattle without the traffic. We are going to drive straight through without stopping to sleep, just trading off and sleeping in the car. It is going to take approximately 50 hours to reach Soldotna. I am planning on bringing back 500 lbs of sockeye salmon and halibut fillets. That will be nice!

In the gospel of John in chapter 21 Jesus asks John, ” do you love Me more than these?” “These” that Jesus is referring to is the fishing boats and nets that the disciples had just been in when Jesus came to fix them breakfast. I need to replay that conversation regularly, “Do I love Jesus more than fishing?” The answer will be demonstrated by my life.

Proverbs 3:13-17 How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels.

Wisdom is the main thing, the most important thing, nothing else is as important as wisdom is. Wisdom is foundational to good marriages, wise parents raise good kids, wise people manage their finances well, wise people get along with others, wise people keep God first in their lives.

There are not very many truly wise people around, because the price is to high for most. To receive wisdom there must be a very strong desire for wisdom, a strong hungering and thirsting for more and more wisdom. A casual interest for wisdom won’t work. If you aren’t consumed with getting wisdom you won’t.

To receive wisdom there must be a strong and consistent seeking of wisdom. Proverbs says to seek it like gold, silver, and treasure. Seeking is pro-active, that is we actively do something that is a proven way to acquire more wisdom. I like to say that seeking wisdom is like fishing. You want to catch fish so you, but it isn’t automatic that you will. A few people catch a lot of fish, and a lot of people catch a few fish. We are leaving for Alaska Friday morning to fish for Halibut and sockeye salmon.

The greatest source of wisdom is experience that is gained while in pursuit of wisdom.

Before I can leave for Alaska to go fishing this Friday I have a long list of things I need to get done. There are some things on the list that are under the category of “it would be nice to get that done before I leave”, and then there are those things that are super important and really ought to be done before I go, and then there are those things that have to get done or I can’t go. Obviously the sub-group on my Alaska to do list “things that must get done or I can’t go” have the highest priority, and I will focus on getting those checked off before moving to the others. Today it was interesting to me to note how much I was drawn to do the things that weren’t on the “have to or I am stuck home” list. Why would I spend time on things that don’t have to get done and ignore things that absolutely must get done. I do it all the time, why? It really is stupid, and nonsensical, but I do it anyway. I don’t know the answer for sure, but my guess is that the things that must get done, as I look at the list of them, aren’t very fun, or exciting, they all would easily be described by my Dad as chores. An aspect of the character trait of self-control is choosing to do what is most important, and must get done. I really want to go fishing in Alaska so I have a strong motivation that greatly helps my self control. In all of life a key principle of self control is reward. I am working at attaching a big reward to the most important activities in my life even if I have to manufacture the rewards so that I maintain focus on the things that really matter.

Some of you asked me,what is next in my life as far as adventures go, and my answer is, ” I am going fishing in Alaska.” For most of the winter I was working on building a 24 foot Dory Boat that was designed to launch off of the beach. I am leaving Friday morning with Patty, myself, and a couple friends who are going along to help drive the boat to Alaska. It is 2,500 miles to Soldotna and we are going to drive straight through without stopping to sleep. We will rotate drivers and sleep in the car while we are driving, and stop for gas and food. It will take us approximately 50 hours to get there. The Alaskan Highway is the most beautiful in the world, and we will also see lots of wildlife. When Patty and I drove it a couple of years ago we saw 92 bears, besides buffalo, mountain lion, moose, elk, caribou, deer, and mountain goats.

When we get there we will be fishing for Sockeye Salmon in Soldotna, and we will be going out into Cook Inlet to fish for Halibut. We will launch the boat at Ninilchik, where there is a company that hooks on the boat trailer with a big 4 wheel drive skidder and backs the boat into the ocean far enough to float the boat off of the trailer. When we are done fishing we radio when close and they back the trailer in again, and we drive the boat up on the trailer and they pull it out. I have have never done this before, so it should be an adventure for sure. I have never operated a boat in the ocean so this is a new area of learning and experience for me, but I will have a number of friends fishing with me that have and will teach me. I am looking forward to catching lots of Sockeye, Halibut, and Ling Cod, and bringing home several hundred pounds of fish.

I am bringing my 12 year old grandson, Jesse we us and he is going to have an experience of a lifetime catching fish bigger than he is. I am looking forward to spending a lot of time with him fishing, talking about life, guy stuff, and Jesus.

Between right now and Friday morning at 5 am I have 52 things on my “to do” list to get done before we leave, some as easy as round up all my life jackets, and others a bit more complicated like installing my “Fish Finder – GPS” mounted on the boat.

As my schedule and focus changes, the challenge is to keep my “spiritual disciplines” faithful and regular. It is so easy to forget to give God time and to seek Him first, but absolutely super important if I want to grow.

We camped last night at Idanha, and left this morning at 5:30 am and road 64 miles to home. I road into our driveway at 1:30 pm with a bunch of grandkids waiting and cheering for me as I pedaled the last 100 feet of the trip. I was surprised at the rush of emotion I felt as they yelled, “welcome home, grandpa”. It was nice to be home. Most of the 64 miles was downhill or level and there was no headwind, and because we left so early and then cut off at Mehama to a country side road that went through Scio we had very little traffic, a great last day ride. After I visited with kids, grandkids, and Patty I laid down in my nice, comfortable bed and took a nap. I then went down to my office and got caught up on all that took place while I was gone from my secretary, Jean, read and answered emails, and worked on my sermon. I preached tonight and I will in both services tomorrow. I had a real struggle with my voice tonight, and I am hoping that a good nights sleep will fix it for tomorrow.

One of the things I preached about tonight was how to have strength and energy when you get old. God gives strength to the weary, but there are a lot of weary Christians out in the world who don’t seem to be getting much of that strength and energy from God. I shared 5 keys to receiving that gift from God tonight. (1) Have a strong desire to do something with your life that matters, really matters, what Jesus calls fruit in John 15. God gives us His strength for a purpose, to bear fruit for Him, not just to be able to function and do what everybody else does. If you don’t aspire to bear fruit, more fruit, and much fruit don’t expect God to give you His power. (2) Ask God for His strength, ask a lot, ask often, ask every time you feel tired, ask a hundred times a day. (3) Control your thinking. Don’t think, “I am tired”, because you will become more tired. There are dozens of verses in the Bible about God promising to give strength to the weary, memorize several of them, and as soon as a “I’m tired” thought pops into your head choose to set your mind on one of those verses and meditate on it. (4) Control your mouth. Don’t ever say, never, ever, absolutely never say, ” I am so tired”. If you weren’t, you will be now, and if you were it will now be 10 times worse. (5) Control your flesh. Get up and do something that matters. But, I am so tired, you say, get up and do something anyway, do not let how you feel dictate how you act or what you do. If you feel tired, exhausted even, and you get up and do something that will bear fruit, you won’t die, but you probably will start feeling better. I am not saying you shouldn’t rest, but rest systematically, and then do something great.

We are in Idanaha after a 75 mile ride over Santiago Pass. The traffic was unreal, a constant stream. It was so noisy with cars, trucks, semi’s constantly going by it was impossible to think. I am thankful that there were reasonably wide shoulders to ride on.

One of the interesting things that happened to all of us was having hallucinations. You look at the road ahead and you think, cool, the road is starting to go down, but when you drive on it you have to keep lowering your gears because it is so hard. All day long, every day it seems the road is going down but it is going up, or going up, and it is going down. I think it happens because we are looking at the road constantly, and we start to loose some perception. You can’t tell if the road is going up or down by looking, you tell by gravity. If it is hard, you are going up, and if it is easy you are going down.

Reminds me of Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” The only way to know what is true is what God declares is true in the Bible. So many people have opinions, but they are only opinions, and probably wrong.