we rode 92 miles today, leaving camp at 6 am and pulling into this camp at Boulder, Wyoming at 4:30pm, so I was really out of gas. But with a shower and a “Mountain House” freeze dried dinner it didn’t take long until I was feeling good again. We saw lots of antelope along the way today. It reminded me of when the kids were young and we drove through Wyoming, and they would have a contest on who could see the most antelope. We can now see the Teton Mountains clearly so it really adds to the beauty of what we see as we ride. This picture is me with my IPad watching the final game of the NBA playoff’s. Often the campgrounds don’t have a strong enough WiFi to do this, but this Campground did as long as I sat in my lawn chair close to the office. Watching the game was a great way to end a long, hard day on a bicycle seat. I am bundled up in the sweats more to keep the mosquitos off than to stay warm. I had my first dog encounter today. He came running out, and ran around me and my bike several times barking his head off, I yelled at him with my loudest, meanest sounding voice, but I think what worked is I just picked up my speed considerably and he couldn’t keep up with me, wimpy dog!

I felt really good and strong today riding my bicycle. Taking yesterday off and resting was a good idea for me. It was a great,day of bicycling, the scenery was awesome, there was very little traffic often with no vehicles passing us for 15 minutes, and we saw lots of wildlife which always gets me excited. We left Utah and crossed into Wyoming today and almost immediately upon crossing the State line we started seeing antelope and elk, Wyoming is a great State for wildlife and hunting. We rode 65 miles today, the first 32 miles was all uphill, steep uphill, up to 14% grade. The second 32 miles was all down hill, nice downhill where you cruised along at 20 to 25 mph with little to no peddling. The first 32 miles took us 7 hours, and the second 32 miles took us 90 minutes. When we pulled into the KOA campground in Rock Springs I was ready for the swimming pool that they had, it only took me about 15 minutes to be in the pool cooling off. Tomorrow is a 92 mile day but there is much less hill climbing then the last 5 ride days have had, the steepest climb is just 4.8% grade. We probably will finish the day in less time than it took to ride 65 miles today.

A major part of the definition of wisdom is balance. Almost every truth or principle that exists is in tension with what appears to be an opposite truth or principle. Most people usually swing to one truth or the other, living their lives out of balance. I just wrote about the balance of getting strength from God and also by resting. There is also a very important balance to be achieved in the discipline of resting. I was born lazy and so were you. Our flesh is powerfully drawn to easy and comfortable. We can become way over balanced and become very lazy and hardly ever accomplish anything worthwhile in the name of or in the guise of resting. Early in this trip I took a day off, like I did this morning, but later came to the conclusion that it was a wrong choice and that I was a wimp for not riding that day because I was motivated by “easy and comfort”, but I think the choice this morning is right. The decision a month ago was made quickly without much thought, and it was made because I didn’t want to get out of bed that morning. The decision this morning to not ride was made last night, after thinking about it for some time realizing that I was truly tired and run out of gas and that I needed to get some extra rest. This is an important “balancing act” to get figured out otherwise we won’t accomplish much because we are either to lazy or to tired.

One of the disciplines/habits that I have now in my life is to ask God for His strength and power in my life every morning and often during the day. Whenever I am feeling weary or down, I ask for strength. Isaiah 40:28-31 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard, the Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired, His understanding is inscrutable, He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord, will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

On the other hand, I rest systematically and periodically as a key to renewal and recuperation of energy; mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical energy. God gives strength to the weary, but there is also a stewardship of my physical body required in order to achieve maximum accomplishment. I am working at learning how to rest, exercise, and eat wisely, to be a good steward of the gift God has given me to serve Him with.

There is a balance in “God’s part – my part” in living life that alludes many as we pursue this energy and strength part of living life. 2 Corinthians 6:1 says, “And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Before a driving trip we pray and ask God to protect, guide, and provide for us on the trip, and then I get some new tires, change the oil, get a tune up, and fill the car up with gas. No one would see the second part of that “trip preparation” as lack of faith, just wisdom.

All that to say, I was so tired last night when I climbed into my sleeping bag at 8:30 pm I decided that I was going to make today a rest day from biking. So I am riding in the RV to the next camp sight at Dutch John’s Campground 40 miles away while the others ride their bicycles.

We rode 80 miles today and had one big whopping big hill at the end of the ride. It was one of those hills that the road winds around so every corner you think, yeh this is the end coming up and then you see another bend and section of road going up. I don’t know how many time that happened on this hill, I thought maybe it was going to heaven.

I think I might have gotten a bit of heat stroke on this climb. I got really hot as I cranked on those pedals in low/low on my bike, mile after mile going up that hill with the temperature about 94 degrees. After I got into camp I felt a bit woozy and then nauseous, and now just tuckered out. I am cooling off good in Tom’s RV with the air conditioning running maximum, and drinking lots of water with a cup of coffee thrown in for good measure, and am feeling good enough to write this. We are at Steinaker State Park outside of Vernal, Utah, it is 6 pm and still over 90 degrees.

We have a big hill to climb tomorrow but it is first thing in the morning so it will be cool. This week Monday through Saturday are all tough days with lots of miles and big hills to climb, but next week we will be getting into Yellowstone so I purposely shortened the mileage so we would have plenty of time to see the sights.

I am having a tough time getting my reading and writing goals done tonight because I keep falling asleep, but Kathy said she is going to make a salad for us to eat and that woke me right up.

Today we rode 79 miles and climbed over 6,000 feet and went over another 9,000 foot pass and most of the top 5 miles was 8% grade. One of the blessings though was about 7 miles from the top they were doing road construction and had one lane of traffic for 2 miles using a pilot car to lead people through. We couldn’t keep up with the pilot car so they put our bikes in the truck and drove us through. I was riding in the pickup with an older lady and the bicycles were on another truck with Tom on it. I asked the lady how far we were going, and she responded, “2 miles” and I asked how far it was from the summit and she responded “3 miles”, and I said, “any chance you could take us all the way to the top, and let those line of cars and trucks wait a few minutes longer for you to lead them through ?” She said, “sure!” but once we went by the normal stop and turn around place the driver in the truck with the bicycles which happened to be her husband said “NO!” Oh well, can’t blame a guy for trying. Once we got to the summit we had a 30 mile downhill and I never once peddled the bike, just sat and coasted about 20 miles an hour for about 90 minutes, it was very nice after that grind up the other side. We are at a town called Duchesne at Starvation Creek Campground. Best showers yet.

The spirit world around us is very real, it is hard to explain the wicked behavior of many without some outside influence being involved. The biggest advantage demons have over us is that we can’t see them so when they talk to us and we hear them in our thoughts we don’t identify the source.

I can say with absolute certainty that without constant monitoring my mind always goes toward the negative. Is that just my own thoughts, or am I getting some help here? This extra, little voice in my head is determined to destroy positive momentum in my life. This voice is constantly whining, complaining, seeing the negative in every situation, and pointing out why things won’t work out, or why they can’t be done. If I don’t take charge of my thoughts they will take charge of me. It is like an untrained dog, if I don’t choose what I am going to think, it is like my mind decides on its own what is going to think, and that is never good.

I have discovered that my mind can’t out shout my voice. When I “hear” my thoughts going negative I audibly say something positive, and it totally puts the clamps on my thoughts. I watched the 2nd NBA championship game tonight between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland, Cavaliers, and one of the keys to winning is very good defense. That is what I need to do with my thoughts, control them, take them captive, and a major tool is speaking positive words. Quoting memorized scripture that is applicable to a situation is amazingly powerful or simply saying, “I can”, “I will”, “I want to”, “let’s do this” and on the list goes. I don’t have to shout these positive words, just saying them under my breath works well. The opposite is just as true, when you speak out negative words, prompted by negative thinking, such as complaining, grumbling, criticizing it is like throwing gas on a fire, and then our negative thoughts become very powerful and the boss. The biggest problem for most is that they don’t listen to what they are thinking so there is no defense and we become increasingly more negative, sometimes to the point that we are stuck. You don’t want that to happen so play some good, positive defense.

This is the 6th major bicycle trip that I have taken in the last 6 years. In 2013 my brother Cliff and I rode our bicycles to Fairbanks, Alaska with Kathy his wife driving a support car. Of the 2500 miles we rode our bicycles on 1500 miles and rode in the car 1,000 miles because of weather, road construction, and bicycle unsafe roads. It was a great trip in which we saw 92 bears, hundreds of bison, lots of moose, deer, elk, and even a couple of wolves. The next year I did the Alaska Trip by myself with Patty and my Mom driving a support vehicle. I only made it 600 miles of the 2500 because I had a wreck on my bike, breaking my bike and spraining my knee. Then 2015 John Smith and I rode what is called the “Northern Tier Route” that goes along the norther border of the US to Portland, Maine where we flew back home with our bikes in a shipping box, we did that trip unsupported with everything we needed on the bikes, and our wives mailing extra freeze dried food to us about every ten days. Our wives did go with us for the first week and then flew back and did another week about half way through the trip. In 2016 John Smith, Richard Klindtworth and I did the “Southern Tier”, San Diego to St Augustine, Florida with all three of our wives on the trip with us riding along in a pickup. Last year John and I and our wives rode around the State of Oregon, 2000 miles with 3 others joining us for the first week of the trip.

For the month of May on this trip I had mentally decided every morning that this would be the last trip like this, I was getting to old, but today I am thinking about next year and what route the trip would take, and who would go, and when we would do it. There is the “Trans-America” route which starts in Newport and goes to Yorktown, Virginia, the “Tip of Florida to Fairbanks, Alaska” trip, and then there is the “hit all lower 48 State Trip”, and any number of trips like this year where we do a big circle or triangle.

My Parkinson’s is doing much better and is getting better by the day, I have lost 17 lbs and feeling really good physically, I have been reading, writing, and praying a bunch and have grown a lot spiritually, I have a scary number of new ideas for ministry, and my vision and passion for life, marriage, family, home, and ministry is cooking hot. Life is good and Jesus is coming back and I am ready.

We all have experiences all day long, and as we do we “see them” differently. To “see” something is to “see” it as really, really good or really, really bad or at any place in between those two extremes. It is amazing how two people can have the same exact experience but “see” it totally different, in fact one person will see it as really, really bad and another will see it as really, really good. It is important to realize that how we “see” things affects how we feel and act, the way each one of us looks at events basically determines who we are as a person in the sense of our behavior most of the day. This attitude is amazingly powerful in our life determining to a huge extent how successful we will be in every area of life. How we “see” is a learned “attitude”. We have learned it from those around us who have influenced us over the years, and by various life shaping experiences, but a key truth is that we can change how we “see” things if we want to, and are willing to work at it diligently. The older we are the stronger this “attitude” will be in us, and the more work it will take to change it.

The simple way to say this is to say some people have a “positive attitude”, and others have a “negative attitude”. No one is just one or the other, we all are someplace in between the two extremes, but most understand the terms. The beginning place for change to happen is we must fairly accurately rate ourselves as mostly “positive” or “negative”. This is a huge blind spot in most people’s lives, so it will take some serious self-examination and reflection.

Start with these three simple questions, (1) how much do I grumble about things I don’t like? (2) How often do I get angry or irritated at people who do stupid things? and (3) how regular am I in a grouchy or foul mood?

Most people have long ago accepted themselves as who they are, meaning they don’t think they can change, so their expectation is that everyone around them will accept them the way they are as well, so conflict or failure as a result of their negative attitude is everyone else’s fault.

For those seriously wanting to move the dial in their life toward the “positive” direction the place to start is to memorize Philippians 4:4. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” also 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus,” and Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world”. Memorize them well and meditate on them over and over again everyday. There is more but this is a great place to start.

I found my handy Dandy doo dad that I can put my SD card from my camera in and download the pictures into my iPad. I looked in every bag, pocket, box, and pack I had so last night laying in bed as I was reviewing the day it popped into my mind that I left it laying on the table in Tom’s RV, I had looked there but I was guessing that it fell off as he drove on some bumpy roads. Sure enough, I looked under the table this morning and there it was, I am so happy now, what a great way to start a day😀!

The first picture shows the road that I peddled up, the second picture shows the view of where I had come from, the third is the summit, and the fourth is a modern day round up, complete with horses and quads. All the land around the area that I was biking in was BLM land, and June 1st is when the ranchers can turn their beef loose in it. Some truck the animals and others who live close enough like this rancher drive them up the road. I chatted with the owner a bit and he said it was a 10 mile walk up the road, so June 1st each year they have a family day of driving cows to to the “high ground” as he called it. As I bicycled up the hill I noticed that there was lots of green grass growing amidst the sage brush so I expected that the cows would have a good day tomorrow.

We have a short ride today, only 28 miles, and mostly a gradual downhill so it feels like a rest day. I don’t normally schedule days that short but sometimes the location of the campgrounds makes it hard to do otherwise. My only other option was to make one day out of yesterday’s 80 miles and today’s 28, and with the amount of climbing in yesterday’s ride I really didn’t want to do that!!