Going down some very steep hills today I couldn’t help but notice this sign as we were going down one of the steep hills. As we passed the sign I looked down and saw that I was going 30 mph.

As you can see from the pictures, today was a very beautiful ride. At times we were riding in what was almost a tunnel because the rock walls went up so straight and high. I stopped about every 100 feet or so for a picture or two or three. This whole area is the “creators” masterpiece as an artist. It is like walking into an art gallery that is owned and run by the one who is the artist.

I can pedal up a 6% grade all day, but I can only last about 10minutes on a 8% grade, and about 10 seconds on a 10% grade, and most of the Climb today was 8, 10, and even some 14% grade so of the 20 miles of climbing I walked 8 miles of it. I walk pushing my bike up these steep grades at a speed of 2.5 mph so the 8 miles that I walked took a little over 3 hours, which is why it took 11 hours to complete the 66 miles

Today we rode 66 miles and we climbed about 5,000 feet up to this pass in the picture at 9,600 feet. This is the new “hardest day” for this trip for me, and also it is the highest pass I have gone over on my Bicycle. When I finally made it to camp after riding for 11 hours I was “toast”. In fact I was pretty sure I was going to fall over dead right after this picture was taken. But instead I rode 26 more miles, mostly down hill,to camp. We are in the town of Torrey, Utah, staying at 1000 Lakes Campground. I am not sure why they call it that because I haven’t seen any lakes.

InhaveA few pictures from our ride today which was very beautiful. We rode 48 miles that was about half and half up and down. It is a lot work climbing those hills but a great rush going down. Our last down hill lasted for over an hour. It wasn’t super steep, but steep enough so we could cruise along at 15 to 20 mph without pedaling at all. We came from 7,600 feet to 5,600 feet right into camp. One of the uphills was so steep I had to get off and walk, pushing my bike. That is the first time I have had to do that. I walked for over a mile trying to keep from bashing my shin into the pedal that is on the left side of the bike. Tomorrow is going to be a doozy. We are going 67 miles to Torrey and in between is a summit that is 9,500 feet high, that is just under what those who climb Mt Hood do. I hope it isn’t to hot. So far, no flat tires or any kind of bike problems which seems like a miracle considering all that we have had happen in past rides. I am so tired I keep falling asleep while I am writing this. Then I wake up and see that I have 5 lines of jjjjjjjjj’s on my blog where my hand rested on the keyboard.

Today we rode to Bryce Canyon, and we are camping at Ruby’s RV Campground. Our plan was to get here and then peddle around on some of the bike trails to see all the wonderful scenery. We saw some but shortly after we got started it began to rain and hail with thunder and lightning so we headed for camp. Tomorrow on our way to our next camp sight we will take time to ride the side paths that take off of the main road that we will be on, and see the sights and take lots of pictures. The scenery that we saw today was amazing.

one of the main concerns on a Bicycle Trip like this is, not getting hit by a car or truck. I am pretty sure it is going to hurt for awhile unless I get killed. Many of the roads have no shoulder so the cars and trucks go by really close, sometimes literally inches away. A lot of the drivers think that Bicycle riders have come from another planet and are plotting to take over the world, at least their State. So when I see a sign like this it makes me feel happy all over my body. I am thinking of having a t-shirt made with this put on the back.

This is the church we attended today, “Duck Creek Community Church”.

Today was a rest day, and it feels so good to sleep in and not get on that Bicycle for a day. We found a church on line, 12 miles away, and enjoyed attending there very much. A small church in a very rural location with a new pastor, and they had a fellowship time afterwards and I got a piece of cake and coffee, and they also gave a snickers candy bar to all the visitors so I got a good sugar fix for the day. We are camped at 7,800 feet and the water hose that connected water to Tom’s RV was frozen this morning. Last night I had to zip up my sleeping bag and put on my sweat pants and sweat shirt out in my tent to stay warm.

At the church service as part of Memorial Day the pastor read the number of American soldiers who had died in various wars over the years. As I listened I wondered how many people, total have died since Adam. As we visit the various geological sights such as the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, and Yellowstone on this trip we hear tour guides giving lectures or read signs and brochures and the theory of evolution is what is taught which has to have billions of years as part of the theory to even be close to feasible. The number I heard most used for the beginning of “modern mankind”was 50,000 years ago with about 108 billion people born and died in that time.

I believe the Bible is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, and I believe the “Creation Account” in Genesis is literal and true, so obviously the total number of people who have been born and died is going to be much smaller. As I wonder about that, I wonder how many are with the God of the Bible, that number will be much smaller yet.

Everything I see points to an intelligent creator, and a creator powerful enough to create all I see certainly would be wise, very intelligent and able to communicate to me. I believe He has done that through His creation, His Word, the Bible, and directly to my heart. I read the Bible entirely when I was 13 years old and since then have read it over 200 times, studied it for many hours,and memorized almost 1,000 verses well. All that to say, the Bible claims to be “living”, ” Supernatural”, that is God works in us while we are involved in it, and that has become for me the most convincing proof that the Bible is God’s Word, and my sole authority for what is true and right, and most importantly, how to know God and live with Him forever when I die.

We began the day by loading the bike’s on the RV and driving 30 miles toward where we were headed today, because it is what we rode yesterday coming into the Grand Canyon, and we knew that there was no shoulder, lots of traffic this Memorial Day weekend, that it would be a very steep downhill, and because it was so rough and so much traffic we would be braking constantly so to be on the safe side we skipped it and started our ride in Kanab, Utah and peddled 40 miles, 30 miles of it uphill. Kanab is officially listed at 4,900 feet elevation, and the camp we are at tonight is listed at 7,800, so a climb of 3,000 feet. It was aided tremendously though by a very strong tail wind, it had to be 15 mph with gusts much stronger. We met a man on a bicycle today who couldn’t hear or speak, but with use of my iPad and his we had a nice conversation. He had panniers on his bike and was pulling a little “Bob” trailer, and had to have had at least 100 lbs of gear. He has been bicycling all over the United States continuously since 2014. He wrote that he rides in the North during the summer and the South during the winter. He was a very nice guy, and I hope we see him again. I didn’t think about getting his email and staying in touch with him, but I will get that if we do see him again, and we probably will because we are traveling the same route for the next week. This camp we are at tonight, Lutherwood Camp, it is a Lutheran Church Camp, is way out of the way, in fact we had to ride 2 miles on a gravel road, and that is not an easy task with these skinny tires that I have on my bike. I found a church on line, 12 miles from here that we are going to attend in the morning, “Duck Creek Community Church”. The picture on their web sight Was a little log building with very nice landscaping. It appears from the web site to be a small church but the reviews by visitors were very positive, so I am expecting to have a blessed time tomorrow gathered with other believers. I am ready for a “rest day” tomorrow. We started the trip with a rest day on Wednesday and Sunday, and now just on Sunday, because with close to a month of bicycling we supposedly are in super shape😀 (for those keeping track on a map of our journey, we are 40 miles North of Kanab, Utah on highway 89, 2 miles East right where road 14 intersects 89 from the West)