Well, today John and I road 105 miles starting in Lincoln City and ending at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Campground just outside Winchester Bay. Besides the 105 miles we also had three killer hills and one of them had no shoulder and it was very curvy. This is the first century ride that either John or I have ever done. When we got into camp at 5:30 pm after leaving this morning at 6:15 am I felt pretty good, but after a warm shower and dinner I can hardly keep my eyes open as I write this blog, I am totally run out of gas. We have 66 miles tomorrow so we are going to sleep in a little and leave at 8 am. The Oregon Coast is a beautiful ride on a bicycle, and we stopped often for breaks and pictures.

I am going to call that enough for tonight, talk to you tomorrow.

Today was our "Rest Day" so I slept in, and took several naps during the day, and ate a lot, including a big bowl of ice cream. We all went to church at Faith Baptist here in Lincoln City this morning, and our good friends the Bruggeman's were at the church giving a Missions report, and also Katrina Beranek who attends JBC was there on vacation, and sat with us, and then we all went to MO's for lunch and a former JBC'er, Frank Stutzman who manages at MO's paid for our lunch.

Russ Williams who has been riding with us since the start left today as planned, and Doug is to sore to ride anymore, so it is just John Smith and I riding tomorrow. His wife, MaryAnn and Patty are riding together in our "support vehicle" and will get to our camping spot tomorrow before we get there. When we pull in Patty will have our tent set up, the lawn chairs set up and a cold Coke already opened for me, what a woman😀!!

Because of some adjustments we have had to make because of all the full campgrounds caused by all those coming over to the coast to escape the heat, our schedule is off a bit so we are riding 106 miles tomorrow to get caught up, and we have three major hills to climb as well. The good thing is that I got good and rested today, and the weather forecast is calling for winds out of the North at 9 mph, so all I need to do is make a big sail😜!! We will be camping at the "Umpqua Lighthouse State Park" just South of Reedsport.

One of the life principles taught in the Bible is the need for "rest". Our physical body needs rest, we need rest to recuperate emotionally, and we need rest for our minds to function well. The kind of rest that works best is systematic, regular rest, along with activity that is energy renewing. I take these annual bicycle trips or activities like them to "rest" and experience renewal in my spirit and heart as a result of the spiritual, emotional, and mental energy that I use up in ministry to people. It is one of the reasons I plan on continuing to Pastor as long as I still have my wits about me. I am feeling good enough right now to go another 20 years in ministry, but first we will see if I can go 106 miles on the bicycle tomorrow.

Today on our trip Doug Sheets, one of the bicycle riders on our trip had an accident. He was following a little to close to the rider in front of him and as he swerved to keep from hitting him he rolled his bicycle with him on it. He was in front of me so I watched the whole thing. It was a bad tumble and I was afraid that he might have broken something. Within a few minutes a couple of ladies stopped to check and see if everyone was OK. One of them was a nurse and the other was a doctor, and they drove Doug to a local hospital. There was nothing broken, but he will be pretty sore tomorrow from the bruises, and he won't continue riding.

Today was a 60 miler with a bunch of hill climbing and one monster that I thought sure was going to kill me, but here I am sitting on a dock on Devil's Lake trying to catch a fish and writing this blog. The weather has been cool here on the coast the last couple of days, in the low 70's , but I warm up pretty good as I pedal up these monster hills. We are at a friends condo tonight in Lincoln City so we are not doing the normal camping thing. Tomorrow is a rest day, which I am more than ready for. These last two days have really drained my gas tank. We are going to get up and go to church tomorrow and then just lounge around, and eat. Monday we will be off again on our 2,000 mile ride around the State of Oregon.

We won't be at our church JBC tonight or tomorrow, but I am going to spend a big block of time tomorrow praying for everybody in the church. I have my IPad with all the names and pictures of everybody, and my prayer journal with it.

Today was the most difficult day of the trip for me, in fact it was what John and I call a "hit the wall" day." That is where you have thoughts like, "I can't do this anymore", or "I am going to tell everyone tonight that I am done, cupute, finished, near death", or "why are you doing this, you must be crazy". Even though we only rode 48 miles we went up 3 monster hills that were 600 feet each in elevation gain and most of it was 6 % grade or more. When we got to the top of the third I was totally run out of gas. And then today we went through a tunnel. It is dark inside, there is no curb, and the cars, trucks, and RV's are passing with very little space between us and them, and then there is the noise inside the tunnel of engines of all sizes sounding like jet engines, and also those who have this crazy idea that you have to honk all the way through the tunnel. It was more scary than my first time sky diving and when I got out I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, though I acted the tough and brave guy, and suggested that just for fun we go back through it a couple more times!!

I know the "hit the wall days will come", they always do, and though I would really like to quit, I won't, I know that. Why? Through out my life I have had good teaching from my parents, pastors, youth pastors, teachers and friends that have shaped my character into what it is today. There are about 26 character traits and one of them is endurance and grit, and when they are well developed quitting is near impossible to do. One of the ways to make this character trait strong in your life is to choose to do things like this trip. Maybe not quite so crazy, but hard things that will cause us to grow into a strong person who doesn't quit, keeps his promises no matter what, does their responsibility no matter how hard it might be.

Well, tomorrow only has only one killer hill but it is 800 feet in elevation gain, and the wind is forecast to be blowing in our face so we will have a 7 to 14 mile head wind as well, I hate head winds!! One of the major self coaching things we must do to help ourselves grow into this kind of strong person is to commit to never grumbling about anything no matter how difficult or hard. I will work on that tomorrow.

Today we pedaled from Vernonia to Astoria. 70 miles and some very pretty country. There were lots of trucks and logging trucks on the road that we were on with very little shoulder, but the drivers were patient and safe, and we felt very comfortable in our ride. We again got up early and we're on the road by 6 am, and by the time it was heating up at home we were having very pleasant temperatures on the coast. We had one monster hill to climb that was about 5 miles long and steep, but we made it up and the ride down the other side was wild. John got up to over 40 mph, I was going around a corner at 30 on my bicycle and the road sign said to go 20 mph. We will be on the coast now for about a week, and we are so confident that it will be much cooler that we are planning on sleeping in in the morning a couple of hours. We went to Fred Myers and bought some cheap fishing rods, and John and I are at Sunset Lake fishing though we haven't caught anything yet. I am sitting on a bench writing this blog, and reading and writing while I watch my bobber. I am getting a super work out each day for about 6 hours, and I am anxious to lose some weight and keep it off this time!'

I have observed of late how easy it is for people to drift away from faith in God And Christ. Most would have said, "I will never drift away" before they do, and it is that lack of fear that they could, that prevents them from being very careful that they don't. The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament says we should fear that we don't drift away. On this bicycle trip I am careful to spend time in Bible reading, scripture memory, and prayer every day, and I am planning on making it to church each Sunday. I don't have to, but I want to grow closer every day to Jesus, and not drift away, and I know how to do that.

We started bicycling this morning from Champoeg Park where we had camped overnight.  We left at 6 am to try and beat some of the heat again as we did the day before.  It was fairly comfortable until about 11 am and then we went onto the Banks-Vernonia  bike trail.. It was a super nice trail. It was all paved and not much bike traffic and it was almost all in the shade, in fact its was like going through a tunnel of trees so we didn’t really have any problem with the heat.  We averaged a little over 11 miles per hour which was a little slower than the day before but we had some uphill riding today that slowed us down. We rode almost exactly 60 miles and we were finished and at camp by 1 pm.  Tomorrow we are riding  70 miles and the temperature should be less as we get closer to the coast. Tomorrow we will be camping a few miles south of Astoria.

When I got on my bike this morning I was instantly aware that I had rode 44 miles the day before. I was really sore in my leg muscles and my rear end was super sore. I am hoping that tomorrow is better. We will see!

Today we had a lady passing us in a car yell at us that we were fools for riding in this heat. That is a regular comment as we ride our bikes.  The question is “Why”?  Doing something difficult and challenging is one of the things that I really enjoy.  It is sort of a funny thing to think about because I can’t really explain the attraction to these kinds of events that I have. My only explanation is that God made me that way because he knows that produces rapid character growth. I really think He made everybody that way but many have bured the desire.

I am looking forward to some major adventures tomorrow.

August 1st John Smith, Doug Sheets, and I started on our 30 day bicycle trip around the State of Oregon. We started at 6 am to beat the heat, and it was cool enough that I needed to wear a long sleeved wool shirt to start with. Our destination was the State Park and Campground Champoeg. It was just 44 miles with very few hills and no headwind until the last hour. We were in camp by 11 am before it got really hot. It was a great first day to get in shape a bit before some of the long days with lots of miles and hills. Tomorrow it is supposed to be hotter and we will ride 60 miles and climb some pretty steep hills as we head for the City Campground in Vernonia. A cool thing about tomorrow is about half the miles are on a bike trail much of which was a railroad track and the rails were removed and it was paved for a bike trail, no cars and trucks to worry about.

Several weeks ago I bought a little speaker system that fits in my bicycle helmet that Bluetooth connects with my IPhone. I bought several really good books on Amazon in Audio and downloaded them to my phone so I can listen to the reading of the book while I am riding. I don't like ear buds in my ears while I am riding because I like to be able to hear the traffic around me and what is coming up behind me. With this speaker system I can hear the traffic and the audio from my phone at the same time. The book I am listening to is called "Renovations of the Heart" by Dallas Willard who is my favorite all time author. The book is basically about how to cooperate with God as He works in our life to grow in character to become like Jesus in character

Probably the biggest mystery of life to most Christ Followers is what is the purpose of life. The purpose as Believers is to become like Jesus so that when we join Him for all eternity we will be like Him so that we will enjoy our fellowship with Him , and He enjoy His time with us. Some grow rapidly and some do not grow at all, because they don't know how to grow and they are not motivated to grow, because they don't think it will make that much difference in eternity. I want a lot of things in life, but nothing comes close to the desire I have to grow as much as I can in the time I have left.

Anticipation is so much fun! Anticipation really doesn't get exciting if you don't cover it with a good dose of imagination spiced up with some creative thinking. The real experiences that I have rarely come close to what I imagined would happen. I imagine the worst, the best, and the wildest, things possible in my musings about the next month as I ride 2000 miles round the State of Oregon with some friends. Tomorrow morning we leave from my house headed to Champoeg Park Campground. We will leave right at 6 am and only ride 44 miles tomorrow so we should be sitting under a shade tree shortly after noon drinking a coke.

Today as I was packing stuff and getting ready and lined up I set up our tent to make sure it was all there, and I wanted to give Patty some lessons on setting it up, because she will be setting it up and taking it down most days. It is easy to set up but it is a bit confusing trying to figure out what poles go in what holes. When we knew exactly what we were doing, and Patty was pretty sure she could easily set it up and take it down again, we decided to go to town to run some errands and buy a additional things.

When we got home the tent was gone. I asked Patty if she had taken it down and packed it in the container it had come in. She assured me that she had not. I got out of the car and walked across the railroad tracks where a big field of grass seed was being harvested, and way across the field, over half of a mile away was our tent up in a tree. It took awhile, but I finally got it back home, packed it in the dry bag and threw it into the trailer we are taking along with us. I thought, wow, it is starting out better than I thought it would. I can't hardly wait until tomorrow,

I have been in Soldotna, Alaska with friends and family for the last two weeks fishing for Sockeye Salmon, and I have been having a wonderful time. We caught lots of salmon, ate lots of great food, and had wonderful fellowship. It was the perfect vacation. Went to Kenai this morning to board the plane for Anchorage and then home, but the flight got canceled because of fog. Our biggest, most important service of the year is this Sunday as we have our big baptism service at Lake Charles, so I really want to be home for that service very much!! So I got another flight out of Anchorage to Los Angeles and then back to Portland, a total of 9 hours of flying, it was the only way to get home in time for the baptism. We had to drive 3 hours to Anchorage to catch the flight, and we made it in time. When I landed in Los Angelos my flight was late and my flight to Portland had already left, so I got rescheduled to leave Los Angelos  at midnight.  Wow, I think I will eventually make it home and to the baptism, but what a circular route to make it. 

As I stood in numerous lines today to get rescheduled I observed many angry people who were in the same boat I was in. Today, I worked hard to be gracious and kind in all my communication to people. I smiled whenever I was talking, and gave many compliments for good performance, as most were receiving lots of complaints. There are so many unhappy people in the world today, who feel like victims.  I am very happy, I enjoy life, I enjoy problems, I enjoy conquering problems, I rejoice always, and try hard never to be negative or grumpy to othet people. The only way I can pull that off day after day, especially in trying days like today, is to pray constantly ” Dear Lord, please help me now to please you in the words I say, and the attitude that I display. You are my Lord and today I will follow You and Obey you no matter how hard the assignment. God loves to give His strength to those who desire to serve and please Him in all that they do. 

My baby was my 9 foot G Loomis steelhead fishing rod that I have been using here in Alaska as I am fishing for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River. It is an awesome fishing tool, but I slammed our van door on it this morning and broke it. I thought I was going to cry, but I managed to not, but when I get back home I think I might need some grief recovery counseling. I am glad it was me that did it and not someone else. One of the worst things I see people do is get upset at someone because they damaged or broke something that belonged to them. Why would we choose to damage a personal relationship over a worldly possession?  I watch  people do it all the time, and they justify their behavior with statements like, “well, they need to learn to be responsible” or “they need to learn to be careful”or, and on the list goes. Teaching others good behavior and consideration for the property of others is great if you can do it graciously and gently, without hurting the other person, but damaging a relationship with a family member or friend over a personal possession is a clear indication that we have a very serious case of the disease called “worldliness”. 

Worldlinessis one of the most subtle and dangerous diseases known to mankind. Worldliness is why people’s love for God grows cold, and they fall away from the living God that saved them.