Everyone else rode about 73 miles today, but Cliff and Kathy got lost and rode 85, but they made it to camp. We all have an app on our phones called “Ride with GPS”. It is a mapping app that has each day’s route in it that I had plotted before the trip. It gives audible turn-by-turn instructions which are nice because you don’t have to look down as you ride through traffic. That will be good tomorrow as we go across the Golden Gate Bridge and through San Fransico with lots of turns keeping us out of major traffic. Cliff got lost because he turned off his phone and missed a turn. Tonight we are camped in an RV Park that is basically a big parking lot in the middle of busy traffic. Many of the streets in San Francisco have designated bike lanes, and our app indicates on the map with a green line where those are. Tomorrow should be gorgeous as we ride along some very high bluffs next to the ocean. I am going to ride tomorrow because I don’t want to miss going over the Golden Gate. I will probably try riding every other day for awhile and see how I feel. We are watching the NBA championship game tonight on the TV that is in the motorhome, the RV park has cable TV at each of the RV sites, and they had a warm swimming pool as well.

This is the twelfth long-distance bicycle trip that I have done. The first one was in 2012 and I have done one each summer since then. I started because in 2011 I went on a motorcycle trip up to Fairbanks, Alaska and back, and on the trip I saw a number of people bicycling the same route and trip I was on. I camped with several on different occasions on the trip and talked with them about their experiences. I became intrigued with the challenge of riding a bicycle to Alaska. That winter I did a bunch of reading about long distance bicycle touring and bought my first bike, a Navara Safari from REI. I continued the trips each summer because of the health benefits, the challenge of doing them, the enjoyment of getting away, the personal and spiritual renewal that they always were, seeing the country, camping, and the great fellowship with those who went on the trips with me. I think there have been about 30 different people who have gone on at least one of the trips. The longest trip was to the Grand Canyon, then up to Yellowstone, and then home. That trip was a bit over 4,000 miles. The most interesting trip was the second trip up to Alaska with my brother Cliff and his wife, Kathy driving a support vehicle, we saw 92 bears on that ride, along with thousands of buffalo, moose, caribou, rocky mountain sheep, and even a wolf. The most challenging was the trip across the northern United States ending in Portland, Maine. I rode that one with John Smith and it was unsupported meaning that we each carried 70 pounds on our bikes in front and rear panniers. I lost 40 lbs on that trip. The most enjoyable trip was the one we did from San Diego to St Augustine, Florida. John Smith, Richard Klindtworth, and I rode and our wives all came on the trip with us. When we pulled into camp the tent was all set up, dinner was cooked, and Patty was ready to give my tired muscles a massage. These past twelve years have been a wonderful and enjoyable chapter in my life and with enough experiences to fill ten books.

I decided last night and this morning that I am going to pull the plug on my bicycle riding. It is getting more and more difficult to ride and the pain and the not being able to sleep the night after a hard ride have taken most of the joy out of the experience for me. The joy of the past experiences and the part of me that hates quitting anything because it is hard has made this a difficult decision that I have pondered on for several days, but it is time. I will be the designated driver for the rest of this trip. I might try some half-day riding or every other day riding, but usually, when I make a decision like this it is better if I just do it so I don’t keep second-guessing my decision.

The positive thing about this change is that now I can devote more time to grandkids and fishing.

I will keep writing this blog about this trip from the perspective of the others riding, today’s ride will be part B of today’s blog.

Today was very much like yesterday. All the riding was on hwy One along the coast with roads that went up and down, up and down, up and down, and round and round and round and round, and there was a bunch of road construction to boot. There were many steep cliffs and drop-offs all along the route that made you wonder what it would feel like if you didn’t make one of the windy corners. Tonight we are camped on the Russian River at Duncans Mills, straight East of Santa Rosa. Tomorrow we will be camping just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the next day we will cross it; that should be exciting; I will be sure and take lots of pictures.

I was feeling sorry for myself today because my Parkinson’s has not responded positively to the biking as in previous years, but has actually gotten worse especially on days when I ride hard. But then I got my head on straight and thought, how can a person feel sorry for themselves when they have been as blessed by the Lord as much as I have been. If I never ride another foot on my bicycle I have already experienced twelve years of these kinds of trips all over the United States, and I thank the Lord for all of His blessings to me. It is only a fool who is only thankful for the good things, and doesn’t rejoice with the bad things as God’s perfect will for his life.

Day 16, I can’t believe that we are less than two weeks from being done with this trip. Today we rode 55 miles of nothing but up and down, steep uphill and then steep downhill, one after the other. Tonight we are in Manchester, California at the KOA campground. They had the best hot tub of the trip, really hot and powerful jets. I closed my eyes and laid back and was enjoying the full body massage and when I opened them up there were seven young ladies sitting in the hot tub with me! I thought, I better get out of here before one of the other guys in our group sees me and takes my picture. They all smiled at me when I got out.

Today I spent most of my bicycling time riding alone and prayed almost all the time I was riding. I prayed for everybody I could remember in the church, for all of my family over and over, for myself that God would use me more and more for His glory in spite of my age. I also did a lot of thanking and praising the Lord for all of His blessings to me especially for Patty, my family, JBC, Agape, and all the experiences He has given to me over the years. It was a very good day of bicycling in spite of all the gasping for air that I was doing! 😂

Today almost everyone else rode 72 miles with a couple of monster hills through the redwoods and then over to the coast. I rode in the motorhome with Tom today to give my knees and my tired old body a rest. It is now 3:00 pm and everyone but Tom is in camp. Tom rode down the road further where he is getting his bike worked on at a cycle shop. We are on California Coastal Highway 1 tonight and will be on it for much of the rest of the trip. We are at an RV campground in Westport with a good view of the beach. They charge a dollar for two minutes of shower time, there goes my 15-minute hot shower! I may have to buy a fishing rod for surf fishing. I see quite a few people out on the beach fishing. That would move this bicycle trip from “Great” to “Super Great.”

In the evening while laying in bed before I fall asleep I thank the Lord for the day and all the experiences and blessings that I can remember happening that day. While on this trip one of the things that I pray each night is, “thank You Lord for the privilege of being part of this trip and for all the experiences and sights that happened today, thank You, thank You, thank You!”

We rode 70 miles today with some steep hills, all through the redwoods. We are camped tonight in an RV campground in Meyers Flats.

Today is exactly halfway on our bicycle trip. It seems like we have just started but we have ridden 900 miles so far. This trip has been fantastic in every way. We dropped the daily average from 70 to 65 miles in our planning and that has been nice. Our group of six riders gets along great. The weather has been unbelievable, a little bit of mist this morning but so far no rain. The scenery has been beautiful and I think that today riding through the redwoods topped it off.

Tom and I are the only ones with ailments so far. His Achilles tendon on both feet is swollen and hurting, and both of my knees are hurting. We both used ice tonight on our ailments, and I used a vibrator that seemed to help.

Everybody is getting along great, and we are having a great time sharing the trip, and our motorhome is working great as a home for us all on the trip.

We are in Eureka tonight at an RV park with a swimming pool and a hot tub. We drove about five miles to a Sports Bar and ate some great Pizza and watched the Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat on a screen that had to be twelve feet wide by eight feet high, and I sat six feet from it; talk about a front row seat!

I don’t know if I have ever formally introduced our biking team, there are six of us. I am the oldest at 74 years old and I have been on the most long-distance bicycle tours, an even dozen, three across the continental United States and two to Fairbanks Alaska. Next is Tom Zilvetberg who is 73 years old and has been on four trips with me and we used his motorhome on three of those trips. My brother Cliff is also 73 years old has been on almost every trip I have been on and a few of his own trips without me. Kathy, Cliff’s wife has been on every trip Cliff has been on, and she is somewhere between 40 and 70 years old and the toughest bicycler on the trip. Ray Beaty is a newbie long-distance bicycle rider but has been doing great. He has been doing most of the driving of the motorhome and has been getting up and bicycling on his own in the morning and after he gets to camp and has been getting as many miles as the rest of us, if not more. He is one of the babies in the group at 63 years of age. And the real baby of the group is Paul Risinger at 56 years of age. Paul is the only one in the group that has a regular bike instead of an e-bike, which also makes him the toughest guy in the group as well, though most of us would agree that Kathy is tougher.

With all of us camping together in pretty tight conditions our group gets along pretty good except when Paul makes fun of my white legs. He is an ex football coach so has been giving us tips on treating our aches and paines, and he likes ice.

Tomorrow we will be riding about 60 miles through the redwoods all day. It should be a beautiful day.

We only biked 57 miles today, but it had a really big, steep hill, and the downhill side had road construction going on, so we couldn’t really get any speed going downhill; we had to keep stopping and waiting. It was a cold day, but no rain. I worked up a big sweat climbing the hill and froze going downhill because I was so wet. We are camped right on the Klamath River in a campground called Kamp Klamath. The best part of the day was stopping in Crescent City at a restaurant named, “Fisherman’s Restaurant.” I had salmon and clam chowder. It was a gorgeous day riding along the ocean and through the Red Woods.

I had a picture of myself and my brothers and sister when I was about eight years old with us standing in front of Paul Bunyon and Babe, the blue ox. I also have a picture with our kids in the same place when they were little, and today I got one of me as an old man.

One of the very positive things about the trip is that I haven’t been reading the news or listening to any news commentators that I listen to at home, and it has been so relaxing not to get in a knot over what is happening in the world.

Tom drove the RV today as he has developed a strained Achilles tendon. He has been putting his foot in a small garbage can with water and ice and howling when he first sticks it in. Cliff has been having back problems, and I hurt all over my entire body, but I am not going to ice anything!

Tomorrow looks to be another beautiful ride through the Red Woods.

Today we biked 68 miles from Bandon to Brookings, Oregon, and tonight we are camping on the Chetco River at a very nice campground. Lots of hill climbing today and lots of going down the other side of the hills. I got a new personal best on my bicycle speed today. I got up to 46 mph going down the hill just past Gold Beach. My little bike computer keeps track of a bunch of information, and one of them is top speed. On the same hill a couple of years ago, I got up to 44 mph.

Today’s ride was right along the beach, so it was a gorgeous ride with sunshine the entire day and a tailwind to boot. Paul had two flats today, so he got into camp last.

Tomorrow we move into California and will be in that State for a little more than half our trip. The next three days should be really pretty, being in the redwoods.

I am the most tired today than I have been on any day so far. Not sure why, other than the hills. I blame everything now on old age. I have been sleeping really well the last couple of nights which solves a lot of the tired problems.

We are camped in Langois, Oregon tonight, just South of Bandon on Hwy 101 in a KOA campground. It is a very nice campground with a swimming pool and a hot, hot tub, and also a big screen TV so we can watch the NBA playoff game between the Denver Nuggets and the Miami Heat tonight. Sweet!!

Everyone’s bicycle worked flawlessly today. I hope that trend continues for the next 18 days!

I spent most of the evening figuring out how to reroute our trip because hwy 1 below Big Sur is washed out. We have to go inland and then cut back to the coast. It will add some miles to our trip, but not too much.

Making adjustments to our plans is part of life. Many people make their worst choices in life when something happens to derail their present course, and the adjustments are made in frustration, in a hurry, without thinking, or without counsel. It is good to plan on our goals and desires, hitting roadblocks, and then enjoy the challenge of making the new ones even better.

Because all the campgrounds are full I have been looking at some alternate possibilities and tonight I found a retired Baptist pastor who is a long-distance bicycle rider who is going to let us park our RV at his house and feed us dinner and breakfast. I plan on having some great conversations with him.