Yay for another new state!
Kentucky greeted us with light showers te whole day but it was actually quite refreshing to ride in. We took an easy day and ended in an amazing baptist church who loves to host cyclists. They had showers and laundry and everything! Laundry!!!!!! So we feel very blessed. All that aside, because riding wasn't the most important part of today, I get to our major event.
We said goodbye to our great friend Mathias today. He went on his route towards Florida as we headed east towards NC. We went out early to breakfast and had a great, long, filling, heartwarming, breakfast. We stayed there a long time talking and sharing life, and just prolonging our time together before we had to depart. We hopped on the ferry across the Ohio river and soon after hit our junction of departure. This blog is going to be mostly just a tribute to Mathias.
We rode together for 12 days. Now in normal life knowing someone for 12 days may not be that significant. But on a bike tour? It is completely different. 12 days is 24x12 hours together. So many hours to share our hearts, passions, weaknesses, uncontrolable laughter, exhaustion, etc. I never could have imagined riding with another tourer that we met for that long on our trip, and even better, I could have never imagined making a really great friend. Mathias is a very deep philosphical thinker and loves to read classical books. He has a great sense of humor and knows when to be serious and when to just have fun. His smile is ridiculously contagious. On top of all of this his desire and dedication to his adventure are unparalleled. He works hard every day to get where he needs to be. He has a great understanding on what is important in life and what is not, and he cares about the important things.
He was able to join us for two major Christian events, the fields of faith in Marshfield, and the church service at Grace in Chester. He joined us in many many morning, afternoon, and nightly prayers of thanks to our God, and contributed whole-heartedly to our conversations about our faith. I don't know where he stands in his belief in Jesus, but he knows us, and our lives, and our testimonies, and has met many other amazing Christians in the past 12 days. I pray that Mathias will continue a pursuit of truth and find Jesus' grace on his life.
My first memory of Mathias was at a diner right at the base of Monarch pass. He walked in, after we were already sitting at the table for a bit, and his eyes lit up and his smile covered half of his face. "more tourers!" he exclaimed. He was so excited to see us doing the same thing he was because he hadn't seen anyone in weeks. It so happened we were going the same way and the rest of the story is history. I remember taking that first picture with him almost at the summit of Monarch, and the last pictures on the ferry at Cave-in-Rock. I am never one to be good at good-byes, and I will humbly admit I may be the worst that I know. I just hate them, I get emotional, and it takes me a bit to regain my ground. So yes, it was very difficult. But we live on, and we live out his trip vicariously through him alongside our very own trip; it is almost as if we are on two trips now.
Mathias lives in London, Ontario, which is not that far from where we live. We hope to reconnect very soon and show him around northern Michigan... hopefully on our bicycles =)
God bless him. You. Us. Everyone on our path and everyone not on it.
Tailwinds,
Mark
I was thinking Mathias should come to Northern MI and then read the same.
ReplyDeleteWe would love to have him stay at our house, but wouldn't want to start a
fight w/ the Filas HAHA
yes! he is coming to our house and hanging out! ours is way cooler than the filas
DeleteNice write up Markie! I hope to meet Mathias someday :)
ReplyDelete