What a great and peaceful day. We woke up in the early morning to a very heavy and cold blanket of fog. Packing up went smooth, and then we had some extended devotions in the morning. I found myself in John 15 reading about the vine and the branches. my favorite part of that passage is when Jesus says "apart from me you can do nothing", and then he goes on to basically call us to love God and love each other through the strength of God, the vine. What a magnificent passage, and was actually what I have been dwelling on these past few days.
The time in the Word started my day off right and the morning was full of some very worshipful climbs, and some exhilarating descents. The hills are maybe beginning to turn into some smaller mountains as we near the Appalachians. Today was much less of a roller coaster ride, and much more of a continuous climb prior to a nice descent. On a few of the descents Josh and I did some shout outs to Mathias... by this I mean, when experiencing an adrenaline pumping descent, or view, one yells out the state one is riding in at the top of his lungs. "KENTUCKKKKKKKYYYYY!!!!!" Mathias was the originator and the tradition continues to live on in full strength =)
Seriously these are some beautiful Kentucky Riding Pictures....
At lunch we had plans... these were to end up at the First Baptist church in Hindman... But we called and aparently they recently stopped hosting cyclists... hmmm, makes me wonder what happened. But anyway, we decided to switch up the route when we found a state park about 20 miles south of Hindman that would let us stay for free, plus it shaved off 25 miles of our venture to Demascus, VA by Wednesday. So I guess you could say it was a no brainer. The worst riding of the day should have been more obvious to me that it was approaching but I thought nothing of a city on our route being named HAZARD. So we rode through, and hazardous it was ironically. No shoulder, huge potholes, crazy train tracks, and lots of cars driving that seemed to have never seen cyclists on the road before. So for future notice, I will consider towns named Hazard, or something similar to it (I.E. Death Valley maybe) as sure signs to not ride through and to avoid within any means possible. Oh... We also saw a big gas tanker flipped onto its side right outside of Hazard... crazyness. Not a welcoming place for a little guy on a bike. Glad we made it out of there with everything in tact.
Our campsite is spectacular. It is right on Carr Lake, and is the best lake site we have had since Pinecrest, CA. God is so good.
The past few days I tried to make my shifters (Derraileurs) so that they would shift perfectly, and ended up making them quite a bit worse. So tonight I was back at it working again and I think I made some significant process. I may have a shop check it out if problems continue but I am feeling more confident after my latest budding-mechanic work.
The past few days I have been able to have some great conversations with Alexis, Mom, and Andrew. Phone conversations haven't been too comon along the ride but it has been nice to connect with home a bit more recently because of the decrease in mileage, and the increase in phone reception in the east.
Well that's all I got for tonight. I hope that you can be encouraged by how strong and reliable our great God is, and by how we can't do anything but through Him. How amazing is it to know that??? It's not about us! =)
God Bless you,
Tailwinds,
Mark
We're glad you got through Hazard unscathed too!
ReplyDeleteyep! little bit of some rough pavements/roads, glad we've got God on our side :)
Deleteok so the text I had to type in order to prove I'm not a robot was "oo my Roo"
ReplyDeletemaybe not as funny to you. We got to see Andrew on Sunday though :)
Hahaha. Love it!!
Deleteexcellent!
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