Day 4, Riverside to Republic

Ride distance: 57 miles; ride time: 4:15; Calories burned: 3720; ascent in feet: 4588. The pastor of our host church, John Smith, made us a very nice pancake breakfast before we set off. The ride today included one mountain pass, Wauconda Pass. The group is getting more accustomed to hill climbing but it still provides a challenge. We don't try to stay together as a group but most of the riders ride with at least one or two other riders who cycle at a similar pace. I found that I tend to be faster than most of the riders going up the hills and slower than most going down the hills. I guess I lost a bit too much weight to get the full effects of gravity. By mid afternoon, we had arrived in the town of Republic, Washington. We found out that there was another Christian cycling group in town at the same time. This group was the World Vidion team and they too are riding across the country. There was some confusion with one pastor in town about which group had requested his church to host our group so as a result, the Church of the Nazarene came to our rescue with 12 hours notice and hosted or 13 riders and 5 support people. Members of the church dropped off sleeping bags, pillows, and some mattresses and we slept at the church. The church put on a delicious dinner for us. Several of us played music in the church. We have several excellent musians in our group including Arek from Lebanon and Emma from Northern Ireland. They both play piano. The pastor also let us use two sweet sounding Taylor guitars for our jam session. After dinner, many from our group went over to the the Youth Dynamics Center where the other cycling group was staying. They were having youth night and had invited the Christian Crusaders motorcycle club to speak. Several of the men gave excellent testimonies. All had been radically changed by the Lord.