Day 3, Twisp to Riverside, WA

Ride distance: 48 miles; ride time: 3:18; calories: 3075; ascent in feet: 4670. As you can see, we been doing lots of climbing and burning lots of calories. We try to meet our nutritional need s by eating lots of good food. This morning, the Baptist Church fed us pancakes and sausage to get us started. Pastor John Smith made the pancakes were were cooked to perfection. The ride today included another difficult climg over Loup Loup Pass. I got a late start due to a broken spoke nipple on my rear wheel about 2 minutes into the ride. Fortunately, I was able to use the spare wheel that I had brought along. Later in the day, I was able to get the original wheel fixed. I replaced the spoke nipple and my friend Paul Luedtke from Switzerland trued the wheel for me. It took me about 1 hour to catch up with the group shortly before reaching the top of the pass. This was a short day of riding. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon in Riverside and received a warm welcome from Pastor Rick and his wife Marilyn. After showers at the pastor's house, we went to Oman for a youth rally and dinner. After the rally, we were driven to the home of Bob and Hattie, our hosts. We were served some homemade apple pie which was delicious. We are blessed.

Day 2, Marblemount to Twisp, WA

Ride distance: 97 miles; ride time: 6:19; calories burned: 7338; ascent in feet: 7282. We started the day with a delicious breakfast at the home of John and Mary. Today was a day that all of us on the ride with long remember. We climbed through the Cascades passing dozens of waterfalls from the snow melt and some fantastic scenery. The ride itself was gruelling. We had to cycle over two mountain passes: Rainy Pass and Washington Pass. All the riders found this to be quite a challenge but all were up to the task. John Duncan, the Youth for Christ director of the Europe, North Africa, and Middle East Area called this the hardest thing he's ever done but all thought it was one of the best things he's done. Our original stopping point was supposed to be Mazama but the host church our director found was in Twisp, about 20 miles beyond Mazama. We were hosted by the Baptist Church in Twisp. They made us a nice spaghetti dinner served by some of the ladies in the church. There were not enough host families for us to stay with so some of stayed in local motels.

Day 1, Anacortes to Marblemount, WA

Ride Distance: 82 miles; Ride time: 5:32; Calories burned: 5093; Ascent in feet: 2643. What a great day. Our entire group met at Anacortes Christian Church at 7 a.m. and then rode to Washington Park, our Pacific Ocean starting point. After a word of prayer led by John Duncan, we dipped our bike wheels in the water and began our trip. This was a good starting day. There were some hills but nothing of any consequence. When we reached Marblemount, we were greeted by Pastor Nichols of the North Cascade Community Church. We were treated like royalty by the members of the church. Four of us including myself stayed with Lewis and Carol Besio. They are relatively new Christians and were very hospitable. After we got settled and had showers, we went to the home of John, Mary, Angela and Caleb for a delicious barbeque. John and his family made the beautiful house they live in out of lumber they cut and milled on their property. It has been 12 years in the making and it is quite a sight to see.

Orientation Day

Hi Everyone. Today, Nancy and I traveled from the Seattle area to Anacortes. We met all the riders as well as the support people for the ride. The riders were given Sea to See jerseys as well as other items for the trip. The orientation went well. I thiink the group will work well together. For dinner, we went to a local restaurant overlooking the water. John Duncan, the Europe, Middle East, and North Africa Area Director of Youth for Christ gave a talk that was very encouraging. Our adventure is afoot!

Sleepless in Seattle

Well, here I am in Seattle the night before our orientation. My wife and I had a great visit over the weekend with our son, Stephen. We've all been staying with Nancy's cousin's daughter and son-in-law, April and Aaron. They've been very kind hosts. Thanks to my son and a nice phone call from my daughter, I had a great Father's Day. We went to an awesome Sunday brunch at Ivars Salmon House in Seattle. What a place! The food was great although I ate far too much. We also were able to visit Stephen's Church, Seattle Community Church. Nancy and I were warmly received and even got to be helpers at our son's third grade classes that he teaches. Tomorrow, we leave for Anacortes. We're going to take the scenic route which will include a 20 minute ferry ride. I'm looking forward to meeting the other riders and support people. Our good friend, Bill Smith, will be a support person for the first two weeks of the ride so I will have one familiar face to see. I'll keep you posted as often as I'm able to get an internet connection. Stay tuned...

Sierra Century

The Ride Across America starts in just one week and am I excited! It will be great to meet lots of new people, visit great places, see beautiful scenery, and share my faith in the Lord. I think this will be a time that I can reflect on my Christian faith and grow in the Lord. I did my last big tune-up ride on Saturday called the Sierra Century. It had lots of ups and downs. The total climb was 11,220 feet in 95 miles. According to my Garmin Edge 305, I burned a whopping 7,746 calories! The only bad part about the ride was the condition of the roads --they were pretty rough in places. My rear tire that I was planning to start the Trip Across America with has to be replaced due to excessive wear :( I imagine I'll be going through a few tires over the course of 4,295 miles.

Burning Lots of Calories

I think I'm going to either lose a lot of weight this summer or eat a lot of food-- at least based on the calories I burn on some of these rides. When I'm riding in the hills, I seem to be burning around 1,000 calories per hour. On Saturday, I did the ride from Redwood Valley to Orr Springs and back. The ride was 37 miles long and had 5,040 feet of climb. According to my bike computer, I burned 2,966 calories in 2 hours and 59 minutes. This summer, we plan to average 83 miles a day. If we average 15 mph, that should take about 5 1/2 hours per day (or about 5,500 calories worth!).