Blessed Beyond Measure

An envelope from my sister-in-law and her husband arrived in the mail right before we left for Oregon.   It was a little bulky and appeared to hold more than a standard card.   I’ll get to the bulky part in a bit.   The message on the card read, “Life Adventures Guaranteed, Instructions not Included”.   What a great quote!   We have not even begun the actual bike ride, but four-days into the road trip out we have already had surprises and adventures far beyond what we had imagined.   Some interesting, many beautiful, some annoying, and some that have completely set us back.   But as I said the other day, “a journey wouldn’t be as fun if it was a straight line.”   Similarly, I can hardly expect the beautiful surprises without acknowledging there will be a few adverse ones. Brian and I were commenting today that part of what makes this journey so exciting is never knowing what the next turn will bring.   Each day we start our bike ride about the only thing we know with certainty is

Good news – we are back on the road after yesterday’s snowstorm.   In fact, it is a beautiful day.   We have 500 miles behind us since this morning, temp has gone from 19 degrees to 56 degrees, terrain has gone from snow covered to beautiful sunny green valleys and mountain peaks.   We are back on schedule to hit the Pacific coast by tomorrow-late afternoon.   I have heard a good story requires good character development.   Some of you have asked about the characters I am doing this bike journey with, so I turned it into a conversation.   As the five of us spend 28 hours in the pick-up driving to Oregon, I asked Brian, Bruce and myself to provide a short self-descriptor.   Then to make it interesting, I asked everyone in the pick-up to provide input on the self-descriptors.   Here are the results: Brian, Mark, Bruce Brian: Brian’s self-descriptor: I am a recently retired CPA working in industry. Happily married for 37 years to Pat making our home in Owatonna, MN f

Remember when I ended yesterday’s blog post stating we are, “right on schedule”?   Famous last words!   We pulled into a campsite last night to spend our first night on the road, feeling very smug about our progress.   We woke up this morning to twelve inches of snow.   Actually we don’t have a tape measure with us, but take a look at our picnic table and make your own best estimate. Our picnic table.  There was no snow on it last night. Surprise!   Words of Surprise, unrepeatable words, phrases starting with, “Can you believe this?”   The comments were varied and many this morning.   We got up with the sun to assure an early start.   Instead we trudged through snow up to our knees to get to a shower.   We listened to radio reports and scoured the Internet for weather news.   I-90 (our main road) is closed.   We listened intently for a glimmer of hope.   Finally, at 2:00 pm we admitted defeat.   Mother nature had won.   We will spend a second night at the same campsite.   Sur

The Journey Begins We are on the road.   Didn’t give you much warning, did I?   Because I have been busy.   Call it unorganized, call it poor planning, call it distracted.   For the last two days I have been buying stuff I need, packing, getting bikes tuned, and trying to wrap up loose ends before leaving home for three months.   Didn’t sleep last night.   That’s right, I packed through the night right up until Jill and I left for Owatonna to meet at Brian and Pat’s house.   I always work best under pressure.   Brian had the camper loaded, bikes secured in the back of the pick-up, and we were heading for the Pacific Coast by 8:30 this morning.   The plan is to spend the next three days driving 1,900 miles, relax on Sunday, and on Monday we will have bikes on the road.   Yahoo!!   Excitement is mounting.   We have been driving for ten hours and everyone is smiling and excited with anticipation of what lies ahead.   And that’s despite the fact we started this morning in Minnes

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of the country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway We are biking the TransAmerica Bike Route – beginning at the Pacific Ocean and ending at the Atlantic Ocean.   Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?   It is a trip across the U.S. created to optimize its scenic beauty.   As the crow flies it is approximately 2,700 miles from Pacific to Atlantic; according to Google maps driving from the beginning to the end of our chosen route is exactly 3,000 miles.   But on our bike trip we will log over 4,000 miles.   Yes, we are taking a circuitous journey.   But it wouldn’t be a journey if it were a straight line.   At least not a very fun journey! The route was established in 1976 as