Utah, finally!

As I type this, I'm sitting in the Border Inn, just east of the Nevada-Utah border. We've finally gotten through Nevada - which is reason for celebration for the group.

Granted, we still have plenty of mountains left to look forward to. But thanks to the hospitality of the people of Grace Four Square Church in Ely, NV, we were able to take a much-needed rest day. We're still tired, but our muscles are feeling better and stronger. I'm confident that we're gaining more and more strength and endurance as we go.

The time in the desert has been interesting for us as a group. We just want to get through the desert and on to Fort Collins, back to churches, back to our mission. We miss the conversations, the learning opportunities, and all that comes with church visits. It's been tempting for me to just write off this part of the trip as unimportant and feel as if we're not accomplishing anything.

But as my parents reminded me, this portion of the trip is all part of the task that God has set before us. What we are doing here is laying the groundwork for the rest of the trip. And the time that we have here in the desert is allowing us to learn how to ride and work as a group before we are visiting churches more frequently. I pray that God is using this time to prepare and shape us for what lies ahead.

This country is incredibly big.

We spent the night last night in Eureka, NV after a 72 mile ride from Austin. It's been about four days now where everything looks so similar. We'll pass through a mountain pass and then slip down into a huge valley where you can just see for 20-30 miles across to the other side where our next mountain pass rises up. It's beautiful but getting very exhausting. It pretty much looks like this all the time:



There's always another mountain range just around the corner. There's always another climb at the end of each valley. And I guess my point is just that it's exhausting and that we're ready for a change of scenery. Alas, we have at least 3-4 more days in Nevada and then we're into Utah, which will probably be pretty similar.

I miss my family and a sense of home and relaxation. I miss flat land (God bless the midwest).

Well, time to hit the road.

Matt

Austin, NV

We're in Austin, Nevada at this juncture, staying in a motel for the first time on the trip. It's really nice to be in a new state and not have people ask us if it's the first day of our ride. That being said, California did have its advantages, and it's hard not to miss a place in which towns are less than fifty miles apart and Oreos are affordable. We'll probably be in the desert for another two weeks or so, and then the trip will be pretty full of time with churches, which I'm really looking forward to. It's been great to meet new people and learn about their concepts of social justice and their experiences and efforts to help others.

Speaking of meeting new people: to the couple that left early at dinner tonight, thank you so much for surprising us by paying for our meals. To the couple who were sitting near the wall: happy anniversary, and enjoy your sailing adventures!

-Dylan

Honest thoughts about Skunks

Last week, as we bicycled from Redwood City to Pleasanton, CA, we passed a dead skunk with one arm extended on the side of the road. Dylan's voice popped into my head: "I wonder what it was reaching for in its last moments?" In that moment, I realized I don't know anything about skunks, besides the widely shared opinion that they are nuisances and the fact that they emit a foul odor that can be muted by bathing in tomato juice. But what do skunks eat? Where do they live?

I rode on.

Several days later, we passed another dead skunk that reminded me of my silly ponderances, but this time I began to wonder if my ponderances really were so silly. While every analogy breaks down at some point (according to Bret Widman), my skunk encounters and subsequent thoughts led me to wonder at the People whom I don't know anything about. Who is simply a smelly nuissance? Or, to a lesser extent, whose gifts do I not recognize?

This challenging thought took my imagination across borders, far away from myself. There are a lot of People in Our world who are not wholly acknowledged and treated accordingly. Hopefully, this trip will help to rectify that in some small way.

My skunk analogy and hours of contempletive riding also smacked me in the face last week. Sometimes, I fail to recognize the gifts of good friends, people with whom I interact everyday. This was a difficult and humbling lesson from which I hope to grow.

Who are the skunks in (or out, as the case may be) of your life?

-Emily

Random thoughts Occur.

I'm still amazed that I am riding across the country on a bike. Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is really happening. It will become more difficult for me as time goes on I think. All of the other team members will get a chance to see family, friends, church members, and so forth and I will not. I think of my parents and my brothers and sisters everday. Sometimes it's hard, but what I do is put on a headset and start each morning with a little gospel and picture the people I love. Being so far away for college has cost me a lot of time with my closets friends and family. It's just different when they're physically there and you don't have to describe some of your most formative experiences on the phone.

I guess i'm realizing the importance of close relationships. Meeting people on the road and talking about God and justice is so refreshing, I just wish I had taken more time to do that with the people around me before.

Well, I have one more year of college and maybe I can work on that. I realized the other day, that other than God of courese, I don't have that one friend to call every other day and tell him how I just crossed the Sierra mountains. It was painful.

The Surley

Today was a nice day and we rode about 75 miles. My Surley Long Haul Trecker is holding up really nicely. Other than two flat tires, the thing is a tank. It's been through some pretty rough terrain in the last few days and it's a light and durable machine. It can make really sharp turns even with all of my bags attached to it and i'm glad I bought it. It's a very reliable road bike, especially for some one like me who hasn't biked since he was 8 years old!
-MS

Into the desert

Matt here, in Reno. The rest of the team is in Fallon, NV. Unfortunately, I twisted my knee last week in Sacramento, CA and have had to miss the last few days of biking. The most frustrating part of it all was that it wasn't even a biking injury. No, I got hurt walking down the stairs.

Luckily, my dad was kind enough to fly out and keep me company and cart me around this weekend while I recovered. And I'm thankful for that.

Tomorrow morning, I'll rejoin the team in Fallon and we'll head out into the desert. It's going to be a much different desert than we'd anticipated (forecasted high of just 65 tomorrow). Today my dad and I picked up a bunch of tubes and other spare parts in preparation for the weeks ahead (I would be very surprised if we found another bike shop between here and Colorado).

So pray that I'm ready physically and that we will be taken care of these next few weeks. We have no more hospitality lined up for nearly 3 weeks but I feel good about that. It's been refreshing to wake up in the morning and ride east not knowing where we'll sleep that night, but not worrying about it.

I don't know when the next blog entry will be. Perhaps there will be wireless interet in the middle of the desert. But there's no chance of that. We'll update when we can.

Our dear friend and tech adviser Paul Johnson has added a nice little map to the site in the bar on the right. You can check out progress on there. Also, we now have links to Spark and Acirfa in the sidebar there for easier access.

Reversal