Moving Forward

I wish I had started blogging about this trip when I first signed up in February. As it is, here is my first update with a recap of it all up to this point.

God has been doing so much as I train and prepare. Preparing for this trip has been a lesson in discipline, in trust, in faith, and in focus. Trying to fit several hours of biking into a college student schedule proved to be a challenge. It turned into early mornings starting at about 5:45 to get in several hours, breakfast, and a quick shower before classes. By March I was so tired of sitting on the stationary bike, riding nowhere, staring at myself in the mirror. It wasn't until April that I was finally able to get outside. I got my new bike, a beautiful green Surely Pacer on April 7th and took her for her first ride the following day. What a great ride! To see the ground flying by beneath the wheels, to feel the wind in my face, to have scenery that changed as I rode. She has since been christened Cimorene, after a favorite book character with a lot of significant background information.

Since that first ride I've put in somewhere close to 500 miles I would guess. It's taken some getting used to, riding a road bike instead of a mountain bike, but it is such a pleasure.

Now that school is out for the year I am focusing on raising the remainder of the funds for my trip. God is faithful and has blessed me with some amazing contacts and networks. I am excited to see what becomes of them all as the trip gets closer.

My longest day of miles so far is 80 with a trip to the Twin Cities and back from Elk River, Minnesota. It was a great ride. I learned what a difference the wind can make as I was biking into it the entire ride to the cities and with it the ride back. It ended up being an hour of difference in the time because of the wind.

Less than a month until the trip. I look forward to it with excitement and uncertainty. What will God do through me? For me? To me? In spite of me? What will be the biggest challenge? The biggest triumph?

I have always loved roadtrips. They feel so much more intimate and personal, both with the people you are traveling with but also with the area you drive through. You see so much more of the land, the people, the culture, than you do flying 20,000 feet above. I am thrilled at the idea of biking across the country. To feel every dip, every swell, every curve, and every bump from Seattle to New York. To get to know myself and the country that I live in in ways I have never imagined. It will be an adventure; with every triumph and tragedy, discovery and disaster, joy and frustration, uncertainty and expectation that the word implies. And I can't wait.