Day 17: Waitsburg,WA to Umatilla,OR

Video of the day (from Sunday night 6/20) CLICK HERE

Miles on the northwest speedway: 76

Weather: mid 60's, mostly cloudy, headwind and crosswinds most of the day. But, the wind was nothing compared to yesterday. PTL for that.

Terrain: The last 25 miles we rode along the mighty Columbia River in Oregon. It actually was not as beautiful as we had imagined .... but we know there are some really pretty parts that we'll soon see. But, it was great to cross the state line into Oregon.

#of days of riding left: 4

# of miles left on HR 2010: about 290

# of flat tires today: Zero! Boo-Ya!

# of Dairy Queen blizzards I've eaten on this trip: 6 or 7

Today's Smells: For a good bit, we smelled fish. And that kind of makes sense since we were riding along the Columbia River for 20+ miles.

Scripture verses that came to our minds b4 the ride this morning:

*Isaiah 40:31 "those who wait on the Lord will not grow weary .... they will walk and not grow faint"

*James 1:3-5 "Consider it pure joy when you face trials of various kinds ...."

*1 Thess 5:17 (I think): "Be joyful, pray continually, give thanks... for this is God's will for your life"

*Phil 4:13 "Rejoice in the Lord always ... again I say Rejoice!"

Tomorrow's Ride: The only riding I'll be doing tomorrow will be in the sag vehicle to Walmart as Luke and I will enjoy our 2nd (and last) REST DAY tomorrow. Definitely well needed ... and well deserved (so we think!). Wednesday's ride is a long one though. We do our 6th (and last) century ... 105 miles total for the day. Forecast right now says high's in the low 90's. We go from temps in the 40's just a few days ago to now temps in the 90's. Gotta love that.

SUMMARY OF TODAY'S RIDE....

I'm going to keep this short and sweet and say that Luke and I are absolutely stoked to have day off tomorrow. Today started out pretty rough for both of us. Our legs felt like they were stuck in 2nd gear for the first 3 hours of the ride. And that's not good when you're driving a 5-speed automatic transmission. We just couldn't get the HR train going. I will admit that it was hard to stay positive in my thoughts for awhile, but eventually I came around. Fortunately we had my wife to harass us and keep us moving or else we may have set the Guinness book of WR for the slowest males to ever complete 76 miles on a bicycle. Incredibly, we started to feel great around mile 50 and we really got into a groove for that stretch along the Columbia River that was pancake flat. Life on a bike means that sometimes you feel better AFTER doing all 75 miles than BEFORE you start the ride. And, today was one of those days. We honestly felt better at the end than at the beginning.

Quotes of the day:

My Father (to the check out ladies at Walmart) : What's there to do for fun in this town ?

Clerk: (Pause) Nothing

My Father: Well, there has to be something to do.

Clerk: (She gives no response, just laughter.)

That doesn't bode well seeing that tomorrow is our day off. Then again, come to think of it, nothing actually sounds like something I'd be interested in doing tomorrow for our day of rest.

SHOUT OUTS....

Just wanted to give a shout out to VALOR TEAM AFRICA. They have less than a week left in Uganda/Kenya. Keep them in your prayers when the Lord brings them to mind.