Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We started the day in John Day RV park located in John Day OR, near the John Day River, there’s even a Fossil center that’s a part of the National Park system…which is named??? You guessed it, John Day, now here’s the catch, John Day never came within a 100 miles of this place…it seems that he was able to get a river named after him along the Columbia river years ago and every thing down stream after that was named after him. Good thing his last name wasn’t boring. Can you imagine, “Welcome to the Boring Fossil Center!” or “Here at The Boring High School.” Enough about Mr. John Boring…I mean Day. Speaking of Day…

The ride today was another beautiful ride; this area of the world has many interesting rock formations and will truly cause any believer to sing “How Great Thou Art!” Speaking of great, we pulled into Mitchell OR today, a town of about 150 people, several wandering deer, a large cat that belongs to the town, and a bear in a cage called “dog.” We were looking for a place to hang our RV hats and were delighted to find free electric hook ups in a local park (5 trees, a mountain stream and a swing set). They have 3 plug-ins for RV’s and you can stay free for 3 days, so if you’re willing to drive a little out of your way, guess what? You can stay in Mitchell OR for nothing. This place is so small they have “welcome and good bye” all on the same street sign.

We also met Hugh and Skeeter the owners of a nearby B&B, we sat on their porch and had a nice visit. We ask about cleaning up and they offered their showers and tub in their B&B for free, how nice was that? We ate supper at the Little Green Café that sits next to the Oregon Hotel (Hugh and Skeeter’s place) the food was good and a bit pricey but when you’re the only eatery within 65 miles you can get the asking price.

The ride today was a little less than 80 miles with a great deal of up hill peddle pumping thrown in for good measure, however the last 9 miles was all down hill, and what a rush it was. 42 MPH down hill with a minimal cross wind, until the last 2 miles and then the winds picked up, then it was 52 MPH across the road side wise, the rush turned into panic. It was the only time in my biking life I wish I would have had a drag chute to slow me down...YIKES! Michael continues to drive and get us where we need to be, and Marvin keeps moving on down the road, I’m so blessed to have these guys with me, and the others who helped make this trip a success.

What did God teach me today? Black birds along the road would fly out of the cat tails when we would drive by, they would chirp, and swoop down on us. I guess they thought they were protecting their turf. Lesson? As we travel through life on the way to accomplishing our goals, we will have folks fly in out of no where, squawk, balk, and maybe even trying to dump on us, but we can’t let them detour from being more like Christ. We must keep our eyes fixed on the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus, and just because others are losing there head is no reason for us to join their ranks. Proverbs 3 comes to mind.

That’s it…on toward Redmon or Sisters OR for Wed. Keep us in your prayers as the Big Ride starts to wind down.

Scott “The Rust Rider”