As I crawled into my tent a local musical group was entertaining all the riders with fiddles, a guitar & a bass…beautiful music of many different musical styles. They even had an extra fiddle and let Vonda W. play a solo & join in with them.

The locals said it was in the upper 40’s this morning with heavy dew. I always keep my bike in my tent and after 8 weeks of setting my tent up & taking it down, it doesn’t take me long to do either. In the short time of taking my tent down my bike was full of dew… frame, computer, & seat…yuck! I about thought about using arm warmers but when I used them the other day I had to safety pin the tops to keep them up—I’ve lost a bit of upper body weight. Rather my heavy, long sleeve jersey, full finger gloves and socks today was the uniform because of the cool temps—I love biking in this kind of weather.

We went out in two groups today. Louis, John, Pete & I were in the first one & Cynthia, Andy, Jerry & Jake were behind us by 50’. Everyone gets the room we need for safety sake & if others hop on the line we’re not too long as we go through cities.

We went right past Cory—he was 11 miles out and too early in our ride but he was busy talking with a local and handing out a S2S card. (It’s not just the riders that are spreading the message—our support staff does too.) We didn’t stop until we had 25 miles in at Lima—time for coffee & passing cards out.

We had a lunch stop at a farm and it was hosted by the great people of East Palmyra CRC. Sloppy Joes, fruit, salads, chips—this is what I ate but the list of options goes on… two miles down the road I was bemoaning the fact that I ate too much.

Our last stop was to say hi to Joe De Weerd, a SAG driver we added in MI. I asked where the turn was coming up & he said in 2K. Had Cynthia, Andy & Pete asked when they stopped they wouldn’t have missed it and added another 50K to their day. Get out the ice pack…

The route today was great—rolling hills through cropland and very little traffic—Ed did good! We’re in the Finger Lakes area of New York. I didn’t know that this state had all this to offer—I usually think big city life when I think New York. I’ve been noticing the differences in the crops that are drying out, the sumac changing color, and some leaves that are dropping.

Sampson State Park is our tent space for the night—it was a Naval Base early on. The waters in Seneca Lake are so deep that they did submarine testing here. It has a Military Museum, clean bathhouses, nice beach and great camping area.

Mike Bruinooge (he started in MI) was filling his tire with air right before dinner. I just happened to walk up behind him and make a loud bang noise—need less to say, I should be watching my back in the future—it sure was funny at the time.

We’re celebrating tonight on behalf of Marti & Colby DuPlessi’s right to pay Canadian taxes—yesterday they were allowed into the country on a permanent basis. (Citizenship Ceremony) The cooks can really cook things up when they get on a roll—balloons, cake, poster & a Canadian T-shirt. Reminder to self—stay on their good side.

Tonight at peleton Len R., head chaplin, asked us what we’re going to say when people ask us about our ride. My response…read my blog! I put it all in here. I’ve been having an awesome experience seeing God in creation, in people, in moments of the day. We’ve started at an ocean, moved up mountains, dried out in the dessert, pioneered the plains, foraged in the forest, and Lord willing will see another ocean by bike. How do we sum up the experience of meeting people in coffee shops, along the road, rest/lunch stops, and celebration services?

By grace I’m having a wonderful summer. I don’t want to sound trite when I write that “I don’t know what the future holds but I know who holds the future… In truth…it’s almost scary to dwell on what God expects of me now that I’ve been given so much.