A Typical Biking Day

"What was a typical day for you on the trip?"

By far, this is the most common question.... right before "What did you eat?" and "Where did you stay?" Answering those succinctly is as easy as making thanksgiving dinner in under an hour! Despite the differences, there were similarities, and I'm pretty sure that it is this that people were referring to ...the 2-D picture... of the basics.

How'd you sleep last night?
Stretched across a dried up creek!

8:00 am: After an intense mental battle to get out of a toasty sleeping bag and pull on wet, 50 degree socks onto dry, warm toes, those now shivering toes, who know they won't be warm for another four hours, slink into wet, 50 degree shoes in order to tear down our camp site before breakfast.

8:40 am: Water boils on our camp burner. Breakfast time! Oatmeal, coffee, and fruit fill our bowls. Finish packing, and hop on packed bikes -1.5 hours after that awful, wet-footted wake-up.

11:30am: Bike for two hours, before the first 5-minute break at the top of a long uphill climb.
DOWNHILL!!!!  55km/hr! WEEE!!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  The morning dampness is  very present in the mountains!

In a village, see a fruit stand. Stop! Freshly picked apricots, apples, cucumber, or melon soon became bungee-corded onto someone's paniers.

2pm: Find a quiet spot, away from people, and it's lunch time. Leftovers from supper, a baguette from the boulangerie in the last village, plus whatever we bought earlier makes up lunch. Ahhh! Stretch out for a much needed nap until 3pm

It's gotta fit in or on there somehow!

4:00 pm: Peddle, peddle, peddle. Hmmm. Need food for tonight before 6pm, when shops closed. "What are we hungry for??!!"  Success! There's a Carrefour (French supermarket). Soon "steak" (aka ground hamburger), an onion, a 1k box of rice, garlic,  butter, another baguette, and 2 bars of chocolate are spread around and bungee'd onto our bikes.

7 pm: Nathaniel: "Alright. We'll be going through a forest in the next hour. We're only at 90 km (of our 100km/day goal) but lets get water in the next town, and start looking for a good camping spot."

Side note: A "good camping spot" is not a camp-ground, but actually found each night along the road and met the following specifications. 

1) Be completely invisible from anyone. EVERYONE. 

2) Have big trees close together to hang hammocks.

3) Have a flat area for Natalie to sleep on the ground.

4) Be completely hidden from ALL angles. :) No unwanted visitors!

8:00-8:30 pm: Site found, after 45 minutes of looking. While Natalie and Nathaniel set up sleeping arrangements, I begin cooking. Tonight's menu...Italian hamburger sautee over rice...2.5 cups of it, or half the box. We're talking an 8" pot, filled to an 1.5" of the top with rice!!! And we downed most of that thing!

10:00-11:00 pm We'd be cozy, warm, and dry in our sleeping bags in hammocks, under tarps, knowing  that the little bit of leftovers, safe in a ziplock for tomorrow's lunch and the clean dishes are safe from the many roaming slugs.

Think of all the things that could have, and did happen within that basic outline. Rain; cold, drizzly rain. Wind.  Stores about to close before we got food. People taking us into their garages or houses. All the traffic that wizzed past us. Finding places to camp. Getting lost or confused with bad maps. Finding fresh drinking water. God met each of our needs. He protected us, provided food and shelter when needed. He gave us positive attitudes as the rain seeped into our shoes and down our necks. He provided support from within, from each other, from friends, and from complete strangers. He PROVIDES. He provides what we NEED, and in inconceivable ways.

Bicycle Beginnings

Think back to different summers. When you return, soooo many people asked what you did for the summer... if not made you write about it for a class. It can get a bit old telling, re-telling, and re-telling more. And then you listen to their story, and it's like WAY more cool, or awesome...or your next year's vacation plan...

And then, somewhere, you read about a trip someone did, that blows all normality  away. They hunted in the Arctic and got attacked by a polar bear. They hunted in an African safari. They sailed around the world for fun. And it's like Whoa. "Someday...." with the understanding that it'll never happen.

Can it be real?! Yes it can!

 One of those "never-going-to-happen-trips" became reality. "Someday"... became this last summer! After a "yes" to a mostly joking "need another person?!",  Bicycle France planning began. I never earned, deserved, or could have done it on my own. Oh man! The joy and excitement the planning brought! My/our fingers flew over the keyboard as we talked about different things... ferries, maps, supplies, itineraries, equipment...! Skype calls. Bike's bought. Begin riding. Paniers and compact sleeping bags perused, analyzed and bought. Ride and ride. Hammock or tent? Spoke replacements. Ride, ride, ride! England and Ireland added to itinerary! Ferry tickets bought. Airplane tickets bought with bike reservations.

Frustrating days at work? Knowing that there was a future and a hope for something big that summer kept me cool. Bad weather? Enjoyed and embraced it...on the trip there wouldn't be a choice. Unknown future plans? They dimmed in light of knowing what the future most likely held. More frustrations? Hope and joy from the soon-to-be reality of the trip kept oozing through when disappointments came up. Joy about the trip couldn't be dimmed by misunderstandings or miscommunications or even non-communications! A tangible, future hope.

Gear check and distribution!

Hope didn't stop at the start or end of the trip though. Those disappointments of work, live, communication... their antidote of "trip-hope"  opened understanding to true hope. Hope is looking to future certainties and living in light of them. I knew that there was something more coming-the bike trip. But that bike trip is done. Over.

True hope lasts. God's hope is so much more, and lasts. God is faithful, never changes. God's made promises of a future in Heaven for those who know Him personally. Because of His faithfulness, those promises will hold true. What a joy to look forward to ~being with God! Those same disappointments, plus others, came up again during and now after the trip. Yet God's hope is here now and forever!

What is God's hope? He loves me; He loves you; He died for my sin, and He died for yours. I get to be with Him. In Heaven. In a perfect place, with HIM! Where He is, there will be no injustice, anger, hate, hurt, or pain. There will be care, understanding, and joy! Perfect relationships and purity. God will punish evil and reward good because He is perfect and can't let sin into Heaven. Evil and sin can't enter heaven without a perfect sacrifice. So Jesus, perfect Son of God, died and allows me, allows us, to accept what He's done in place of ourselves dying and going to hell. And I'm headed there because He has saved me and I've accepted that!

That's my Hope.
Where is yours?

My Hope grows stronger when I look at the end,

Even when "Unknown" lies beyond this bend.