Looming

This is too weird. To have the day finally be upon us is a bit unreal.
(Joel and Nancy, I think you can relate in your long adoption process. Thanks for your encouraging words and love for us. You two are definitely jewels from our time in ID.)

It's been so rainy and dreary for the last couple days that it's hard to even get in the biking mode. We haven't ridden since Tuesday, so by the time we get on the bikes on Sunday morning it will have been four days without a ride. Ouch.

Today, we will pack ONE MORE TIME. I think this is the fifth time since the first of the month. But...we've shaved five (5) pounds off the trailer load this week by cutting back on clothing(one set for the evenings), cooking items, Bible size (pocket NT instead of the pocket OT/NT-thanks,Wayne, for the suggestion), and some smaller items. It's down to 60 pounds total now.

The impetus for the reduction? Gerry realized that our climb over Stevens Pass on day 2 is over 3000'! That's a hefty amount of energy to expend that early in the trip, so the less we're pulling up the better. The other good news is that we've both dropped about 5 pounds off our own 'load' in the past 2 weeks, so that's 10 less pounds to haul. Yahoo!

Gerry also found that Memorial Day weekend is huge for Skykomish (where we think we'll end up the first day), so that means lots and lots of traffic heading that way from Seattle. We so desire your prayer for traffic protection those first couple days. As we keep heading east on Monday, most people will be heading west back to Seattle so that will be better.

The Chronicle wanted an interview, so we did that Tuesday. Please pray that the article will be accurate and lift Jesus up. It might appear next week sometime, probably in the sports section.

We have deep gratitude to our God for His specific and loving protection of our sister-in-law, Joanne. She was at work at her church in Windsor, CO when the Spirit whispered for her to leave. She did and about five minutes later the church was demolished by the tornado that swept through Windsor. Is God good or what?!

As expected, today is a full day tying up all the little loose ends. The teacher picnic is late afternoon and then some of our church is coming this evening to pray with us. We plan to get the trailer loaded into the van and the bike rack on before falling into bed (Oh, our soft, warm bed - we're going to think of you often as we lie on the ground each night!). I already have some butterflies, so I hope I can sleep enough before our 5:00 a.m. rise tomorrow.

"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike." ~Fausto Coppi

Here we go,
Pat