A "Hitch in the Giddy-up"

"How's the training going?" - a common question these days. Answer: "Not real well."
Well, as you can see from the picture, training is a bit difficult right now. You can see the new snow on the driveway.That went away yesterday, but 3" is forecast for tonight

An even more common question the past couple days has been: "What did you do?"

Answer: "I learned that I'm not a very good snowboarder."

The longer answer: About 7 weeks ago we went to Big Sky with the school for their ski day. (I should've skied.) I didn't make a good turn and 'tweaked' my ankle. I thought it was just sprained so didn't go to the doctor. After 6 weeks, a liberal amount of time for a sprain to heal, I finally conceded that maybe something more than a sprain was going on. Long story short: it's either a pulled ligament or a tiny fracture which only a CAT scan would reveal. The treatment for either is to immobilize the ankle with a splint or cast. So I'm hobbling about with a "bad flipper" (in the words of our local bike shop guy) for 4-6 weeks.

No, it doesn't exactly fit in with our plans right now. But I stand confident in the Lord's hand in it. I'm seeking what He wants me to learn in this, knowing that He allows all things for a purpose. If I don't see it, what's the point? And I don't want it all to be for nothing.

Thanks to you who are praying; I know our God will answer.
Pat

Prep and Training

Wow, the past three weeks have flown by! I quit my part-time job to focus on preparation for the trip and I'm amazed at how busy I still am.

I've been doing lots of research online for good riding routes; it takes time and isn't as easy as you'd expect. For those of you who have expressed concern about where we'll ride, please be assured that we stay off the interstate highways as much as possible! Though they usually have a great, wide shoulder, they're not much fun because of the amount of traffic and noise. Most states have bicycle maps and we're using them to find the least traveled roads on our general route.

We also correspond with highway departments, bicycle clubs and individual bicyclists to get their take on certain roads. It's been fun to 'chat' with a gentleman from Coeur 'd Alene; he's given us great help and encouragement, along with his good humor. His research for us has kept us from taking a road that would not have been tandem-friendly. He and his wife would like to ride with us for a day or two when we pass through that area.

We haven't mentioned yet that our friends, Kevin and Laura, are planning to ride with us from Seattle back to Missoula. It will be good to have someone with us the first week as we get going and get into the swing of it all. Then, hopefully, our friends, Chuck and Susan, will pick up Kevin and Laura's place and ride with us to Bozeman. From Bozeman to the Atlantic, we're on our own (unless we make some new friends along the way!).

It's been difficult to get consistent training in with the snow and cold. We did manage to get a good 56 mile ride in a couple Saturdays ago with K&L, C&S even though it was only 30 degrees. This past Saturday we waited and waited for it to warm up, then finally did a short 22 mile loop when it reached 32. It's snowing again today, so I climbed back on the trainer; not as much fun or effective as riding outside, but better than nothing.

Some of the other preparation that's kept me busy has been to line up details for transporting our bike and trailer back to Bozeman, making sleeping bag liners, getting addresses for the letters, getting a display board ready for a school function coming up, talking with our favorite local bike shop (Summit Bike & Ski in Bozeman), doing a pre-preliminary pack of the trailer, getting the necessary techno-gizmos to keep in touch, ordering last minute items(thankfully, they've been on sale) and various other little things. I think of everything I still have to do and I'm glad that I have two months yet, though I know that will fly by.

I mentioned in the earlier post that we would have a link for you to check out our fundraising details. Please click on the link above - "Heritage Christian School/RAAM", then click on the blue RAAM button. This will take you to our letter, route map, pledge card and prayer card.

Don't forget that you can make comments to us by clicking on the Comments button on the bottom right.

Until next time,

Pat

Prologue

Well, here it is. Our very first ever blog. A little weird, knowing that anything posted here will be available for the world to see. Remember that when you post a comment!

We've set this up in order to journal our planned upcoming bicycle ride across America (RAAM) this summer. This will be a trip that we've dreamed of and prayed about for several years, and now it seems that it's actually going to happen. Of course, God can intervene at any time and change our plans; if He would choose to do so we would be disappointed, but completely trust that He has our good in mind. So, unless He says otherwise, we will continue on.

A trip like this (Seattle to Boston) isn't planned and prepared for in a few weeks. We've been looking at routes and studying maps(traffic volume, shoulder width, mountain passes, etc); we've been reading how-to books and bio books; we've been checking for state parks and campgrounds, motels and inns; we've talked with others who have done it; we've done a lot of other researching - all in the last couple years.

And we've compiled lists: gear that we have, gear that we need, what to do and when to do it, who to contact and when, how to get from here to the starting point, how to get back from the end, things to take care of on the homefront, etc., etc., etc.

We started a year ago to slowly acquire the necessary equipment, watching very carefully for sales and taking advantage of them. Thankfully, we had most of the biking gear, so have focused more on the lightweight (let me repeat "lightweight" - we have to pull it all, you know!) camping gear. God has been so abundant to us!

Not wanting this to be just a self-serving adventure, we asked the Lord how we could use it for Him and His glory. He gave us the idea to use it to help parents who are struggling with tuition costs at the Christian school where Gerry teaches. These are parents who are committed to giving their children an education based on God's Word and worldview. But it is a costly commitment; they pay this tuition in addition to their tax dollars that support public education. We are using this trip to establish and build a Scholarship Endowment Fund at the school. There will be more information about this and how anyone can help on the school's website; we'll have a link to that very soon. Keep checking back.

Enough for a first post. We don't want to bore you with the details of preparation so will most likely post only every few days or once a week up until we leave. How often we post while on the road will depend on how often we can access a computer (Yes, I'd love to take ours, but it weighs 6 pounds and that would have to replace a lot of other very important stuff - like food!).

We are very excited about this trip and what God is going to do through it! And we hope you'll "ride" along with us here.

Gerry and Pat

By the way, you can post comments by clicking on the Comments link below.