Day 1: 120 miles...

[Photos: riders in the morning before leaving, one of the cool spots where the road was straight with high pine trees and rolling - fun (and challenging), a turtle that I helped across the road, helmet hair, the bikes in the hall tonight after day 1.] It's now after 11 - I need my rest, we get up before 6...

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It's 10:37 PM and I'm just not starting to write the blog entry for today - it's been a FULL day.

We left the JAARS center at 7 AM and I pulled in here as the last rider at a little after 7 PM. Why the last rider you may be wondering? Well, today wasn't about solo performance - but rather working as a team: encouraging, supporting and having a good time riding as well as talking to those that God puts in our path. (And I rode alone for a short period at the end and missed a turn - that's why my mileage is a little higher than the other riders... :-)

We had a neat stop at Colombia International University - where we meet with 4 students and talked about Bible translation, Wycliffe and life and God in general. That was a neat time for me to interact some on a personal level with those students encouraging them to not stress to big on the career choices but rather daily surrender to God - and then He'll lead.

Our SAG stops were well set with bars, drinks, fruit, power bars, PB&J fixing and even raw Spinach leaves (just for me)! How cool is that? Doug is calling me "Dan the Sailor man". (I even convinced him to put some in his PB&J as I did - you can't really taste it, but the nutrition is there - good stuff!

Make sure you check the Wycliffe Ride Blog as others are posting their pictures and stories there..It's worth a look. ;-)

We had not serious problems today. There was one flat, one rider sagged a 20 mile portion and was able to finish, and another went all but the last 6 miles and sagged. All in all it was a great day.

I was hoping to post some footage from a handlebar video camera, but it didn't turn out. I'll try it again tomorrow - and if it's as it was today, I'll have to return it. :-(

Sorry for not being able to produce a better looking entry, but I'm using my very old laptop, It's almost 11 PM, I've been up since 5:45 AM, have spent 8 hours on my saddle, ... I hope your are still able to extract some good content.

If you have specific questions or areas of interest, please leave a comment and I'll try to address it in my next post (hopefully tomorrow if we have access).

I appreciation all your prayers for me and all of us. Day 2 is supposed to be 112 miles, maybe I'll be a little over (if I get lost by myself again).

Happy Mothers Day!!!!

(H2 - make sure you fix breakfast for Mom since I'm not there to do it. Thanks.)