Friday, June 12

Big crisis this morning! A squirrel ate one of my packages of oatmeal and flax. Now I will be one bag short for the trip! I guess I will have to go out for eggs and bacon and pancakes one morning. :-) Another really big crisis when my motorcycle fell over, my French Press coffee maker broke. Now I am going to have to drink that weak stuff at gas stations.

Speaking of things going wrong: I destroyed my good camera in the rain, my GPS quit working, I've gotten lost 3 times, I have lost my keys a dozen times, I left my wallet on the counter of a gas station, my nose is several times smaller than it was because of multiple skin peels from being out in the wind and sun all day because of no face screen on my helmet (I do put sun screen on regularly). Several have offered to buy me a new one but I am getting way too many sermon illustrations without it.

One of the reasons that a trip like this is such a groiwng experience is that everything that can go wrong does, but at a much higher rate of incidence, so every day there are a new set of problems to solve with a rejoicing spirit. Just figuring out the next camping site is a major issue every day. It isn't just the challenges, it is working hard to have a really good attitude so that everything is fun, even the sore backside and tired back from sleeping on the ground. Every morning I pray my list of commitments to the Lord, and a key one is to rejoice always!

Sorry if I confused some of you the other day. I drove from Oklahoma up into Kansas and then drove back into Oklahoma where I camped. I was only in Missouri long enough to get gas so I have my receipt from every state and maybe get a bumper sticker for my aluminum saddle bags.

Just stopped at Leroy Percy State Park near Hollandale, Mississippi. Rode 350 miles today through the Ozarks in Arkansas and on into Mississippi. People in Arkansas aren't nearly as friendly as those in Oklahoma. Not rude or mean, just busy doing their own thing. They are not interested in visiting with someone they haven't met before. I suspect I tend to be more like those I have met in Arkansas instead of those I met in Oklahoma. I am going to work hard redeeming every chance encounter as if the Lord arranged it. "Help me, Lord, to keep this commitment."

Whoooeee, I will never program my GPS for "shortest" route again. It sent me down this gravel road that turned out to be 20 miles long. The worst thing was a section that had been flooded and was all muddy. My front tire hit that and I looked like a fish flopping in the bottom of a boat. I was going everywhere and about to flip out of control. I yelled at the very top of my lungs, "Help me, Jesus!!" Somehow I got through that. I am going to be content with not taking the "short" way from now on. Keep praying for me!! I need it!