Wednesday, June 10

Sure do appreciate everyone who has sent me text messages. I like to read them in the evenings. Some of you haven't signed yours though, so I'm not sure who is texting me or how I should respond. Please let me know who you are!

Last night I camped at Wynoka, OK. The camp is right next to the Little Sahara, a huge area of sand dunes of 5000+ acres. I camped next to a family that had come to ride quads in the dunes. They invited me over for dinner and I told them my life history and then they invited me to go ride the dunes with them. They had an extra quad for one of their friends that was coming later. I had never done that before. Whoooeee! What a rush that was! I thought, "made it this far safe on my motorcycle only to break my arm riding a quad in the sand dunes." It was wild and hairy. Tired me out more than my 350 miles on my motorcycle did.

What a difference one day and two states make. Night before last I stood in the shower under as hot of water as I could stand to warm up, and last night I stood under water as cold as I could to cool down. At 10pm the little reader board at the camp office said 94 degrees.

Do you know what is worse than a big Texas bug hitting you in the face while you are driving a motorcycle? Getting a bug inside your helmet while you are driving. In my hair is bad, but when one gets in my ear I use my brakes to the max! They have wide shoulders on the roads in most of the States I've been in. That is good because I stop a lot. For bugs, but mostly to look at my map. At first I would look at turns, road numbers and towns quite a bit in advance, but I would just forget. So now I just stop at every intersection and get my map out again. I thought about buying one of those whiteboard pens and writing direcitons on my windshield. I may yet. The trials of old age!

I have to tell you that I am having a really good time. I am smiling so much as I ride that it takes me 10 minutes when I get to my camping site each night to clean the bugs out of my teeth. One of the cool things about riding a motorcycle is that you can smell everything around you. Today I smelled cut alfalfa hay, went by several feed lots and, oh, what a sweet smell that was, rode by a freshly runover skunk, and passed a deer that had been hit by a car several days ago. Oklahoma and Kansas are flat with lots of farming. They are harvesting wheat already. Almost all of my miles are country roads so I get to see and smell, a lot of farms.

Without a face shield on my helmet my face gets cold when it is cold, rain gets on me when it rains, bugs hit me int he head, bugs get inside my helmet, but I found out the worst thing today when a cattle truck went by me with a lot of "stuff" coming out the back. Whooeee - a big piece of the "stuff" is way worse than a bug, even a Texas bug.

Lots of dew this morning. Must be because of the high humidity. All my camping gear was as wet as if it had rained. Didn't sleep very well. There must be several hundred quads in this campground and many were running all night long. I tried to pick up a nap today on some straight stretches. :-) Strong thunder showers on most of my planned route. I was reading in Psalms this morning about totally trusting God. This trip has increased my trust and has really increased my asking for help.

One of the things that I read while I was preparing for this trip is that a group of guys traveling together attracts very little attention, even ignored. But a single rider, especially an old guy with a gray beard with stuff stacked three feet on his bike attracts a lot of attention. That is true, especially in the South. Every place I stop, people want to talk. They give directions, encouragement, and best of all they give me food! When I tell them what I am doing they get all excited and often tell me of some crazy dream they had that they never did because it was . . . . just crazy. It seems most people have things they dreamed of doing but never have because it is just too impractical. One of the thoughts that I have had regularly on this trip is that wisdom is not intended by God to make our life dull or risk-free. Wisdom is not supposed to make us prisoners of practicality.

Another thing I have been thinking about, being by myself and away from home is how much I take those important to me for granted. My wife, my kids, family, my church family and friends. To take someone for granted is to fail to appreciate them as much as you should. I am committed to working on that when I get home. On the other hand, I have never spent so much time in constant dialog with God as I have on this trip. I will try and not let that slip when I get home.

I bought a tank of gas in Kansas and got my receipt, so I have one for every state. Went through Missouri and am in Grover, OK. tonight. Was going to go an hour longer, but some really black clouds started forming and I thought, Oh, oh, I am in big trouble. Just then I saw a sign that said Bear Lake Resort and I saw an RV, so I whipped in to see if they had tent spots. The lady said you had to be a member to stay there, but if I went through an hour long membership spiel I could stay one night. I said OK. The lady who gave the spiel came in and asked where I was from. I told her and she said that was too far away to be a member. I asked if that meant I couldn't stay. She asked what I was doing and I told her, and she said, "You poor dear, of course you can stay and we will let you use the spot next to the covered area so you can have a dry spot to sit while the lightening show is going on." I'm sitting in it now as I write you this story. God has been taking care of me every day. Can't wait to see what adventures await me tomorrow.

I am going to have a hard time making my weight goal - all these older people in these big RVs keep feeding me!

I have ridden 3158 miles at the end of Day Ten. If I keep up that average I will be home in 31 days instead of 33. I could easily increase my average to 330 miles a day and be home in 30 days. I enjoy riding and am not getting riding fatigue. I think it is the flax seed!

Love you all, Dee.