I traveled a total of 11,302 miles in 36 days. That is 314 miles each day average. I was in each of the 48 lower States. I stayed in 3 homes of people. I stayed in 4 motels and I slept in my tent at a campground 29 nights. I lost 17 pounds eating primarily freeze dried dinners and oatmeal and flax breakfasts. If I could just keep up the eating routine while I am home!! The trip was wonderful. I saw a lot of country, met a lot of people, had a lot of experiences, had a wonderful time of relaxation and emotional renewal, and had an indescribable time with God. A number have asked if I would do it again. I would. Not tomorrow but I would like to do something with the same ingredients next year. For those of you who read this blog faithfully, thank you, and a really big thank you to those of you who prayed for me. God really did answer your prayers.

Monday July 6th - afternoon

I AM HOME!!! When we went through Stayton, Rich Sebans, who is a Stayton police officer, was waiting for me and he turned his lights on and pulled me over. I thought, " Great, I go this entire trip without getting pulled over, and 10 miles from home I get pulled over, I wonder what I did?". Then when I looked in the mirror I saw who it was and knew I had been set up. It is so good to be home. The trip was great, but I am so glad to be home.

Monday July 6th - morning

Well, I had a very good night sleep at my mom's. Went up to Jonah Ministries and they fed me a breakfast of of ham, eggs, and pancakes with lots of syrup. They have a bunch of little kids here for camp and a work team all the way from Kansas to re-roof the buildings. My daughter Sarah and her husband Mike, Terry & Donalda Hill, and Matt Beardon came up last night on their motorcycles and we are riding back to Jefferson together. We are going up by Mt Hood, so should be a great trip.

Sunday July 5th - evening

Made it to my mom's. She fed me as much as I have eaten in the last week, but she is my mom, so what can I do but eat it:-) I will hang around here until about 9 or 10 am and visit with my daughter Susanna who is serving at the camp up here, Jonah Ministries. I should eat some more of my mom's cooking as well. I will be home probably around 2 pm. I am looking forward to getting back in the groove. This trip has been a major challenge physically for a 60 year old preacher, but it has been a major time of refreshment and rejuvenation for me. I am more glad that I did it and knowing what I do now, after having done this trip, I would do it all over again. God is good to me.

Sunday July 5th - noon

You ever have one those times in your life where you really wanted something bad. You get to the point where you think maybe, just maybe, it is going to happen, but you don't want to get your hopes up too soon. That is the way I have been this morning. I think "You are going to finish and make this goal Duke". And then I think, boy a lot could still happen, keep going. It is close and I am feeling pretty emotional about accomplishing this when I let myself. But I will wait until tomorrow night, when I am home, everything is unpacked off the bike and I am sitting in my chair scratching my dog and talking to my wife or whatever:-)

Sunday July 5th - morning

Slept in a nice bed last night and had barbecued steak in Post Falls, Idaho. Got a good start this morning and on the road by 7 am. Rained on me for about an hour this morning. Not a lot, but officially makes it 27 days out of 35 that I have been rained on:-) Saw a big herd of elk grazing next to the road. I am now in Eastern Washington driving through the wheat fields of the Paolouse area of Washington. Nice riding this morning in the farm country. In a couple of hours I will be driving next to the Columbia River on the Washington side. I will be in Trout Lake with my mom tonight.

Saturday July 4th - afternoon

Left this morning and it was 60 degrees, got to Missoula, Montana and it dumped rain big time. 26th day out of 34 that I have had rain. I just went through Moscow, Idaho and it is 100 degrees, cool. Love the variety. Rode along the Clearwater river for 150 miles this morning. Very pretty, hundreds of 20 - 40 mph curves. Lots of fun for a guy experienced on the Dragon's Tail.

Saturday July 4th - morning

Headed down from Ovando, Montana following the Blackfoot river. 400 miles of scenic highway today. Sleep in a real bed tonight.

Friday July 3rd - evening

I rode 365 miles today, about half of it on I-90. Rained about half the day, glad I have a nice warm waterproof riding suit. Tomorrow I have just about 400 miles to Duane's sister's house. I will follow the route Lewis and Clark went, should be an easy day. 3 more days and I am home:-) In an earlier text I said that when I get too old to pastor, I was going to buy myself a cattle ranch in Wyoming. I have changed my mind. I am going to buy a cattle ranch in Montana near Ovando:-)

The ride this afternoon was super. Quit raining and I got on some roads other than freeway. Went over the continental divide, big open meadows. Lots of wind to fight, nice windy roads for motorcycle riding. I was getting a bit nervous about gas and then I saw a sign that said gas, pretty crude one, pointing down a road that wasn't very good. I really didn't want to drive down it, but I needed the gas, so away I went. Not very far was the little town of Ovando, Montana. There was a single pump so I went in and the fellow said pump away. Went in to pay my bill and I asked him if he knew of any places to camp. He said " I will rent you that teepee over there for $5". I looked where he was pointing and across the street was a nice sized teepee. I said "I will take it". I have always wanted to sleep in a teepee. The town is near the Blackfoot river and the main population of the town are fly fishing guides. The sign says population 51. There is a little fishing shop in town, I went in to get myself a bumper sticker and while I was in a guide came back from fishing with a couple of guys from Boston. The lady running the store wrote "Boston" up on this board that had at least 200 different cities on it. I should have had her put Jefferson on it since I got a bumper sticker from her.

Friday July 3rd - noon

Poured rain on me for the last 30 minutes. I am sitting at a McDonald's drinking a cup of coffee, getting warmed up to go out for another dose of fun and adventure:-) I am in Bozeman, Montana and it is noon and Jesus loves me and you too:-)

Friday July 3rd - mid-morning

On this trip I have gone through literally 100's of small towns. It has been interesting seeing the school reader board comments and mascot names. The best was this morning as I went through a small town in Montana name Belfrey,the school mascot was the Bats:-) Another good one in Minnesota was in a town named Lake, the school mascot was the Walleyes. Interesting signs and billboards also, one was for a mortuary - it said "drive safe - we can wait". Right now I am in Columbus, Montana on I-90. I will ride on this for a while. It is 62 degrees and looks like it could rain at any minute, but so far so good. I skipped Yellowstone this morning because of the crazy number of people and when I looked up the forecast it was for heavy rain and lightning. So I headed north to Billings. I am hoping to camp somewhere around Missoula, Montana.

I was riding along on I-90 in Montana and this little Mini Cooper passes me. When he gets around me, he slows way down and I am thinking what kind of crazy driver is this, so I pass him. When I get around him he speeds up and passes me. When he gets next to me, he stays right with me until I look over and he is motioning for me to pull over. I think, " I wonder if I forgot to tie something down again". I pull off at the next exit and pull into a gas station and he follows. He jumps out and enthusiastically yells, " I am your Colorado bumper sticker". I had met him and another fellow on Harleys in Utah. They were on a trip and they were from Colorado. He had taken my address and had promised to mail me a bumper sticker from Colorado for my aluminum boxes. He drove by me on the freeway in Montana 30 days later. He said he knew it was me, because nobody else in the world has that much stuff stacked on a bike. We visited for a while and he said that he had to go. We have each other's address. Must be God's will that I stay in contact with this guy.

Friday July 3rd - morning

It is Friday morning, July 3rd at 6:30 am. I am about ready to push off. This will be my last night camping. Saturday night I will be staying with Duane Williams' sister in Post Falls, Idaho, Sunday night, I will be staying at my mom's in Trout Lake, and Monday night I will be staying with Patty Duke:-) Didn't sleep too well last night. Very noisy town, very windy, and VERY cold, but just the way I like it:-) Lots of big black clouds everywhere so we will see how it goes with rain today. I will stay someplace in Montana tonight. I will try not to leave with anything unzipped or not tied down.

Thursday July 2nd - night Late

It is 11:30 pm, Cody is a zoo, lots of people. This particular campground is right in town. I wouldn't normally have picked a place with this location, but the rain kind of forced my hand. I walked around and visited with some of the campers earlier. There are people from everywhere, Florida, California, and France. There are lots of these campgrounds in town, evidently to take advantage of people coming to see Yellowstone. The number of people is obviously because of the 4th of July. The noise level on the street is starting to go down a little. The wind is really blowing, I hope it is blowing a storm out. Just walked to the bathroom and the sky is black. Hope tomorrow is clear.

Thursday July 2nd - night

Here is a picture of some of the thunder clouds this evening. Today I left the top open on the pack that rides on my luggage rack and all my maps and camping books came out. They are someplace along where I rode today. It is a good thing that I am about done, because my maps are gone. Darn, I hate it when I do dumb things like that:-)

Not much to write about concerning my camp. The couple on one side of me are from France and don't speak much English. The couple on the other side are grumpy and would rather be left alone. Really the first grumpy people on the trip. A few people have walked by and seen all the bumper stickers on my aluminum boxes and want to talk a little. I am going to take a shower and go to bed early.

Thursday July 2nd - evening

Got started into the Rockies out of the town of Shoshone and it started dumping rain. Drove the next couple of hours in it and got into Cody and drove into the first place that looked like it had camping. I ran in and paid my 21 dollars, hurried and got my tent set up so I could get out of the rain and now it has stopped and the sun has come out. Big black clouds all around though. People everywhere, Big Cody Rodeo going on. I keep forgetting that it is almost the 4th and Yellowstone is a popular vacation place. Rode 386 miles today, mostly dry. Saw about 100 antelope by a hunters count. (editorial comment - I think that means Dee counts both ends behind they tree, so closer to 50).

Thursday July 2nd - noon

Stopped for gas at a town with a population of 2. Gas pump - old one, post office, hardware store, grocery store, and cafe all under one roof. Didn't intend to, but I had a cheeseburger at the place. I have just been having a protein bar for lunch along with a Diet Pepsi. There were a number of rough guys in there for lunch who were oil drillers. I stayed there for an hour talking to them. I learned more about politics, world economy, energy, and oil than anybody would ever want to know. One of the guys owns 300 guns, all different he says. Nice break from riding. Not many people in Wyoming or at least not many on the road. Actually road 80 miles on I-25, but I don't think I saw 10 rigs while I was on it. Cruised along at 70 mph and felt fairly comfortable. I will be in Cody in a couple more hours and it is only 1 pm. Good weather all day.

Thursday July 2nd - mid morning

Ridden about 100 miles this morning, great weather. Wyoming is beautiful. When I retire from pastoring when I am 72, I am going to buy a cattle ranch in Wyoming. My new number one thing I don't like riding my motorcycle is road construction. Wyoming must have gotten a bunch of stimulus money. Lots of road construction. I don't mind the waits, it is the terrible stuff you have to ride on, gravel, dirt, mud, ruts, and rocks. I am not riding a dirt bike! Makes me tired just writing about it, Oh well. One of these days I will have my training wheels and it won't matter. Only one antelope so far. I have seen millions of box cars of coal. I didn't know Wyoming mined coal. Oils rigs too.

Thursday July 2nd - morning

Nice morning. Doves cooing, birds chirping, clear skies. I have had my breakfast and had my time with God. My goal is Cody, Wyoming, 7 campgrounds there. 380 miles according to GPS dear. 4 more days and I will be home - Yea. My son Sam is preaching on Sunday, make sure you go to church and listen. Pray hard for him in the meantime that God will use him Sunday and directs his life into the ministry that would be God's will for him. Bike has run good for the trip, starts every morning first turn. I noticed a little bit of missing pulling some hills yesterday. Might have been some bad gas. About 1500 more miles for the ole baby to get me home, then we will reward her with a nice tune up.

Stopped for gas yesterday and there were a number of bikers. There was a guy with his old uncle that I got to talking to. The old guy was riding what looked like a trike. A 3 wheeled motorcycle, but as I got to looking, it was a regular bike with training wheels. The wheels were small car tires with fenders and looked like part of the bike. He said they were a kit made by a company in Texas. Bolts on and "voila" no falling over. He said they are called "outriggers" and don't dare call them training wheels:-) He said he had been riding motorcycles since he was a kid, but when he got to be 65 his legs weren't very strong and he kept having accidents tipping his bike over at stop signs, traffic lights, and parking lots. I said I knew the feeling. He said once he got used to the ribbing of having "training wheels" they were great. He was 70 and biked 15000 miles a year. I think I will have Patty get me some on my 65th birthday or maybe my 61st:-)

Wednesday June 1st - night

I am laying in my tent thanking God for the great day, reading my Bible, and writing. I usually do this in the evening in my camp chair, but it is raining, so I am doing all of the above laying down instead of sitting, listening to rain fall on my tent. I hope it will do what it has done on numerous other occasions, that is rain in the night and clear up by morning. I am anticipating seeing hundreds of antelope tomorrow. When we drove through Wyoming with the kids years ago we saw a lot.

Wednesday July 1st - evening

Rode 396 miles today and went to the Badlands. Very cool place and lots of fun to ride the Badlands Loop road on a motorcycle. Also went to "Wall Drug". Got a bumper sticker there for every state to stick on my paniers. Hadn't been able to get them in many states as I went through. Cold and clear when I left this morning, but it warmed up real nice in the badlands. Took my wool shirt, gloves, and motorcycle pants all off and wore my jeans. As soon as I left the badlands, a huge black thunder cloud moved in and I put everything back on again. The rain actually felt pretty good. It quit when I got to where I am camping, Fort Robinson Park, 2 miles out of Crawford, Nebraska, which is in the northwest corner of the state. I am planning on riding to Cody, Wyoming tomorrow, which will be close to another 400 mile day.

Now that the trip is getting close to over, I am getting a bit meloncholy. Not that it is over, but that I am already struggling to remember what happened at the start of the trip. I know that next year I can tell my grandkids that I did it, but it will be a fading memory. It is like that with my kids. All those years with them at the center of my life and now they are all gone and I have to struggle to remember all the things we did and the stuff that happened. Makes me sad. Oh well, I guess I have to learn to say with the Apostle Paul, "forgetting the past and pressing on for the goal". I guess the idea is to come up with something next year crazier than this one. I bet I can do that with a little help from my wife, kids, and friends.

Went through some major road construction today. There were several miles of gravel/dirt roads with severe ruts in it. I was having a real struggle navigating it. Going super slow and getting left behind by the group that was being led by the pilot car. I used my technique I learned earlier on the gravel road and yelled, "help me Lord or I am going to crash". I got through it. I thought afterward, boy I have made it this far without a major mishap, it would be a shame to have one this close to home. My morning prayer every morning is, "Lord, I don't want to wreck. Assign some big angels to take care of me today" For my life I don't want to wreck. I am not done living yet, but I am way past the half way point. It would be a shame to wreck my life now. My greatest desire is to say with Paul, "I finished the race".

Wednesday July 1st - morning

6:30 am and I am packed and ready to ride another 380 miles to get me into Nebraska. Very cold last night sleeping, very cold this morning. If it were a hundred degrees, which it normally is in South Dakota in July, I would be whining that I couldn't sleep. I made a daily commitment this morning that I wouldn't complain today, only rejoice. They had a double header last night with the baseball games. I went to bed after the first. I thought that the noise would keep me awake. It didn't, but at 10 pm when the second one was over, they set off a bunch of fireworks. I guess the home team won or something. I didn't get up to see where the fireworks were, but it sounded like they were right outside my tent:-O When I got up this morning there was a baseball laying by my tent, evidently a foul tip. I took it as a souvenir and will give it to one of my grand kids. Well, I have read 5 chapters in Psalms this morning, prayed through it, asked God to fill me with His Spirit, give me strength, give me wisdom, to guide in every detail, to keep me from having any accidents on my bike, and not let it tip over.

I like South Dakota. The only paper I could find in the McDonald's that I stopped to get coffee in at Pierre, was a "Capitol Journal". For you unlearned people, that is the premiere farm newspaper. If you asked somebody why that is the only newspaper, the answer would be, "who cares about anything else?" I saw dozens of pheasant this morning next to the road getting grit for their craw. Very pretty birds. Very good roads, very little traffic, a little wind, wide open fields of corn, grain, and grass. You can almost see the thousands of buffalo that once roamed over the fields. One other thing is that is nice about South Dakota is the road signs that I have seen, most are pro-life. Very well done billboards.

I got thinking as I was riding this morning how easy it is to pretend to be something you really aren't. Rick in Rhode Island took me to the biker bar and introduced his friends to me and told them what I was doing. He was proud to be the one showing me off to his friends. They shook my hand with obvious admiration. I thought, Yeah, I am wearing the right clothes, I have the biker wave down, I have learned to sit on the bike with a sloutch, but if they knew how many times I have tipped over in parking lots! If they knew the sick feeling I get every morning when I start the old bike up again. If they knew the number of times I can't remember if I shift the lever up or down when I come up to a stop sign. If they could witness the number of times I kill my bike starting out from a stop sign because I am still in second gear instead of first. I guess until I get it all figured out and become a real biker dude I will just pretend. I don't want to do that as a Christian. I want to be real and genuine with God, others, and myself. Only then can I become the real thing, a mature son of God.