I write this as I’m sitting on the bed of one of our hosts, Steve, who opened his beautiful home to 3 stinky riders to shower and do laundry in. His house overlooks the Siuslaw river (which runs south to north, even as the tide blows north to south). Today was an absolutely beautiful and meaningful ride. I woke up to the smell of freshly prepared bacon by the Faith Baptist Church of Bandon.

Our fantastic host, Pastor Don, with Julian

After packing our bags and eating breakfast, we gathered for my most personal and emotional ride dedication to date. As we linked arms, my teammates began sharing their personal dedications… Steven for his Aunt Lorna who loved the sunshine, Mike for his mother who spent her last bit of energy fixing the roof to cover her family’s house, Zaid for his father whom he hopes can quit smoking, Richard for his grandfather who was grew up in Calgary, and Jenna for her father who’s on his next great adventure. I’ve never been one to choke up or tear during dedications—it’s always made me uneasy, but I’ve never known how to respond. But for some reason, today, as I looked around at my teammates (some of the strongest individuals you’ll know) nearly every one of them had tears rolling down their faces—each of them had a vested interest in being there this morning. I remember seeing tears roll down faces of some friends I’ve never seen cry before—Joel, Zaid, Megan. Mike shared about his mother who had died of cancer—who spent her last days helping others out… and for some reason, I was overwhelmed with empathy. He misses his mother! And Steven shared about his aunt Lorna—with tears in his eyes, he told us more about her, how she loved the sunshine and introduced his mom to his dad; I’ve never directly told Steven this, but he is one of my closest friends on the team, and a man whom I hold in high regard. Seeing him like this tore me up inside, and I wished there was something I could do. Our team has grown to be like family—supporting one another through tough times; and at that time, there was no place I would have rather been than on my bike riding for my teammates.

Hugging it all out after the ride dedication:

After the dedication and Hakka, I had to leave the circle and go inside before I lost it out there. On my way inside, I heard Julian, wearing a soft smile on his face, say to Mike as he hugged him, “Hey, I miss my mom too.” That word of encouragement still rings in my head right now—Julian is truly a beacon of light on this team. I clamored into the bathroom, locked the door behind me and with my head against the wall, prayed to God. I prayed that he would heal the hearts of my teammates, that we would be able to encourage and not discourage one another, and that in these tough times, He would carry us through. With that, I put on my shades, stepped outside, and mounted my bike with my teammates.

That morning I headed out with Julian, Lance, and Steven. We all knew why we rode that morning, and we channeled all that emotion into our riding. For that first stretch, we averaged 18 mph through rolling hills.

Oregon hill country

Determined to ride, I even rode through a flat tire for nearly 3 miles to get to the rest stop where I could change my tube (easily patched and soon I was back on the road). As we continued pushing our bodies, we soon hit the next town, Coos Bay, where we came upon a Walmart—as a quick excursion we went in and purchased some CO2 cartridges for inflating tires.

Here’s a pic of our bikes stacked outside (Lance, mine, Julian, Steven)

Eventually we actually crossed the Coos Bay and kept booking it through to Florence.

The bridge we took to cross the Coos Bay

When we finally arrived, I was greeted by strangers who knew me by name. It turns out, they have been following our journey all this time, and even put together a banner—full with pictures and blog entries from our rides. We also got to do our laundry and get clean at various host houses—God knows we needed the shower. Upon returning, we were welcomed to a WONDERFUL “Thanksgiving in July” dinner of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Thank you all so so so much! I am still full! After dinner our team shared our mission with the church and go to meet and chat with the individuals in the congregation—so sweet.

The view from Steve’s top floor window overlooking Siuslaw river

Drying the laundry

"WELCOME Texas 4000"

The welcome party in Florence

Thanksgiving in July!

Julian sharing about knowledge

T-E-X-A-S

Jihyun filming the program

Tomorrow we have another long day. The forecast is sunny! This is the closest I’ve felt to my team. I miss my family and friends—hope you guys are well. Please pray for team unity and that we could build eachother up, through good times and bad. Thanks for keeping updated… until next time, here are some funny pictures (of course all with food).

Gigantic banana

Zaid trying to put on a few pounds: Powerbar with PB and marshmellows.

Bryn eating the ice cream!