It’s hard to believe that it’s the 4th of July already!
Today, is a relaxing day … a day of washing clothes, cleaning the bike, eating a nice breakfast, re-sorting our luggage to make it look smaller and weigh less!(that’s always hard to do!)
Catch up on phone calls, re-working the blog, etc.
Then, if there’s time I would like to do some sightseeing and tonight watch the fireworks from the Ramada Plaza. (the fireworks are being shot off up on the hill behind the hotel, so we should have a ringside seat to the fireworks display!)
Thank God … my roommate was able to recover quickly from his “ordeal” and now he’s pretty much back to normal … although he’s not going to ride on Saturday to Lush, WY with us!
As I sit here reflecting and contemplating my life and the many stages of it … there are many things I am thankful for: my family, my friends, my life experiences(the good, the bad, and the ugly), the challenges that I’ve gone through and “survived”, and my belief and testimony of Jesus Christ!
It’s been an amazing “life” so far and I can only hope that my contacts throughout it … will continue to leave a lasting “postive” impression on those with whom I’ve shared my “accident story”.
One thing I’ve learned on this trip so far is … most people say that “seeing is believing”, yet, I’ve learned in my life and specifically on this Life Across America journey is … the “believing is seeing” … if, you can “believe it”, then you will see it happen in your life! (whatever your challenge is, there is always “hope, which springs eternal … if … you have the “faith” to believe it will happen!)
I also have a new perspecive of the saying “endure to the end” … each day we get up with a set goal in mind, a route map in hand, clear directions of what “pitfalls” to avoid, with sag wagons to help us along the way with food and water, and …. yet …. we still have to get on the bicycle and pedal (over and over again) until we get there!
Then we wake up again the next day and do it all over again!
One of our cyclists Mr. T … gave a verse out of Eclessiastes at dinner last night where he stated King Solomon feelings about how sometimes we can “do it alone”(yet, it’s much harder!), we can stand as two (back to back) and can conquer our challenges … or … we can have 3-4 together (as in a rope with 3 or more strands twisted together, which is unbreakable!)
Well, that is what this bicycle trip is all about, some days you are riding alone!(you can do it by yourself, however, it is much harder!)
Or you can ride with two cyclists together.(switching off and giving the other cyclist a chance to rest!)
Yet, when you have 3 or more cyclists who are working together … then it really begins to be “fun” and the synergy created becomes more than the whole!
This whole experience created by “Life Across America” and “America By Bicycle” has shown me what our family and social lives can and should be like!
When we all pull together and reach out to help each other get to our goals … then the resulting “joy of life” is really in the “journey” and not just getting to a “destination”!
To all my friends, family, and especially to each of America’s and Canada’s “donors” (which are just a small part of the world’s “donors”), I want to say “thank you” for donating blood, platelets, plasma, and other blood products!
And to once again, emphatically state … “Giving Blood Saves Lives” … of which my accident story is a living example of the compassion and goodness of 110 anonymous donors!
Also a special “thank you” to each of our local blood center employees … the CEO’s, the doctors, the technicians (each one of the many blood center workers) who come to work every day (working day in and day out without much recognition) … you are an amazing, compassionate, caring group of human beings!
Thank you for my life!
Larry F.
I’ll upload the pix later today, so check them out at: no pix today, sorry!
P.S. Today I pre-entered all the dates up to the end of the ride … unfortunately, I didn’t expect it to make it harder on the viewer … yet, it is, sorry about that!
What you’ll have to do now … is … once 5Aug08 entry appears, slide down to the bottom of the entry and click on previous entries … until you get to the current date and the current entry!
I’m putting this explanation in on the 5Aug08 entry!
Larry F.