Wednesday

This photo is dedicated to IronBill who twice lately has commented on my hair sticking out my bike helmet.

Hey! How's it going on this fine Wednesday morning? I've downed 2 cups of Honduran coffee this morning (Mike and Don - it is so good, so fine!) and now I am ready to take on the day. A lot of my attention today will be on Honduras and the upcoming trip to that lovely land - July 8-18. I had good conversation with our man down there yesterday. It's going to be a great trip, and some of us will have the option of staying a night or two in Guajire with the locals. That should be fun!

Yesterday was a good day! I spent some time reading/studying yesterday morning before heading out into the fallen world as a fallen man. I spent significant time at Burris school, helping with the summer meals program. We had around 90 show up yesterday.

From there I went over to the food pantry. A young lady and her son wanted to volunteer, so I was there to make sure that that got off to a good start. I really wasn't needed. The usual crew there is a wonderful community of love and fun loving abuse, at least they like to abuse me. I do nothing, of course, to bring this about. Unprovoked attacks. They happen, you know.

After the food pantry it was time to go to the Store for a while. We had a good meeting, trying to figure out how to best use the opportunities we have to serve. It's a pleasant thing to consider. The community that surrounds the Store--workers, volunteers, board folks--encourage and inspire me.

A trip home to prepare to ride was next on the agenda. I loaded up the bike and everything I needed to ride it, and it was off to the Park for our 5:45 departure. We had a group of about a dozen that finally assembled out on the road. The winds were pretty strong and seemed to be mostly from the south. The trip out to the Washington Co line saw two groups develop. One group went out in a line at about 20 mph. The rest of us went out a little more slowly and a little less organized.

There were lots of Amish buggies around last night, plus there was lots of Amish buggy "exhaust" on the road. You do not want to ride through this very solid and smelly exhaust. We thought we saw one buggy rider drop down into areo position as we came up from behind. One of our riders, DFO, decided to trash talk a buggy rider. It wasn't too bad, but... Oh well.

The time to time trial arrived. We took off about 45 seconds apart. The winds were favorable to say the least. I took off 4th and was riding really well until I hit Lost River Hill (LRH). It's the hill that generates lots of stories and comments on Tuesday nights. I had a great time trial for 7 miles. Mile 8, which includes LRH, took me down, and so did the last set of hills but to a lesser degree. Regardless, I was pleased with my time, which was 25:19 for 10 miles, which averages 23.7 mph. Tailwind or not, I'm happy to go that fast. The details are here. Notice lap 8; it has LRH in it.

We had a nice leisurely ride back to the Park. Everyone was happy with their times, I think. We had several people group right around 24 mph. Our group is starting to gel, it seems. Those of us who are weaker are being pulled up and along by the stronger ones. There's probably a good sermon in there, but I will spare you.

Arriving back at the Park, it was time for some "masonry work," as Mike J. calls it. In other words, some of us were going to do a brick - a run following the ride. We--Dan, Tim, Rand, Jim & me--did the 3 mile Loop T Loop. (The T stands for Tim; he makes us do extra loops.)  Then we reassembled, minus Tim, at Wendy's. Bill, who rode from Bedford to the Park (along with Tim M.), drove back over after riding very quickly back home. They don't call him Iron Bill for nothing! Food, fellowship, and stories -- a great way to end another Tuesday.

Today I will run and then go about doing good (at least I hope to, most of the day anyway).