Hope And Courage Across America Journal

Hello all.  Our trek since the last blog, of course, was full of adventures and mishaps. Monday started off dramatically with an attempted break-in. Since my mom was the one actually present for the event I am inserting a portion of her journal to better describe the happenings:

“I had come back to the 5^th wheel to put away a load of laundry and I noticed a young woman sitting at a picnic table.  I greeted her and the next thing I knew she was following me and telling me she was ‘ready to go’. When I asked her where she was going she said ‘in the motor home’.  She said her boyfriend was in our motor home and was waiting for her.  She put her hands in her pocket and I was concerned she had a gun.  I decided that I better not go into the motor home because I didn’t know if he might be in there with a gun.  It was a very different feeling for me.  I’ve never really been in that kind of situation.  I just prayed and stayed on the steps until Bob came to my rescue.  I told him what happened.  This girl was determined to get in our motor home and she kept telling us her boyfriend was in there. So Bob led her away from the RV and decided that we better call the police to have them check it out.  While waiting for the police, her boyfriend called her on the cell phone and asked what she was doing?  Bob heard her say “I am doing the ‘thing’ you told me to do.”  So it wasn’t long before 2 police cars showed up and looked everything over.  They said that she was drunk but that the RV was empty.  Praise the Lord nothing bad really happened.  As always Lord, You take care of your children and protect us with your angels.”

The rest of the day went quite well, though. My Aunt Reenie and Uncle Fred (Dad’s baby sister and her husband) met up with us which was a real treat. Uncle Fred rode with us while Aunt Reenie became an honorary support-crew member. We were also able to meet up with some friends-of-friends who invited us to park our 5^th wheel on their beautiful farm in Moses Lake instead of staying at an RV park. They even made us hamburgers and homemade ice-cream for a real Americana-style Memorial Day celebration. While expressing to the wife our thanks and near-embarrassment for her hospitality, she replied, “We all have different types of ministry. Yours is riding and preaching. This is ours.” What a clear reminder that we are all here to lend our own talents and work with each other for the glory of God.

Tuesday started out with us climbing up the Vantage Hill (which after crossing Snoqualmie Pass seemed like little more than an ant hill!) and ended with an arrival in Moses Lake. Uncle Fred rode with us again and impressed us all with his ability to keep up despite having only a too-small mountain bike to ride. Our “road bump of the day” (we are still holding out for the day where nothing goes wrong!) was getting the support truck stuck in a pile of soft dirt and ash from Mt. St. Helens. Luckily nothing was damaged and a tow truck and car wash were able to get our truck back to new. The day concluded nicely as some people from Moses Lake Alliance Church met us at the car wash to give us a painting that referenced our ride’s token scripture verse (Isaiah 40:31) and three bags of delicious dried cherries (despite having a bad cherry crop this year). It really is the little things like cherries that keep us going with strong spirits.

Wednesday was an off-bike day as Dad did two high school assemblies and I went along as his personal assistant. The good news was that we were able to give our bodies a rest. The bad news was that Dad and I had to be on the road by 6:00am to reach these small communities in time (the rest of the crew stayed back to sleep in and catch up on “housework”). We drove through countless wheat fields (did you know Washington actually produces more wheat than the heartland states?) before finally arriving at Tekoa and Colfax. The schools were extremely small (Tekoa’s combined middle and high school had a total of about 100 students) but were gracious and responsive to Dad’s message. Please pray Dad’s words about abstaining from alcohol and drugs made an impact in their lives, especially for the seniors who are finishing up this week and making decisions for graduation parties. After the assemblies, we drove the long 2.5 hour drive back home and arrived just in time for an interview and photo shoot with the Moses Lake newspaper. Chanel ended her day with a real treat – a 1.5 hour horseback ride thanks to our overly-gracious hosts and their neighbors. Yesterday we “saddled up” again (on bikes, not horses much to Chanel’s disappointment) and had a relatively uneventful day of riding from Moses Lake to Ritzville. Right now I am sitting at the Cow Creek restaurant in Ritzville chatting with the cheerful owners (who even donated our meal and a few bags of beef jerky to help fuel us!) and enjoying cinnamon rolls before we start off on our longest day of riding yet – all the way to Spokane. Remember to honk if you see us! Oh, and if you are ever travelling down I-90 East, make sure you take exit 221 and stop in at the Cow Creek restaurant. They truly do have the best food and staff in town.

Cheers,

Nicole