DONEEEE!!!!

I will make a more formal update later but, I AM DONE!!!!! BAHAHAHA :-D thanks for all of the prayers and encouragement! Love and miss you all!!

1...

:-)

Gainsville

Just three more days left! I am staying with Matt's uncle tonight! I have learned a lot about Matt and Laura while here... :-) It has been really great.

Scary moment today on the road today: a care decided it would be ok to come over into the bike lane and get as close to me as possible... I am not sure if they just weren't paying attention or if they just wanted to scare me. Who knows... oh well.

The photo today is for Jon Moore... tell me what kind of plant this is...

Lake City

I am in lake city! w00t! Just a little ways to go!

A biker pulled out in front of me today (a good ways in front of me), she looked like she had a VERY nice bike. I caught up to her and road along bahind her for about 20 miles. I don't know the propper way to inform a rider that you are behind them so I just road behind her without her really knowing I was there. I made sure I kept my distance of course, as to avoid an accident. BUT, it was really great just to see another rider out and about. It was my first of the trip. She moving about 20 mph the entire time I was with her so she kept me motivated to keep my speed up. Also, I didn't get the chance to talk with her but her jersey said IRON MAN on it... I wish I could have talked with her for a bit, but she finally turned off the road I was on. As she did, she finally realized I was there and smiled and waved. :-) It was neat.

My host family last night was great company, and had a lot to say! It was really fun chatting and hanging out with them. They kept me up till about midnight... hehe oh well. It was a good time.

I miss everyone a lot! Can't wait to see you all again!

Kevin: what is the best way to let a fellow rider know that you are behind them, without scaring them to death. Especially a female rider riding solo. :-) I just really didn't want to yell hello and have her look back, get scared and run into traffic... lol.

FLORIDA!!!!

I made it to Florida today, ahead of schedule because of a host change! w00t!

I had an amazing time staying with the Wickerhams! I started a new tradition at Will's... I am letting hosts put stickers on my bike if they would like. The Wickerham girls loved this idea and gave me a cartoon bike rider and a Jesus loves you sticker.

I also got my photo taken with the girls! I really enjoyed getting to meet this family! There was truly never a dull moment:

I dont know why I dont look very happy in this photo, but I AM PUMPED to be in Florida! I could not have done it without ALL of my amazing hosts and their love! THANK YOU GUY SO MUCH!!! Hopefully I can return the favor someday!

pics

Georgia on my mind

Had a great time with Will in Dothan! Here is a pic of us this morning before I left. My host fell through in Bainbridge (or I just never had one ;-)) so I just road straight through for about an extra ten miles. Then Coulter came and picked me up. So I am in Thomasville GA now. I just have one week left!!!! :-D (then about 60 extra miles to ride in FL to get me over the 1000 mile mark...

I saw a little girl getting her mail today. She saw me coming and just stood there staring at me. When I finally got up to her she just gave me a a big ole smile and waved. I waved back and I mean it was just amazing. It really gave me a big lift mid ride.

Also today, I passed up route 27. The route 27 that goes all the way to Lexington. The road I started my trip on! How neat.

hmmmm, anyway I am having trouble uploading images right now.. so maybe I will try again later.... booo!!! talk to you all soon.

Dothan

Spent the night in Dothan, with WILLLLL!!!!!! lol Had a great time hanging out with him last night.

I was moving super fast yesterday, made it about 30mph up a hill yesterday (then died, ha).

BUT I had my first flat yesterday. So I stopped and put a new tube in. I HATE this air pump, Kevin. :-) Being my first tube change with this type of tire I ruined the tube and it wouldn't hold air. It was also starting to get dark, so I got rescued about 5 miles out of town.

Instead of trying to use another new tube I patched the one I ruined, and I think it is holding air. :-)

I saw a medium sized wild cat dead on the side of the road yesterday too. I was gonna stop and take a pic of it, but I wasn't in a good place to stop.

No pic today! :-P so sorry.

TROY

Made it to Troy today. Sure is some beautiful country through here. I am also starting to see some swamp type stuff. 

Pretty cool looking, I didn't stop at any of the really really cool looking stuff. :-( I should have gone back, it was neat.

Had a head wind again today... but at least no rain... yet. 

I REALLY enjoyed my time with John Burch in Montgomery! What a great family! :-D 

Just a little ways to go! 

JESUS LOVES YOU.

I had a pretty hard ride today. It was my longest of the trip, 67 miles and I had a strong head-wind today.

Also, there was some construction on the road I was riding on today so most traffic was stopped. I stopped with the traffic, but was waved on by the flagger: "You are a on bike, you don't have to stop" So I had the road all to myself for the next couple of miles which was a welcome change of pace.

Most of my travels should be farely flat from here on out. :-) SO that should be fun, but it looks like it might rain tomorrow, and possibly the next day. OH well, I have been extremely blessed with mostly awesome weather!

Some I often have to remember, and am often reminded on this trip: "Jesus loves me" and you and you and you and you. He pretty much loves us all, and that is AMAZING! :-D

Here is the sign I saw coming into town today:

Yesterday

I didn't get to update yesterday. :-( I was in a hotel in Calera AL with no computer, but free internet!

I had a place ligned up to stay in Calera, but it turns out they were gonna be outta town. The people that set it up felt so bad they got me a room at the Days Inn!!!! :-D THanks a bunch!! It was SO great!

I wanted to post photos of the scary house from Cullman, but decided that might be out of line or something... lol Who knows.

My ride to Calera was very nice, about 50 miles or so and some large hills through Birmingham. Here are some pics from above(ish) Birmingham.

SOOOOOOooOo, I am in Birmingham already. If you are watching the schedule at all I wasn't supposed to be here till tomorrow. Here is the deal: I road to Cullman AL to scope out the couch I would be staying on there. I arrived to the house just fine and the guy was at work but had left the house unlocked for me. I went in took a shower and made some phone calls and put on dry clothes. (it rained this morning during my ride, not a plesent esperience) I have been blessed with great weather so far so I guess I can't complain. WOW, lots of rambling!

Anyway, the guys house in Cullman was kinda scaryish. Alyse came and picked me up so I didn't have to stay there for too long.

I didn't get to take any new pics today do to the rain, so here are some old ones.

Decatur!

I had a great short ride to Decatur today. Not many large hills at all, one huge bridge (pictured below). I for real thought I was gonna die on this bridge. My seat was higher than the cement guard... SCARY anyway, I don't have much else to say for today, but quite a bit pics today. Enjoy.

Huntsville hills?

I didn't see any hills. :-)

I had a great/beautiful ride today! There was a very large hill just outside of Shelbyville, but it was a fun challenge. I stopped in Fayetteville for lunch, and after that it was mostly flat till I got into Huntsville. In Huntsville the hills weren't too bad.

Here is a pic of me crossing into Alabama. I really love reading everyone's comments so keep them coming! Miss and love everyone!!

Also here is a pic of my good friend Dan and I!

hmmm... ok

I ended up buying the knee brace that Dr. Burch prescribed. I got it in Nashville for $100. I was pretty pumped. After wearing it for about 20 minutes and adjusting it a bunch, it hurt my knee more than not wearing anything at all.

So I road today without and my knee felt really good so I dunno what is going on... oh well!


Food for thought:

"But you say, 'How have we despised Your name?'" -Malachi 1:6

So, here is the pic I took as I entered the great state of Tennessee! Notice the awesome awkwardness of my hands! I love it. I hope you all enjoy.... One more post to come!

Bring the pain.

On my short trip form Glasgow to Bowling Green I started to have some slight pain in my left knee. I didn't think much of it but decided to go talk to Dr. Burch anyway. He diagnosed me and told me several treatment options. One of which was to get a knee brace to push my knee cap over a bit and relieve some pressure.

Well, I did everything he suggested expect buy the knee brace which was a hefty $160.00. So I started my trip to Nashville sans knee brace. The trip from Bowling Green to Nashville took me 63.5 miles and 4 hours 50 minutes. Average speed about 12.8mph and average pain about 7.5 out of 10! It was nearly unbearable. I did a lot of standing up and killed the hills so it was a lot of fun other than the pain. J

Nashville was great; I got to stay with Byron Fanning. We had a great talk about spiritual things, and some great burgers. I will hopefully get to visit with him again sometime soon.

No pics for this entry yet, I don’t have my camera with me at present. J

Made it to Bowling Green in about 3 hours today. It was a great ride, I had most of the rode to myself all day. I took a pic of a nearly dried up pond that I thought looked interesting. The family I stayed with last night was wonderful! I really enjoyed getting to know them and playing with their kids for a bit this morning before I left. Tomorrow I get a rest day so I might not post, but we'll just have to wait and see. I got tired of my speedometer/odometer not working all of the time so when I got into town I headed to Howard's bike shop for a new one and a quick (free) tune-up. Anyway, I miss everyone a lot. Call me sometime!! :-)