Well, I’m packed and ready to go. John and Biddie will pick me up at 6AM, we will swing by my favorite Starbucks and we will be on our way to Virginia. The good news is that it will only take about 5 hours. It takes almost 10 hours to get to Lisa’s. Damascus is right in the Southwest corner next to the Tennessee and North Carolina border. Charlotte is closer than Richmond. We should get there around 11AM, have lunch and hopefully get a ride to the top of Whitetop and ride 17 miles down the mountain tomorrow afternoon. The house we are staying at is pretty nice. But I will be staying in my “cave”. I stayed there last year, and made Julia mad. We were supposed to stay upstairs in a “room” that is really a bed in a divided area from another room. I figured that I would snore, and I didn’t want to keeo another couple up. Then I found that they had made a cuby hole under the stairs. It was like a bed. You just crawled in the door, and you had your owm little “cave”. So that’s where I slept. I didn’t really know that Julia was mad at me until it was to late. Anyway, it worked great. So that’s where I am staying this year. It’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. At least it wasn’t last year. Hopefully it will be fine this year, because I am committed.
I am happy to be going, it will be fun to get away and it is a great place to ride bikes. I’ve got some DVDs if we gat a chance to watch them, and I am taking the Ipod and the player so we can have some good music. John and Biddie have some games and there is a great porch to sit out on at night. Hopefully it will get cool and we can really enjoy the evenings. I am hoping we can get 60 – 70 miles in during the next few days. Probably about half of it will be downhill, but the rest will be some good riding through the valley from Damascus to Abington. One thing for sure, we will eat well. Breakfast and lunch will be at the house, but at night we will probably go into town for dinner. Of course Damascus isn’t very big so the choice is very limited. Abington is bigger with more variety. One night we will go to the “Harvest Table”. It is a great restaurant with all local or organic foods. We ate there last year and it was the highlight of all of our meals.
I am a little concerned about my blog. I just hope that I am able to get away to write. I usually spend close to an hour. It might be that I write in “the cave” and then post it in the morning. That might be the best scenario. If that is the case, then it will be in the morning before you get the post. I’ll do the best that I can. I know that this fall as I begin to travel more, things are going to get crazy as to when I can post. However I commit to keep writing daily, even if the posting happens to be late.
As I look toward the future, I can see some things more clearly than I had in the past. Last fall, I felt that God gave me a four-prong plan for the future. It was in a dream. It was funny at the time, because Julia was nowhere in the dream. It was all about my future. I didn’t think anything about it, because then, “me” meant “we”. So I told her about the dream and what I thought it meant and I included her in it. Well, this winter, the Lord reminded me of the dream and of the fact that she wasn’t in it. So I just began to pray about it and ask for more clarification. As He began to give me more clarification, I realized that if this were of Him then He would have to do it. It was beyond something that I could do. It is to early in the process to go into details. I can only say that it seems things are falling into place. I will say this. Each of the four prongs were areas of ministry that I felt that He was calling me to be involved in. I’m still not sure how it will all work out, but probably before I finish this blog, I will be able to share more. Right now, this is all I can say.
It really is hard to believe that it is August. School will start soon and I can’t wait. Then Australia is just around the corner. I hope that we have some time to do some sightseeing while we are there. It is the one place in the Pacific that I have never been and always wanted to go. I wish that I could have gone there with Julia. The one other place that we didn’t get to go was Italy. I got there for almost a month, but never with Julia. I could kick myself for not having her fly out with me when I was there. I didn’t even think about that. Well, I am grateful for what we had and where we did get to travel. She was such a good traveler. We were able to go almost anywhere and she would be fine. I was so proud of her when we spent a week on the Salmon River in tents. That was the only time that I ever got her in a tent, but she endured and enjoyed it like a champ. Good memories of great times. I know that I will see her everwhere we go this week. But that’s OK. I want to see her; I want to remember all the good times and the love that she gave to me. Tomorrow we will be in Virginia. I can’t wait!
Oh, the title. Two years ago Dick, John and I raced down the mountain. We were literally flying down the cinder path at speeds of more than 20MPH. We were so close that we learned to draft each other. One slip and we could have been severely injured and we weren’t wearing helmets. Well I’m still not wearing a helmet. It’s too hot. But I promise that there will be no race down the mountain this year. As we looked back on that, we realized how dangerous it was. It did seem the right thing to do at the time. But that time has passed. No more racing! Well maybe not too much : > )
It was good to see you on Sun. at the WC Diner. You, John and Biddie must have doing some last minute planning for your trip. We've been to the Damascus/Abington area as well, though not for biking. It was a stopping/starting place when Dick was hiking the AT. I'm already enjoying it again vicariously reading your plans.
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