DAILY BLOG

Note: We got some great pictures for Day 3 but the internet connection was giving me fits, so I could not upload them all. More pictures will be added to this blog post asap.

Over the first three days of The Expeditionary Man Bike Tour, there has been one overarching factor—the heat. For the third day in a row, we spent much of the day in 100+ temperatures. By noon today, we decided that our ride should be renamed to Tour de Heat! However, by the time we made it to the town of Prescott (5300 feet in elevation), the temperature was a much more moderate 85 degrees. Yeah!

Arizona desert

Before the ride started, we read Romans 12:1, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” We decided that if we were going to pushing ourselves physically further than ever before, we want to make sure we are doing it in the spirit of worship, not just for ourselves.

Kim Ready to Begin the Day

We started off the day riding highway 60 and 71 towards Congress, AZ. For the first 22 miles, the road did not bent, curve, shift, or anything. Completely straight and flat. In all, we were graced with four or five curves over the first 50 miles. We cheered and Kim honked the horn when we approached one of those rare turns. Sounds like easy riding, but I was amazed at how mentally difficult that monotony is to deal with. The road seemed endless. We got off to a slightly later start, so by the time we began riding it was already well over 90 degrees. Over the morning hours, the temperature continued to climb, peaking at 104 degrees. Jared began getting chills, so he went inside of the van for the rest of the morning to cool down and recover. I pushed on alone to make it to Congress, AZ by lunch.

Rich pushing towards Congress, AZ

I get the Stupid Award for the Day. During that long stretch by myself, I was bored silly and so I began swatting my hand at these innocent looking bushes that were growing right into the road. The problem was that those bushes had prickles in them, as I soon discovered. I got a thorn in my finger, causing numbness in it for rest of the day. Not very smart, eh?

After lunch, Jared got back on the bike, ready to continue for the afternoon. After leaving Congress, we immediately climbed up Yarnell Hill, a breathtaking 2,500 foot climb over a four mile stretch. Jared’s climb up that mountain was totally amazing, averaging over 16mph for much of the ascent. The kid looked like Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France. I was in awe! “It was all God,” Jared would say later at the top of the climb.

Jared the Mad Climber

Unfortunately, all I could do was watch him go. I had absolutely nothing. The heat just zapped it all from me. I cracked about a third of the way up the mountain. I pushed and pushed, but each pedal stroke was a struggle. Finally at about 80% of the way up, I got off the bike because I was getting dizzy. It was pride, I guess, but I did not want to get in that van.

It was awesome to see how the boys rallied when I was weak. I had been the strong one throughout the early part of the trip, continuing on when others were hurting. However, when they saw I just could not continue for a bit, they all formed a paceline and rode that mad for about 10 miles or so, averaging over 20 mph for much of the time. I absolutely loved the symbolism and wonder if God had not planned that all along. It totally displayed the fact that it is our entire family’s tour, not just a dad dragging his family along for the ride. Kudos to Jordan as well—I’d never seen him ride so fast.

I eventually felt like I’d recovered enough to continue on. So, I got out, but felt totally drained and struggled along over the next several miles, unable to stay with Jared. I knew the last 15 miles going into Prescott was going to be a major league climb, but I had no idea how I would be able to stay with Jared the Mad Climber up that twisty mountain pass. I really wanted to finish out together today on this first day in the mountains, so I prayed that I could simply stay on his wheel. One great change happened over the past 15 miles before this—a rain shower covered the area, lowering the temperatures some 15 degrees or so. As a result, we were able to ride that final mountain stretch in the 80s!!!!

Jared was great in pacing me, and I quickly shouted over to him “ad alta simul” (our tour motto which means “to the summit together”). It was totally the motto playing out in real life! Instead of looking at the mountain scenery, I kept my eye fixed on his rear wheel for at least the first third of the ascent, making sure I kept pace and did not let him go. But then, as the minutes passed, I slowly began to regain the strength I had totally lost before. I had recovered, and we began to push hard over that 15-mile pass. As time went on, I was able to lead the pace as well.

Biking towards Prescott

Cool View

More Climbing

Mountains entering Prescott

Jared and I gave each other high fives when we topped 6,100 feet in what looked to be the last of the climbs before Prescott. However, rounding a corner, we realized that there was another. Jared remarked that the road was like an old western in which the good guy lets the bad guy live, but the bad guy tries to kill the hero later. So, the good guy has to kill the bad guy in a shootout. We shot those mean mountains!

High point for the day

Overall, today was the best day yet—because we found ourselves working together, rallying around each other, to accomplish a common goal as a family.

…Now if I could get this internet connection working properly, so I could upload those great pix that Justy took.