LIVE OUT LOUD MEMORIES

Having to spend the night in an elder hotel because it was raining and the girls' tent was flooded

At the end of Day One, Mr. Sladkey and PJ started talking about whether this was the hardest day ever, or just one of the hardest. They decided it was probably the fourth hardest day ever. That was the end of the first day of my first bike trip.

The guy who gave us directions chuckled about the hill “just before you get to Yellowstone Lake.” From that point on, after we climbed each hill we thought, “Surely this was the one he was talking about.” At the end of the day we found it. The last big hill was inside the park! But there were bathrooms at the top.

Got a flat tire on the outskirts of Madison. I brought the wrong size tube in my bike pouch. Oops! Silly mistake. “Well,” Mr. Sladkey said as he put a patch on his thumb and poked it onto the tube, “We’ll see if this holds.” It held all the way to Deerfield, where my new friend Jeff the bike mechanic replaced the tube, provided a spare, and even put on a new tire. What a relief.

Caught a glimpse of the renovated Camp Randall Stadium as we quickly rolled past in Madison rush hour traffic. Go Badgers!

After we met up with the gang from the church in Deerfield, our group almost doubled in size. On the way to Jefferson, we had more than 25 smiling riders heading down a good trail on a sunny summer day. That was cool.

My host family from the Deerfield church provided cold juice, lemonade, good food, showers, coffee in the morning, and a soft bed. And for my sunburn, they left the aloe lotion bottle on the kitchen table so that I could help myself whenever I needed to, which was often. I’m thankful that “kindness” is part of the fruit of the Spirit.

On the way to Jefferson, the trail mix and Gatorade were especially good. Nick was looking forward to pie that night at the pie fest. (I chose peach.) We had sausages for lunch. As we were riding home in the afternoon, Bryan told me about his favorite Greek foods. Food: past, present, and future.

At the assisted living home in Jefferson, I met Jerry. Jerry has Parkinson’s. He gets around in an electric scooter. We talked about big band music, the neighborhood where he grew up, his career as a machinist, and how he found the home, which he said was a lot better than the place he used to live. His sister Laverne found it for him. Just that morning, students talked about how they first got involved with FCA. Mostly, friends introduced them. It made me realize the importance of friends, advocates, and bridge builders to introduce us into community.

This group really knows how to work together. On Friday, the morning after the big rain and hardly any sleep, we ate breakfast, packed all the gear, and we were ready to rock & roll by 8:30. You’re all awesome.

Once we learned how to coordinate our paddling, Dan and I could get our canoe through any obstacle on the river. It’s too bad the big rapids came early in the trip.

By Saturday getting out of bed and getting on the bike just came naturally. It was like we’d been riding together forever. We even took on adversity like flat tires without missing a beat. On a “down to basics” trip like this a person can learn to be content in all things.

One of my favorite memories of bike trip 2007 was stopping at the man's home which was an old schoolhouse at the top of a hill where he let us use the bathroom and then taking some pictures of the outhouse which he had decorated nicely in his garden (and being grateful we could use the indoor loo).

I also remember getting separated from the group and then being really happy when Nick and I rejoined everyone near the busy shopping center. I really enjoyed the time spent driving and chatting with Kathy, Linda and Sandra (especially happy when Dan was biking.) Then I was excited, relieved and proud of the whole group as we crossed Washington and they actually stopped traffic for us as we neared home and our own beds. Thank you and God Bless.

I’m so thankful for my family: Thank you Kelly, Jamie, Carl, and Linda. My wife Linda, you are so awesome. I just loved having you on the trip. You make me proud.

We started the trip with a bang. We left Ridott, IL about 10:30am. This day rivaled the hardest day of any bike trip ever. It combined heat, hills, rain, and a miscalculation of miles. The students really battled things well. They encouraged each other and all the adults. It was not ideal in that we set up the tents in the rain, ate dinner in the rain, and basically got wet. The thing that I will remember most about this day is the big truck that went by us as we were traveling completely soaking us, as well as blowing us nearly off the street and the big hill at the end of the day up to the campsite and Yellowstone Lake State Park in WI. 63 miles in the books.

Tuesday started with more hills. We lost track of each other a few times. I apologize for any undue stress this put on the students and the adults. I made a few decisions that were not too wise. The team managed to overcome these problems and really biked well to get through to Deerfield WI. However, we got there at 7:15pm instead of our scheduled 5:30 ETA. Cathy Miles as always was awesome at shifting plans for us. We went our host homes and had a shower and dinner. We came back to the church at around 9pm. The youth groups from both churches met and planned out the next day’s services. It was a good day. The thing I remember most was when Sarah fell and scrapped her body up. I also remember the taste of my host families (Cathy and Tom Miles) hot dinner, chicken, with baby red potatoes and an awesome salad. 72 miles more totals 135.

Wednesday was terrific. We woke up to Jeff tuning up all our bikes. He is from the Deerfield church and does an amazing job of helping us out. We all gathered together at the church and left at around 9:30 to go to Jefferson to the nursing home. The ride was awesome with about 28 people riding together on the Glacial Drumlin Trail. Barbra Endl gave us a tour and a lunch. The students then did a service for the residents. The service included the game family feud, singing, and testimonies. They asked us back for next year. After playing Ultimate Frisbee we headed back to Deerfield WI. It was a difficult ride into the wind. After a nice supper at the Ice Cream Social, we had the service in the park. Again the combination of students did a great job. We ended the day at the community center with some more ice cream.

Thursday helped me to again realize how much I love this country. After having a great breakfast put on by the church, we started out and made excellent time. We had a couple of breaks and were pushing toward a lunch at around 50 miles. However, the weather decided to change. We felt cold rain on our backs. Actually, it was huge drops, the kind that hurt. Those drops started to get harder and harder. We pulled into a farmhouse and asked the woman out front to help us find some shelter for the storm. She said, that the barn out back was open. We went their and we met Dave. He was a farmer and helped us out tremendously. He spend about an hour with us just talking and offering us pop and a restroom. He represents America well. Thanks Dave. Back on the road, we had some ice cream at Annies ( that was the best root beer float I’ve ever had) and got into Lake Geneva about 6:30. After setting up camp and starting dinner at the Olympic, Tony came. He warned of us some storms coming. PJ paid for dinner for us and we had to decide what to do. It was storming hard outside. Lightning and thunder were present. We decided to go to Covenant Harbor to try to get a place to bunk down for the night. It ended up that Eric Anderson came to our rescue. He set us up in Geneva Bay Center in one of the conference rooms for free. That was an adventuresome night.

Friday was a classic play day. We started out cold, but soon found it was a very nice day. We went to the canoe basin which was 17 miles to get there. The sun was just coming out and it was a great temperature. Mrs. Allara and Mrs. Hilger transported our bikes for us. That was a chore. We said goodbye to PJ here because he had to go to a wedding in KC Canoeing only had a couple of spills. Emily and Julie went over in their canoe. Also Mr. Fischer and Dan’s canoe went over. They did not go in though. We stopped for lunch and had a game of Ultimate Water bottle. We finished canoeing and biked to the cottage. All the families were there. We started our traditional BBQ with great food and great company. Some commented that this was the best meal of the week! We met in a circle and talked about the week. It was fun until the mosquitoes took over. We said our goodbyes and the students and alumni (Lauren, David, Ryan,) (Elisabeth and Zander came but did not stay) went to the beach to spend the night. They did not stay the whole night because of the rain.

Saturday was flat tire city. We got some pancakes from Mr. Bollinger and left around 8:30am. It was a good start, although it was not too long before the rain started. Sarah had a flat early on. Mrs. Sladkey then hit a pole in the trail. This was particularly scary for me because I was right behind her. She flipped over the handlebars. All was good except a few lasting bruises, and she got back up on her bike and finished the day. Go Mrs. Sladkey. We got to Funway at about 2:30pm. It was closed because of the rain, so we just hit the road to come back home.

Going up the hill going into the camp ground at Yellowstone Lake State Park on day 1

Getting to know the Deerfield church students better because of the two day experience

Listening to Mr. Fischer and Mrs. Allara battle out the topping on a hot dog game.

When Ellen( a resident) spoke out in the Nursing Home service about how Jesus Christ is Lord

When Eric Anderson the host at Geneva Bay Center offered us a conference room to get out of the storm

Praying together after we had been splintered into three different groups on day 2.

Seeing the Alumni come to the BBQ (Mrs. B, Zander, Elisabeth, Lauren, Ryan, David, Mr. Cleary)

Having Mr. Brown and Annie Brown hold up traffic at Bailey and Washington for us to glide on home.

Seeing the great leadership the Seniors took in planning and executing the trip.