Day 6 - Technology

"Bicycles may change, but cycling is timeless."

-Zapata Espinoza

"I've always considered the bike wheel to be the most ingenious single mechanical contrivance of all human engineering."

-Eric Hjertberg

"A thin hoop if extruded aluminum is laced to a hub with a handful of steel spokes that exert a collective force of several tons. A pair of these structures can support up to 500 times their weight, sustain repeated pounding from the road or trail, endure substantial side loads during cornering, and transmit pedaling and braking torque. All this while remaining true to within a fraction of a millimeter."

-Doug Roosa

We are geeks! I told Margaret today that we are geeks and have a car full of gadgets to prove it. Let's do an inventory: two (2) digital cameras, one (1) digital video camera given to us by Scott Willis and his family, three (3) cell phones with all the accessories (Aaarrrgggh!), two (2) laptops, one (1) heart rate monitor for when I'm pedaling, one (1) satellite radio in the Explorer, the computer system that runs our car (We recently had to replace ours and they aren't cheap. Thanks warranty.), one (1) Kindle that holds fifteen hundred (1,500) books, one (1) Sony GPS that is constantly telling us where to go and how fast and when we'll get there, one (1) bike computer that gives speed and time and pedal revolutions, and one (1) iPod with over nine thousand (9,602) songs (Thanks Todd.). That's at least fifteen (15) computers! There were not that many computers in the early B-52's! We are geeks, especially Margaret and her Kindle!

Don't make fun of geeks, however, because sooner or later one of them will be your boss! They are the creators, inventors, designers, painters, doodlers, thinkers, readers, planners, engineers, dreamers, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and makers of the world. They are the Einsteins, Fords, Wrights, Michaelangelos, Schulzs, Disneys, Grahams, Spielburgs, Larsons, Wattersons, Mozarts, and a host of others who never lived in the boxes or colored inside the lines. They, like all of us, were created in the image of the Creator and because we were created in the image of the Creator, are CREATIVE!

It would do all of us good to take one whole day and focus on being geeky: try to figure out how things work, take something apart, color a few pages in your kid's coloring book and get outside the lines, study some flowers, try to figure out how a bumble bee can fly and why the doggone things can drill perfectly round one-half inch holes in our houses, build something, invent something and sketch it on paper, write with the hand you normally don't use, sleep with your head at the foot of your bed, ride your bike backwards, put chocolate milk in your cereal, laugh until the milk comes out your nose! You may even become famous but if you don't, better yet, you may just find out how creative you are!

Someone came up with all this geeky stuff and it wasn't the guys who sit around and say, "We've never done it this way before." It was the people who just did it, tried something new, and look what I've discovered!

I read somewhere that when Walt Disney World executives and imagineers got together to cut the ribbon to the new theme park in Orlando, Florida, a little lady was overheard saying, "Its a shame that Walt Disney couldn't live to see this." Upon hearing her, a Disney executive turned and said, "He did see it, that's why it's here."

God has incredible plans for each of us but we're going to have to get off the couch and out of the box. It's called faith. Faith is believing something is so even though it's not so in order for it to be so. The Bible defines it like this, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot see" (Hebrews 11:1). If we can see it, it's not faith!

We left Missoula, Montana this morning in the snow and fog. We took photos and even tried out the video camera. I did get some videos of me driving through the snow but nothing exciting . . . no NASCAR stuff, just routine driving in the snow. I also got a panoramic shot above the Columbia River in Washington but National Geographic already purchased it and because of copyright laws I cannot show it (not). But in our new found creative geekiness we will get some videos on here for your travel enjoyment.

We stopped in Spokane, Washington for a short time. We looked around at Riverfront Park and got out of town. Out of town? I think it was in Sprague (exit 245 on I-90) we stopped at The Viking for one of their famous Viking Burgers. Double burgers with all the trimmings and very, very good. I didn't get the fries but after eating the burger I didn't have any room left anyway. You need to stop there. 

When we arrived at the Comfort Inn in Ellensburg, Washington, we unloaded the luggage and went to Bar 14 Ranch House Restaurant for supper. I had the 6 oz. (watching my weight) top sirloin, baked potato, salad, and water. Very, very good. We talked with Jessica, our waitress, and told her what we were doing. I said, "If you're ever really bored one night, check out this blog and you can see what we're doing on the bike trip." Jessica is a five-star waitress with a sweet servant's spirit that made our meal enjoyable and Taylor did an excellent job taking our money as we checked out! I would go back to the Bar 14 just for the service! Taylor (left) and Jessica (right), we thank you for making our meal fun!

We only drove our Geek-mobile 377.9 miles today. Our total is now 2,710 miles! We are about 104 miles from the Pacific Ocean! Can you believe that!

Create!