Pedal Day 9 - Junk.

At 8:00 A.M. we rolled out of Lookout Pass and headed east on I-90. The traffic was next to nothing and the truckers were very kind. Almost every trucker took his or her big rig over into the left lane to go by us. We pedaled for 75.57 miles on I-90 and had a wild assortment of weather beginning with sleet. On top of Lookout Pass it was still sleeting, maybe from yesterday. Who knows? We met Margaret at several stops along the way and then she left us for a while to find a motel and a campground. We met again at exit 75 (Alberton), put our bikes on the racks and headed for warm showers and hot food.

During the ride we had sleet, wind, sunshine, a little rain, and one small blizzard. At one time Jonathan and I were even pedaling along around eighteen to twenty miles an hour, not working hard at all, and being escorted by a mighty moving tailwind. Reminded me of the passage in Psalm 104:1-3, 

"Praise the Lord, I tell myself; O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty; you are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariots; you ride upon the wings of the wind."

While we were enjoying the winds Jonathan said, "Oh my goodness, look behind us." The wind had not only been blowing us eastward but it had been blowing a snow storm right up the road behind us. Somehow the snowstorm was moving faster than we were and we were soon in the middle of a mini-white-out! How cool (not a pun) is that? From sunshine to white-out. Weather changes like that remind me of living in Florida.

I have decided that I want a license plate from every state we cross. They can be found along the highways so Jonathan and I have taken the challenge to find one tag from each of the fifteen states we'll cross. Today we found an Oregon tag and a Washington tag. (Now we are not going back to ride through the state of Oregon just because we found a tag. No offense Oregon but you are not on the route.) After a while I realized that we could ride across the whole country doing nothing but looking for license plates. Can you imagine us arriving in Maine and the only highlight of this trip being fifteen beat-up license plates? How tragic would that be? We would miss the snow, the sunshine, the mountains, the plains and fields ahead. We would miss the barns, farms, and tractors. We would miss towns and cities. We would miss some really great people! But we might have our junky license plates that will most likely adorn my chicken house walls. Good grief!

Some people are like that though. They go all through life and all they see is the junk. They never look up to see the sky. The never feel the sunshine on their faces. They never look up to see people. No, they just look for junk. You know who they are. They're the people who don't like the kids and the dog next door. They don't like the way everybody else drives. The music is always too loud and she can't sing anyway. They complain about waiting in line at the grocery and parking too far from the front door. They never say hi and certainly won't smile. They never say hi! They think the whole world stinks! They collect junk! And one day they'll die and all they will have to show for their lives is junk!

Someone said this (I don't know who but it wasn't a junk collector), "Memory is a wonderful treasure chest for those who know how to pack it right!" I'll find my license plates. Yep, with Jonathan's help we'll have the fifteen tags in Maine. But I'm not going to miss the sky and all that goes with it. In fact, along with a live Weather Channel today, we saw one moose, one bald eagle, and one osprey. The eagle was soaring overhead where it belongs. I may have missed a license plate but I saw the eagle.

We can think about and look for junk for the rest of our lives or we can look around and let the Creator pack our treasure chests. It's our choice.

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise . . . and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:6-9).