Rest Day 1 - Yahoo!

"Success consists of getting up once more than you fall down."

-Mary Engelbreit, on a card sent to me from Katie "Booger" Milliner

"One the seventh day, having finished his task, God rested from all his work."

-Genesis 2:2

"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls.'"

-Matthew 11:28-29

When God finished creation he rested. He didn't rest because he was tired, he rested because he was finished. The God I serve does not get tired! Jonathan and I, however, are resting today because we are tired!

We are in Spokane for our first rest day and I think we're gonna like these days! We slept in a little later than usual but because we are three time zones away, late is around 4:30 A.M. We will soon be only two time zones away since we will be in Idaho tomorrow and Montana seventy-two miles later.

We picked Jonathan up near the Bowl & Pitcher Overlook at Riverside State Park, where he is camping, and went to eat Mexican food for lunch. We then visited two bike shops, Barnes & Noble, and Walgreens. That was our rest day! Hope you weren't expecting anything more than that for excitement!

The bike shops we visited gave us lots of very helpful traveling information. Since we have gone away from the Adventure Cycling maps (temporarily) we are finding our way with lots of help from local folks. At Bicycle Butler, Tim Arnold the shop owner, gave us directions, maps, and copies to help us get out of Spokane and into Idaho. At North Division Bicycle Shop, Michael Conley the shop owner, spent at least an hour going over routes with us through Idaho and into Montana. The time spent with those guys really was valuable to those of us who are headed east. My thanks to them.

Tomorrow we will begin our day around 6:30 A.M. We have decided to take the Trail of the Coeur d' Alenes across the entire state of Idaho from Plummer to Mullan. It looks like the scenery will be incredible and the ride a gradual uphill all the way. That will not be a problem because the route is on an old railway bed and usually the inclines for trains are about one to two percent. If we happen to get a tailwind tomorrow and don't stop every three feet to take pictures we may get to ride the whole state. We'll see if this rest day revived our legs or not.

We are about twenty-three miles from Idaho.