Pedal Day 44 -Invest.

"A bike is only as bad as its worst rider."

-Anonymous

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on."

-Lance Armstrong

"When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked him to forgive me."

-Emo Philips

"Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did."

-Newt Gingrich, Facebooked to me by Cheryl Doyle

"The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces."

-Author unknown, Facebooked to me by Cheryl Doyle

No flats today! The new tires are working!

No license plates either. I still need Idaho, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York!

Maybe the folks here use a more secure system to fasten their plates to their cars.

Small towns, farms, and green fields all day. The roads in New York, where we are riding, are smooth with clean and wide shoulders. Great for biking. The weather was great, overcast, changed to sunshine, and a high of 73 degrees.

Jonathan and I started pedaling later today than any other day. We began around 9:45 this morning but still managed to cover 72.8 miles. We rode all day on New York Route 39 and finished the day in Castile, New York. We are staying in Mount Morris because this is the closest town with a motel.

We have learned that towns in this part of the country are all between two hills. We zip down into a town and slowly climb out, zip down into a town and slowly climb out, etc. In between towns we usually have somewhat flat terrain before another zip and climb. Maybe these hills are the preparation and training we need for the Adirondack Mountains. We will see.

Today we did the zip and climb thing through Forestville, Perrysburg, Collins, Collins Center, Springville, Sardinia, Arcade, Yorkshire, Eagle, Bliss, and Pike. Some of the climbs were rather steep. Whenever Jonathan and I saw a sign for a town ahead we looked at one another and one of us would say, "We're going to Maine." The down hills are nice but we pay for them going out of towns. Doesn't matter though, we've still got to get all the hills behind us if we plan to see the Atlantic Ocean next week.

Jonathan said today, "New York is a surprise to me." He told me that all the green farmlands, hills, and trees were not what he expected. He said, "I'm thinking New York City." The part of New York where we are riding is certainly beautiful, certainly not New York City, and there are places where you can see forever! We were also surprised by the many wind turbines we saw along today's route. They were not doing much turning, however, which was good for us but bad for producing power.

As we get closer to the Atlantic Ocean we talk more about what we'll do when the ride is finished. Jonathan has said since the beginning of the ride, "When I get to Maine I am going to eat some lobster." We talked about that again today and I told him, "Well, you certainly haven't blown any money for food on this trip yet . . . go for it!" He also wants to go to Middleburg, Pennsylvania after we get home to help New Hope Baptist Church for a week or two.

We should be home July 4th and on July 8th I will head to Monticello, Utah to help First Baptist Church and Pastor John Williams do Vacation Bible School. I'll teach the 5th and 6th grade crew. I have taught that bunch for at least ten years now. The week with them is very special to me. When I get home from Utah I will probably do some catching up on my to do list, I think! Always something out front that I want to do. Some things are big, some are small but there's a new adventure on the drawing board.

When a dream becomes a memory it's easy to just quit, hang it up, sit on the couch. Lord willing, in about eight days I'll be dipping the front tire of my bike in the Atlantic Ocean. Fifty-some days of pedaling will change from an adventure to a memory. It will be over. I can talk about it, laugh about it, look at the pictures, even read this blog but I cannot get it back. It will be a done deal! History. Hopefully I've done some things that are eternal along the way, maybe planted some seeds, encouraged someone who was down, shared the love of Jesus . . . something. I'm reminded again:

Only one life so soon is past,

Only what's done for Christ will last.

Jesus, in his sermon on the mount taught, "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store up treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be" (Matthew 6:19-21).

Completed dreams will become memories, invested dreams will become eternal.

Invest.