Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Rest Day 3 - Duluth.










 

 









































"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked me for my autograph."
-Shirley Temple, texted to me by Ericka Warren

"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
-Anonymous

"Just jump and build your wings on the way down!"
-Anonymous

We drove north on I-35 from Hinckley to Duluth this morning. We ate lunch at The Green Mill and had great meals and a super waitress whose name is Whitney. I asked Whitney if she drew the short straw and had to serve this crew. She said, "No, I volunteered for this group. I really did." We could tell she did because she had such a sweet and serving spirit and was lots of fun. Whitney really took great care of us and to Whitney we say, "Thanks for making us feel right at home in Duluth. You are the greatest!" 
After lunch we were joined by David, Margaret's brother, and his wife, Judie. They drove in from Grafton, Wisconsin today. Now there are thirteen in our crew. We've been to shops and bought sweatshirts, chocolate, t-shirts, and pressed pennies. We've been to the Aerial Lift Bridge and have seen it operate to allow some smaller boats to pass through. Right now there are two large ships waiting to pass through the bridge but two ships must leave the harbor to allow room for them to enter and dock. Our room overlooks Lake Superior and the ships are in full view from our window. When they move we will probably go down to the lift bridge to watch those very large vessels pass through into the harbor.
We just ate supper at Grandma's Saloon and Grill. It seems like all we do is eat. I was hoping to lose a few pounds on this ride but may end up with the scale swinging the other direction! Maybe I'll have to pedal more miles per day when we get going again.
Because we'll be tourists for two days I'm sure I'll have a lot of photos. I'd like to put them all on this blog but that won't work. I will try to pick the best of what we have and put them on here for you to enjoy. I sure am glad we have digital cameras! Sure beats my 35mm Minolta. We don't have to buy film and pay for processing! That would cost a fortune! We would have to wait for the photos to be processed so we could not put them on the blog post immediately like we do. We can shoot enough photos to be sure we have good photos and . . . we can do our own cropping and touching up for the photos we use. Oh, technology.
The whole crew just went down to the Aerial Lift Bridge again because one of the big ships was supposed to come out of the harbor at 8:30. It didn't happen but we did see a party boat go through. Kind of a letdown but it was a ship nonetheless.
This has been a good rest day but for some reason I am tired. Margaret said that today was all she could have asked for and that's great. Tomorrow is another rest day and we are heading north again to see some other Minnesota sights, then back to Duluth for another night right here. We'll be back on our bikes on Thursday morning and pedal from Harris to Sweetwater. Hopefully we will soon have an updated itinerary for you so you can know where we are and how far we have to go to Bar Harbor, Maine.
Going from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean is an exciting thing for me, Margaret and Jonathan. It's a water-to-water-trip across America. Being here in Duluth is also great because of Lake Superior and all the boats and ships. Boats are frequently used in the Biblical history of Jesus. In Matthew 7:23-27 and Mark 4:35-41, Jesus calms the storm from a boat. Before Jesus and the disciples fed the five thousand, they tried to escape the crowds by hopping in a boat and going to a quieter place (Mark 6:30-34). In Luke 5:1-7, Jesus teaches from a boat and then tells Peter, a professional fisherman, how to fish. Peter just about sinks the boat because of the size of his catch! 
My favorite story, however, was when Jesus walked on the water. You know how it goes . . . the disciples were told by Jesus to go to the other side of the lake while he went into the hills alone to pray. A strong wind stirred the lake waters and Jesus, knowing the disciples were in trouble, walked on the water to them. Sacred stiff, because they thought he was a ghost, the disciples did what we would do: they screamed! Jesus quickly told them he was not a ghost but he was the one on the water. Impetuous Peter said something like, "Okay Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water." Jesus responded, "All right, come" (Matthew 14:29). You know the rest of the story . . . Peter jumped overboard and walked to Jesus.
Now that's all the story you need right now. Peter jumped out of the boat. Man overboard! He was walking on the water! I'm not sure what the other disciples were thinking but they sure stayed seated and probably scared while Peter just abandoned ship! The thing I think about most here is this, if you're going to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat. Whether you end up in the water or on the water will depend totally on where you put your focus. You can look at Jesus or you can look at the water. When Peter kept his eyes on Jesus he was on the water. When he looked at the water, he was in it! Same thing applies to us. Look at the storms and you're in. Look at Jesus and you're on! Jesus expects us to abandon ship, he expects us to jump overboard. He's still saying, "All right, come."
Hop overboard! After all, that's where Jesus is!

4 comments:

  1. B...
    You, of all people, such Christmas lovers that you guys are, misspelled Santa CLAUS, and just so you know, I checked my text; it was spelled right when I sent to you! SCORE for Summer! ;) Prayed for you & the crew this morning. Have an awesome "rest" day!

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  2. Nice catch Daniel! I will make sure Summer sees Barry's misspelling for her encouragement.
    Barry, when you have rest days in the future, please make a more exciting story up for this blog. Watching boats and eating is not exciting. I prefer to think of your day happening this way: "We got up in the morning and walked outside to see a 9 foot tall giant mugging a little old lady and threatening a group of Boy Scouts. Immediately we fashioned a sling out of a bandana and five pieces of 4-day old Italian bread and shot it at the perpetrator. We missed the first two times, but hit him directly on the head on the third with our lead-weight bakeries and he toppled. We ran over and got the old lady and Boy Scouts to safety and then kept him down until the authorities arrived. Oh yeah, and then we tazed him. And then we went to Grandma's Diner for breakfast."
    Something like that would be better, so please work on that for tonight's update.

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  3. It's great fun watching the family enjoy this adventure with you. I'm already looking forward to the book that will be compliled from this road trip. I want one of the first printings, no matter the cost.
    Deborah Ingram

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  4. What a great geography teaching opportunity for the "grands". Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. I'll let you look up which one is second largest. It's hard to imagine that Lake Superior i nature made. The Army Corps of Engineers or Georgia Power had nothing to do with it. We in Georgia are grateful to the afore named organizations for without them Georgia would be "lakeless".

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