Thrive Outside

One of my most used words on Facebook is "Anyone?" That is not surprising because I love to include as many people into the great outdoors.  I know it is safer from the perspective on bears and also following the words of wisdom from God's Word,  " Two are better than one,      because they have a good return for their labor: 10  If either of them falls down,      one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls      and has no one to help them up. 11  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.      But how can one keep warm alone? 12  Though one may be overpowered,      two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." from Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. However, it was a beautiful clear day with no wind, so I boarded the Green Dragon (Surly Long Haul Trucker) and headed out of town.   As posted earlier, Anchorage is super bike friendly.  I live about 30 minutes to the border of the town.  But, after I arrive

Even though we had a sound night sleep and the sun was out, we both were feeling Blah.  I think my nerves kicked in because I knew we had 80+ miles to go to reach the destination of the Homer Spit into  Kachemak Bay.  My longest day before that was 53 miles.  But, at least we had some interesting things to distract us on our way. Our closest encounter with a moose.  So sweet.  However, we found that Clam Gulch had NOTHING for us.  (No second breakfast.  No coffee.) A view of the ocean from the road! I did see a humpback whale from the road! BUZZ cafe was the best!  They just got a new espresso machine from Italy.  James had a great time chatting with another biker (motorcycle).  We had no other bicycle touring people at all.  We both agreed that the road conditions and the weather (no wind AMAZING), were the BEST in the entire route from Soldotna to Homer.   We enjoyed a nice lunch in Ninilchik.  When we were about to leave the waitress asked where w

What a beautiful day to start a ride.  The sun greeted us.  We enjoyed some time in the Bible together then after a little breakfast, we were on the road.  Cooper Landing is notorious for its twisty road with no shoulder along the Kenai River which we saw our HONEYMOON location of the Kenai Princess Lodge.  Thankfully, as we went on the ride only 8 cars passed us around the narrow section.  They were so considerate that they would wait until they could jump to the other lane. We heard about the 27 miles of road construction, but thanks be to God they were working the night hours.  So, we had no delays and just considerate traffic along the ride. The actual ride was super delightful.  I saw lakes and creeks and waterfalls that had gone totally unnoticed by my car view.  Because it was less hilly and no headwind, we made great time. Eating has been a joy and we arrived at the perfect time for lunch at Sterling, AK.  Our great weather ended and we had rain all the way to Sol

The morning started early at 3 am with a car alarm going off.  Thankfully, it wasn't ours.  So, back to sleep. The rain continued and pattered on the tent making it very difficult to even think about leaving the warmth of the sleeping bag.  Thinking the rain aborted, I crawled out to begin the coffee ritual.  Everything was soaked outside.  It took some effort to light the fire.  We enjoyed a breakfast slowly.  I started getting sick.  The rain visited us again, so we had to pack up the wet tent and biking stuff. I kept visiting the loo, but my nerves had taken over and I wasn't feeling it at all.  Today was the day I was dreading because of the Pass to climb (its a 7 mile climb up).  My stomach was saying, "NO WAY are we going today". My dear friend Christina just asked me, "What is the worse that could happen?" I guess death (joking) but seriously, I could just call for help if we can't make the climb she reassured me.  James knew we cou

And we are off at 9:30 am.  I had a relaxing time in the Word but also had a great breakfast.  We left but forgot it being Memorial Day that our bathroom breaks locations would be closed.  We headed to the big arches and were thankful to run into friends who lent us some great head coverings for our helmets in case it rains.  They were just about to come look for us.  They sent us off with prayer and we headed down the road. Getting on the Seward Highway, we were blessed with sunny skies and light traffic. Enjoying the view, we were surprised to have perfect timing to meet our friends Haley and Mark @ Indian for the famous "Bird to Gird" trail.  We enjoyed the quieter ride (minus the road noise) and loved the fellowship with other people.   Little did we know that was the last of the bikers we would see until we saw a few bikers in the town of Soldotna.   We enjoyed refueling at the station and ran into another fellow athlete and strategy 

Training is over, not because I feel ready, but tomorrow is the start of the 1000 mile journey.  I spent the morning sharing a bit of the journey on a podcast called the Pedal Shift Project .  If you want to listen to the pre-ride story, click below. Mp3 of the podcast on Pedal Shift Project Caveat:  1) I didn't know exactly what I was going to bring because I hadn't packed yet.  :( I was pretty angry the night before because James went mountain biking and didn't get back until late.  I could tell the anxiety was rising.  So, after when he came home, I retreated to bed (it was 10:45) and started reading my current book called "Rest of God". The chapter was ironically called "Stopping to find What's Missing".  I tend to be the lady running my errands instead of walking.  Never taking time to enjoy the moment.  Looking forward to my next adventure.  I stopped and calmed my mind and asked for peace.  My business turned into anger and that was