No I did not take that picture.

The past couple days have been good. This morning, I woke up in the dark, as usual, and got ready for work. Well, it had frozen pretty hard last night and I thought it would be cold outside. It was about 22 degrees or something like that, but once we got to work, it was a beautiful morning with no wind at all. The sun started to rise, lighting the few clouds that were in the sky with a light shade of pink and eventually, the golden orange curl of the sun came over the horizon. That is one nice thing about getting to work before sunrise... every day we are outside (and it is clear) we get to see the sunrise. Just another blessing!

Today, it warmed up to the mid 50s or so. Upon arriving at home, the motorcycle was calling my name, so I decided to answer. I fired one of them up and got down and buzzed around town for a few minutes and then shot north out of town, putting a few miles of road behind me. It brought back the trip and it really hit me how much I miss traveling by motorcycle and seeing country. It guess that could be part of the mourning process of a change in life. Anyway, with winter approaching, I better ride as much as I can because soon, the cycles will have to rest for the winter. Sad day. On the other hand, that also means the ice fishing equipment comes out... yay! Oh, dilemmas!

A welcomed encounter

I am now the happiest I have been in a while. I don't mean that I have been sad or depressed or anything, but that "higher" happiness after a great conversation.

Tonight, I went to the apartements in town and visited an elderly woman that I have known since high school. It was something I meant to do all week, but didn't for various, not so good, reasons. It's amazing how Satan can distract my mind even though I know exactly what God wants me to do.

Anyway, it was an encounter where we talked about family, prosperity, problems, God's leading, creation and a host of other topics. Sitting there, I wondered about her past and what she was like when she was my age. I also wondered, when I am in my upper 70s to 80, if I would have a friend who was in his 20s that would come and talk with me. It is interesting to think about how God has used me to touch her and also her to touch me and we are 50 to 60 years different in age.

So often, we think of God's "mission" work to be spreading the gospel off in a corner of the world with people who aren't as "fortunate" as we are. There are people who are called to that, but for the majority of the Christian population, is it only writing checks and attending church services? I could not have felt more in the will of God than I was tonight.

Who knows? Someone, who won't be born for another 30-40 years, may be used by God to come and visit with me and we can mutually encourage each other. Who knows? Well, only one does...

The Transition

I have now been in Edgerton about 12 days. Since returning home, I relaxed and unpacked and attempted to wrap up my trip, which is an ongoing process. Also, a week of work is in the books and a couple weekends of hanging out with family and friends. It has been very good to be home.

Really, my transition to living back in Edgerton has been pretty easy and I think that is because I was so ready to get home. This week though, I thought about it some more and it is weird to think that this is my life for the next few years. For 17-18 years of my 23 years on earth have been a process of school, Christmas break, school, summer break, over and over again. There was change every few months. Now, I find myself looking at a future of "normal" life and I don't think it has really set in yet.

In reality, it excites me and scares me at the same time. Discontentment might set in and a search for more adventure might take a hold of me to the point where I want to leave, but really can't. On the other hand, God's work, here, in Edgerton and the surrounding area has been and continues to excite me. There is an amazing opportunity to serve here and I just pray God gives me a clearer picture of what that looks like.

So, I continue to think and feel my way through this transition. My devotions have taken somewhat of a hit since getting home and I have felt somewhat disconnected from God. Hopefully, that gets better soon.

God bless you all!

Tim

A time of thought

I have now slept in the same bed for 3 nights in a row. One more, and that will be the longest I have been in one place since July 1-5. It feels kind of weird to be back.

Actually, my whole life, after reading stories such as the Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings, I always wondered what it would be like for those people to go on such a grand adventure and see amazing things, but then return to where they live and go back to normal life. For example, in C.S. Lewis' "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," the 4 children fight wars, become kings and queens and do all these amazing things, then they are back to ordinary life.

By no means was my adventure quite like theirs. There were no orcs trying to kill me, no ring to destroy, no battles against the white witch... yet, on the other hand... Satan was there, trying to discourage me, Jesus (Aslan) was also there whispering encouragement: part of me was lost, part of me was found anew...

As of now, I am in a transition time that most college graduates have gone through already. I am going to start work on Monday, the college loans come due in about a month and reality is reminding me that this is where I am going to live for at least a couple years. It's exciting and scary at the same time. I haven't lived, year around, in a place since high school, so it will be a new adjustment, but, I think, one that I will welcome.

Although, who knows when the open road will start a' knockin'...

Pictures

Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Here are some pictures of Rocky Mountain National Park, the accident and the Black Hills. Enjoy!

Link to Pictures :)

I'm planning on keeping the blog going for whatever thoughts and experiences come to mind, so you can keep reading if you wish. Otherwise, I would like to, again, thank all of you for your prayers throughout the entire trip. I feel like God richly blessed it! It may not have gone as I was originally planning, but many things happened and I met many people!

Some stats will come in a later post. And as for the mileage guesses, I'm still trying to decide what to do with that because, well, the cycle didn't make it the whole way back...

God bless you all!

Tim

Home... good ol' Minnesota!

Home!
After 95 days on the road, driving through all kinds of weather conditions and landscapes, I have arrived back in the corn and bean fields of southwest Minnesota! It is kind of surreal to believe I am back here after all the places I have been in the last 3 months and yet, sitting in my living room and seeing Edgerton, it feels like I have never left.

After the accident on Friday, I had an opportunity to spend time with relatives in Evans, CO which was a great time and for their kindness, I can never thank them enough. On Sunday, my parents came down and picked me and the motorcycle up and from there, we made our way to Rapid City, SD Sunday night. It was so good to see my parents as well! I hadn't seen them in a month and a half and even though we talked every night on the phone, almost, it was good to hug them and see their faces.

Monday was a day where we toured Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, the Needles Highway and Spearfish Canyon. All of which were excellent, even if it was done in the pickup. Then, Tuesday held the drive across South Dakota back home.

I still have much reflecting to do on the trip, but here marks another change in my life where I will actually be in the same place for quite some time and where I must try to discern where God wants me to do his kingdom work here and in what manner to do it. There is so much work to do!

I have been very disappointed the last few days of not being able to ride the motorcycle all the way back, but also thinking about it, God provided blessing upon blessing through the accident and the next few days. I still fight my disappointment, but as someone said to me, it feels better when we can look to God working through what happened and see his hand guiding every step of the way.

Well, I have much work to do to wrap the trip up, settle back in and get all the insurance stuff taken care of. If you are around, stop in. I'm home!
Pictures of Rocky Mountain National Park and the accident will get posted pretty soon, so stay in tune for those!

God bless you all and I can not thank you enough for all your prayers in the past 3 months. I'm convinced that they saved my life and brought the opportunities that they did.

Again, May God bless you all!

Tim

An unexpected end...

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I write to you now with a little different spirit and I'm not exactly sure what to say but here it goes...

All your prayers from the beginning of the trip to this point have culminated. I can now say that I have survived a motorcycle accident, and done so with one scratch and a sore neck.

Yeah, you read that right... I had a motorcycle accident, but am in as good of health as I could have expected.

Here's the story... yesterday (Friday), I was coming down from Estes Park, CO after some sweet sightseeing in the mountains. I was following a Honda CR-V and thinking about how sweet Hondas are. Well, there was also a car behind me and we were going around a curve to the right. I looked away for a split second and looked back and the Honda was braking to turn left. No big deal. I stepped on the brakes and started moving right to go around and get out of the way of the cars behind me. As I was moving to the right of the Honda, I got nailed from behind and scraped alongside the passenger side of the Honda before coming to a stop and falling over on the pavement. I was on the cycle the whole time until it stopped, so that was good. The first thing I thought was, "Man! There goes the trip!" And that really frustrated me.

There is so much to write about it that I don't even know what to include. I got up and walked around, pretty mad about the trip being over, but I soon collected myself, got my wallet and license and registration and found my camera under the vehicle that I hit and took some pictures of everything. Within 5 minutes, 4 RNs had stopped. The fire department was first on the scene and they directed traffic. God really brought some awesome people to my aid. There were some people from across the street who had a camper they were trying to sell. They opened it up and let me put all my stuff in it and I parked the bike at their place last night. There were also some awesome people from Greeley, CO that helped me collect everything and they even went back up with me today to get the cycle.

This accident was so covered with the grace of God that I can't even begin to describe. Ask me about it some time. To me, that is all your prayers for me... I am ok...the perfect people were there at the perfect time... I had relatives close by...
One of the state troopers even said that it is unheard of for there to be a 3 vehicle accident, with one of them being a motorcycle and no one to be hurt. "It doesn't happen." he said. That is your prayers working.

As for what I am thinking, well, I can't express how frustrated I am that I won't be able to finish the trip on the Goldwing. Tomorrow was when I was supposed to meet my dad in the Black Hills and ride there for a couple days. Then, we were going to ride back home on Tuesday together. Again, I can't express how excited I was to ride those last 2 hours home where I knew the roads. In that sense, I feel like something was taken from me. But, on the other hand, I met some awesome Christian people up there. The people that hit me weren't Christian. I had a little opportunity to talk to them about that, but not much. Pray for them.

As you can tell, I'm not even formulating thoughts that well. There are just too many details that I want to tell you about, but just can't include everything. Sorry for the stream of consciousness writing.

As for the rest of the trip, my parents are coming out to Evens, CO to pick me up. Instead of meeting my dad in the black hills, he and my mom are coming here with the pickup to get me and the cycle. Then, we still plan on going through the Black Hills and then drive home on Tuesday.

I guess, my "motorcycle" trip is officially over, even thought I am not home. The rest of the journey will be in a pickup. I might blog some more in the next few days and I'm sure I will keep typing every now and then afterwards. Reflection will always be good. After that, who knows? I might keep blogging with thoughts or questions.

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for all your prayers because they defintely saved me, not only yesterday, but throughout the entire trip. Please thank God for the successful journey, my safety, the safety of the other drivers and thank him for how everything played out. Also, pray for the couple that hit me, as they weren't believers.

I think that's it. Again, sorry for not having any flow to this blog. :)
God bless you all and see you soon!

Tim

Day 89...Approaching the home stretch

Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
I have enjoyed a long break here in Denver with some awesome people, but now, I must be heading on. This afternoon, I plan on going to Rocky Mountain National Park and probably camping there two nights and hiking around a bit.

The time is drawing close for the trip to come to an end. I plan on being home about a week from now, which is really weird to think about. I have seen so many things and talked with so many different people, but sitting here and thinking about it, it doesn't feel like I have been away as long as I have. Yet, on the other hand, when I think back to being in New York and out in Acadia National Park in Maine and the struggles I went through at that point, it feels like an eternity ago.

I am super excited to get home and to see many of you again, but there will be part of me that will miss waking up every morning and wondering what adventures are in store for the day. Of course, there are adventures in all places and on every day, but I mean the adventures of getting on the motorcycle and driving some place new and talking with people I have never met and even bringing up religion with them. I will miss those things.

But, before I get to that point, there is still a week left where God may have doors open for me to talk with people. Please pray for those people and pray for me to live every day with my eyes focused on him.

God bless you all!

Tim