As the weeks progress, the first mountain conquered, and the realization that you have the ability to ride your ride (to a point), reality sets in that the challenge becomes us.  See most of us had overtrained, over worried, and overpacked.  Yet we did not prepare ourselves for the change that will occur as we work within the dynamics of the group that we had no way to prepare for.  

 

Once strangers are now forced to unify.  Our strengths at home may now be our weaknesses as a group.  We learn to work around snoring, meals and chores.  Our morning routines to know the routine of the group.  

 

Day to day, we take on challenges together.  This year we have so many memories that have formed.  Shared experiences with a supper muddy section of road in Iowa, road construction on a mountain pass, and the hills of the Blue Ridge.  Those experiences on the road and you had to overcome, now become the experiences that help to bind.  Shared experience with builds, learning of those who can assist on a wheelchair ramp and those are skilled at other tasks.  Plus, this stranger is now tackling the project with heart.  It’s hard not to be inquisitive to learn about this stranger.  The stranger is now a close friend and peer.

 

Days turn into weeks and weeks turn into an unbelievable adventure.  Hospitality of individuals and churches, strangers and now lifetime friends.  

 

On the last day, we ended with a rider and a heartfelt devotional that shared in their growth but also reminded us of our own growth on this journey.  Addresses shared and travel plans created with people we barely once knew, now being planned year(s) in advance.   

 

The ride is full of contrast.  Expectations to reality.  Challenges thought compared to actual challenges.  For some, even faith is challenged.  What did we package with our faith, and how did that faith grow, the relationship grow?  The contrast and the adventure became the catalyst to look inside, at people to realize, what more can I do.  

 

I want to thank the brave adventurers who embarked on the journey and thank you for taking the leap to go alongside me on the trip.  I look forward to hearing too, how your adventure will continue and as you continue to process the contrasts that molded part of your life.