To be completely honest, I had no idea what to expect coming into this trip. I knew that my fellow riders would be friendly, the bike rides would be challenging, and the builds would be fulfilling.
I began my ride in Ontonagon, Michigan a little over two weeks ago. During the first week, we were on a long ride which was extended by six miles due to an unexpected road closure.
We enjoyed a build day in Sharon, Pennsylvania. The build day is our opportunity to work with the local Fuller Center covenant partner on projects to help low income families in the area. There were two projects waiting for our group when we arrived.
Saturday was a build day with the Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Portage County. They had several projects for us to do so they had us break up into different teams.
We rolled into Aurora, Ohio early on Friday afternoon after a fairly short ride from Bay Village. After a night’s rest we were off to a variety of build projects the next morning.
A little over six weeks ago we left Seaside, Oregon for Sebago, Maine. Everybody could see from the map on the back of their shirts and jerseys where we were starting and where we were scheduled to end but nobody was really worried about Maine. It was so distant that worrying about anything more than tomorrow’s ride seemed like fantasy.
Today’s ride was 75 miles from Williamston to Milan, Michigan. The weather was warm with a cloudy 70 degrees to start our ride, and with the first real humidity that we’ve felt. It was cloudy most of the day which kept the temps down and we finally got a sunny 85 degrees to finish the ride.
I have been fortunate AND convicted to watch how members of churches where we’ve been staying have fulfilled the exhortation the Apostle Paul gave to the members of the church at Philippi.