Week 3

Preachy part first. skip it if you want to read about the events of my last week.

By day the hot sun fermented us; and we were dizzied by the beating wind. At night we were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of stars.

I believe that’s the opening line to the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a book whose title is more impressive than it’s content, and less romantic and fantastic than it’s movie. But I used to think of it after a hot day of welding. I thought of it a lot last week as well riding through the high desert in Oregon. You can barely call it a desert, but it is certainly hot and dry in August. It is wonderful to feel the contrast of riding up and down steep hills in the desert with a hot headwind blowing west all day, to waking up shivering in the middle of the night to relieve myself and stare at the Milky Way. I’ve been in the desert before, but never constantly exposed like this. When I contrast the power of the sun and the stars, and the towering rocks and roaring rapids in the mountains, the climbs that require all of my body and mind to summit, against the cars and trucks screaming past me inches away all day, I see more clearly the sense of false power in mans cheap attempts to escape the curse of sin. A truck with air conditioning will easily climb a mountain if you simply move your foot a little. It will give you a little power for a little time. You can even move your hands to the right a bit and murder an exposed weirdo on a bicycle. False power. You will still starve if the curse to work the land isn’t fullfilled. The power of the sun and the mountains and stars and air is constant, immovable, silent, and ever present. Your flimsy truck and home and TV show and rock gods wear out quickly as their power is used up. All this to say two things. First, to paraphrase Alvin York “The fear of man is cowardice, but the fear of God is heroism”. If any man who ever lived knew what heroism and cowardice are, it was him. The second is Deuteronomy 14:11 “…How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” That rings true today. I’ve never met a homeless atheist. They may hate or love God, but enough time in the sun and they all believe. If a person can shut off the voices of news, music, TV, business meetings, friends, family, and find a wilderness of silence, they will hear God. Robert Fripp said “Quiet is the absence of sound, but silence is the presence of silence”. I have thought a lot about that in my life, and I would modify it to say that silence is the presence of God.

I left Mitchell on Monday. It was a long grueling climb all morning out of town. But the church we were at let us use the kitchen to make a big breakfast. The afternoon was a long gentle “downhill” ride to Dayville. Some neat canyons and gorges to see. Downhill is in quotes because even on days of net downhill, there are many many climbs. I’m learning not to complain about them as much, despite what you just read.

Dayville was a nice desert town. We stayed at the community church. Also used their kitchen to make spaghetti for dinner. I slept in the sanctuary, which was a lovely experience. Before bed, my temporary travelling companion and I were huddled next to the only fan in the church for a few hours in our underwear looking at maps and calculating elevations of upcoming mountain passes. It’s amazing how close you get to someone in a short time when you’re doing something hard with them.

Next was Prarie City. It was hot and dry, like all the last few days. That evening it cooled off and I sat in some grass in a breeze and felt truly present in the moment. After days of struggling with God on my rides wiping sweat and tears off my sunglasses all day, wondering when the burden of grief and regret would go away, God showed me my own heart as a sort of land area with a chapel at the center. I could see it was a nice place, but it was dusty and cluttered. Like a hoarders house. I could see that the chapel was the very best and highest place of my heart. He didn’t ask me to clean it up and make it nice for Him. He didn’t even ask to come in. He was resting outside against the wall. He simply said “It’s not as good when other things reside in there.” He didn’t say that the things that were in there were bad, and part of my struggle is that I know that they aren’t bad. Yet I could see it’s best to let Him take those things out and go live there Himself. The hard part is trusting Him with those things. They are precious and irreplaceable. Filled with hope and love, and all joy. Yet the hard part is to offer to let Him carry them off somewhere and never see them again. Sometimes the things we put in the best place are garbage things like music or TV or the world. But when we put good and wonderful things there, it is so much harder to give them up. Yet that is what Christ asked of us time and again. Give up ALL to Him. Not just the sin to be laid at the cross. But even the good and precious treasures He Himself gave you. The person of Jesus is the only treasure there is to be had. Besides Him, God gives and takes away at His own discression, and to fight Him is as futile as trying to stop the sun from rising. My body and mind haven’t come around to this truth, but My spirit is on it’s way. Progress I suppose.

After Prarie city was a short ride. Short but with a big climb. We had to cross the blue mountains, and there was no easy way to split it up evenly. So we split it into a short and a long day. Finally got to camp in the mountains again, which is always my favorite. Saw some prarie dogs.

The next day was 20 miles of climbing followed by a beautiful ride down to Baker City. I was exceptionally upset that day, so I only appreciated the gorgeous scenery later. Also got my first true flat tire of the trip. The headwind made it a long ride, but got to town eventually. Hotel and pizza to celebrate the long trek from central to eastern Oregon over. I took a day off to work on my bike and do some errands. My riding buddy went on. I also took the day to determine my future. I really wanted to quit, but instead, I just decided to take a break from the trans am route and cut 300-400 miles off my trip, and just cut east across Idaho. So forging my way. Baker city also had the kindest cat I’ve ever met. He cheered me up a lot. And Katie sent me a new bible, because I sent my big one home and Oregon bookstores don’t sell bibles. Thanks to Katie!

The next day was my longest yet at 80 miles even. About 10-11 hours of riding through the mountains. Finally made it to Idaho. Camped in Fruitland in a nice family’s backyard.

Then today I rode about 60 miles to Boise, where I will probably take another day off because I’m really trying to get parts to change the gearing on my rear tire. And possibly get a new seat because the saddle sores I have are not pleasant.

Here are the pictures. You can see how I do my laundry at hotels. You can see my typical meal; peanut butter burrito with whatever nuts fruits and meats I have lying around. They are really tasty. And if you’re an engineer you can see a web splice with 100 bolts! No particular order.