THE TIME IS NOW!!!

Let me start by saying thank you to all the Washington folks for the wonderful hospitality shown to Heidi and I over the last two weeks. Ellie and Doug, Christine and Ed, Signe and Dan, Rachel and Jesse, Andy and Carol, Grandma and Grandpa Larsen, thank you all very much, it was brilliant. Jonah and Michelle have joined us. We spent the afternoon buying as much food as we could carry. Than we thought it would be fitting to celebrate the eve of our departure with fireworks. After some good sleep tonight, we will pack up and head out in the morning. We leave the Seattle area, take two short ferry rides, and end our day on Hwy 101 along the Hood Canal. It should be about a 50 mile day. Our book selection for the first leg of the trip is as follows:

Phillip is reading My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Heidi is reading Jayber Crow by Windel Berry

Jonah and Michelle will be enjoying Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw

We are thankful for all your prayers.

Blue skies, tail winds, and smooth roads. Amen

So it begins....

The day has finally arrived!!! Jonah and I are catching the train to Seattle today and will meet up with Heidi and Phillip tomorrow evening.

More Planning

The time is coming fast and we are getting ready for the big trip. As we plan the route we will need places to rest our weary souls (there will be 5 of us). We will be traveling (most likely, if not close to) from Seattle Washington to Sacramento California. If you or someone you know (including churches, houses, campsites etc.) has a place we can stay in between those places (from about July 5th to August 13th) we would love to visit with old and new friends along our path. Also if you know of anyone willing to sponsor our trip let us know so that we can contact them or they can contact us. There will also be places we will be staying that you could join us and we would love to have you camp with us and visit and see what our trip has brought to our lives. We look forward to hearing from you and visiting with you, old and new friends. Thanks.

Thanks

Special thanks to Jon, John, and Matt for making our trip possible and allowing us to stay at your place with such short notice. We all appreciate it very much.

We rode maybe 4 miles before stoping in Cambria to have hot drinks and lunch at Indigo Moon... second breakfast/early lunch = the benefits of cycling

After breakfast it started raining! We all started getting wet and cold, so we tried waiting out the rain under the rain-fly. We waited for maybe 30 minutes and then decided to start riding.

Breakfast burridos in the morning, mmm...

The San Simeon beach had lots of cool rocks and a nice sunset.

We took a few days to go to the coast and practice using our gear. Everything was loaded up into the truck and parked at John Gist's house in San Luis Obispo. The next morning we rode our bikes 40 miles up Highway 1 to San Simeon, where we set up camp for the night. The first day was sunny with blue sky. At the end of day one everyone had sore butts, but for the most part we all did pretty well.