Jeff Schwimer- Today was a great day. Did quite a few hills. Not bad. We rode 85 miles and I was ready to ride another 20 to 30 miles. The only thing that could be better is my sore butt and knees. I cant wait until tomorrow to see what it brings.

Jody – I don’t think this will ever be easy but I’m thankful for moments today that were enjoyable. Those have been rare but they carry me a long way. I saw a whale right off the coast. This was really cool. I stopped to look for a couple minutes. Then I got to see Naoma who met us in Waldport and served us lunch. This was a blessing! Also, I loved the curved down hills today. I could see the beautiful ocean and feel the warm sun when I was flying down one of them. Dave says we may have hit 35 mph. It was a blast. I finally felt warm this afternoon. I can ride so much better when I’m warm. The sun was wonderful. Started with a ton of knee pain again but it seems to subside some when I get warmed up. Also, we only rode 85 miles. Yay! Counting my blessings.

Dave – Tues. evening as we came into Lincoln City I was surprised when someone called my name from a red convertible. It was my good friend Keith Taft who lives in the Portland area. He had come to encourage us. It was a huge blessing to have him join us for the evening. Today was our warmest day so far. We had a good tail wind and there weren’t as many hills as yesterday. We road 85 miles and were treated to lunch and dinner by friends of the group who live in the area.

Brad - Only 84 miles today, it was like a walk in the park.  The hills were especially tolerable because of the fantastic views from the top and the fun ride down.  I’d forgotten how beautiful this coast is.  I should explain my comment yesterday about being first to camp.  It is not because I’m buff.  The ladies use compound low gear to finesse their way up hills at 4 to 6 mph and their husbands, dotting spouses that they are, gear down to stay with them.  I don’t have that low gearing so have to muscle my way up at 6 to 8 mph.  My beater bike also seems to coast downhill a little faster so in hilly country it doesn’t take long to get ahead of the pack. On the flat I have to push a little to keep up. The talk at the table tonight was about bag balm.  Fortunately I haven’t had a problem there or any where except walking funny.

Jesse – today went different for me than most of the others. It started out fine, got to a few big hills (longer than 2 miles), get ahead of the people I was riding with. The hills were cliffs up along the Pacific ocean, looking down on a very Rocky coastline. We were heading to Newport, OR about 30 miles from our starting point, and I planned on stopping at the bike shop to get my back wheel trued. Well, I get there about 45 minutes before the store opened, so figured that I would go to breakfast. AS I rode on, I realized that I would have to ride back from breakfast to the store – which probably would have meant an extra 6 miles. So, I stopped at a little café to get some breakfast, since no one from our group had past me yet – and we had already rode 30 miles before breakfast. So while I was eating I saw Jeff and Brad go by so I figured I was still in good shape. Well upon returning to the store, I finally got in and got the person who was opening it up to check my bike. To make a long story short, I waited and waited and waited – as there was only 1 person in the shop to open up, work on bikes, answer the phone, check out the people, answer question, take in new bikes that needed to be worked – so I waited (with Dutch who came in to get some the bike forks for Kimberly) until 12:20. I missed breakfast, and had to ride another 16 miles to get to the lunch spot, trying to catch up to the group before lunch was over. By the time I got there, only 3 riders were left, and they were on their bikes leaving the lunch staging area, and lunch had been packed up. So I had a little snack, and jumped back on the bike to try to catch up again. By this time I was a training ride rhythm and decided that I was going to keep up that pace until I reached our final stop. I caught everyone at the second set of big hills- again ones that overlooked the rocky OR coastline, and was flying down the hills at 40 mph, keeping up a fast pace on the flats and smaller hills until I finally reached the camping area, even before the RV’s got here – covering the last 50 miles in just over 3 hours. Yes, the horses got let out of the barn today.

AS for the scenery, I didn’t see much as I rode, but were we are camping it is called the Dunes, OR. There are several acres of SAND DUNES, just outside the camp with trails to the dunes. The dunes are anywhere from 100 feet tall to up to 350 feet tall. I looks just like you are in desert area (except you are walking through the woods, on beach sand, until you get to the Sand dunes). I walked out there tonight to see most of the sun setting on the Pacific Ocean, which was still about ¾ miles away. I could see people on ATV’s in the distance watching the sunset too. It was pretty cool, and worth the ½ walk to the top, including the climb up and down the dunes.

Day 5, Lincoln City – Honeyman State Park (south of Florence), 87 miles

Rode along beautiful Oregon coast today.  I’ve been along this stretch once by car and really enjoyed it.  To do the coast by bike is amazing; there’s so much more beauty to be seen as we pedal along.  Thankfully was able to complete todays’ ride.  My goal is simply to complete the ride, and I take it day by day, hill by hill.  God is faithful to give us the strength as we need it.  At the crest of each hill I praise God and thank Him for the blessing that follows – a hill will always come shortly after a climb.

Yesterday we had three big hills in our ride – one after riding 95 miles already; this one hill was probably 2 miles long, steady grade.  1.5 miles up a fellow in a red sports car pulls up, stops, and looks at Craig and I and says dryly, “Life is so unfair, isn’t it”.  He then told us it was two more miles uphill, and we groaned.  It was not that far.

Today the hills were still high, but the views were distracting, downhills sweet.  Riding up one hill – slowly – as I rounded a curve I felt a cold sensation on the back of my neck.  Sweet, sweet tailwind.  I couldn’t help but think it was the prayers of so many people and one big God pushing us up the hill.  Every pedal is progress.

Off to bed now for some sweet rest.  Thanks for your prayers, steve

Craig: Although there was a continuous supply of rolling hills, today’s ride went by very quickly.  It was nice to get into camp and have time to set up the tents before dark.  We were very blessed to have some scrumptious pulled pork and baked potatoes for dinner tonight provided by Don & Carol Vredenburg and Art and Linda Garrick of Sutherlin Family Church. You missed some hills today John.  Thank you to John Hardy for riding with us the first three days through Washington State.  His encouraging words and technical advice was a real blessing to the team.  We appreciate the time he was able to ride with us.  Thank you Jim, Betsy, Pete and Jane for the motor home.  We love it.