Countdown to Triathlon – 193 Days, 27.5 weeks to Race Day (See Installment 55 of "The Journey", 220 mile bike ride, below)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY -

 The best-laid plans of mice and men oft(en) go astray.  Robert Burns

 My husband drove and I carefully wrote down each and every turn for the journey to Knights Ferry.   But alas, I left the directions home on the kitchen table the next day. 

The Journey - Installment Fifty-Five

RIDING TO KNIGHT’S FERRY

(A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON)

        The Knights Ferry covered bridge that now stands across Stanislaus River was not the first bridge or crossing constructed there.  Originally, the crossing had been a ferry built from an old whaling vessel by Dr. William Knight, and his partner James Vantine in 1848.  The ferry was said to have built to increase the business at their trading post, yet toll charges could run as high as $200 for a signal crossing.  By the end of 1849, however, Dr. Knight had been shot and killed in an argument, and a new partnership between John Dent and Vantine was established.

        Dent, Valentine and Company replaced the old whaling boat ferry with a modern style ferry, and were issued a San Joaquin ferry permit for $300.  As businessmen, they reduced the toll charge to two dollars, hoping that the increased travel on the ferry would improve the patronage at newly built restaurant and boarding house at Knights Ferry. 

 

         Upon returning home from Hawaii, I realized that I needed to ride even farther than the 48 miles I had ridden with my son.  Having been told that I needed to be able to ride 70 miles in one day, because we would be doing over 200 miles in three days,  I realized that my next goal had to be 70 miles.  My husband and I went out in his pickup truck one Sunday afternoon and found that it was exactly thirty-five miles from our home to the old covered bridge town of Knight’s Ferry.  I had to ride in the country and avoid the heavily traveled roads, which were dangerous because of the traffic. On my scouting trip with Bob that Sunday, I wrote down all the twists and turns to get to Knight’s Ferry, via the dairy land countryside. We lived on flat land but by the time one gets almost to Knight’s Ferry, the terrain becomes hilly as it begins to reach the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

            The next morning after my scouting trip with Bob,  I was interviewed by the local newspaper about the bike ride.  When the reporter left, I left for my journey, which I had decided, would be 60 miles. I would stop  I would make another trip of the seventy miles a couple of days later. To reach 60 miles round trip meant that I would stop 5 miles from Knights Ferry.  We had picked the spot the day before using Bob's odometer.   I was riding on a country road where I saw no human being for miles.  I was nearing the end of a road and knew I’d have to turn either left or right and had discovered that I had left my directions that we had so carefully made that previous day, at home on the kitchen table.  My cell phone was not working out there so I couldn’t call anyone to ask directions.  The houses were few and far between and there was no one out there.   I kept looking for a farmer on a tractor, or some human I could ask. I remember saying out loud to the Lord, “Lord, I need someone to come out of their house right now so I can ask for directions.”  At that very moment, a woman came out of her house to move her sprinkler on her lawn.  I veered my bike over to her and stopped and told her I needed some directions.  She gave them to me and then asked me, “What are you doing, anyway?”  I asked her if she had ever heard of Focus on the Family.  She replied that she had.  I told her I was preparing for the bike ride and she asked my name and said she would pray for me.  I said I would really appreciate it because my knees were really hurting me and I wanted to finish this ride  From this point on until I had both of my knees replace in January of 2005, my knees would be an issue, especially while training and riding in the June bike ride.