After the bike ride – Installment Eight

After the bike ride – Installment Eight

      I had been in contact with Rick, a man who had gone to high school with me.  He is the one who gave me encouragement by sharing the story about the cattle on a thousand hills and was the author of the song by the same name.  He mentioned that his church was having a song fest on Sunday night in Littleton where he lives and invited us to come along.  Terri and I drove there in time for the service that evening.

Egads!  I sure look younger and thinner than I do now, of course that was nine years ago.  Hard to believe that nine years makes that much difference.

We enjoyed the music and the singing and afterwards the church served refreshments in the courtyard outside.  Terri and I then headed toward a motel to spend the night so we could get a good start in the morning, rested and heading for home.

After the bike ride – Installment Seven

After the bike ride – Installment Seven

       On Sunday morning, Terri and I got up early enough to get to the Focus campus for the Sunday service at the chapel. It was not a very large room and so we were close to the people at the pulpit.   I had written up a letter to Dr. Dobson about my part of the ride and even told about my first impressions of Ryan and how wrong I had been about him and how important this ride had been for me.  I told him how important Focus on the Family had been to me over the years and thanked him for his ministry.  The worship service was very moving.  The guest speaker was author Bruce Wilkinson who wrote the book The  Prayer of Jabez .  He talked about that prayer which is found in:

 I Chronicles 4:9-10 Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested

In the book, Wilkinson encourages Christians to invoke this prayer for themselves on a daily basis:

        After speaking, we had wonderful uplifting music performed byChristian singers Matthew Ward and Kim Hill.   Then, a very interesting thing happened which I know was not planned.  Dr. Dobson spoke.  I have no idea what he said except I'm sure he was thanking the Lord and everyone who participated in the eighteen months of bike rides.  He mentioned something that I had heard him say on his radio show.  He said that his dad had died at an early age and he didn't know how long he would be with us.   At that point, Bruce Wilkinson stood up and walked to the podium, interrupting Dr. Dobson.  I cannot quote exactly what he said, but it went something like this:

      Jim (Dobson), we have heard you say that so many times and we are sick and tired of hearing it.  You will be with us as long as the Lord has decided and we don't want to hear you say that any more."

        We were probably all a little shocked and wondering what Dr. Dobson's reaction would be.  I think that Dr. Dobson was quite shocked as well and there was a pause then he agreed with Bruce and said that he would not say it anymore.

         After the service, many people walked up on the stage and surrounded Dr. Dobson.  I could see that it would be a very long time before I could get close to him, so I gave the letter to John Fuller (no relation that I know of) and asked him to please give it to Dr. Dobson when things quieted down.  He agreed to give him the letter.

        We checked out of our room, bought lunch and toured the campus again.  We had a date in a small town outside of Denver for that evening.  I'll talk about it Tuesday.

After the bike ride – Installment Six

After the bike ride – Installment Six

       It was very exciting to watch the 250 cyclists cross the finish line to say the least and be part of the closing ceremonies.  Terri and I went to our hotel room after the conclusion of the ceremony and a tour of the campus and changed for the evening event.  We drove to Denver to the Pepsi Center, a huge concert hall for the evening program. 

        Because we had volunteered, we received free passes for the event.  If I recall, Terri and I had "nose-bleed seats" way up at the top.  The title of the service and concert was "Looking Back With Thanksgiving, Looking Forward With Hope."  The emcee for the evening was Dennis Swanberg, a Texas born minister who uses comedy to help preach the gospel.  The evening's event began with a short routine by Dennis who introduced Dr. & Mrs. Dobson who spoke by recorded message on a huge screen with a very moving message.  The keynote speaker for the evening was Chuck Colson, a former Nixon aide who spend time in prison for his participation in the Watergate  scandal  during President Nixon's term.  During his prison term, he became a born-again Christian and founded a Christian ministry called Prison Fellowship Ministries, which has become the world's largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims, and their families. Colson has visited prisons throughout the US and the world and has built a movement working with more than 40,000 prison ministry volunteers, with ministries in 100 countries. Colson became highly critical of the prison system and in 1983 he established Justice Fellowship, a faith-based criminal justice reform group.

        After the speaker, we were then entertained until 11 pm by two wonderful entertainers, Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman with special music by Wintley Phipps and the Colorado Spring Symphony.  The entire evening was moving as well as entertaining.  By the time we got through the crowd and drove back to Colorado Springs it was well past 1 am.   It was not hard to get to sleep after such a long and exciting day and we were going to go to Focus chapel in the morning for Sunday services.

(Today I am fixing dinner for my youngest daughter Laurel's 31st birthday which was Wednesday.  We'll drive to her home, an hour and a half away and celebrate with her.  I will get my "Grandma fix" with little Samuel, now almost five weeks old.  I shouldn't say little because he is huge.  Laurel asked last night what the dinner menu would be but I told her it was a surprise.  I'll share with you all though:

Teriaki Marinated beef strips (1/8" thin) on bamboo skewers and barbecued
Asparagus Roll-ups
Homemade Applesauce
Twice Baked Potatoes with cheese and bacon
and for dessert
Strawberry Cake (Laurel's most requested birthday cake for her entire life)

It is now 7:00 am, Friday  and I have to get started on dinner since we will be leaving for Laurel's home by 1:30 this afternoon.  Have a great weekend everyone.  Monday I'll resume the story.

After the bike ride – Installment Five

We're back from Tahoe.  It was Mr.Toad's Wild Ride.  We finished cleaning the cabin just in time and left just as it started snowing.  The main road, Highway 50 has been closed because someone drove off the side of the road down a one thousand foot drop.  It has happened before - there is only a three-foot stone fence along the narrow edge.  Cal Trans has finally decided to put more protection up along the edge.  Therefore, the only road to Tahoe on our side of the lake, south shore, is Highway 88 which is steep and slow.  When we got to the avalanche area, the summit, the snow was bowing so hard it was getting impossible to see.  I could only see trees that were directly beside the road.  It was a white-out.  A little further, quite a few cars had skidded off the road into low areas and we passed one bad accident.  The highway patrol should have put up chain control much sooner than they did because all those cars involved had no chains or four-wheel drive.  We were in Bob's pickup with four-wheel drive so we went along okay, but very slow.  This in the middle of May.  Crazy.

Here's the lake the day before the snow started falling again.

This shows the total white-out across the lake.

Back to the Colorado story.

After the bike ride – Installment Five

     The bike riders started coming to the finish line.

They had a ceremony in front of the Focus main building after all the riders came in. 

Here's Brian who was on my ride.  He's the one who put his hand on my back and pushed me up the hill in Napa.



Tom and I.  Tom was the staff member who rode with Terri and I the first night into Napa when I wouldn't quit.



just before the ceremony began.



Money collected from eighteen months of bike riding -
$2, 140, 543.47.




Ryan Dobson





NOT DONE YET - FOUR MORE EVENTS UNTIL WE RETURN HOME.

After the bike ride – Installment Four

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY –

Just because it snowed 4 inches here at Lake Tahoe today, Wanda, doesn't mean it won't be nice on Saturday.  I'll bet there will be no more snow at lake level by then.

After the bike ride – Installment Four

     After the last rider came through the rest stop, we helped to clean up the church hall then hurried back to the the FOTF campus.  We parked and then walked across a huge grassy field where we stopped at the road running in front of the campus.  The bike ride was just about to end and it would be the culmination of the eighteen months of bike rides for the Focus on the Family ministry which began in January of 2011.  Focus on the Family was a ministry which had been founded 25 years before in Southern California by Dr. James Dobson. Their mission is to keep the family  a viable part of our nation and the world.  This weekend was the celebration of the Silver Anniversary of Focus on the Family. 

        

 While we waited for the first riders to finish, a helicopter landed on the grassy area carrying Dr. Dobson and his wife. 

I just realized that all the rest of the pictures I was going to show are on my computer at home and I can't access them from my laptop.  I'll have to resume this next Thursday when I get home.

After the Bike Ride

I thought I lost the last blog but here it is back again.  I'm at Tahoe and I'll post on Monday.

After the bike ride – Installment Three

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – "I have found that when one sets out to help and bless others, the blessings abound to the one who is doing the giving."  Barbie Jo

 

 

 

After the bike ride – Installment Three

The next morning, Terri and I left Las Vegas for Colorado Springs.  But first, Terri wanted to make a circle around the strip to see everything from the car.  This next part of the trip is not clear in my mind.   The bike ride was all so vivid in my memory, but many parts of this trip are hazy.  I don’t remember anything before we got to Colorado Springs except for stopping somewhere in Utah where we snapped the pictures below.

 



Here's Terri



It is 816 miles from Las Vegas to Colorado Springs, a long haul.  We found our hotel and settled in, glad to be out of the car.  The next morning we toured the campus of Focus on the Family and registered as volunteers.

 We were given the job of helping at one of the bike ride rest stops.  I think that it was the late afternoon rest stop and our job was to help set up the water and snacks.  The rest stop was on the top of a hill and after setting up, Terri and I were asked to stand on the sidewalk outside to make sure the bike riders knew where the rest stop was so they wouldn't miss it.  I was given a set of red pompoms to cheer on the riders.  I had never had the opportunity when growing up to be a cheerleader, but that day, a cheerleader I was.  We could see down the hill when the riders would start up that incline.  There was a huge tree at the bottom and from our vantage point, until the riders passed the tree, we couldn't see them.  When they got half way up, Terri and I would start cheering them on.  This was three-quarters of the ride and by then they were very tired. 



Barb and another volunteer outside the church




Terri on the left




We took this picture from the church looking down the street.  See the mountains in the background?  I wouldn't have wanted to ride those hills and all you readers know by now how much I love hills!  As the riders got close enough to hear us, we would start cheering them on and I would shake those pompoms.  As they approached the church driveway, we'd invite them in for a break and snacks.




Here comes Toni, the lady from Kansas.  She had five young girls and had ridden the Kansas ride, Northern California ride and now the Colorado Springs ride in the Rockies.  Her family had accompanied her to Colorado.

        Some of the riders chose not to turn into the church parking lot and take a break but decided to continue and just get finished.  But most did stop.  I remember that the morning and afternoon rest stops and lunch stop were vital to keeping me going on our bike ride.  One man was really struggling up that hill and I was standing on the edge of the road, having walked down the hill a ways,  cheering him on.  I said, "Come on, you can do it!  You're almost there. "  He said, "That's easy for you to say, you're not on a bike."  I replied to him that I had just ridden the Northern California ride a month before. He did a "thumbs up" and said, "right on!" It was amazing to see how that encouraged him and he was able to get the rest of the way up the hill to the rest stop.  I remember one lady crying as she reached us.  We helped her from her bike and hugged her and lead her over to the refreshments.  She was just tuckered out.  We even gave out several back rubs.  It was a great feeling to help others, just as we had been helped on our three-day ride.