(Editor's Note): Gaylord resident and Grand Valley State University junior Katrina Miller is taking part in the adventure of a lifetime this summer, as she will participate on a charity bike tour named "Sea to Sea" that will take her from Seattle, Washington to the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey. She is writing an occasional blog from the road and Herald Times Sports Editor Jeremy Speer will post her entries online each week. Readers, feel free to comment and participate with the ongoing discussion.

Week of August 18 Entry

Monday: 

At about 50 miles, there was a church with a great lunch set up for us.  They had sloppy joes, salads, brownies, baked beans, and tons of other great food.  There was an eight-year-old girl named Mikayla there.  She took me on a tour of the whole church, plus the attached school.  It made me want to be in grade school again.  Being a little kid was great, until fifth grade.  She asked to see my bike, so I showed it to her and showed how to clip into my pedals and all the stuff I have in my wedge and Camelbak.  She was a fun kid.  She didn't want me to leave.  I joined Eric, Jenna, Steph, and Jess after the church.  Aaron was there too, but left after Cory's.  Jenna, Jess, and Steph started singing.  They have great voices.  It sounded great.  I was in the back, so I'd interrupt every now and then with a "Car back!"  I sang a little bit, but they're so good.  We all sang while setting up our tents.  Oh yeah, a little after the church, there was a group who had found out about us when someone asked to use their phone.  They set up a water stand and stayed out there all day for us.  

I'm kind of the unofficial tour masseuse, I've worked on a lot of people. 

The zipper on my tent door doesn't work anymore.  I'm using clothes pins and athletic tape now.  Of course, it lasted just until we hit mosquito territory. 

Tuesday:

We rode on a bike trail and did a lot of residential riding today.  All the hills and curves on the trail and all the starting and stopping and slowing and going all day almost took their toll on my left knee.  It was cool after we got off the trail; we got a police escort J.  Julie (SAG driver Julie) had asked for directions, and told the cop all about the trip.  He was totally excited and volunteered to escort us from the trail to her.  He's a bike cop and did it all day.  He let us run red lights, put his bike out to give us room around Julie, and stopped traffic for us later at a light.  He was awesome.  I swapped groups a lot today.  I rode with Jenna etc. for awhile, got dropped, rode with Len etc. for awhile, rode with Jenna etc., rode with Len etc., and finished with Eric, Annette, Katelyn, and Hilena.  Eric has become known as the "prodigal son" because Mark and Larry (his brother and dad) always ride together and Eric tends to go on his own.  When we rolled in today, someone was talking to Mark and Larry and said, "Here comes the prodigal son!  What, d'ya got a harem or somethin'?"  My day had a good ending after Walter's, when I joined that group.  After Walter's was also when we got out of the city more. 

Dinner today was amazing :-)  We had deep-dish and thin-crust Chicago pizza.  It was really, really good.  Eritia and I both liked the crust the best.  There was ice cream too, with all kinds of toppings.  We both decided we didn't want the ice cream, so we just got bowls of toppings.

Wednesday:

Today was a good day.  When we got to the last section of the route, we saw Betsy's van.  There was nobody in the van, so we (six of us) decided to put all our bikes on the top and hide inside and wait for her to come back.  She wasn't coming back, so Alex finally called her and pretended he needed something out of the van.  It was really hot in there, and we waited in there for about an hour.  It made for some quality bonding time.  It was actually really fun.  When Art and Betsy got back, they saw our bikes and decided they were just going to get in the van, pretend we weren't there, and drive away.  They did it too.  Our group split up when we got on the trail because the guys wanted to book it.  It was a great trail for flying on.  It took us three girls awhile to get back because Hilena stopped to talk to someone, we got stopped at a train crossing, and I had to go to the bathroom too badly to survive the last couple miles to camp, so we stopped at a gas station and all used the restroom and bought chocolate milk. 

Thursday:

Today was good.  I rode with Stephanie, Annette, Carrie, and Julie.  We went at a relaxed pace and had fun.  It was good.  The last 20 miles took forever though.  We kept going, "10 more miles left!" five miles would go by and, "Hey, 10 more miles left!"  It was like the route kept growing.  I got a slow flat, so I pumped it up, hoping it would hold, since we only had about three miles to go, but after about two miles, we had eight miles left, so I had to stop twice more to pump it up.  Then we stopped to get ice cream, but I didn't want ice cream, so I changed my tube.  It was a fun day, it just took forever to get here. 

Friday: 

Today was great.  A really cool, historical church in Graafschap provided lunch for us.  It was cool, they had a museum in the basement.  It was very neat.  I mostly looked at the WWII memorabilia because that's what interested me the most.  They also had a quilt from the 30s, but it was hanging incorrectly and one of the "guides" called it a blanket.  We rode through Holland today, and all the Dutch people (pretty much everyone on this tour), were really excited.  I like Holland a lot.  We stopped at two bike shops, a brewery, and a coffee shop.  It was great.  I rode with Nick and John for about the last 10-15 miles, and we pacelined and flew at about 19mph.  It was so great to go fast.  I love flying.  I'm glad it wasn't more than about 10-15 miles though, because my knees are not happy.  They feel inflamed.  It was good though, I loved it.  The weather is great too.  It's the perfect temperature, coming off the lake.  It's nice and cool and sunny.

Saturday:

I rode with my mom today!  It was fun.  She rides pretty much at my pace, she's not slow, especially with her new bike.  Josh crashed and sprained his collarbone today, so remember him and pray for speedy healing.

Week of August 11 Entry

I've decided that Iowa is just one, big cornfield.  They don't have grass, just corn.  Occasionally, there will be a square cut out for a house or a town, or there will be a few random trees in the corn, but it's really just all corn.  Not that I'm complaining, I like cornfields, I just can't get over how much corn there is in Iowa.  Corn, corn, corn, corn, corn, that's all I saw for days.  I can't say I really like the roads in Iowa, they're pretty chewed up and shoulderless.  Even the good roads don't have shoulders.  There was one road that had a nice, big shoulder, with a rumble strip down the middle and fresh gravel on the side and spilling all over the shoulder.  A fellow rider, Don, broke his collar bone on account of that road. 

I like being in Wisconsin, the roads are really nice.  There are a lot of cows here.  

Monday

I was really frustrated today.  I'm tired of being slow and injured.  I started with Eritia and Stretch, since they just happened to be leaving at the same time as me.  I wasn’t planning on staying with them, but they were going at the perfect speed, so I rode with them for a little over 20 miles.  I got dropped in some rolling hills and couldn't quite catch back up.  I rode by myself for a bit, then I joined Jill and Nancy.  It was Jill's first day.  We rode quite slowly and had a strong headwind, so it was just frustrating for me to have to go slowly.  I wanted to be able to pull them, but I couldn't. 

The day did get better.  The pastor of the church we stayed at used to be Friendship Church's pastor in Gaylord!  He and his wife are Verlyn and Carol Schaap (Skop).  They great and looked all over for a place for me to get a knee brace (Mom had called them earlier to see if they could help me out).  They were amazingly nice.  They opened the church up to everyone and let us overrun it and sleep in the gym.  Anyway, Carol took me to a sporting goods store named Scheels.  It's really nice and has an excellent bike shop section.  I got two knee braces to try out and a new pair of gloves, since my old ones have no padding left, so wearing them was pointless.  Later, I realized the gloves weren't quite what I wanted, so Carol even took me back so I could get different ones.  I also got an elbow brace/strap that really helps and a new jersey.  The jersey was a really good deal and a good memento of the Gaylordites I met in Iowa.  Oh yeah, they said to say "Hi" to everyone in Gaylord for them. 

Tuesday

Today was a great day.  Nathan isn't feeling well, so he's going slowly, so I had someone to ride with.  We talked almost all day.  It was a good, short day without much wind, so it went by really quickly.  It was good.  It was a good rest day (it was only about 62 miles).  We went slowly, took very short stops, and got in about 1:00.  I got to feel smart today.  I figured out how to fix someone's brakes, after helping fix a flat.  Engineer's blood comes in handy.  So, today was a good day.

Wednesday

Today was great!  I thought it would be really hard, but it was really easy.  Today was my longest day ever (117.7 miles).  Today was perfect weather.  It was great.  It rained for 50 miles.  It was the perfect temperature too, with a weak wind or a tailwind.  I just cycled in my normal jersey and shorts, no raingear, and I was plenty warm.  Eventually, I got sick of the rain and wanted to be dry again.  I was hoping it would stop by mile 60, and it stopped by mile 50 J.  I started to get tired at mile 80, but my knee didn't really start hurting until mile 100.  I dropped back a bit then, and Eritia stayed with me, then we caught up to the group because they were waiting for us so they could take a group picture at the hundred-mile mark.  I got dropped again shortly after that because my knee has a self-regulating mechanism wear I just, physically, cannot push it, even if I want to.  It just hurts too much and I have to go at its pace, just under the pain threshold.  Eritia stopped and waited for me again and rode in with me J.  It's so nice to have people who look after me and help me.  I rode with Eritia, Josh, Nathan, Hilena, Sarah, and Stephanie for most of the day.  We went fast, and it was good.  It's so nice to go fast and have your muscles hurt in a good way, especially after a week of slow riding.  I'm glad my knee could handle it again, more or less.

Thursday

Today was good.  I rode by myself for most of the day.  It got rough after about 80 miles.  The last 15 were brutal.  We had a North wind all day, so we had a cross wind and a tailwind all day.  I still made pretty good time though, considering. 

Friday

Today was a really good day.  I'm really tired, and my muscles are really tired, but it was really good.  I rode with Nathan and Justin and Stephanie for most of the day.  It was really fun.  Justin was as slow as me today, even going up hills, so it was good.  After getting to Wisconsin, we found a really fun cheese curds and turtle stuff shop.  It was awesome!  We stopped at a real restaurant after that, and I got lemonade, pecan pie, and we got a group order of deep-fried cheese curds.  It was all really good.  Justin got a "Monster Burger," and it was huge.  The look on his face when it came out was priceless.  Steph left us at the restaurant and rode in a SAG because her knee is still giving her trouble, so she can't push it too much.  Nathan just wanted to get to camp, so Justin and I finished out together.  It was really fun.  We had one big climb today, and he started singing "This is the hill that never ends…" and we sang three verses, making up new words each time, and then the hill was done.  That song worked really well.  After that, we played the cow game, and I lost.  When you see a herd of cows, you yell "Cows!" and get one cow point.  If you call out the same herd, or they aren't really cows, you lose a cow point.  When you see a cemetery, you yell "Bury your cows!" and everyone else loses all their points.  That's how I lost.  I would have had 7 points, but Justin saw the cemetery first, so I ended with 2 cow points, and he had 5 cows. 

Saturday

Today was a good day.  It rained this morning, and I decided I was not getting up until it stopped.  Then, I decided I would get up and start packing stuff up inside my tent, but I was not getting out until it stopped raining.  I kept praying for it to stop before I got out and before I had to take down my tent.  Just as I finished packing and was ready to get out, it stopped raining.  I was pretty happy about that.  I started with Steph and Josh, but couldn't keep up uphill, so I kept getting dropped.  I finally convinced them to leave without me at Walter's, after riding most of the day by myself.  We rode on a bike trail that reminded me so much of the Gaylord to Mackinaw Rail-Trail.  It was so nice.  It was like home.  I joined Len's group at Walter's and rode with them to a restaurant that was apparently giving out free drinks and food to us.  I didn't get to verify that because I went to the art gallery next door.  I could have spent all day there.  It was so amazing.  They had such nice stuff.  They had a lot of hand-crafted kaleidoscopes that were amazing.  I bought a teleoscope (or something like that) because it was just too cool.  I should have stayed there longer, but the group wanted to leave, not that that mattered because I wound up ditching them after about five minutes because I just didn't want to ride in a big group.  I rode by myself for awhile, then Justin caught me after he left a gas station.  It was fun riding with him again.  He really reminds me of my cousin Titus.  We stopped at Starbucks because we had time to kill.  We didn't have to get to a certain park in Madison until 2:30, so we could all ride into camp together.   

I got mail today!  Thank you to Mom, the Kolkas, and the VanHoutens!

Sunday

We're camping around a church this weekend.  They're letting us overrun them too and use their wireless.  They had a movie and snacks for us last night.  They're so excited to have us here.  They even had a brass band playing when we rolled into camp.  They also have a foosball table.  I was pretty excited that I got to play foosball last night.

Week of August 4 Entry

I am the happiest person alive right now.  Some people went to the church across the street from the YMCA we're staying at for service this morning, and the congregation is awesome!  They opened up their church to us.  They made us snacks, they've been supplying food all day.  They're letting us stay in the AC and use the internet.  We can even sleep in here tonight.  We meet some of the coolest people on this tour.  Everyone's so excited about what we're doing.  We talked to a lot of people in a Subway the other day and recieved $45 in donations.  Another group that I met in McDonald's offered to buy me something to drink, or fill up my bottles with ice. 

We have had a lot of injuries lately, please remember these people: 

Arnie:  He partially tore his Achilles tendon and recently had surgery to repair it.

Tyler:  He broke his collar bone and had to fly home and have surgery.

Cynthia:  She broke her pelvis and has had to leave the trip. 

Art and Stephanie:  They both have knee problems and have not been able to ride much.  Art has become an honorary SAG driver until he can start riding again, hopefully that will be soon.

Myself:  I'm having problems with my knees, back, and wrist.

Everyone else:  It's been dangerously hot and humid this last week and will continue to be so, so pray for safety and protection from heat illness.  I have heat rash on my knees.

We crossed into Nebraska on Tuesday.  If anyone tells you that going through the Plains is boring, don't listen to them.  This is why I've wanted to see the country from a bicycle seat: you get to slow down and really appreciate what you're riding through.  You get to see the variations in color and texture of prairie grasses.  You get to notice that the grass isn't just green or tan, it's varying shades and hues of green, purple, red, brown, yellow, and tan.  It's beautiful.  You get to see black and red-brown cows against a green background.  The mixtures and arrangements of colors are amazing.  You also get to be attacked by grasshoppers.  I had one land on my foot and hitch a ride for a bit.  It was easily three inches long.  It was pretty cool; I wanted to stop and take a picture of it but wasn't sure how to do it without knocking it off.  Insects are so cool if you actually pause to look at them.  They're so intricate and delicate.  They have tiny, hair thin legs that actually move.  There was a snow-white moth in the bathroom today, it was gorgeously white and soft.  We've been seeing fireflies too.  No wonder kids are fascinated with bugs.  God is an artistic engineer. 

I think I've been pushing it too hard lately.  My knees just about gave on Wednesday.  I had to stop after only 41 miles and ride in a SAG the rest of the day.  I rode in Alida's (our nurse) motor home on Thursday.  I was so depressed about being sidelined yet again that I just slept on the couch in there all day.  There were a couple of good things that happened on Thursday though.  One was that I got a big, really good cinnamon roll on the house at a great bakery/coffee shop that the support staff stopped at.  We all got really excited when we found out that it was all free.  It was great.  It was also funny.  I pointed out the cinnamon rolls and everyone's going, "Who wants to split one with me?"  "I'll split one."  "Okay, we'll share one."  Then there's me:  "Can I have one all to myself?"  Everybody kept saying, "Isn't this better than riding a bike?" and I kept responding, "No, not at all."  The other good thing that happened was, okay, I'm in the middle of Nebraska, we stop at a truck stop, and I look for something cool to drink, since there's no AC in the RV.  I find a Jones Soda bottle with a GVSU Rowing picture on it!  I had to buy it.  I probably should have kept it forever unopened, but I didn't.  One last good thing that happened was that I was an honorary kitchen lady for the day.  I got to help prepare and clean up dinner.  It was nice to work in the kitchen, since I did it with Mom a lot when she did on-site catering.

Friday was a good day.  I decided my knees would be okay after one day's rest, provided that I found a good group to ride with.  I knew there was no way I'd be able to do it on my own, especially with a headwind.  I rode with Alexander and Hilena and we picked up Kyle after our first coffee shop stop.  They were really nice, went at my pace, and pulled me when I needed a draft, which was pretty much all day.  I really, really appreciate that they helped me out.  They're a fun group too.  We took lots of stops.  We left at 7am and got in at 6pm, but were only on our bikes for 7 hours. 

Today we went to a church in Omaha and there was a brief presentation and video about missions work in India.  It made me start thinking.  Sometimes I wonder why on earth I'm studying athletic training and not going into the missions field.  I'm so disgusted by the society I live in.  We're so materialistic.  For crying out loud, I'm wearing sandals.  In my tent, I have another pair of sandals, a pair of running shoes, and a pair of cycling shoes!  I'm doing enough laundry to clothe a family, and it's just what I wore this week.  I get so sick of having so many possessions sometimes.  Unfortunately, if I want to be respected in this society, I need to have certain things.  I need to have a wide variety of clothing and other things.  I don't like it.  It makes me feel so guilty sometimes that I have so much and others have so little.  Sometimes I just want to get rid of it all and open a medical clinic in some third world country.  The abundance of everything in this country disgusts me.  I think I would rather be poor than rich.  The only reason I'd ever want to be rich would be so I could give it all away.  Sometimes, I even wonder if we really do people a favor by "civilizing" them.  I think living simply would be pretty nice.  Then I look around at my books, my guitar, my computer, my memories, and think about how much I would miss some of it.  Civilization has its pros.  We're a curious race, we love learning and creating things.  "Modern society" is inevitable, in a way.  Look at how each civilization progresses, look at all the ancient Greeks and Romans accomplished.  I believe God made us curious so that we would explore His world and, in so doing, discover Him.  So, going back to simplicity would be a step backwards from all we've learned.  We could still look out at the night sky and see God in the stars, but we wouldn't know the intricate calculations and calibrations that make the universe so incredibly fine-tuned and able to sustain life on our little planet.  The only problem with being "civilized" is that we abuse what we've been blessed with, taking all to excess and supersizing it.  Thinking about that, I'm still wondering if I should leave and serve in the missions field.  I would love to get away from this society, but, what good would it do to run away from the things I hate about it?  Maybe it would be better to stay and continue to educate myself so I can help others to see what I loathe about the modern world.  I love all the advancements we've made, but abhor the way we abuse our blessings.  By staying here and being an athletic trainer, I can, hopefully, set a good example and convince people to help others who are not as fortunate.  We have enough hurting, abused, impoverished people in this country for me to do missions work right here.  Sometimes I wonder if we need more missionaries here than in places where people have never heard of God.  Here, Christians have a tarnished image and a lot of people struggle with faith.  I want to help.  That's a huge part of the goal of this tour, getting people to notice that Christians are doing something to make a difference in this world. 

Another thought I had in church was that the best thing about Heaven is going to be worshipping God.  True joy comes from God and serving Him.  Being together and singing His praises is what we were made to do.

Week of July 25 Entry

Monday:

We went uphill for 36.6 miles, a lot of it was 6-10% grades, mostly 8.  It wasn't too bad though.  I got a major sugar rush after leaving Walter's SAG stop.  It was gorgeous too, so I was in a great mood all the way up.  My knees kept trying to seize up all day, but it wasn't too bad.  I might be one of the very few who actually enjoyed the climb.  It was beautiful.  As I was coming downhill, I slowed almost to a stop because a flock of sheep walked across the road.  I got up to 47.8, a new record for me, I chickened out, so I didn't even get up to 48.  Alexander got up to 55.3 or something behind a semi. 

Tuesday: 

Today, the first 60 miles sucked.  I was just in a bad mood.  I switched to riding with Kinsco after about 20 miles.  Things got a little better after that, but it still sucked and we were both feeling really, really slow.  We finally got to Vernal and took a long lunch break while Kinsco made some phone calls.  Then we got lost.  Then Kinsco couldn't clip into one pedal, stopped to check it out, and saw that the cleat was full of bubblegum and it was all over the pedal too.  She dug it out with my Swiss Army knife.  Not even a mile after that, I hear this whiff, whiff, whiff sound.  Just as I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm going to stop and check this out," BANG!  Like a gunshot, my tire blows.  I just laughed.  I lost it and was happier for the rest of the day because it was just getting to be ridiculous.  Kinsco called Betsy (our floater SAG driver), who had conveniently just pulled into town, and she brought me a new tire and filled up our waters too.  I really didn't want to buy a new tire, since Mom and Dad are bringing me a spare in Denver.  I didn't really have a choice though, so I changed my tire and went on.  About six miles later, there's this thumpa, thumpa, thumpa coming from my rear wheel.  I stop, spin it, and there's this huge bulge on it.  I deflated it, pumped it up, spun it, deflated, monkeyed around, spun, nothing.  As I'm messing around with it, Cory drives by and Kinsco waves him down and tells him I need a new tire.  He brings me a new one and I put it on.  The rest of the day was pretty good.

Wednesday:

Today was awesome!  I started off angry, then I talked to Hilena for awhile and that was really good.  Then we rode with Theresa and the boys joined us eventually for a little while.  We told grade school stories.  There were some pretty awesome ones.  

It was a long day.  Hilena got a flat, then eventually left me with Theresa, and she got a flat too.  Oh yeah, before Hilena left, we were all singing really loudly and obnoxiously and out of tune and it was really fun.  I recited Hamlet in Three Minutes, The Cow Jumped Over the Moon (LOTR style), and Jabberwocky for Theresa to keep her entertained.  It was good to ride with her because she was going slowly, so I had could take it easy too.  I've been really tired the last two days, I finally figured out why at peloton tonight.  I'm sick, I have a cold. 

Oh, how could I forget?  I set a new personal record for speed today!  I got up to 49.7.  I’m so upset that I'm three, stupid tenths short of 50.

Thursday:

I'm tired.  I’m sick.  Today was a hard day too.  That's all for today.  It was hard, but still a good day because any day on a bike is a good day.  The climb was steep and 7.5 miles long.  The last mile was the longest mile of my life.  The worst was all the flies that buzzed me, making me sprint to get away.

Friday:

Today was a great day.  We started by going to a restaurant for second breakfast, since we're all a bunch of hobbits and rely on second breakfast and elevensies.  It was good, we went to a small town, family restaurant.  We finally started on our way at 10:00.  After that, we rode through an amazing canyon.  Then we stopped at a restaurant, but didn't stay long.  As we were leaving, I just touched my bike and, BAM! pssssssseeeeeew…, my tire blew.  Lawrence patched my tire for me and put in a new tube, and I pumped it up and put it back on (that's the great thing about the guys on this trip, they just automatically fix things for you, even they don't really need to).  I got ready to go, and BAM!  It blew again.  Reuben was really nice and let me use his spare tire.  I just have to give it back when I get a new one.  Moral of the story: NEVER buy Bontrager tires, that's the brand I dealt with on Monday too.  After that, we stopped at an awesome candy shop.  It was just as good as the Alpine Chocolat Haus, sans the icecream.  They had all kinds of candy and chocolate, and it was all good, not your standard, grocery store candy.  There were lots of cool souvenir things too.  I didn't buy any, but sure wanted to.  After we left there, Stephanie got a flat tire.  Oh yeah, that's right, I rode with Jenna, Julia, Jodi, Katlyn, Stephanie, and Annette.  We were Team JJJKKSA.  So, yeah, I had a great day, it was fun, until the last hill, which sucked.  My knee tried to die on me.  It was my left knee too, with a problem I've never had before.  That was a mood killer.  My knee was almost non-functional because it hurt so badly.  It was my tendons or something.  My right VMO's been doing a weird thing where it feels like the muscle fascia is spazzing.  It's very weird, not painful, but not good.  Oh yeah, my hip and low back have been hurting from my accident too.  Don't worry though, I do know how to manage it :-)

July 20 Entry — Dad kept saying that yesterday was going to kill me, but he was wrong!  Steven's Pass was way worse than yesterday was.  Don't get me wrong, yesterday was difficult, but not terrible.  It got a lot better after we got out of the city (Salt Lake City, mostly), I hate cities, I really do.  We were in one for about 50 miles, it was not fun.  A church in Salt Lake provided snacks and water for us, and we started climbing after that.  Right after the church, there was this hill that went straight up, no joke, straight up, like a 14% grade.  My computer's been having issues with reading really low speeds, so it said 0 and 0.9 mph for a little while.  It was all uphill from there.  I don't know exactly how long the uphill was, but it was somewhere between 20 and 30 miles, 5-6% grade the whole way.  It really helps if you smile the whole way, it makes your brain think you're happier than you are and makes you feel better until you actually are happy.  We had a few downhills, so those were fun, but some were wasted because they had intersections or stop signs or exits at the bottom, so you couldn't get up to full speed.  I only got up to 46mph.  My record is 47.1, and my new goal is 50.  I biked a total of 96.6 miles yesterday.  I'm so upset that I'm 3.4 miles short of a century.  I almost rode around the campsite just to get 100 miles in.  I was on my bike for 7 hours, 7 minutes, and 28 seconds.

Now that we're here, our campsites are about a mile away from our pavilion and gear truck with a little bay in-between.  I think we should have a zipline between the two. 

I know you don't know these names, but it's easier to just call people by name, instead of "one guy," "some other guy," etc.  Nick and Brad were on sweep yesterday and Theo joined them.  They stopped at pizza parlor and noticed a "pizza challenge."  If you eat a 15-inch, two topping pizza and a liter of pop in an hour, it's free.  They thought about it, and thought about it, and finally did it.  Those pizzas were huge!  They easily had a quarter inch of cheese on them.  Nick and Brad succeeded, then induced vomiting.  I could type out the whole, comical story, but I don't feel like it, sorry. 

Oh yes, how could I forget?  We were in Snowville, a town with a population of about 200.  It was so small that we had no showers, other than ones you could pay for, unless you wanted to shower under a tarp with a hose.  It actually worked quite well.  It was just like any other community shower, except that it was outside and you took turns rinsing under the hose that was gerry-rigged up in a tent. 

On Thursday, the pantry trailer detached from the truck about 5 feet in front of me.  I guess the porta-potty came loose too, and promptly had 4 guys drafting it. 

Some things I forgot to put in my last couple emails:

Poor Arnie partially tore his Achilles tendon.  He's leaving us and probably won't be able to rejoin us.  He doesn't know if he'll need surgery or not.  Please remember him.

One night, I wasn't tired, so I wandered around looking for something to do and got roped into a push-up competition.  I held the record with 28 until Jeff did 40.

July 15 Entry — Well, today, we rode through a desert.  That's pretty much it.  We did ride past a ship in the middle of the desert, but none of us actually stopped to take pictures.  I rode with a new group and I'll probably stick with them for awhile, even though we wound up fixing several flats for the same person :-)  He got a flat on the interstate and it took three tubes to fix it.  Later, about 2 miles from the school later, he hit a rock and got another flat.

Delivering the weather was fun last night.  There was much cheering, rejoicing, and overall jubilation when I announced that there was a chance of rain today.  Then there was much laughter when I stated that it was "a whole, whopping, 4% chance!"  We did actually see clouds today though, and everyone was careful to point them out to me :-)

Just a reminder, I'm not doing this tour solely to have fun.  I'm doing to raise awareness for what the church is doing to help impoverished people worldwide.  It's kind of hard to ignore 150 cyclists. 

July 14 Entry — It was really, really, really hot in Huntington.  I guess it got up to 105 here the day before we got there.  Huntington is a thriving metropolis of 550 people.  The K-12 school has 88 students, about 12 of whom are foreign exchange students.  Somebody from there told one of the riders that they would have made us a catfish dinner if they had known we were coming.  There was a foosball table in the school, that was fun :-)

Yesterday was probably one of the best days.  Kinsco, Carrie, and I rode with Pastor Len and Reuben.  Len is our head chaplain and Reuben is the guy who race for Portland U or something and who goes on excursions to get in extra workouts.  He felt like taking it easy yesterday.  I guess that makes sense since he went on one of his adventures with 16 other people the day before.  They biked up a mountain, came down, and found out they couldn't get where they wanted to go, and went back up the mountain and back to Huntington to follow the original route.  I have to say I'm pretty jealous.  I wish I could have gone with them, but I don't know that I could have kept up.  Anyway, yesterday was awesome!  We had a really, really short ride, so we dragged it out and dilly-dallied and lolly-gagged all day.  Our first stop was a stop to pet some really friendly horses.  We must have smelled like salt because they kept trying to eat us.  After that, we turned a corner and rode about a quarter mile to the porta-potty SAG.  Then we just goofed around and talked and rode 5 abreast, taking up both lanes, for a little while.  Getting pictures of that was fun J.  Then we stopped at a haystack because we wanted to climb it, but it looked too hard, and there was a funeral dinner being set up behind it.  We went a little further and stopped to climb on a tractor.  Then we found a good haystack and climbed it.  Alexander joined us just after we climbed down.  Then Reuben took us on a little detour to explore a random road that just went uphill to nowhere, so we played around with how slowly we could go.  I got a flat right after that, then we stopped at this old truck to climb around and take more pictures.  Right after that, Carrie's chain fell off, which led to Alexander exclaiming (laughingly), "Okay guys, we have to go at least a mile before we stop!"  After that, we lost Alexander because he stayed behind when we passed a friend.  Then we stopped at a coffee shop.  After sitting there for awhile, we finally made it to camp, six hours after we left.  Actually, it was five hours because we switched time zones. Out of that five hours though, only two and a half were spent in the saddle.  When we got to camp, I helped served dinner, since my sweep team was on duty.  I got to serve mashed potatoes.  That was fun because I got to slop them around and throw them on people's plates and make people laugh. 

Today, I rode with my sweep team.  The sweep team helps the kitchen staff and "sweeps" people into camp.  They're the last riders every day to make sure nobody gets lost or left out on the road.  That means we spend a lot of time on the road or sitting around doing nothing.  We stopped at a small town gas station/restaraunt for about an hour.  They were out of pie when we got there, thanks to our fellow cyclists, but they had just made fresh, huge cinnamon rolls.  They weren't as good as Mom's, but they were huge and good.  I got mail today, but I haven't opened it yet because I wanted to get this sent out.  Thanks Mom!

July 9 Entry: I learned a new word at breakfast yesterday morning.  Apparently, Canadians

call a stocking cap a toque (tuke).  It all started when Marty was

complaining about being cold when he woke up.

Marty:  "Maybe I should just wear a toque tomorrow night."

Julia: "Yeah, that might be a good idea."

Me: "A what?"

Marty:  "A toque."

Me:  "Huh?"

Marty:  "A toooooque."

Me:  (dumbfounded/quizzical look)

1Marty:  "A toque.  What are you, American or something?"

Me:  "Uhhhhh, yeah."

Marty:  "Oh yeah, that's right."

So, Reuben left a toiletry bag at the U of Washington and had UPS ship it to

Sunnyside.  The only problem was that it didn't get there until after we

left.  He and Josh and Nick rode back to get it on Monday.  That was, like,

150 miles total, since they went there and back and did Monday's ride too.

It was 281 km.  They went through 59 bottles of water and all set a new

personal record for distance traveled in one day.  Nick beat his by 90

miles, and Reuben beat his by 1 mile.  Reuben's a racer at his university.

I got my first flat of the trip on Sunday.  I didn't even ride my bike.  I

must have picked something up pushing it through the grass.  I kept meaning

to check my tires all day (I always forget) and I finally looked out of my

tent before I went to bed and saw my bike.  I wound up putting a new tire

and tube on at 9:30 at night.  I'm glad I have a headlamp.

I'm the weather girl here now.  Mom and Dad check the weather every night to

see what I'm riding through anyway, so they're calling me with the forecast

now and I'm sharing it at the peloton meetings.  Peloton meetings are group

meetings we have every night to go over stats, the next route, cool things

that happened, and stuff like that.  For stats, we keep track of all the

flat tires and falls, plus one random stat every day, such as getting 93

truckers to honk at you.

Today was a pretty slow, easy day.  After 15 miles, we stopped at a coffee

shop for about an hour.  There were cyclists all over the place for awhile.

It's a really, really nice shop.  It's called Aggie's.

July 7 Entry — Okay, internet is a bit sporadic here, so a really nice person just shuttled us to a coffee shop.

The first week went really well.  I'm really enjoying this tour. 

The last couple days were great.  They were so easy!  We did 50 miles with a great tailwind yesterday.  We had beautiful scenery too.  It was really hot, but it was great.  At one point, a lot of us wondered if we were indeed going uphill.  It looked like it, but sure didn't feel like it.  That was one awesome tailwind.

I rode with a guy named Gerry all day today.  He is a very cool 72-year-old.  You'd never know he's 72.  I think he adopted me.  He kept telling me I should come visit him in Alberta sometime and telling me about all the things he could show me, like the dinosaur museum.  He also cleaned and lubed my chain when we got back, after Joel adjusted my brakes.  Joel's an engineer, and I think he's our unofficial bike mechanic now. 

Oh yeah, on our way out yesterday, we were passed by the RV (one of our SAG wagons), then five guys drafting it.  That was pretty awesome.  They were, literally, inches away.  It was an awesome looking free ride, and I'm a little jealous.  It was so cool.  By the way, those were the guys who routinely jump off cliffs and bridges, go rock climbing, and are good at slacklining.  Slacklining is a hiking thing that's basically tight-rope walking and is really hard.  I'll get pictures later.

The first word out of my mouth when we got to the park yesterday was "Cookies!"  A group from our weekend church had cookies, water, and lemonade for us.  Those were some good cookies.  I had two, giant, chocolate chip cookies.  They were huge and had oatmeal or something textury in them.  They were, like, five inches in diameter, at least, since I'm bad at judging sizes.  Anyway, they were huge. 

There aren't any showers in this camp, so we won't get to shower until Monday night.  I'm just kidding, we have a shuttle to a health club with some pretty awesome locker rooms.  They are amazing!  They're clean, and spacious, and good looking.  We also got shuttled to a Laundromat, so I finally got to do my laundry.   

The celebration service was cool today.  There are some people from Burma who go to the church here, and they sang for us in their language.  That was cool.

Here's the email I wrote on Friday, but didn't get to send. 

Well, Seattle is supposed to be rainy and cold, so it was hot and sunny while we were there.  Now we're supposed to be in a desert, and it rained last night and sprinkled throughout the day.  Go figure. 

Today was a really dirty ride because of all the rain.  We all basically took mud baths on our bikes.  I caught all the spray from my bike and from my riding buddy's bike.  I just started laughing because I was so incredibly dirty.  We only had about 38 miles between camps today, so we got here at about 11:30, after leaving late.  We passed 20 dogs, 14 chickens, a couple hundred horses, and a few thousand cows.  The scenery was pretty boring, so we didn't really dilly-dally today.  The ride felt incredibly short.  Kinsco (KEEN-sho) and I got to camp and we both felt like we were just stopping for lunch and were going to keep going.  After getting here, we set up our tents, then went to Wal-Mart for Gatorade, a tarp, and bandanas to clean our bikes off with.  I was really looking forward to a nice, cool shower, but wasn't that lucky.  The locker room is like a sauna.  The shower heads had three settings: Hot, Too Hot, and Even Hotter. 

Since today was the Fourth, some Canadians went out last night and bought us all American flags to stick on our bikes today.  I've heard a rumor that we'll get to see fireworks tonight. 

Third Entry — June 30

Well, I got to Seattle safe and sound.  I even made my 30-minute connection in Chicago, thanks to the really kind guy I wound up sitting next to on my way out.  I told him I hadn't flown since I was seven and took me under his wing.  I like flying, I just don't know my way around airports.  Flying over the mountains was really cool.  I got some good pictures from the plane; I attached a few.  Oh yeah, on my flight from Chicago to Seattle, I sat next to the sister-in-law of one the tour voluteers/cyclists.  So, I had a very good flight out.

Since being here, I have met a ton of really cool people.  It's nice to be around a lot of like-minded people.  Some of them have really cool stories too, like my new friend who teaches English in other countries.  There is one thing I didn't think about.  I don't know why, but I just assumed I'd be around average-height Americans.  I forgot that almost everyone in the CRC is Dutch.  I am surrounded by blue-eyed, Canadian giants. 

Hopefully these emails will become a little better written, versus whatever I happen to be thinking of right now.  Thinking isn't going so well right now because I'm pretty tired.  It's been really hot and sunny here, which is probably better than the cold, torrential downpours that I've been told Seattle usually has.  Hopefully it stays nice for our tire-dipping ceremony and first ride tomorrow!  I get to get up at about 5:30 tomorrow so I can get my stuff on the gear truck before we go. 

I just got back from our very first Celebration Rally.  One of the things that really made an impression on me was when one the speakers said,

"Every three seconds, a child dies from poverty.  Count with me, One…two…three….  One…two…three….  One…two…three….  We pedal at a cadence between 80 and 90 rpm, that means that a child dies every four strokes.  That is why I'm riding."

Second Entry — June 18

The bake sale this weekend raised about $600!  I'm up to about $5,000 total now!  Remember, I don't get any of the money I raise, it all goes to poverty reduction at home and worldwide.

I'm busy packing up all of my stuff to take down to the gear trucks before they leave, so I don't have to deal with luggage on the plane.  Tomorrow's going to be a busy day.

My parents and I rode the new Gaylord to Mackinaw City rail trail this Sunday.  I believe it's supposed to be 61 miles.  Turns out that it's actually 64.2 miles, though I guess we did do about a mile in detours.  It also ends very unceremoniously behind Burger King.  Not that I'm trying to make it sound bad, it's still a nice ride, it just has a very ironic end :-)  My parents took turns riding with me, one drove the van while the other rode half the trail (actually, Mom rode about 7 miles farther than Dad).

First Entry - June 12

Hi everybody,

I just thought I would let you know how training and fundraising are going for the bike tour I'm riding in for poverty.

The fundraiser garage sale this weekend raised just over $1900!  That puts me at about $4,000 total for donations.  To raise more, I'll be having a bake sale at Glen's this Saturday. 

For those of you in Gaylord, I finally have reusable shopping bags with the tour logo and some facts about the organizations recieving the donations on them.  You can pick up one, or two, or three, at the bake sale and at the Quilter's General Store on Main Street.  They're $5 each and really nice to have.

Every day of the trip, we'll meet in small groups and read a devotional, which you can read too.  The tour is selling the books we'll be using, and all the profit from the books will go to paying tour expenses, i.e. providing us with food, gear trucks, etc.  The books are really neat, they have a map for each day, showing you our exact route, plus showing the elevation of that route.  You can track me on all 3,881 miles of the tour.  Here's a link you can order them at http://www.crcna.org/pages/sea_shiftinggears.cfm (we're picking up some for the Friendship Church).

Katrina

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