Ride For Haiti, part 2, Day 6

May 6, 2011

Journal

Today Martina and I traveled from Columbia, SC to Lancaster, SC.  I pedaled 73 miles.  The church we are at this evening is called Reformation Lutheran Church.  A small congregation and church started in 1953.  Julia Edwards met us and showed us around and gave us a key to the place before she left.  That is one thing I am always so grateful for.  All the congregations we have stayed with have been so trusting and welcoming.  When the evening is over they leave us with the key and tell us to make ourselves at home.  It would be a much more difficult trip to undertake if we were treated differently.

Today, we experienced the normal challenges of traveling as well as a first.  An old lesson was reinforced with me, don’t  take your eyes off the navigator if you don’t know where you are going.  For more, see the devotion for today.  A new challenge faced today was a cold, several hours long, drizzle.  I wasn’t cold as  long as I was pedaling.  But as soon as I took a break the cool breeze reminded me that I was wet.  But by  mid afternoon the sky cleared and it was sunny again and I dried off.  If you look at the pictures for today you will see Martina and I once again huddled under the porch of a little country church and had lunch.  God put one there for us so that  we could stay dry.  Once again dogs were an issue.  I was chased by all kinds of mutts as well as a Doberman and a Rottweiler.  Martina got  me a new toy to defend myself, a very loud air horn to blast at them  when they get too close.  It worked well.  The land was  rolling hills.  The strangest thing, Martina took a picture of it, while we were traveling through farm lands and forests, suddenly out of nowhere, and really out of place appeared these massive, 10 and 20 ton boulders.  How  they got there and why is beyond me.  They were  so out of place.  Very interesting.  We enjoy staying in touch with many of you.  Thank you for your emails and phone calls.  It is great to hear from  people back  at home.  Today was the midway point.  We have six more days of riding and then two days to drive back home.  God bless you all.