LPC R4L - Day 4 Recap

Cycle 75 miles from Murfreesboro, TN to  Pellham, TN.   Sag 275 miles to Perry Georgia. This was a long day. We had a shorter day of riding and a long end of the day to drive to keep us on schedule but still with many hills and a couple that were very challenging. No complaints though, we saw beautiful scenery, horse farms and fields of cotton.  The fellowship of riding through this gorgeous countryside on this Lords Day was awesome.  Along the way were joined by a friendly dog that stayed with us for a few miles. Don rode back to the house it came from to be greeted by a “BEWARE OF DOG” sign which he laughed about until a big dog came around the corner at full speed. Don quickly tamed him too and was then joined by our sag driver Betty who picked up the other dog from our riders and dropped him off at what we think was him home.  A happy ending for our little friend.

We had our first break at about 20 miles, but we were feeling great from that extra hour of sleep. We had some snacks and enjoyed “jawing” with a few of the locals.  People have been great along the way and are always so eager to hear what we are doing. The team jerseys with our name and our corporate sponsor's names help a ton. It makes our day rewarding as well when people ask what we're doing. Sometimes our breaks are longer than expected and we get behind but we have decided thats ok, we are just following Gods leading and enjoying every minute of it.  At the end of the day our last 3 miles were a nice downward grade but against the wind pedaling at about 13mph with lots of effort that was hard work. Those last 3 miles were for us to see the base of the mountain that basically went straight up and that was where our day ended (thank goodness). The local  at our break told us that it was unsafe and there wasn’t anyway all of our sag vehicles could wind up that narrow road either, especially the trailer. When we turned around to go back those 3 miles it was uphill but WITH the wind and we went twice as fast UPHILL averaging about 22 mph, CRAZY!  That tells you how much wind can make or break it on a bike.

We got off our bikes around 3:00 and started sagging ahead. We had a 250 mile drive and we decided to stop for a quick dinner along the way so when we got to our hotel we could hit the pillow.  What better way to fill up a bunch of hungry bikers than going to the Hibachi Grill Buffet (Derek was very pleased)! They probably did not make a profit off of us because we kind of skipped lunch to get on the road and we were hungry!  We have to give a shout out to Jay and Amber who noticed our jerseys and was familiar with Holland MI and wanted to know about our ministry and we were happy to share.

We arrived at our hotel around 9:30, gathered for devotions and debriefing and off to sleep getting ready for another big day tomorrow.  Its much warmer here with a high of 91 today and the same forecast for tomorrow.  We will want to do as much as possible early in the day to beat the heat and afternoon winds.

Thanks for your prayers and dedication to us and LPC,

In his name,

Team Ride4Life

Pictures to follow.