After Trip Update

We made it! We arrived into the CareNet conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort, glad to be to our final destination and grateful for the many things we learned along the way. Some of us decided to fly home, others made sure the SAG vehicles returned safely to Holland with all of our bikes and luggage.

We extend a HUGE thank you to all of you for following us, praying us through and encouraging us in various forms before, during and even now after the trip.

We also want to throw out a special thanks to our sponsors, both individual and corporate. We appreciate your support more than we can express and are grateful that you see value, not in what we are doing on this ride necessarily, but in what the Lakeshore Pregnancy Center does each day. Your financial contribution will significantly help LPC restore men, women, children and families to God, His truth, and the blessings that come with that.

THANK YOU!

Grace + Peace,
Team Ride4Life

LPC R4L 2011 - Day 7 Quick Update

Here is a picture of our riders as we got our day off to a start. It is late and we need to push through one more day tomorrow. The heat here is taking it out of us quicker than in days past when we were battling the cold and even rain. The thermometer on Bob's bike today hit 104 degrees!!! So for now, enjoy this pic and stay posted as we continue to post updates for you to catch up on over the next several days.

Grace + Peace,
Team Ride4Life

LPC R4L 2011 - Day 6 Recap

Today we cycled from Jacksonville, FL to Ormond Beach, FL.

What a great day!!!! Much of the day we were along the coast with the ocean on our left.
It was uplifting, exhilarating, and fun! Then it got to be about 95 degrees and then 97 and then 99 and for the last 18 miles after lunch we focused on getting to the hotel where we could jump in the pool!

Today we encountered a turtle crossing the road, “lovebugs” that ruined our lunchtime
beach break plans. We ended up getting lunch at a cafe because they made it impossible for
us to eat outside. We then were able to relax a while until we met up to go to “Crabby
Joeʼs" out on Sunglow pier for dinner. We then enjoyed devotions together focusing on
Psalm 95. Thank you Cheryl for leading us. We then debriefed and talked about our
next day.

It was a GOOD day. God has blessed us once again with health and safety. Tonight we
are thankful to be able to hear the ocean from our window. Shout out of thanks to John
Wierenga for setting up all these great hotels for us. We wish you were with us!!! Now
only 2 days until we ride into Orlando, our finish line. “Oh the places weʼve been and the
things weʼve seen.”

Itʼs 12:15 am and we have to ride tomorrow early although the boss is giving us an extra
hour of sleep. Tomorrow promises to be sunny and hot and we canʼt wait to see what
God has planned for us!

Love and Blessings,
Team Ride4Life

Thanks to our sponsors

A special thanks to our team jersey sponsors who enabled us to look like a team with our race cut Louis Garneau cycling jerseys. Thanks to Grand Rapids Bicycle Company for providing the customized jerseys to us at a very reduced price. Thanks to Wierenga Asset Management , Duca Tile & Stone, Controllership Services Incorporated, Holland Cycling & Fitness, and J&H Oil for sponsoring our team.

Special Thanks also to Velo-City, Zeeland Schwinn, and Holland Cycling & Fitness for the gifts in kind via discounted bicycles, gear, and servicing, making these items more affordable for each member of the Lakeshore Pregnancy Center's Ride4Life team. Thank you too for making yourselves available to our team in various forms as we prepared for this cross country trek.

LPC R4L - Day 5 Recap

Cycled from Perry, GA to Tifton, GA. SAGged to Jacksonville, FLORIDA!

Our day started with the usual early morning routine of breakfast, pack up, unload bikes, fill waters, and we left before the sun was up at 7:03 am.  Our best “on time” morning yet. We were trying to get ahead of the heat and wind.  On today's adventure we saw fields of cotton, pecan groves, peanut groves, crossed the Swanee River, our first dead armadillo, baby snakes, homes that were grand, homes that were very impoverished, and blue skies.  Lots to entertain us along the way.  On the first break we enjoyed some fresh harvested peanuts given us to by a local farmer. We may have also picked some cotton just to say we did. Don't worry, the farmer didn't care. Well, technically we didn't ask, forgiveness later rather than permission now I guess is the mentality we approached this small endeavor with. 

Lunchtime! We had biked 55 miles by 11:30, our best time yet.  Many times we were going 17-18 mph!!! We dined at Turner County Park where they gave us free ice, turned on the fans in the shelter, and the bathrooms were air conditioned! Our great SAG crew treated us to tacos (which they made) for lunch! Can’t tell you how good they tasted! If everyone saw how much we ate you would think its a good thing we are riding all these miles!!! When we were leaving Mary must of thought Carolyn was getting to warm and made sure she dumped the cooler of ice water out of the van and down her front, whoosh! Accidental but we had a good laugh!

We were off our bikes by mid afternoon with our 76 miles complete and alot of whoops and high fives.  We could all feel how well we rode today and we had a great feeling of accomplishment.  76 miles and lunch and still getting off the bikes for the day by 1:30PM with 175 miles left to SAG. Our wonderful crew treated us to popsicles and while we were enjoying them and loading up a man came and talked to us about biking and what we were doing and when we were leaving he gave us a dollar for the cause. For some this means nothing but for him it was generous and we appreciated it.  

On our way to Jacksonville we went through two heavy rainstorms and we were grateful  that our day had been so smooth. When we arrived at our hotel we were glad that we had finally arrived at our nights stay in the daylight.  We enjoyed pizza and devotions together and called it an "early" night excited to ride along the coast tomorrow!

Until next time,

Team Ride4Life

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN

We again wanted to send out a big THANKS to all of our supporters in case you didn't catch it here the first time. We are so grateful for you. Some of you are friends or family of one of the Ride4Life team members. Some of you are longtime supporters of LPC. Some of you are local businesses who decided to make a monetary or gift in kind donation to the Ride4Life team. Who ever you are, know that we are constantly grateful for your support. You are the other side of the coin. Without you, we could not make this happen.

A special thanks to our team jersey sponsors who enabled us to look like a team with our race cut Louis Garneau cycling jerseys. Thanks to Grand Rapids Bicycle Company for providing the customized jerseys to us at a very reduced price. Thanks to Wierenga Asset Management , Duca Tile & Stone, Controllership Services Incorporated, Holland Cycling & Fitness, and J&H Oil for sponsoring our team.

Special Thanks also to Velo-City, Zeeland Schwinn, and Holland Cycling & Fitness for the gifts in kind via discounted bicycles, gear, and servicing, making these items more affordable for each member of the Lakeshore Pregnancy Center's Ride4Life team. Thank you too for making yourselves available to our team in various forms as we prepared for this cross country trek.

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.