Welcome to Ride4Life 2012!
We are excited to ride again this year.
This year we will ride around Lake Michigan!

RIDERS:           13
AGES:              17-77
DISTANCE:     700 miles

The start and end point will be Maranatha Bible and Conference Center in Muskegon.
We will leave on September 15th and return on September 23rd.
The first day will take us from Maranatha to Ludington.
The 2nd day we will board the SSS Badger to Manitowac, WI. and on to Green Bay for the night.
Day 3 will take us from Green Bay to Escanaba.
Day 4 Escanaba to Gulliver, MI in the UP.
Day 5 we will continue our ride across US 2 to Mackinaw City.
Day 6 will take us from Mackinaw to Torch Lake.
Day 7 begins at Torch Lake and ends in Frankfort.
We are looking forward to all the sights along the Big Lake and all the beauty Michigan has to offer.
Day 8 takes us form Frankfort to Pentwater and finally
Day 9 we will ride back into Maranatha for a homecoming picnic with all of our families and friends!

If you have received a letter asking for support from one of the riders please consider helping them make this ride possible! If you would like to be an event sponsor please let us know (email Carolyn at carolyn.doyle@lpcenters.com)

LIFE is the reason we ride!
At Lakeshore Pregnancy Center we have a goal to save 650 lives this year
and the Ride4Life will help make that possible.
While it is a physical challenge for the riders it a greater challenge for men and women facing an unplanned pregnancy. With every pregnancy the couple has three options...parenthood, adoption, abortion.
The decision they are contemplating, is one of the hardest they will ever make.
WE ARE THERE TO HELP.

WE ARE LOVING PEOPLE TO LIFE!

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.