I woke up around 7 and packed up. When Jessie came downstairs she wanted to feed me lots of food. Gladly, I accepted her offering. Granola cereal, blueberries, muffins, and a banana. The breakfast of champions. Anna and Robert headed off to work and I thanked them for being such a blessing. As I packed up my bike Jessie waited outside and prayed over my bike. I signed their guest book and was ready to hit the road. When I came outside Jessie asked if she could pray for me. I said yes and she prayed the most encouraging, loving, Christ filled prayers for my trip, my summer, my parents, the Gheeslings, the kids I will be coaching, my environmental ed ministry at St. Christopher, and for me to know more of God. It was so amazing and such an example of how we are supposed to commune with one another and lift each other up as Christians. It's pretty tough to make tears excrete from my eyeballs, but I got a little choked up at how beautiful the moment was. This family has truly inspired me to love as Christ loves. I gave Jessie a big hug and went on my way.
For some reason people, including myself, think that if your ending elevation is lower than your starting elevation on a bike ride, the whole trip will be downhill. False! There were some intense climbs as I made my way out of North Carolina. It was beautiful and I didn't get chased by dogs. I love NC! Robert helped me design a new route because my first route was going to take me on scary roads through Asheville. I took 9 S to some other road that took me through Hendersonville. I went through all these small funny towns that I always see on the highway signs.
The first was Bat Cave. Dun nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh BAT CAVE!
The second town was Flat Rock. The third town was Tuxedo. Trust me, there are not a lot of people in that town that own or have even ever worn a tuxedo. Who knows why they call it Tuxedo? Anybody? Then I made it to Hendersonville, which seemed like the Apple Capital of the World!
I loved all of these cool little mountain towns. Hendersonville was a bit like a small Greenville. I think I could live in some of those tiny towns if there was any work for me.
Eventually I made it back to South Carolina. Dang! What a nasty road. Old Highway 25 needs some work SCDOT! Going down the mountain at 30 mph while dodging potholes like Patches O'Houlihan from Dodgeball dodges wrenches is scary. Just check out the SC welcome sign to see how long is has been since they have maintained Old 25.
Once in South Carolina the apple signs disappeared and the peach signs appeared. Fun fact. South Carolina produces more peaches than Georgia, but Georgia is the peach state. Georgia produces more peanuts than South Carolina, but South Carolina is the peanut state. We should trade slogans, guys. It would go a lot better with my rap song about SC Peaches. Check this out if you want to hear me rap about SC Peaches among other ridiculous topics.
www.myspace.com/appetiteforanapple
"Life is as sweet as an S.C. peach." Yep. It is. That's a quote from the song. I was almost back in Greenville and was reflecting on the past 8 days of riding. It has been amazing. Probably one of the most memorable experience of my life. I think I will continue to take fun vacations like this where I can meet random people and hopefully bless them with love and joy. Along the way I had a vision for a summer discipleship program with high school or college guys that involves traveling many miles around the country on a bicycle. I'll pray about it and see if anything comes about with an idea like that. It could be pretty great. After all, Jesus wandered all over creation with his disciples.
Finally I made it back to Goose's house. It was good to see his face. Their dog Millie was escaping when I got back. Check out this picture of Goose bringing her back to the house, ha!
He is a pretty cool best bud. I had to make it back Friday so that he and his wife Kelsey could go to Atlanta to celebrate 1 year of marriage. Congrats! I'm the dog sitter for the weekend. Should be fun times.
Anyway, as I type this I can see the ridiculous glove tan on my hands. I would like to give God lots of praise for protecting me this past week and for teaching me a bunch. I will leave you with a great picture of my cycling shorts tan. I don't really tan, however, I just get red even when it's not sunburn.
Now it's time to live life in Greenville for a while. I'm planning a 600 mile trip for the week of Independence Day. I'll be going from the NC / SC border near lake Jocassee down to the coast on Seabrook Island, and then back up again. To good times.
Grace and Peace to you in Christ, Jeff :)
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