Final Destination

It is Sunday morning and I was able to sleep with Jonathan & Katie at their apartment on the North end of Manhattan Island. It was great to see Ruth and Katie and Zoe at the end of the ride yesterday. Yesterday's ride was about 64 miles. I was able to sleep at the home of a family in the Sussex Christian Reformed Church on Friday night. This was wonderful for several reasons: It was about 6:30 PM before I completed that day's 85 mile ride and I went right from the bike to supper and then to the peleton meeting and there would have been no daylight time to set up my tent. It also rained during the night and I didn't have to fold up my tent in the morning. And another wonderful thing was that my host family did my laundry which was very wet and sweaty.

I was up by 4:30 AM and had breakfast with my host family and they took me back to the Sussex Christian School where I started my ride before 7 AM. Jonathan set out on his bike about the same time and we met half way into the ride and he rode in with me to Liberty Island State Park. I was more cautious in my riding because the roads were wet at first and I observed two biking acidents that morning. Fortunately I had my first aid kit with me to help get people bandaged up and back on the road again.

We traveled in small groups to a staging area about 10 miles from our destination. There we took a group photo and then rode about 6 riders across with police eschort to our destination where there was a huge crowd of people to meet us and celebrate with us. It was an awesome sight as rode in procession through winding city streets and over bridges and down the final bike path into the park that overlooks the statue of liberty. People were standing in front of their apartments and in front of stores watching in amazement and bewilderment and at times cheering us on. Sometimes people began to blow their horns in recognition of our cause and accomplishment.

At the conclusion there were words of acknowledgement to the grace of God that made all this possible. Then we all prayed the "Our Father" and stepped to the edge of the water and dipped our front tires in the Atlantic ocean. Ruth and Katie and Zoe were present to welcome us and we began to say some goodbyes to others and meet some new people whom we had not seen for a number of years.

Then it was a 45 minute school bus ride to the Christian School where we had to empty the gear truck and get what we needed to shower and set up our tents to dry them out and fold them up again. Then we had another short bus ride to the Cedar Hill Christian Reformed Church where there was a big celebration picnic supper with local family and the families of riders who had arrived from many places around the country.

Then there was a 2 hour celebration service in the church. We heard testimonies from riders and heard wonderful examples of God's provision for health issues and how people all across the country heard about and responded to the riders enroute. I got very tired and sleepy during the lengthy service but I was very happy that I could be a part of the ride and the celebration.

Right now we are headed for the "big park" which Zoe wants to show to Grandpa and Grandma. I will do some more blogging later today and hopefully add some pictures too.