I can do HARD things!

Tour de Louisville 2010

After months of logistical planning and bike training, some of the youth and leaders of the Crossroads and Beech Grove Wards from Indianapolis, Indiana (30 people total) got on bikes and pedaled from our chapel to the Louisville Kentucky Temple. A total of 155 miles in two days. It was an amazing trip in all kinds of ways.

We started talking about doing this trip in late October or November of 2009. Training rides started in May and went through the beginning of June. The first was 26 miles, all in the rain. The next ride was 35 miles, then a 45 miler and then a 60 mile ride. Each was about two weeks apart. The youth from my ward did a few extra rides in between the required rides, to help us prepare physically for the challenge.

June 23rd came and we finished making our t-shirts, packed the gear, did a last minute check on bikes and at 7:30 had our first fireside, which I did. I played the "Bring it on" scene from Emperor's New Groove and then related the bike trip to the plan of salvation. I won't give the text here, but I will relate the plan of salvation to the bike trip as this post goes on.

June 24th we met at the chapel at six am for a pancake breakfast,

morning devotional and then we were on our bikes and rolling by 7:30.

Cheyenne Bigler, Makayla Dunahee, Aspen and Sierra Garyson ready to ride!

We pulled out of the parking lot, pedalled around the corner, out of the neighborhood and into the country. Thursday's ride was GREAT! Wonderful weather, a tail wind and good health. We stopped at 20 miles for a break and were making great time. Someone along our route was willing to let us use their front yard for our snack break. They had a pond and lots of yard and a pull through driveway which made it easier for the big van and trailer to get around. There were even some frogs hopping around. Danyelle is here holding one, kind of too small to see, but it's there.

After break one and regrouping we were off again. Our next official stop was lunch, a marvellous taco salad with additional apples, bagels, bananas and other carb rich foods to load up on. The gentleman who owned the house across from where we parked for lunch let us use his bathroom and water to fill our coolers. Danyelle and I were grateful we didn't have to use nature's toilet. Michelle Dunahee and Courtney Turner did a great job making us "EAT." No one was short on food the entire trip. I think I even gained weight because Michelle kept telling us we needed to eat, EAT, EAT!

At one point along the trip, I was in a second grouping of bikers, and we came up on the lead group with Bro Turner getting himself up off the ground and Max Dunahee looking at his knees. Apparently Steve tried to do a wheelie and ended up crashing and hitting Max. Luckily it was just a scrapped knee, so I offered Max a little neosporin and a bandaid and all was well. Steve admitted he didn't know why he did a wheelie and Matt Dunahee, our fearless leader, said, quoting from a Saturday Night Live skit: "Could it be S-A-A-TAN?" That was a great response; I loved it.

We had to wait about a half an hour as we reached North Vernon, for a police escort. While we waited, we gave each other nick names. Mine was Mama Smurf. The reasons for the escort were multiple, but mainly one was to slow traffic speeding by at 65 miles an hour and the other was to get us through all the intersections without stopping.

The police escort, even though it took them forever to reach us, was really cool. Once we got going, not to have to worry about stopping and getting separated and not really worry about getting hit was awesome. You felt important and protected. I wondered what onlookers thought as they saw all these orange shirted bikers roll through their town. It would have been neat to have a chance to talk to them, answer their questions and turn it into a missionary moment. I wonder how many of those we would have had.

Thursday, again, was a great ride. We arrived at our camping spot around four o'clock. Earlier than we had planned, but the ride was a basically flat ride. We set up tents, had dinner, a short fireside, worked on a few bikes and lights out by ten.

Dining Hall where we had dinner Thursday and breakfast Friday

Like life, sometimes the journey is just a matter of pedaling, no uphills, just pedalling along toward your destination. Having your friends along the journey makes it more enjoyable becasue you can share experiences. As long as you have friends with a common goal, and you keep that goal in mind, you just pedal until you get there. There are times in life when the way is a little too treacherous to be out on our own, so we have a police escort, or our leaders to guide us in front and cover us in back, as long as we follow their direction and guidance, they will do their part to keep us on the right path. Our goal for Thursday was 75 miles and Muscatak Park (I know I've spelled that wrong - oh well. I can't pronounce it either).

Friday morning started off early with challenges before even getting on the bikes. I got out of my tent around six and saw Danyelle looking not her cheery self, carrying her toiletries. She asked me to watch her stuff, drop them and ran to the bushes to throw up. My heart immediately broke. She, of all the riders, wanted to ride all the way and had been looking forward to this trip all summer. She'd trained so hard for it. I just thought, not Danyelle.

Then I found out that Matt was sick, Max (our 9 year old Lance Armstrong rider), Guy Sorensen (Danyelle's brother) had been up most the night throwing up or wishing they could. The cooking crew kids had all been up puking. Poor Michelle and Courtney didn't get any sleep Thursday night. Matt got on his bike and rode, without breakfast, and the others rode in the van the rest of the day, which was hard for them and sad for me.

Friday, aside from the stomach flu, we had HILLS. Lots of hills, but it helped me learn about perspective. Our first hill was getting out of the campground. It wasn't too bad, but steep enough that we had some walkers up the last half. We got some last minute instruction and then rode single file for a few miles along the highway, without an escort. There were some hills and we all cheered each other on, calling out "Gear Down!" so you and your bike would be ready to tackle the challenge ahead. The youth did amazing!! Two of the leaders, Steve Turner and Mike Sorensen were up and back with the slower youth, encouraging them and helping them with their gears. It was wonderful to see. (They did more than 155 miles on their bikes.)

We made it to lunch in Madison, Indiana and the bridge was the next adventure. We had received permission to stop traffic and cross the bridge in a group, so we did. Danyelle got out of the van and did the bridge. The bridge was magnificent.

Sorensen's van and trailer leading the way, driven by Bro John Tindal from our bishopric

To look out over the Ohio River, on both sides, and see the granduer of it and realize how small we really are. Again, to have someone in front of us to guide us and someone behind us to protect us from oncoming traffic. The two combined gave you the perspective of how small you are in the big picture, but how important you are as well. There may be billions of Heavenly Father's children, but each is important and valuable to Him.

Mason, Paul and Michael following Matt, who still hasn't had anything but sips of gatorade and water
for energy.

The worst hill, the one we had heard so much about, the killer hill, was about a mile after the bridge. We first rode through kind of a trailer park type neighborhood and there were lots of people on their porches and most of them watched us roll by. Some apparently laughed at us, knowing what we were about to face, believeing that we couldn't do it.

That hill was the hardest thing I've ever biked. Steep and misleading for about two miles. I wish I had a picture, but I was too busy trying to get up it without walking. I put it in my "granny gears" and  just pedaled and weaved, until I couldn't do it any more. Then I got off my bike and rested my legs. Then I got back on and pedalled a little further. Then stopped, rested, and got back on until I got to the top. It was misleading because you saw what looked like the top, the finish spot and when you got there, it was more uphill. I wasn't the first one to the top, but I wasn't the last one either. And I didn't walk. Steve and Mike did the hill twice as they rode up to the front and then rode back to motivate bikers and then, rode up again. After his second climb, Steve said if he went down and back again, he had put in his miles for the day.

One of the coolest moments of the trip was watching those that were biking behind me reach the top on that HILL. When I saw the chase van, pull up with those last riders that had to get in for whatever reason and I saw them get out and pull out their bikes, I wanted to shout for joy. We all made it to the top. We all crossed that finish line. Hurrah for Israel! Hurrah!

In life, I doesn't matter how you get to the top. It matters that you get there. Sometimes we are able to pedal the whole way by ourselves, one spin at a time. Sometimes, after doing all we are capable of doing, after we've given it our all and just can't do it any more, we have to have our friends and others carry us to the finish line. Either way is fine. The Lord does not expect us to do it alone. That's why we have the atonement. We can't make it on our own. Our hills, our challenges and how we react to them, make us who we are and determine our happy ending, as President Uchtdorf said this last conference. The top of that hill was a happy ending for me.

I also saw or felt a little of the kind of reunion and joy that would await as we reach the celestial kingdom: those that have been waiting and those that just got there and how excited we'll all be to be together again. It was also very touching to know that Michelle and Courtney and kids in the chuck wagon ahead of us, had stopped to pray for us as we went up that hill. They knew it would be hard and we would want to give up, so they supported us with their prayers. Just like life, sometimes we can't be right there to cheer and motivate, but we can always send our support through prayer. It was just cool. I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.

After that hill, HILL became a four letter word. When Aaron Robinson, who had ridden the route (in a car) with the bishopric, said there was another hill coming up, I immediately pictured the monster hill. I had to ask him if it was a HILL or a bump in the road. "Define hill" I would tell him. Nothing else we hit was as hard as that hill, but some were difficult. It was all about perspective. What would have been a difficult hill prior to the monster, wasn't that bad. My legs did get a work out though.

The down hills were GREAT. You were able to take on the uphill, because you knew on the other side, there was a downhill that you could fly down. I loved that feeling of wind and speed as you tucked in and flew and then seeing how far you could get up the next hill without having to pedal. Down hills were awesome!

Later than we'd planned, we reached the Dairy Queen about a mile away from the temple. There were two in the van that were feeling good enough to ride, so we stopped to let them out and finish the ride to the temple. Danyelle and Aspen (who now was out with the stomach flu) didn't feel well enough to get out and you could tell they'd spent time crying. My heart again broke for them. They wanted to ride so desperately.

In life, we are given challenges specific to us. Everyone knew that Danyelle and Aspen would have made it without difficulty, but they got sick, which was something they didn't want or expect. Everyone has challenges they don't expect or really want, we all have hard things to overcome that will draw them closer to each other, the Savior and Heavenly Father.

We reached the temple. Later than we had expected, but we did it. Door to door, chapel to temple, in two days. What an amazing experience. One I will never forget.

We rode another mile to the United Methodist Life Center where we were staying for the night. We had dinner and showered in preparation for baptisms and endowments on Saturday. It was cool to walk out of our large house and see all the bikes tied to the tree and think, we came on those. That was our transportation. Wow.

WE CAN DO HARD THINGS!

The temple session was wonderful as well. The temple was opened an hour early so that we could have an extra hour to do baptisms. Each of the youth did 20 names, and a few did family names. All the youth were well enough to be in the temple. Some of the girls just did confirmations, but they were there.

That's the ultimate goal of our life's journey, to make it to the celestial kingdom. We chose this life / bike trip. We knew there would be hills / trials to conquer. We knew it would be difficult and we would have to stretch and exert beyond what we thought possible, our physical and spiritual muscles. We also knew, it would be worth it in the end. Making it to the temple together made all the hills worth it. Making it to the celestial kingdom together with family and friends, will make all the challenges we face in life, more than worth it. And the nice thing is that we don't have to do it alone. Even when we are biking alone, or feel like it, the Savior is their to cheer us on, pedal beside us or if needed, carry us to our personal finish line.

Eric and the kids came down Friday night, hoping to suprise us at the temple, but they were 20 minutes late. Such a bummer, but brownie points were won. We were able to do an endowment session on Saturday, after the baptismal session, which was really nice. Something we don't often get to do.

Like I said, it was a great trip. One I will not soon forget.