Finished the final miles to Jackson today.  The sun finally came out and the temperatures rose.  We cycled along the Trace surrounded by fields frosted with tiny wildflowers beneath a warm summer haze.  The last miles into Jackson paralleled the Pearl River; cypress stumps the perches for cattle egrets and herons; beauty southern’ style.

A police escort offered us a grand entrance to the city from the information center just outside of town.  After getting settled at our final church host for the trip, the Madison United Methodist Church, we celebrated with an incredible meal and fellowship with students and leadership at the historic Tougaloo College.  Hard to believe we are finally here – Jackson, MS – and end of our tour.

Knowing I would be writing the blog entry for today I polled our group for summary statements of their experience.

Landon Beachy hailing from Iowa:  “The people were awesome.  The weather not so much.”  How true.  It rained 2 full days and was cold the other 3.

Tom Weber came from Colorado to ride with his granddaughter (Harper) and son (Matthew):  “What should have been an easy ride was a tough ride.”  But an incredible memory for the three of them, no doubt.

What a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood, won't you be my biking buddy?  Actually, it was 39 degrees and raining when the ride began at 8:30.  We all knew that we had 75 miles to ride and everyone departed with expectations of completing the 75 miles.  This being the 5th day of riding most had biking buddies to ride with as we set out in the rain.  We began telling stories to pass the time and the miles began to slide by.

After donning all the rain gear we had, we felt ready to meet the weather challenge.  As the first leg of the trip progressed the tempo of rain increased.  By the first rest stop, several  riders were too cold and wet to continue.  They secured a ride in the van to warm up and move down the road.

Others began searching for some creative ways to stay warm.  Plastic bags were placed over socks to keep feet warm.  Those who looked at the forecast on  Thursday bought ponchos, rubber gloves and extra jackets.  As I was riding down the  road, I found Ryan Iafigliola pedaling in bike shorts.  I suggested he wear the tights that I had not worn.  Later  I saw Ryan wearing leg warmers.  He said this was the first time he had ever worn anything on his legs and he was surprised how warm his legs felt.  All the guys welcomed Ryan to the "Men in Tights" club. 

    Today was one cool day, and by cool I mean cold. The weather folks were actually calling for snow this morning. Fortunately we missed the snow, but not the cold. All the riders bundled up with as much warm gear as they could muster and I borrowed a spare jacket from Jack, our eldest cyclist. What a nice guy!

    Despite the cold a few of us decided to take a royal detour as we departed. It turns out Tupelo is where Elvis Presley was born. Now I’ve never been really into his music or anything, but the man did make history. The detour would be a taking us slightly off the bike route for the morning, but it was a low mileage day (roughly 40 miles) and after all it’s not every day you get to see the birthplace of a rock star as famous as Elvis Presley. I guess that’s another reason it was a cool day.

 

The riders were able to sit on the porch of the house where Elvis grew up; we had our picture taken with a statue of the king of rock and roll at thirteen as well as see the church he attended. There was even a random outhouse that I suppose he must of used because the inside was lined with a glass screen. Why an outhouse? – You may find yourself asking. Your guess is as good as mine. Like I said I’m not really much of an Elvis Presley fan…All the same we certainly found ways to entertain ourselves at the birthplace of this rock and roll king.

Today was spent off our bikes, as we worked with a Fuller Center Covenant Partner here in Tupelo, MS. For my fellow riders, they might remember the dust or the paint or the drywall, but for me I will remember my sticky fingers (among other things). We arrived this morning at the home of a woman named Ladeen; our mission was to replace her kitchen floor and some drywall in her bedroom.
     I helped a little here and a little there taking advantage of talking with Ladeen and her family when I could.  The real work began when we got to measuring the linoleum for the kitchen. I assisted another rider, Jesse Adler, while he cut everything to dimension.  Because math is not my strong suit, I supervised this portion of the process. Then, with the help of Ladeen’s daughter Mary, Jesse and I adjusted the piece of flooring until it fit just right.  And that was the last time my hands were adhesive free. In fact, I hope that none of the still sticky spots catch these computer keys just right or this post might nnnnever end!  I helped another rider, Jonas Winn, apply the floor glue. His exact words were, “Don’t ever get this on you.” That was over the second I reached in the bucket with my trowel. While most of the glue made it to the floor, successfully sealing it down, some remained on my hands. Thankfully that first batch was graciously removed with some weed-whacker gasoline provided to me by Willy, Mary’s husband. 
  

A much better day....


Except for the 96 miles! The day started cold! I registered 32.5F on my bike. After all the rain yesterday, I got my jackets all dry, but my shoes were still a little damp, as I’m sure most everyone’s were.  Damp shoes, with the cold temp, make for very cold feet.  Before the ride started, somebody came up with the idea of putting our hands on the hood of the van to warm them up, which is a nice benefit of having the support van.  A couple of people were even laying their faces on the hood.

I have my family with me on this ride, my son and my granddaughter.  So proud of my 14 year old granddaughter Harper!  She did a leap frog kind of day. Instead of 96 miles she decided to try for something she could do within reason. She rode the first 27 mile segment, got in the van for the next 20 miles, rode her bike again, and then back in the van. She hit her day’s goal of a metric century, which is 62 miles. Pretty darn good for a 14 year old! And on top of doing the distance, she was rocking in the lead pace line while her gramps was way back. I did manage to hook up with a slower pace line, and had a lot of fun with that.

We met with a reporter, from a local news station, at the first rest stop, and I was asked to talk to the reporter by Melissa. I waved Matthew and Harper over with me, and we had a fun time talking with the media. Harper spoke right up, answering the questions like a regular rock star.

Before coming on this ride I had put all of 24 miles on a bike outdoors.  I was hardly prepared for the adventure that awaited me on the Natchez Trace.  I looked forward to the week long ride with equal parts of excitement and sheer terror.  It didn’t help that I missed most of orientation and introductions due to a delayed flight coming into Nashville.  When I finally arrived at the first church, I was overwhelmed by all the new faces, bikes, and gear that lay everywhere.  However, you couldn’t help but feel the buzz of excitement amongst the riders who had just come off of the first practice ride through Nashville.  I quickly made introductions with new friends and began to take in my surroundings.  Riders of all ages (14-85), from all across the country, all coming together with one common goal, to ride and to make an impact.

Our first full day of riding was spent taking on 47 miles of the trail.  It was a beautiful sunny day with only one word to describe it- hills.  Coming from nice flat Ohio, this was a totally new experience for me.  There were times I wanted to get off my bike and walk up a particularly challenging hill.  Thanks to many encouraging riders (who also told great stories), like, Cheryl and Diane, I just kept peddling.  Today we braved it through the pouring down rain, riding for hours through thunderstorms.  It was a bad enough storm that it even got a name!  Conveniently, it cleared up about twenty minutes after we arrived at our next location in Collinwood, TN.

I can’t remember the last time I was that sore and tired, but I quickly learned I was in good company.  The avid riders who have devoted weeks of their lives to biking cross country also had tired limbs and sore butts.  It felt great knowing that even though we all went at different paces, we all made the same journey together and could share a wonderful sense of accomplishment.  You don’t have bonding experiences like that every day.

St Patrick’s Day, 2013 was a memorable one for us.

We started the day with a service in the chapel at the Vine Street Disciples of Christ Church. This small chapel is separate from the main sanctuary, and our group of several dozen made up more than half of the congregation. The cyclists sat amongst the parishioners, and Rev. Thomas Kleinert wove the story of our journey into his service, inspiring us.

The Vine Street Church has a Congolese congregation. Rev. Celestine, who leads the congregation, joined us outside the church and told us about the challenges faced in the Congo. He led us in three “Oyee” (pronounced Oye-Aye’) cheers. 
In Congo, people say “Oyee” in cases when we would say “Amen”.

As we gathered in the parking lot, our two Sarahs (Doren and Cook) practiced their newly invented Fuller Center handshake……it needs a video to do it justice.

As we prepared to start our journey, a cameraman arrived from a Nashville TV station. He interviewed our oldest cyclist, 85 year old Jack Hughes, as well as several other riders, and then filmed us doing a warm-up ride around the parking lot and as we began our journey.

We've been trickling in since yesterday, one at a time or a few in a car together.  We've come from all different directions and converged here in Nashville.  Some of us knew each other, but most of us only knew anything about each other from our online profile … a few lines, or even a few paragraphs, isn't enough to really know much about a couple dozen people you've never met before.

 

We stayed last night together in the Vine Street Christian Church basement, and spent some significant time and energy trying to put names with faces.  If tonight, the second night together, is any indication, the time we spent today getting to know each other, getting oriented to our week & to the Fuller Center, and going on a quick 12 mile ride has been worth it. 

 

Tonight, this church basement is lively and communal, people who'd never met before yesterday talking with each other like old friends. 

Background (By Ryan Iafigliola, Trip Leader 2008, 2009 and 2010; Trip Founder)
Two years ago I was pulling together the Niagara Falls to New Orleans Bicycle Adventure at a time when we were also working hard on a Haiti response and working to double the size of our Global Builders program. The Bike Adventure, so full of potential, was yet poised to suffer if more help was not found.

In strode Allen Slabaugh, taking the Bike Adventure that had been my baby and helping to raise it as his own. Two years later, under his steady gaze and attention, the event has grown and matured to a new level. Leaving us with so many good memories, now it is his turn to move on as he talks about in his message below. We pulled together a complete scientific review of Allen's leadership in this video.