Small Shoulders.

We stand on the sides of roads praying.
We see winding and curves to these roads that you would never imagine.

Jessica scouting out the snacks during a break.

Find terrain and feeling in each tree,
 each breeze, each smile.

We find strength in the struggle.
Through grinding teeth.
Through heavy breathes and thirsty gulps of water, Gatorade and life.

"If you have been a fool by being proud or plotting evil,
cover your mouth in shame.
As the beating of cream yields butter
 and striking the nose causes bleeding,
so stirring up anger causes quarrels."
Proverbs 30:32-33


Put all of your hands down because it has been made known to me that the "hills" of western PA are hands down some of the most beautiful, most incomparable, most strenuous climbs I have endured thus far on this tour. You could argue and claim that the Rockies are terrible, you could say that there are worse things but until I experience those for myself, Route 30 from Pittsburgh to York, hands down, most intense grade and curve I have experienced mentally and physically this far in my twenty-five years.

Time has been flying and these hours tick by as pedal strokes continue to move. Calculations mixed with laughing and mope-heads noisily zooming by, we figured that by the end of this trip we would have made millions of pedal strokes and even more memories.

And with these memories became my wanderings of how life will be when I wake up and I'm not surrounded by 12 sleeping bags. When I'm in my own space and the sound of bike pumps, bumping bins and the feeling of water on my t-shirt from the cooler that never seals is no where in sight.

B.A. Boldly Awesome Shannon venturing into the rain.

I know people. People know me and through tears and laughing so hard that we almost fall off bikes, this has become familiar. And soon other things will too. It's a matter if we want to accept the familiar ways of other seasons. Are we ready to embrace it all? Are we willing to open these sore arms from holding ourselves up over 3,000 miles across this massive piece of land and let the love and experiences outside of tour life splash over to give yet again new perspective and new understanding of what it means to live and serve for an amazing God?

Not what we want. What He wants. But this is what He wanted for us. "This is Gods will for us!"

Just+  hiking the Appalachian Trail!

Through this tour I have heard many things about what it means to follow the Lord. I have seen different ways in which we build relationships with God, with Christ. I have seen the many ways in which the Holy spirit moves and bursts through individuals all across this land mass. I have seen His presence in each of my teammates and I will see even more in the next week and seasons to come.

Ellen captivated by Pennsylvania beauty.

Keep Adventuring.

Places, Faces and Traces

And I love looking at them. Listening to them speak, listen to their laughter as they reminisce. Watch their minds focus on the memories that trigger from photographs of life passed.
It's strange how we can't remember what day it is yet we can remember an exact moment in between destinations where chains of events connect to build these life stories. They connect to create joy from laughter, tears from struggle and continued depth and connection of love in this life style of these seasons that the Lord has willed.

Have I changed from this trek? Yes.

Can I explain in the ways that I have changed? No.

There is a long road ahead... And I am excited


A little something fun to share with you.
My friend and teammate, Ellen, is blessed with spoken word. Here is a poem that she wrote about our tour. Perhaps it will give you some perspective of what we have been doing on the road, for who and why.
 Hope...Just Hope

Greenery Among the Grey

3:03pm:
These faces have become so familiar that familiar faces seem strange. Like distant childhood memories feel when you see pictures. Everything feels vague. Maybe this is the moment in which you realize you have been living within this moment. Everything else is faint while bicycle wheels and smiles mixed with morning breathe and "sting on summer skin" collide.

It's all relative and yet here I sit blown away by the last 5 weeks and how they continue to change me.
Pavement changes constantly. Different lengths, beat up, run down like soles of shoes or blue jeans. We can relate life to worn out things of this world. Things that need physical work to be new. If there's something that I can see whether it comes from worn down pavement or brand-spankin'-new, it is life that pushes through cracks. Creation. It is constantly new and it can break through anything eventually.

God breaks through constantly. Continuing to show us and remind us that we cannot make ourselves.

Always.

Divine appointments. Sitting next to a woman named Janice at a Sunday evening convert to glorify God in the public eye while only one hundred and four miles west on the same street that passes through the same town off Hwy twelve. one hundred and four miles from a place where it seems like God is quiet... But He is not. God is loud everywhere. Christ cries to see such a lost world that sits so close with in these black border lines.
Hymns and prayers in a park with those who live to serve the God who heals, so many things they are countless. And I am blown away by how the materials of this world quickly fade when the thoughts of serving the Lord causes my heart to beat faster. Causes my legs to yearn, pushing pedals as passions of the Lord bleeds out thicker than sweat pours out. Thicker than the strain that this tent feels while elements and Satan bare down. Walls crumble... He is always present.

Listen.

Not Surviving...Striving

It's amazing how a glimpse of light, a smell or a texture can produce some of the most detailed memories. Soccer fields, winks, Wind and wildflowers.

I can remember being in middle school when my brother had to make this wild flower project of pressed and identified wildflowers for a high school science project. Every time I look to the side of the road and see wild flowers I am reminded of the tedious comings of that project. the work that went into what now seems so small and least complicated.

Hair color and length. How it feels to look and feel completely different than who we were not even a year ago. How the emotions inside make us look. How it pours out of our beings. Stone faces or wet eyes from joy over flowing.

Every day I am reminded that we must be living in today. So what about today? Today we have a rest day in Ipswich South Dakota. In the last week we have been in three different states. Slowly leaving Montana behind, we all survived. To look at the miles in them selves each day VS looking at a map. It doesn't always seem like we've gone very far but the truth is come next week we will be HALF WAY across the country.

 White Sulphur Springs, Harlowton, Billings, Forsyth, Miles City- Montana
We all survived Montana. It's true from the crazy wind, snow and high temperatures of 36 at 7am to the record high of 111 degrees in Miles City towards the east. On our way out we continue to praise God for all that he provides. Like a helmet that is now cracked but a skull that is not. For bodies that scab and continued thanks for Him because he heals... Bones, skin, Hearts and souls.

Baker- North Dakota
Devine Appointments I am very much thankful for and am so excited to see what other words God puts in our mouths to help build the kingdom more and more.

Hettington, McLaughlin, Ipswich- South Dakota













Perhaps because I feel half asleep on our day of rest or because I literally can't believe that we have ridden well over 500 miles this week alone.









Among all of this I have seen smiles arise through headwind, spoken word ignite hearts and prayers continually answered.





Here's to the next 500 miles, continued prayers and thanksgiving for what the Lord has in store... For all of it.

                                                                 Keep adventuring.