SEA to SEA
Bicycling Together To Leave Hunger Behind

It was a hard day. The wind was blowing in our faces and/or at 90 degrees to us. Our distance was 88 miles. What made it worse was that I was a part of the Sweep Team last evening. This means as you come into camp you are expected to help serve and clean up. Our turn comes around every ten days. In the morning, you help set out all breakfast stuff, refill the water coolers, load the truck, get rid of trash, and generally try to leave the camp as clean as you found it. Instead of a 6:30 A.M. departure, it was 9:40. The pressure was on especially after we realized we missed a turn off and rode about 20 miles out of the way. I arrived at camp this afternoon at 5:15 P.M. just enough time to phone my honey and set up the tent before supper.

We crossed the Missouri and are now in the great state of Iowa. Suddenly it is the midwest. Here is how I can tell:
1. The farmer(s) have left a huge oak tree in the middle of the soybean field. You would never see that in the larger commercial operations.
2. You can see the fence rows or where they used to be.
3. The homesteads still have hip roof barns.
4. There are trees. There is grasss. There are fields of corn without irrigation.
5. It is still hot but now it is also humid. It feels so good because now when we sweat, our clothes stay wet.
6. There are clouds in the sky.

As I jumped in the pool, a friend said, "I feel like I have been taken care of in every way on this adventure." He is right. Our needs have been met in abundance. We struggle, we sweat, but in the end we are treated like minor celebreties. I have not quite put that together with how we address the needs of the poor. This is not unlike how we live most of our lives...busy with all kinds of stuff and on the edges of our lives we try to have some significant impact or legacy. How to get alignment with our beliefs, values, and actions seems to be a constant challenge in our lives and in this adventure.

Monday, August 4th, 2008 Lou Haveman