Bishop Bike Adventure Day 18 July 18, 2010

Today we took a much needed and anticipated day off. We attended church at Fairview Baptist Church in Great Falls, MT, where a guest evangelist preacher gave the sermon, with several young people responding with decisions for Christ. It is always encouraging to witness a new spiritual birth and realize the impact that decision will have in years to come. We found the people at this church, and those in Great Falls generally, extremely friendly and welcoming. The church has a chorus that they sing every Sunday, the focus of which is to uplift our armed services personnel. Great Falls has a military base of 3,000-odd people. The 75-year-old pastor has served at this church for 44 years and has been married for 54 years.

We are now at a city park writing this. It seems appropriate to give a medical report during this break. As you might imagine, we have both experienced some discomfort on our hind ends. The number of hours on the bikes could not suggest otherwise. We both purchased new bike shorts that offer better padding to supplement what we already had. The day off should help us on this “end.”

Other than that, the medical report is very encouraging. Tim has had no neck pain at all, after having herniated a disc last summer. We have both had some modest sun burning, which reminds us daily where to apply sun protection. We have both also had some numbness and tingling in our fingers, this the typical result of hand pressure after many miles of riding. We have learned to vary our hand positions while riding to alleviate this pressure, and thus the numbness.

After another visit to a bike shop tomorrow morning, we will be heading to more remote areas of Eastern Montana. Realize that we may be out of touch due to the skimpier services and long distances between them.