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Today we celebrate fathers – I think. I’m not sure I would call it celebrating. On Mother’s Day, the church is full with standing room only in the back. On Mother’s Day, pastors across America talk about treating our mothers with respect, and even give alter calls to unsaved children. On Mother’s Day, we wake Mom up with breakfast in bed, or nicely wrapped presents. On Mother’s Day.

But on Father’s Day – its a different story. Lunch at a BBQ restaurant and a tie are among the highlights. Then there is the church service. This morning at church, we had a guest speaker. His message was from Matthew chapter 5. Actually it was only verse 7 – “Blessed are the merciful…” His point – Fathers need to be merciful. The real kicker for the sermon was the illustration at the end – he told a story about a man that had his only daughter late in life. She was killed by a neighbors dog in a vicious attack right in front of her father. This was not a story that I wanted to hear about on Father’s Day. The point of the story was the mercy this now childless father showed the owner of the dog.

Another preacher I know preached “12 things fathers should do, IF they want their children to be delinquents.” I don’t think we could get away with that on Mother’s Day. Could you imagine a sermon titled, “Why it’s your fault that your children aren’t saved, Mom!” Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure those sermons – as well as the many others like them have value and purpose. I just don’t see them as celebrating Fathers.

Ok – those of you that have followed my trek from the beginning know what the bod pod is – the air displacement body composition test. I started last summer in the middle of my cycling season. I started riding my bike last year to and from work two to three days a week. In all I put about 1500 miles on the bike in about two and a half months.

Anyway, at the end of the summer I weighted in at 291.5 lbs with 169 lbs of lean weight and 122.4 pounds of fat. After my 10 year high school reunion, the riding season was over, it started to get too cold for me to ride to work and the holiday seasons activities began to pick up. At one point I weighted 311.9 lbs! Just before I left for the D-Tour 2007, I weighted 302.8 lbs with 166.5 lbs of lean weight and 136.3 lbs of fat – that’s 45.03% fat!!!

Today I found that 735 miles in two weeks seem to be worth about as much as 1500 miles over three months! Here are the results:

Lean Weight: 166.4 lbs
Fat Weight: 124.6 lbs
Total Weight: 291 lbs

That’s right – I lost almost 12 pounds of pure FAT!!!  WoooHoooo!!!!

D-Tour is over, vacation is over, traveling is done.  I’m back at work, and life is returning to normal, however today (unexpectedly due to scheduling conflicts) we were able to get our 3-D ultrasound!  Here is my baby girls first smile caught on tape:

Ok, sorry for not posting in the last few days, however we had no internet connection, no cell phone service, and even no TV for one of the hotels – which wasn’t a bad thing.

Day 10: Slept In

So, after my ordeal with the hail storm and Texas farm hands, I had a hard time getting to sleep early enough to get started at my usual 5-6am start time. So I slept in. I ‘thought’ it would be no big deal because I had a short 50 plus mile day. I got up around 8am and took Zander for a morning walk. We saw all the damage from the hail storm and Zander found a swing set on the camp ground we were staying at (we had a ‘cabin’ which was advertised as a luxury suite but turned out to be a cramped hotel room with a concrete floor shower.) Zander enjoyed the swing and I enjoyed the time I spent with him. Later I helped Stephanie pack the car and sent her up to the McDonald Observatory for the 11am tour as I finally hit the road. The elevation on the map showed a mostly downhill day. It seemed like a lot of rolling hills, a lot of climbing, and a few fun downhills. I actually enjoy the rolling hills more than the flat days, but it slows me down a bit.

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The day started with me over sleeping. I got on the road at 7am local time – but before you give me too much grief – that’s 5am PHX time. Anyway, I started down the road at 7 and noticed there was a wind blowing that was headed my way. It took me an hour to get the first 8 miles behind me because of the headwind. Then I got my first flat of the day – yes, I said first flat. Apparently I ran over the metal fibers from a blow out at some point and those smaller-than-a-staple metal hairs have been working their way through the rubber on my tires since the first flat yesterday. Anyway, the real issue with this flat was that despite packing everything I needed to change the flat – a tube, a patch kit, a tire changing tool, and a CO2 pump, I still managed to forget to grab an extra CO2 canister! So, I had to call Stephanie at 8am (6am her time) to get up and bring me supplies 10 miles up the road. (more…)

The day started out great – I was feeling good and I left just before sunrise. I rode about 13 miles before the sun actually rose, and I was able to get some of it on my camera phone. I was making good time and my legs felt great. Then, about 20 miles into the day, I lost a spoke on my back tire. I may not have noticed it right away, except it was the spoke that had my computer magnet on it. So all of the sudden, the computer on the bike said zero miles an hour; since I was still moving at about 12 mph, I knew something was up. That has happened before – usually I just had to adjust the magnet a little to align it back up. When I went to adjust it, the whole spoke moved. So, I removed the broken spoke and took the magnet off by hand. I put it on another spoke and hand tightened it because I didn’t have a screwdriver. (more…)

Today was Day 7. It was a short day with only 57 miles from El Paso to Fort Hancock. I pulled into the motel parking lot at 11:30am. They allowed us an early check in, and we headed to Angie’s Restaurant for lunch. It was a cool little place in walking distance from the motel. Actually, everything in town is in walking distance of the motel – The mini-mart, the gas station, the restaurant, and the motel are all in a 1000 ft radius of each other.

Angie’s was quaint and the food was great, but the service was like all small town life – Friendly but SLOW. After lunch we took a nap at the motel, then headed back over for dinner – the slow service would have likely kept us away from a second meal, but it’s a small town – and like the motel and gas station, this restaurant was the ‘only show in town’. I’m glad we went back because the chicken fried stake was excellent as the sign outside promised it would be.

Tomorrow is going to be long and tough. Its an 80 plus mile day with a lot of climbing. I went 85 miles on day 6, but it was a lot of downhill, unlike tomorrow. We’ll see how that turns out. For the first half of this trip, I put my bike on the car everyday for at least some part of the trip — either too much climbing or I ran out of time. Day 6 and 7, the bike was never on the car – I rode the bike from starting point to stopping point without assistance from my ‘support staff’. I’m hoping to make that a theme for the rest of the trip, but 80 plus miles and a couple of thousand feet of climbing tomorrow may prove too much.

Wish me luck!

Today I reached the half way point in El Paso. I started my day at about 4:45am and finished at about 1:30pm. I rode a total of 85 miles today! In all, I’ve put about 380 miles on the bike. Ok, some of you might be thinking, 1000 mile trip, half way point should equal 500 miles – but it doesn’t. Remember, I already planned to lose miles at some of the steeper climbs, plus day 2 cost me about 30 miles due to rough roads. And don’t forget, I took a much needed day off yesterday.

Anyway, I knew going into this that I wasn’t going to roll into Del Rio with 1000 miles on the bike. I’m going to be happy with whatever the final number turns out to be. I mean, how could I not — I rode my bicycle 85 miles today! I’m having a blast, my legs are stronger than ever, I feel great, and although its a wicked farmers tan, I am getting dark. I only need to work on the tall and hansom part…

Day 2: Booohoooo!!!

The day started great – there was a climb but it wasn’t too much to bear and then there was a lot of down hill. The first 20 miles were great — then I turned off highway 70 to follow the main route around lake san carlos. The road was bearly paved and full of holes — I had a very difficult time over the next 30 miles. There was no cell service, so I couldn’t even call Stephanie to come get me. I thought I broke a spoke on my tire twice, but luckly I did not. After all was said and done, I only got 50 miles on the bike today. I was not happy with the days results.

Stephanie and I found a great camp site next to a lake. We pitched the tent, and went to the lake to cool off. Its dark now and Zander refused to go to the bathroom while we were in town. He asked to go, so I get in the car with him and drive the quater mile to the restrooms where … he doesn’t go. I get him back in the tent and he promptly says – I have to go ukkies!

Day 3 will be better… right? (more…)

Here are the stats

Started: Glendale – 1300 ft
Finished: Superior – 2800 ft
Day 1 –
Travled 80.5 miles
Climbed over 2000 ft in all – most of which were in the last 10 miles

I started at 5:30am from my house. I got 500 ft from the house and had to turn around — I forgot my shades! Then it was all business – I was averaging 13-15 miles an hour for the first few hours – there was no traffic, it was cool (only 70 degrees) and I was excited.

I told Stephanie last night that I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve – I hardly slept. We were able to get the bike tuned up before I left and Stephanie and I both picked up new cell phones. My new phone is also an MP3 player, so I can listen to my tunes and still hear when Stephanie calls me. I also purchased a new pannier for the handle bars, so I have a place to put the map, extra water, my phone, my wallet, and anything else I needed. Between the phone and the pannier, I was riding in luxury.

Meanwhile at the home front – Stephanie was stuck packing the car and making sure we had everything we need for the trip. At the same time, she was dealing with Zander and running last minute errands. I think I had the better deal. It wasn’t all roses for me however. I was on the bike for a total of 7 hours 45 minutes today. While I averaged almost 13 miles an hour for the first 5 1/2 hours covering 70 miles of road, the last 10 miles took the other 2 hours and 45 minutes!!! I had steep climbs for the last ten miles and although there were a few downhills in the middle, I was so tired from the climbing that I could barely move my legs to pick up any speed on the downhills.

Anyway, today was different than the rest of the trip in that I had a lot of climbing at the end of a long day. This put the tough part of my days ride after I had already gone 70 miles and during the hottest part of the day. Anyway, I really enjoyed Day One. We are likely staying at camp sites for the next couple of nights, so until next time…