The ride of a lifetime (from June road trip to Canada)

Yesterday's ride with some folks from Fresh Air Experience was exactly the kind of riding you would imagine in British Columbia. Rolling hills into the country, a strong wind from the north, an unfortunate storm blowing in with gray clouds and rain in the distance. With about 1650 ft of climbing and a top speed of 57 miles per hour, it was truly the ride of a lifetime. 


I think my favorite part was after quite a few wonderfully amazing tire squealing down hill sections someone says "we haven't even gotten to the best one yet!"
The final downhill was 3 kilometers of blindingly fast, brakeless curves back into town, and this Indiana guy ended up getting 10th overall out of 90 people that have ridden that segment!

Unfortunately the rain today kept me from a second, faster attempt. Will I have my chance to try again? I can only hope.    I was having too much fun to take any pictures, so I'll try to get some next time.  Until then, you'll just have to imagine.

Thursday June 10

Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana

Wow, North Dakota is wide. Like really wide. Like add wide as Kansas.

And you know what we say about Kansas, Andrew Abegg. 

Wednesday June 11

Made it to Chicago in 2.5 hours

Listening to our road trip playlist on spotify and Into Thin Air by John Krakauer (audio CD)

Drove 430 miles before getting gas with about 80 to spare, averaged 30mpg in the loaded down Subaru, currently averaging ~31 through the hills of northwest Wisconsin.

Found New Glarus beer and a plethora of other awesome porters and stouts.
Hooray for Spotted Cow!

Remembering my trip to the Wisconsin Dells with my mom as a kid: getting sick and going to the hospital, Wisconsin Ducks, gigantic waterparks. Great job driving all this way Mom!

Things I've noticed:
-Minnesotans are very friendly
-Minnesotans talk very slowly

12 hours of driving is a long way to drive, but not so bad when you have an awesome Co pilot.

Alexandria, MN looks like awesome biking territory!
And indeed it is! (got to ride with some super awesome dudes) 

A huge thank you to Jake's Bikes for putting me in touch with Craig Andrews and a huge thank you to Craig for putting me in touch with Ralph!
Had a fantastic 25 mile ride with a really cool group of guys around some of the lakes here in Alexandria.
Only stop #1 and I already want to pack up and move away to the land of 10,000 lakes.

Updates in Uber'land (written back in...May?)

A few new happenings since the opening weekends of Uber...the concise and precise version

• I drove a girl who taught Katie's art class when she did a wine and canvas night with the Zionsville Mom's group (this was a pretty lucky pick up as I was not really near their location and it was a prime time of evening)
• I took a few people to Center Grove (which is a haul and you probably won't be coming back with passengers.)  Prayed that I would find some way to make money on the south side. About halfway to CG a friend texted me from the southside needing a ride.  Unfortunately timing didn't work out and I was headed back north with an empty car.  I thought about sticking around on the south side for a bit, and I asked God to give me some sign if I should stay.  I drove a couple minutes down the road and had a request from Beech Grove to head across town.  Shortly after I dropped that guy off I had a request to go from Southport, pretty far west, and it ended being a $40 fair.  I met up with my friends eventually, took them home, and then had numerous other requests from the near vicinity.  South was blowing up that night!
• On Wednesday, 3/19, I got up early (~4:45am) and after sitting around reading my Bible and asking some important life questions on 1 Timothy 5 I got a request from an auto shop in Zionsville.  After a brief conversation I learned that the owner of the shop was looking for someone to help get his clients from his shop back home after dropping off their cars for work.  The fare wasn't much, but it was a very promising conversation and hopefully some lucrative future business.
  (follow up to this - owner did not work out and said "I have worked long and hard to get this business up and running, I'm not interested in promoting anyone except myself,"  to which I walked out scratching my head wondering if he had missed the whole concept of Jesus first, others second, self last. And yes, I know this business owner is a Christian.) 

It's been too long

I'm a horrible blogger apparently because my last post was in June.
I've had the itch to write quite a bit since June, but I always pushed that urge aside for other things.

I was sending an email out to a friend and since this is a topic I wanted to blog about I wanted to share it here and hear from my readers on this (however many or few there are.) So. Read. Think. Respond. Let's start some dialogue.

    I wanted to know more of your thoughts on exactly who Jesus is. I feel that in today's Christianity there are people that follow the church (or a leader at the church) and there are those who follow Jesus.  I have been coming to the realization that if people really know Jesus they only have two choices to make

1) People can either accept him for who he is, which in turn means he should be worshiped and held in the highest regard or...

2) People can reject him because they think he is a fake and a liar 

    These two options do depend on one pre-requisite though, a person has to know Jesus before they can make one of these decisions. Just like any other topic in life, you shouldn't make a decision based on pure guesswork. Before buying into something (or someone) there should always be at least a little bit of research done on the topic. So, I guess my question is, What do you know about who Jesus is and what he did?

I am excited to hear your thoughts and get your opinions.  This is a simple question but a life-changing answer.    Here's to a great discussion. 

-Wef

PS. I can be reached at dwefler@gmail.com if you do not want to leave your comments below. 

Westward Ho!

West we go

Into the wild blue yonder

Not in search of gold

But in search of adventure 

Five thousand on the map

Twenty two on the calendar 

Countless memories 

Family

New Friends

Places and spaces never seen 

Forests, mountains, plains

Moose, bear, jackelope? 

Ecstatic

Only 8 more hours! 

Bible Reflection Psalm 27:11-14

[Inspired by Brent Booher: former co-worker at South Grove Intermediate School, man of God and role model of what it looks like to live out your faith]

Brent posted a challenge on his Facebook page about reading and reflecting on some scripture that means something to you.  I don't actually know what the challenge was in it's entirety, but I came home from a bike ride this evening to find yet another thing in our wonderful home that needs fixing.  The AC seems to be blowing, but not much colder than room temperature. Disappointing, considering it is about 80 degrees today. I love owning a home, but it definitely comes with a weight of responsibility and discipline to do the little things each day, so that this house can not just be a house, but a home for my family. Unfortunately I feel that I've been lacking in this area as well, as it seems that I have been leaving all these things for Katie to do and brushing off some of my husband responsibilities. With that, the scripture I ran across while browsing for something to reflect on was from Psalm 27:11-14.

11 - Teach me your way, O Lord;

lead me in a straight path

because of my oppressors.

12 - Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, 

for false witnesses rise up against me, 

breathing out violence. 

13 - I am still confident of this: 

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living. 

14 - Wait for the Lord; 

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord. 

I have a desire to know God and his son and what it means to really be a follower of Him.  How do I mention Jesus without being embarrassed? How do I give a gentle nudge to some, but a strong push to others? For this, I desire, "teach me your way, O Lord."

There will be people who persecute me and slander me, simply because I love you and desire to bring glory to you Lord. They will turn violent towards me, and knowing this, I stand strong against them and proclaim, "Do not turn me over to my foes, but let me put on your armor so that I may shield myself from the evil things of this world and the enemies it sends for me."

Let me see the goodness of the Lord while I am here on this Earth, and let me share with others that everything comes from Him who created it.  Let me never get bored with the beauty I see and the awe and wonder around me each day.  For this I pray, "let me see your goodness Lord."

When I feel frustrated and helpless. When I know that I am at the end of my rope, let me always look to you for guidance, and lean not on my own understanding. I want to bring everything to you first God, remind me that you are the reason I am here, and it is for your glory that I exist. I plead, my Savior, "Give me patience and endurance, let me be strong and take heart, while I wait for you to come again."