A Blessing, then A Party !

 

Larry – Sunday, May 19, was a big day. We got to ride the Big Bike to church. We’ve done that a few times in the past, but this Sunday was special. Our church has an annual celebration they call ‘Pentecost in the Park’, which consists of a joint church service with 2 other local congregations held under the pavilion at one of our municipal parks. Someone at the church had heard of our oncoming adventure and arrangements were made for us to receive a special prayer and blessing (including the bike!) during the service. This was very thoughtful and much appreciated. We invited the priest to join us for some or all of THE BIG RIDE, but he said he’d be busy this summer and would have to take a pass. Thanks all the same. We are humbled by our church’s kindness. Thank you each very very much. We also know that we’ll be blessed on our journey by the kindness of strangers many times over as we make our way.

Fr. Polk, Fr. Colin, us and the Big Bike

                                                

 

Sunday’s other event of significance was mother’s birthday party. As before mentioned, we moved her 90th birthday celebration up a few weeks so that we could enjoy it with her before we leave on THE BIG RIDE. Just close friends and family in attendance. Mother had a great time, as did we all. The food was great (thanks to Martha and sis-in-law Suzy) and the flowers were beautiful (thanks to brother Bill). I was just the big idea guy and task delegator.

Larry and the birthday girl

Beautiful flowers by Bill

What's a birthday without a cake

The whole family

I started breaking down the Big Bike a little bit this a.m. Took off the racks and fenders. We hope to get in a few more rides before it goes into the big black box next Tuesday for UPS to pick up and deliver to our D.C. hotel. Bought a new frame pump. It’s like a mini floor pump with a little hose that will allow me to air up the back tire while it’s mounted on the bike. The bigger tires we’re running require some deflation to get over the brakes. With the old pump, I usually enlisted the help of a handy fence post or utility pole to lessen the chances of damaging the valve stem during inflation. Since the wheel now has to be on the bike for tire inflation, my post/pole thing wasn’t going to be an option. We hope not to be using that pump very much, if at all. But experience tells me that it will get its fair share of a work out.

The new pump