Arriving in Denver

We made it to the mile high city of Denver. We got a great reception at the Denver Christian High school. We had to go over a very high pass which was 11,300 feet. It was steep and windy with some switch back hairpin corners. There was not much room on the shoulders for the bikers and I tried to give them plenty of room when I passed them. It had some great scenery as we went up and down the pass. Rose went grocey shopping with the ladies and helped spent a lot of money on food at Costco as we have a lot of hungry bikers
Hi to all in Trinity CRC in Abbotsford. We are having a great journey and are aware of the prayers you are sending in our behalf. Tomorrow we will have a celebration service in Denver
Col. If one of the church members read this before the sunday service please pass our regards to everyone , that we are doing well and look forward to sharing stories of the tour. Thank you for all your prayers and may God continue to bless Trinity.
Supper time I got to go.
George ,looking forward to seeing you in Nebraska
Steve & Rose

End of Third Week

Hi Everyone
We have finished 3 weeks of the bike tour and are at Jordanelle State park about a 45 minute drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. Rose and I are having a great time.We are getting into a routine. I am getting to become an expert at setting and putting down the tent as we do it almost every day. We are staying at a lot of High schools. Camping in their fields.
I am enjoying driving the big rig. Some days I take the same route as the bikers or other days I take the more direct route over the interstate. So far I have not taken out any bikers.The days are starting to blend into each other as I look back at where we have been.
This morning I was allowed in the kitchen to make the pancakes. That is a Sunday tradition we have at our home. I make pancakes and eggs each sunday morning.
Today is our day off and everyone is relaxing or swimming in the Lake. Lifes a beach. Yesterday was a hard ride for the bikers as they biked 95 miles in the heat with a couple of steep grades but most of them made it. These bikers are great. It was really tough for me. I had to drop another gear as I was driving up the pass. Life sounds pretty hard for me but I will try to bear it. I would suggest that you check some other people blogs to get a feel of the tour as they will post some nice pictures. There is lots to choose from. www.seatosea.org When someone shows me how to post pictures I will attempt it againSteve & RosePlease continue to pray for this bike tour

End of third week

Hi EveryoneWe have finished 3 weeks of the bike tour and are at Jordanelle State park about a 45 minute drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. Rose and I are having a great time.We are getting into a routine. I am getting to become an expert at setting and putting down the tent as we do it almost every day. We are staying at a lot of High schools. Camping in their fields. I am enjoying driving the big rig. Some days I take the same route as the bikers or other days I take the more direct route over the interstate. So far I have not taken out any bikers.The days are starting to blend into each other as I look back at where we have been. This morning I was allowed in the kitchen to make the pancakes. That is a Sunday tradition we have at our home. I make pancakes and eggs each sunday morning.Today is our day off and everyone is relaxing or swimming in the Lake. Lifes a beach. Yesterday was a hard ride for the bikers as they biked 95 miles in the heat with a couple of steep grades but most of them made it. These bikers are great. It was really tough for me. I had to drop another gear as I was driving up the pass. Life sounds pretty hard for me but I will try to bear it. I would suggest that you check some other people blogs to get a feel of the tour as they will post some nice pictures. There is lots to choose from. www.seatosea.org When someone shows me how to post pictures I will attempt it againSteve & RosePlease continue to pray for this bike tour

End of third week

Hi Everyone
We have finished 3 weeks of the bike tour and are at Jordanelle State park about a 45 minute drive from Salt Lake City, Utah. Rose and I are having a great time.We are getting into a routine. I am getting to become an expert at setting and putting down the tent as we do it almost every day. We are staying at a lot of High schools. Camping in their fields. I am enjoying driving the big rig. Some days I take the same route as the bikers or other days I take the more direct route over the interstate. So far I have not taken out any bikers.

The days are starting to blend into each other as I look back at where we have been. This morning I was allowed in the kitchen to make the pancakes. That is a Sunday tradition we have at our home. I make pancakes and eggs each sunday morning.

Today is our day off and everyone is relaxing or swimming in the Lake. Lifes a beach. Yesterday was a hard ride for the bikers as they biked 95 miles in the heat with a couple of steep grades but most of them made it. These bikers are great. It was really tough for me. I had to drop another gear as I was driving up the pass. Life sounds pretty hard for me but I will try to bear it.


I would suggest that you check some other people blogs to get a feel of the tour as they will post some nice pictures. There is lots to choose from. http://www.seatosea.org/ When someone shows me how to post pictures I will attempt it again



Steve & Rose
Please continue to pray for this bike tour

Oregon and into Idaho

It is Monday and we are in Mountain Home Idaho. Thanks for reading our blogs.
The last ouple of days have been short rides for the bikers and me. I just get the truck warmed up and we are in the next town. This weekend we crossed into Idaho and stayed in Boise Sat and Sun night. On Sat after dropping off the trailer at the school I brought the gear truck to a repair shop to get a minor air leak fixed. When I was driving to the school with the truck and trailer I had to swing wide to make a tight right corner and some silly person passed me on the right side as I was making the turn. He just about took out the front of the truck. Don't people see that I have my signal on.
It was a real treat not having to break down and set up the tent for one day. Boise is a nice city and we had our worship service was right in the City Park along the Boise River. A lot people were on tube and rafts floating down the river. Rose and I and a SAG driver named Cory explored Boise. WE went to the train depot which had a good few of the city from its bell tower. We walked downtown and saw the Capital building.We walked back to the school where we are camping which was a 4 mile walk along the Biose river
We are talking to a lot of people about the tour as we are all wearing our yellow sea to sea shirts and they are curious about what we are doing. We are getting a good response.
Rose got to ride part of the route today because one of the lady bikers was tired and needed a break. Rose really enjoyed doing that. Rose is in the food line up getting our food while I am typing this blog.Here she is so I am going to post this blog now.
Thanks for keeping an eye on our boys
Blessings
Steve & Rose

Truck Driver

I am back.Computers are hard to come by at camp and sometimes the internet connection is unavailable.

I thought I would give you an idea of my typical day as a truck driver on the tour.

I wake up and start packing Rose and my sleeping gear and then head for breakfast with the rest of the campers. Some bikers get up early so they can beat the heat. Did I mention how hot it has been here. Each biker is responsible for packing up there gear and bringing it to the truck. Each day there is a sweep team which loads the truck. I make sure that the truck is loaded properly. I do a pretrip of the truck each day. I drive for 1-2 hours per day. Ed rides with as the truck is his mini office. 

I usually do not take the route the bikers take because the roads are narrower and I do not want to take out any of the bikers. I am on the interstate mostly. When we get to the new camp Ed directs me where to park the gear truck. This truck is very manuverable considering its size. I have had to park it in tight spots. In Le Grande they have lot of low trees hanging over the streets so I had to navigate them so I will scratch the paint job.When it is parked then I help unload  the gear bags from the centre isle of the gear trailer. After that my job for the day is generally. I try to help around the camp as much as possible. 

We are in Baker City Oregon camping in a High School Field. Rose and I went to the Oregon trail Interpretive centre which was very interesting.

It does not sound very exciting but I am enjoying myself and enjoy meeting all the bikers. It is not same for me as the bikers because they have different experience that I do but it is still great.

Hopefully on my next blog I will have some pictures.  

Gods blessings     We look  forward to hearing from you. 

Steve & Rose Dykstra

Camping along the Columbia River

Hi everyone out there

Here I am sitting on the shores of the Columbia River camping in a City Park. I can hardly believe that first week is over.  . We have been here since Saturday noon. This is an awesome place to camp. Last night Rose and I were billetted at someone home here in Kennewick WA. We did not have to set up our tent last night. That was a bonus. They had a swimming pool and we took advantage of that. 

A couple of nights ago we had our first thunder and lightning storm during the night and all the tents got soaked. I thought it would be a disaster with everything being wet but it turned out OK. It cooled things down and made it easier for the bikers to ride.

Making a bog is hard work when your are a slow typer. I just thought I would throw that random comment in.

Rose and I went for a short bike ride together along the Columbia River.

This morning we had great worship service right here in the park where we are camping which were organized by the local CRC church.

Its almost 8:00 pm and I have to sound the airhorn for the evening get together and small group meeting.

Please continue to keep this tour in your prayers

Steve & Rose

  

On the road with bikers

On Saturday at lunch time, we got through the border with no problem. We were concerned about going through the border, but prayers were answered and we go through easily. I said, "Praise the Lord!" when we got through.

This is the fourh day of the actual biking, bu we'll start from the top. It all started in Seattle, WA on Monday morning. The bike tour started on the beach of the Pacific Ocean with all the bikers dipping their back tires in the water. A church from Seattle hosted a bountiful breakfast for them on the beach. Each group was sent off with a cheer of encouragement. It was our first encounter with the media. Marvin, the other driver of the kitchen trailer, and I left Seattle in a convoy, but we quickly got separated. It took us a little while to get together again. We eventually found our first accomodations.

Rose says that the kitchen is going well and it's a lot of fun. The first couple of days were a bit chaotic and confusing because someone else had packed the supplies for the kitchen. Now they are just about professional bike tour chefs.

We are slowly getting into the routine of the tour. It's awesome for us to see all the bikers and how different each one is in ability, shape, and age. But they are all enthusiastic and determined to get to the next destination.

Below is a picture of Rose and I and the gear truck that I get to drive. It's incredible that Carrigon Moving donated this truck for the use of the Sea to Sea bike tour, and I feel priviledged to drive it and support the tour.

Here is a picture of he process of packing the gear truck. Each morning the gear truck needs to be loaded with duffle bags from each rider; when he truck arrives a the destination, it has to be unloaded. There are at least 140 duffle bags, and some are really heavy. There is a lot of help for unloading. Don't worry, I am not working too hard!

This is Yackima, WA at 102 degrees in the shade. Check out the website for more general

pictures. We will continue to update this, so stay tuned for the next episode!