Day 8

Here is our Bad Form 5 - Bryan Crute (also called Herschel when the later was gone), moi, Bubba, Chris and ray)

Ray and the Moo Cow.

Well, Day 6 and 7 for the blog went the way of long days and a tired brain. We are in Nashville tonight having stayed in Batesville Arkansas last night. I leave the trip tomorrow while the group goes on to NC.

I have been surprised at how much I have actually enjoyed this journey. The trip has been part expedition, part wild man, and part chilled-out. For exmple, yesterday coming out of Eureka Springs Arkansas I had been travelling in the back group and we got seperated by several miles from the head of the group. So much so that we passed through at little town and the police had already released the traffic. One of our Marshalls passed me with the clear intent of catching up with the main group. I barely hung with him as we hit 100 mph on the straight aways and flew through the corners...it was a major rush!! Thats the wild man part. Then there were hours on straight aways accross Kansas that was definately chill time!

I got to talking wiht Herchel Walker today about his book on his struggles with Dissociation and discovered that my friend Jerry Mungadze, a psychologist from Zimbabwe, was part of his story. Very small world. (Picture to the right)

ServiceMaster through a big lunch party coming through Mephis today, complete with their new Nascar car and pit equipment on display. You can see them on the video.

The Memphis police actually closed off the freeways so that we had no cars with us going out of town. They led us out at 55mph and the moment they pulled off it was wide open throttles and this whole crew hit 90-95mph. A few miles later one of the lead marshals (they travel out in front to scout the road) pulled off to a cop car in the median and had the cop frisk him spread out on the back of his car when we came by. It was a hoot!

Weather: A few miles out of Nashville we met our first rain drops. The weather has been amazing. It rained 6 straight days in Washington before we left (including our arrival day) and the sun broke out the morning we left. In Kansas City a front came through right after we arrived with torrential rain, and then sun and cool air greeted us the the next morning. We followed the front down to Batesville where is was flooding and the sun was out!

Check out the last clip in the video of the strom over Nashville as we approached. The streets were wet with a recent shower, the clouds were dark, and as we pulled into the hotel garage downtown the rain started.

We have been blessed indeed.

Day 5

Well I got a little behind on the blog due to techinical difiiculties....

We left Steamboat Springs at 7:30 AM and enjoyed the beauty of the Rockies, coming across Loveland pass and down into Denver. I am amazed at how quickly the topography changes as you cross the country and with it comes a different eco system. Coming out of Denver into Kansas the transformation to flat expanse is startling. Imagine what the early settlers thought when they frist saw these plains.

Chick-fil-A had something of an extravaganza for us at the lunxh stop...big tent, live band, CHICKEN, and quite a bit of media.

Things got warm and all the cold weather clothes were off.

Lots of quiet time in my helmet time to think, listen to some United Pursuit music, and enjoy some worship.

Day 4: Utah to Colorado

Day 4 of beautiful sunshine...spectacular high desert landscapes...long straight roads. Very nice. I've been talking about Don Knobles and his "ministry of fashion". Here is Don from last night (left).

Herchel Walker left to go to the Celebrity Apprentice show on Sunday night and met back up with us here today. In the picture below is also Chris Carr, and Ray Parrish.

I caught some pretty cool video today with the Flip camera hopefully it will load up while I sleep.

Tomorrow is a longer ride and much warmer, over the mountain to Denver through Loveland pass and then out into Kansas.

Day 3: Idaho to Utah

So I am surprised...I actually enjoy ridding in the big pack. The 1300 miles that we have done is just a good start, but taken one day at a time, I can see why people come back to do this year after year. After three days ridding in formation is getting more intuitive vs constant sweat....nothing like doing 80 mph in a pack. As you can see from this picture to the left that the bikes are staggard so that you have 20-30 ft distance with bike in the lane ahead and then about 10-15 ft from the bike to the side (front and back). At 80 mph it takes some getting used to. The pack is tighter the closer you are to the front where are the hard core ridders like to group.

Franklin Graham gave a short devotional this morning. Guess what verse he used? John 3:16! I got to thinking on the ride about the simple message that the Graham family has always had...just the straight up gospel...how they have dominion with this message and people always respond. I am wondering what our family (fray family) message is?

On the video you will see the gas stops which are a fined tuned manoever followed by lines at the port a potty. One of the port-a-potty brand names today was "King's Throne". Kyle got a big kick out of that. At the last stop today somehow I wound up with my bike on the very front and the kids thought I was "some body" and so I signed autographs for the "Petty Racing Team"...ha ha.

No spell check or Gail...so overlook my sps.

Day 2 - Oregeon to Idaho

Wow! After a spectacular sunrise in Richland Oregon, we got on the road for a spectacular 600 miles. I can't imagine a better ride. The farm land in Orgeon gave way to mountains as we went into Idaho. The high lands of Idaho are still under snow pack and with the brilliant sunshine it was really amazing. I thought, "God you lost control of yourself up here!" If beauty is the language of romance then God is after us for sure!

Meet Don (above in the picture). Don is a gentle, out going man with a wild ward robe... a million dollar one at that. His ride is stylin in a major way!

T

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Day 1

Wow! What an amazing, gorgeous, and inspiring view of our country today. We left out at 7:00 AM in brilliant sunshine...the first in 6 days! It was cold. The Columbia River basis was an ancient glacier and has the wide valley bottom with the step sides. Ribbons of white water flow out of the spruce and pine forests, and tumble into the valley below. At one spot mist from the a falls blew across the road as we passed by. After a much need pit stop we crossed over a high pass in the Cascades, complete with snow, and even a frozen lake. The views were amazing.

Once over the mountain the eco system changed dramatically to high dessert terrain. We stopped for another gas up and it looked like the whole town showed up. It is quite a site to see this many bikes on the road at one time. This morning people lined the street like a parade was happening. Lots of fun.

I really should have thought twice before calling this the cycledelic journey! Well, for starters I read my itenerary wrong and got to the airport too late and

missed my flight. Fortunately, Delta was able to re-route me through Minneapolis (really on the way huh) to get me to Portland only 3 hrs later than I had hoped. Unfortunately, on the way from Min. to Portland I noticed that the lady accross the isle from me had been gone from her seat for about an hour. The flight attendants found her really sick with FLU LIKE SYMPTOMS in the bathroom. On arrival we were met with all kinds of medical personel and were not allowed to get off the plane untill we had filled out some paper work letting them know how to find us. Fortunately, they finally let us off the plane and for the first time ever I found all the men on the plane in the bathroom washing their hands. Unfortunately, my bag did not arrive with me and is still lost in baggage space. I did get to the hotel a little before the safety course (of course I was the only one of 7 in my van whoose room was not ready.

Pictures: Top left - Bubba; Top Right: Bryan Crute, Ray Parrish, Chris Carr

Well it is really beautiful here in the Columbia River valley. Snow melt is gushing off of the mountains in dozens of water falls.

This is a very colorful and friendly bunch of people we are travelling with. Let me intoduce you to the trip MC who runs the radio and essentially will be trash talking all week (you can find him on the Speed Channel) - Rutledge.