Well, at least it's dry out there... time to hit the road... praying for Missy, Rose, Helen and Bob, Fr. Chris, Danny, and all the regulars at daily Mass at St. Albert the Great...
cont'd:
As it turned out, it only stayed dry for about 20 minutes… But… if I never get to ride in Europe in places like the Isle of Sky, or anywhere in the Scottish Highlands, or on the wild Northwest coast of Ireland, it will be OK because I got to ride today. The rain came down, and then the sun would peak out, I world mostly dry out, and then rain again. But the ride was amazing, cruising through the small coastal towns, watching all of the art shops flash by, seeing a hardy soul out repairing a truck in a 40 degree drizzle with his shirt off, smelling the sea for the first time in my long ride… it was amazing! This is the peak of summer for these people so there are swimming pools behind some of the homes, next to their snowmobiles under tarps. The dirt here is black as night and would grow almost anything but for the short season. I stopped at a little hot-dog stand for lunch and had to translate, tomato, onion, cheese, and mustard into French. I ate a great meal Chicago style and it was awesome.
Today was sort of a transition day of sorts. I left the big roads behind me so now there is little traffic. By the time I got onto Route 389, I saw only about five vehicles over the next few hours of hard riding on dirt & gravel. That’s what the machine was made for but I find myself getting old! Aches and pains galore… But I digress.
I thought about the cold realities facing the Feists today. Each an every holiday will be dulled by a pain of loss. Christmas, Mother’s day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Nancy’s Birthday, and the ever looming June 19th, will always be a sad days for that whole family. While I’m certain that the support of All Saints has not waned at this point, normal life, or what resembles that, will now be seeping in. What to do with that car seat I saw at the funeral? Awful realities that no family should ever face for one so young as Nancy, and then the double whammy of a baby brother who lived just long enough to be baptized. Not to be a bummer, but I thought a reminder of this would be helpful to many of you reading about my adventure. Please consider making a contribution to the five remaing kids’ education fund. There are little ones to consider and college will be very expensive by the time they gets there. Don’t worry about how much you give. Remember the parable about the poor woman who gives a few coins and how her gift blessed God! It’s not about the amount but rather the “doing” of the thing. It will make you feel better. It’s what Jesus would and did do. It’s OK if you never knew them. It’s just…. OK to give a few bucks to a family you will never meet or know. The money won’t dissipate any measure of their loss but it will help them down the road. Now is your chance to “pay it forward,” which is another phrase for the good news of Jesus Christ.
I pray each time I get on the bike and ask God for safety. I ask for St. Michael to pray for me to stay out of harm’s way, and for St. Patrick to help me keep my throttle wrist in check. Then I pray what I call a travelling rosary. I sort of made this one up out of sheer boredom on the Alaska trip. Here’s how it works: Pray the Glory Be, the Our Father, then imagine a different person’s face for each Hail Mary. It’s pretty cool as there is no limit to the number. I pray for people in groups that interrelate. I pray first for my family, my wife Ellie, my daughter Sophie, my son Patrick, My Mom and my Dad, my sister Brigid, her husband Bob, all of my nieces and nephews, then for my two aunts and their families on my Dad’s side, then for my Mom’s whole side of the family. It takes me a while, and before you know it, I’ve gone 30 miles on hard-packed clay and gravel. Then I switch to the Feists. I do all of them by name that I remember, then I go by faces I saw at the funeral, then to those that I didn’t meet, etc…
When the road gets pretty squirely or a big truck comes barreling down a mountain towards me, I start in with another Glory Be, and so on. It works and it keeps me centered on God all day long.
Last, I ended up staying in a worker’s camp about 60Km up Route 389 tonight. It’s a long doublewide with tiny little rooms and a communal shower/bath setup. With all the rain, it’s not worth the trouble of tent-camping for me. I paid $1.45 per litre (Canadian) for fuel tonight when I stopped. I don’t even want to think about how much that is in US $! It will get higher though, especially as I gas up in Happy Valley/Goose Bay tomorrow! Until then, good night! Dpat ☺
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