So, here’s how day three went down. Got up early, had some oatmeal and loaded up the bike. About 10 minutes before I headed out, it started to rain.  It was a cold rain.  It was a lot of rain. It was not a fun rain. By 2 miles in my feet and hands were pretty numb.   My goal was to get to the Mckenzie bridge General store/café about 15 miles down the road where I could warm up and make some decisions.  A couple miles from the café, I got my second flat tire of the trip. Rear tire, careless staple on the shoulder of the road.  My self sealing tires did a great job of closing it up and it was at that point I met Piers and Stefan. These are a couple of riders that heard were on about the same schedule I was.  My host home at the end of day 3 was hosting all of us.  Both guys are from Belgium and have been waiting a couple of years to take this trip together across the US.  Together, we got to the café and started looking at options. The weather cameras at the pass looked very ominous ~ snow covered roads and winds. We also weren’t sure exactly where the snow started. So the two campsite locations I found were a bit suspect as well. One of the local suspected they were probably snow covered as well. I went to a church that was close to the café, met Pastor Brent, and asked if he knew of anybody who might be able to give a ride.  Their service was about ready to start, so timing was perfect and I join the congregation with all my bike gear on and some pretty muddy / squishy clothes.   I received a warm welcome from a lot of very friendly people. They even took time in their normal prayer session to pray for the three of us who were traveling.  Shortly after that time of prayer, I received a text from Piers, local man was willing to give us a ride across the mountain.   he was the manager of the motel that Piers and Stefan had stayed out the night before   So they met me at the church at the end of the service, we loaded the bikes and drove up through the snow to the other side of the mountain. It turns out that Ken, the driver, was a retired pastor who would actually pastored the church I had just been at.  He’s a great guy we had a wonderful conversation sharing our faith stories.  

As we are driving up over the pass we knew we made the right decision. While the snow was off the road, it was completely full of cinders The road department how do used to provide traction for the vehicles.  Plus, this time, it would’ve been nearly impossible to make that ride up and over the pass until the time sisters Oregon before it got dark.  So while we did miss the 30 mile section of the route, it was still the wisest thing to do. 

The blessing in all of this is that because of the snow and the staple in my tire and God’s timing ~ I got to enjoy a great refreshing time of worship. I got to meet a couple of cool guys from Belgium. We got to meet Kent and hear his story of faith.  Had it been a sunny day, I would’ve certainly enjoyed the ride, but I would’ve missed all these other blessings. I’ll trade that 30 miles for the gifts that God gave me today.  

Yeah oh, by the way, if you notice typos or grammar issues in these posts, I’m doing talk to text at the end of a very long days. I’ll get the rest of it cleaned up when the trip is over. So please pardon a few mistakes here and their. (I did that last one on purpose lol)