Hello all!! Well this is the end of Day 5 and I got back on the bike today. I wish I would have ridden yesterday. The first little while was a noisy time. There were a lot of ooohhhs and oooowwwwsss and aaaahhhhhhhs. Then it calmed down and 5 miles in I found out that if I pedal harder, it felt better, so you know what that means. "Catch Me if you Can!!" or "The Race is On!" I was flying along and feeling great. I hated to stop because it hurt to stop. Around 40 miles I turned on to Highway 2 and turned on the juice. It was a fun ride and I even saw a Big Dog Scraper (that is what I build at Central Metal). 10 miles down the road I stopped and needed to top off my water bottles and lube my gears a little. As I was finishing my bike Rob Conner came flying up took a splash of water and took off. I thought I was alone. I was like “No way, I am going to catch him.” We only had 5 miles to lunch so no problem. The problem is that at the exit for Syracuse, Rob signaled left and drove by the exit. I was like “Ok …is he not stopping?” So I caught him and asked him if he was going to make a run for home. He said that if he stopped he would be done and I agreed. So we kicked it and we found out later that we were at least 30 minutes ahead of the last guys. We pulled into Nebraska City at 12:00. 68 miles in 4 hours 23 minutes. In fact we rode the last 20 miles without a
stop. It was like I was riding with Dale again. Rob was on a mission and really wanted to get home and be done!! As for me I have one day left and around 70 miles in the hills and the wind! Thank you for all of your prayers and emails. I literally am only able to ride because God has given me the strength. Last night I was awarded the "Looks the most like road kill award" and tonight I was given the "Loudest rider award" thanks to my most awesome horn that my wife got me!! I think everybody got annoyed by it, but I loved it. I honked at trees, bikers, dogs, because I shifted gears, basically all the time! It was awesome! See you soon, one day left!!
Pastor Busch
Single Parenting Day 5--A Quiet Day of Rest--I mean WORK!
Howdy friends and family...Oh what a night! And not like the song that talks of love! Julia and I enjoyed our coke floats and popcorn and plugged in the movie Valentine's Day...which was a really good movie I think-I watched the back of my eyelids more than I did the movie! I sat down on the couch and don't think I saw more than 20 minutes of that movie last night!
Well, after dragging myself back upstairs to crawl into bed, I was just getting comfortable and lil Miss Jalise woke up screaming--which lasted for 2 1/2 hours straight. I tried everything from holding her to walking with her, rocking her, giving her medicine to screaming with her, all to no avail! Finally at 3:30 she gave up the ghost and slept restlessly in my arms.
My alarm was set to go off at 7 a.m. this morning because the Busch Boys were heading to Broken Bow to spend the night with Grandpa and Grandma Miller so that I could get some things done around the house and finish my preparations for tomorrows sermon. When that alarm went off my first thought was to yank it out of the wall and throw it through the window, but of course, I just climbed from my bed and shut it off as quick as I could so not to wake Jalise. But as you guessed it, no luck. She woke up and still grumpy--along with her older brother Jacob! He didn't have his stuff ready to go and he was in no mood to get it ready. Then Caleb proceeded to tell me that his shoes were wet because Isaac had thrown them in the pool and he couldn't find his sweatshirt and the soap opera continued. By the time we finally got out the door, I am sure you could see sparks coming out my ears today! I drove them to Ord where a friend of mine took them to Bow since she was heading that way anyway to watch her son run Cross Country.
I got back to Burwell and my thoughts were "Wonder if I can get Jalise in the house and she will stay asleep and I can crawl back in my bed..." as I was pondering this in the garage I heard the answer from the back seat...it was a very shrill "NO!"
We made our way into the house, had breakfast and started in on laundry and the boys' room...Four garbage sacks later, I had found my good spatula and tabasco sauce under Caleb's bed! I laughed out loud knowing that he hid them from me thinking that I would never find them so he couldn't get punished any more...ha! I got the last laugh there Sonny!
My sis and three of her kids came up today to help me paint Jalise's room. It finally looks like a little girl's room with cute lavendar and oak bluff walls. No more black magic marker target from Isaac. Jalise seems to enjoy it very much! She walks in and out and says "ohhhh" all while pointing and smiling at the walls!
Some other major improvements on the house are in the process of being completed today as well...those will have to be finished up tomorrow because day turned into night and there was still finishing touches needed to be put on a sermon!
Soooo, from my newly improved picture window to yours, have a great night!
