Day 59: Missed Turns to Louisiana

We started riding today REALLY late. It was after noon before we took the first pedal. Last night we stayed at Red Cloud RV Park in Silsbee so we have power, hot water, and laundry facilities this morning.

We slept in a little late then Craig (dad) got up and made waffles.

It was a little foggy still so we decided to hold off a while. Katie (mom) did one last load of laundry and Kenadi washed all the dishes with hot water! The little boys played outside while CJ and Craig worked on maintenance on the bikes for a while, and everyone was a little hesitant to leave because of the comfort and the fog. Finally around 11 we started getting dressed and ready to ride. Kenadi decided to ride the first leg to give Craig a break so he’ll be ready for the 100 mile day tomorrow.

We started riding a little after noon and made it about 10 miles outside of Silsbee. Craig and driving the bus and Katie (who makes the route and normally drives) was taking care of the little boys in the back of the bus. We took a wrong turn and went over 8 miles out of the way before Katie realized that the turn had been missed! It was also starting to rain. When Katie realized we’d gone the wrong way, she looked for another way around but found that it was going to be even longer, SO we loaded up in the bus and drove back to where we’d made the wrong turn. It was not raining there so we got back out and pedaled again…this time taking the RIGHT way! 

A little while later we found that one of the planned roads was actually a DIRT road so again we had to revamp the route. We had to add about 5 miles to go around the dirt road. This turned out to be a good thing though because this new way took us through the little town of Mauriceville, TX.  We pulled over at the First Baptist Church for Kenadi and Craig to switch positions. Kenadi came in the bus and Craig began riding. As we were switching out and pumping up Craig’s tires the pastor there, Pastor Kevin, came out and greeted us. This is the FIRST pastor all the way across the USA that has come out to greet us without us calling ahead!! We were super impressed with his hospitality! He let us know that we were welcome to stay there at the church for the night if needed, but of course we told him we were trying to make it further for the day. He assured us that he would share about CJ’s ride with his church family. Looking back I WISH I had known about his church, we would have made plans to stop there for the night and stay for Wednesday night services! But, we did not know, so on we rode! He did pray with us and we took this picture before we left. Thanks Pastor Kevin for being awesome!

Soon after we left Mauriceville we crossed over the Texas/Louisiana state line. Of course we had to stop for a picture!

We rolled into the Burger King Parking lot in DeQuincy, LA around 6pm. We turned what was supposed to be a 42 mile day into a 55 mile day!!  Kenadi already had tortellini made for supper, so we ate, took showers and went to bed.  We will have to get up early in the morning to do the 100 mile day! We are expecting several major media folks here at 8am, so that means we need to be up before 7. Excited to see how tomorrow goes!

CJ is planning to ride 100 miles from Dequincy to Krotz Springs, LA. He wants to get at least 100 people to give $100 each tomorrow! That would be a total of $10,000 raised in ONE day for the kids with the NCCS. We are praying people will see this great task and be generous givers!