The Bike Trip Begins Tomorrow!

We're packed. 7 of us are here and 2 are meeting us in Canada over the
next couple of days. This trip has so many layers of memory and
meaning for me that it's hard to just let the trip be guys hanging out.

For example, it's on this trip that I first discovered that play and
hard work are not mutually exclusive, that in fact they can intensify
one another.

I'm going to try hard to not let this be a walk down memory lane and
not let it make me into a fortune cookie of deep thoughts. At the same
time I want to remember. And to remember with an eye to the future.

Tomorrow we leave @ 6am and head all the way up to Jasper, Alberta.

A day on the Wenatchee

Amy left for a weekend with some girlfriends today. My parents and I and the kids had a great day on the river. The spot we found was perhaps 4 feet at its deepest, so all of the kids could wander into the river. Make sandcastles on the riverbank, and let the current push along a bit.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was jumping off a bridge about 50 yards from our beach spot. I had my dad record a jump for posterity.

Family Days...

Yesterday and today were mostly family days. It's hot here. 100+. So we've been to the community pool, staying indoors, and apparently doing a little farm work.

My parents' new home in Leavenworth WA has a HUGE yard. It's not quite finished yet, so Reese and I could cruise around and do really very little damage.

Earlier tonight, Amy and I had a good looooong, lazy, date like walk along the riverbank of the Wenatchee River, which runs right through Leavenworth. It was good to have the time together in the cooler evening. We had a little lightening and a little rain, which just made it better.

So far, sabbatical just feels like vacation. That means it'll take at least 4-5 days before I decompress enough to really get on with the work of vacationing (or sabbaticaling in this case). I still want to check email, call to check in on things, contact kids, etc. It's a good thing, but the work for this season is a little different.

I leave in two more days to begin my bike ride. I'm nervous. My training has fallen off a cliff since the first week of July.

Traveling by Train

Traveling by train is amazing! True, it might be a little more distracting if my children were with me. But since they aren't, I can’t imagine a more leisurely and enjoyable way to travel. I watched the sunrise on Mt. Shasta, had a great conversation with previous strangers over breakfast, and have had more than one interesting conversation about politics, sports, and religion (finding out I’m a pastor either kills conversations or opens up a whole new can).

I think the thing I’ve liked most is how I’m not allowed to be hermetically sealed as a traveler. There’s movement, forced conversation over a meal, and also less stress. It just doesn’t have the same intensity or stress as flying. It’s been a good decompressing way to start my time away.

On one other note, I finished my first book. I mentioned it last night. It’s nothing heavy, but I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to see how financial greed and scheming in the 80’s seeded our current financial crisis. It’s a memoir of a man who worked at Salomon Brothers as a bond trader. First published in 1989, it was spooky in places to think about how that story told over 20 years ago directly informs so much of what we face now.

Ready, Set, Exit...

Today was a blessing. There isn’t another word for the time of worship, Debbie’s sermon on the resurrection, and the affirmations I received from congregants about my sabbatical. I’m flooded with the excitement and gratitude of well wishes and promised prayer. If I was giddy before (and Debbie told each service how over the top elated I was this morning) I’m now simply joyous.


My sabbatical is begun. I’m sitting on Amtrak, my first train ride ever, alone; I couldn’t be more happy or content. As I pull away from the church, ministry relationships, regular responsibilities I feel as I’ve started right. Goodbyes mostly made (especially to departing seniors). Inbox is empty. Fall ministry plans made. A sabbatical plan in hand that I think will actually nudge me somewhere new. Where? Let’s find out together.


More about the plan tomorrow, perhaps. For now, I’m going back to reading Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis. Thanks to M. Easton for the loaner.