Glenn Stewart

Packing up

We slept well past 7:30am this morning. Glenn got an invite to go down the street and have breakfast with Jeff and Wes, however that never really ever happened. Glenn said, "Come out here, and look at all the action".

I went out to the side street and there were Neil, Jeff, Wes and a few others hovering over the carry-top. The Carry-top had been so faithful for all 33+ days until today. The guys were trying to get it unjammed! Ugh. Something had moved and the key latch was not working. Poor guys. I'm not sure and still don't know if Neil had already gone on his "morning shoot" of landmarks in Washington DC. What was important, to have the lid open so Jon could get all the camera equipment shipped out by the early afternoon. He needed it the UPS store by mid-afternoon.

The guys tried everything. Then they thought if they would unbolt it and lift it down to the street level, maybe just shaking it would giggle it. Once they got the screws unbolted and unattached, it took 4 strong guys to lift it up and over. They tried shaking and gently slamming it on the ground. Nope. Not going to open.

Finally, a technician from the hotel brought a drill gun and Neil as able to drill a hole in the top carry case. I couldn't handle all the drama, so I went upstairs back to the hotel room and took a quick power nap.

At exactly 1pm, all the electronic equipment was loaded into the Nissan (except 1 piece) and all those folks traveling to Dallas Love Field, boarded into the van. We drove the 1 piece down to the UPS store and dropped it off, then followed several people's directions to get to Ronald Reagan International airport.

At 2pm, we pulled into the "drop-off" lane and hugged the team good-bye. They were flying back to Dallas. We were driving back to Dallas. Someone asked what we were going to do and I said: "I think we will just look at each other!"

We literally were parked on the curbside until 3:20pm when we drove away. We sat there. Glenn literally bawled like a baby. Our emotions were real. They were deep. We were exhausted. We were beyond exhaustion. We were drained. The whole #ConversationsCoasttoCoast event was physical and emotionally exhausting on us. And we're not young anymore. We are grateful for the extra strength the Lord gave us to endure it to the end. Unbelievable, no policeman came knocking to the van door asking us to move on.

In summary:
There are several things in my life that I count as life-changing. Besides my high-school mission trip to Mexico and Guatemala in 1972, my Moody Bible Institute college experiences and my 1977 Practical Missionary Training through Central America, this definitely has changed my life.

We will be forever impacted by the generosity of friends that cheered us to the end.
Grateful for the opportunity to leave Guatemala for a month.
Grateful that Neil had faith in our ability to help with the #CC2C project.
Grateful to see how easy it is to have "surprisingly easy to start conversations" with people.
Grateful to see how God shows up with Divine appointments along the way.

Total miles from Santa Monica Pier, California to Annapolis, Maryland -

some where between 2535, 2795 and 2968Read more

Day 31 Daleville, VA - Montebello Fishing and Camping Resort, VA
Miles - 72 miles
Turtle Rescued - 1
Train tracks - 2

Its the normal routine. We get up before 5am and get the van already. Even though the time for folks to have their luggage out by the van at 6:15, we are always there by 6:00 am, cause there will inevitably be someone needing a glove, shirt or whatever. But we are happy to be there to help there. Usually, Glenn is cleaning out the trash from the day before, and I get into my "junk drawer" which is under the first row of seats. It this junk drawer, we have scissors, pens, paper, and my whiteboard. I have habitually been taking the "day" picture at the beginning of each day. This has been very helpful for me to recount this stuff for that particular day.

We have breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Daleville. Daleville is like a northern suburb of Roanoke. I think I had breakfast with Jeff that day. Glenn didn't eat breakfast as he was helping the riders get ready for the day. I did order biscuits and gravy for him and we got that in a "to-go" bag. At the end of the day, the gravy was thrown away, and I think Neil had the biscuit at one of the breaks.

The cyclist was ready and left on their RidewithGPS course. The first stop was the Appalachian Trail. Vela and I got out. She made a video of her actually "walking the Appalachian Trail". She started in Daleville and ended in Daleville.

This particular day was beautiful. We followed the Bike 76 route. We came to a train trussel and I took some pictures. Then we continued on, it wasn't until 10 minutes later that I realized that we were "off course". Just after the train trussel, the 76 sign turned left, and we missed it. Ugh. We finally made our way back to Jeff and the camera car and the cyclist. Then the cyclists had a photo opp and Jeff told us to stand back. Hold back. We pulled over into the shade. And waited and waited and waited. We never heard a call. We were out of cell phone coverage and definitely out of two-way walkie-talkie. Finally, Glenn backed up and we got a text message from the camera car for us to come on up. I think this was one of the darkest times in our journey, where there were some miscues and unfortunate circumstances that we couldn't hear the camera car and we waited maybe a little bit too long. The ride was beautiful once we started going.

We stopped in one town that had a swinging suspension bridge. Vela, Jeff and I walked across it and the vehicles came to the other side. At this time, the weather was getting pretty hot, I remember.

We rode into Lexington, Virginia. This is the home of Washington and Lee University (where Wynn B) went to college. Glenn and I remember having a picnic lunch with him several years ago while visiting him. We had lunch inside at Macado's Restaurant. Great place. Glenn and I shared a Ruben sandwich. Most of the folks ate lunch outside on the porch.

As soon as lunch was over, there was a crowd waiting to talk to Neil. One was a gal. Another was a guy sitting on the porch steps. And then the last was a mother and son that I struck a conversation with and they were just curious about what was going on. Neil talked to all 3 groups. He later recounted that there were no conversations as they were eating lunch on the porch, but rather once they got their bikes out and were ready to roll. I think Wes talked mostly with the young gal. Again, I don't know the conversations, but it was neat how these 3 groups of folks all came together. Divine Appointment. Glenn, Vela and I talked with the mother-son.

As we drove out, we drove through and under the Virginia Military Institute campus. Quite impressive. The ride continued on to Vesuvius, Virginia and here the cyclists took a water break. Glenn parked under the tree and we filled empty water bottles and replenished their thirsty mouths. I walked to the 1 room US Postoffice and struck up a conversation with the Post Master.

I said "So you are the Post Master" and her reply was "No, I'm the Post Mistress". I laughed. I had a lengthy conversation with her. She grew up in the area. Married her high school sweetheart and has only been a few other states. Never been on an airplane. It was fun to talk to her. She only had 1 postcard stamp, but she had several postcards with stamps on them. Glenn and Vela rode 3 miles up the road to a lonely mom and pop's place, Girdys to buy some much-needed ice. I stayed in a small store and wrote 3 postcards. One to mom and dad, one to David, Emily, Lucy, and the baby and my final card to Brighton and Violet. I quickly drove a picture of the USA and x marks the spot for California and X for Maryland. Glenn came back after having passed up the hole in the way.

We got up to Caroline. The guys were on ahead. Man, this was a steep climb. Ugh. Several times on the curves, I would yell out the window to Caroline to encourage her along the way. Sometimes it looked like she was standing still. But faithfully, she would climb and climb and climb. I don't know how she did it. It was impressive. She rode up to the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We finally get to the Montebello Camping and Fishing Resort spot. A cute store that stocked all the supplies you need. Vela, Jeff and I realized that we needed to cook out for dinner. We bought all the supplies to make hamburgers, pickles, tomatoes, even charcoal to cook out on. I walked across the street to the pond where Wes, Caroline, and Neil sat - totally exhausted. They wanted ice-cream. I can still picture them in my mind, sitting on the bench in front of the lake and the ice cream in their sweating hands.

Once we got the cabins, Neil started to put the food on the grill. However, just before that, he decides to cut his hair. I think he was very tired at this point. Then we realized that we forgot to pick up the charcoal at the counter. Glenn drives down to the store to see if anyone is around, talks to a stranger and brings back a cord of wood. In the meantime, Jeff walks down the gravel road and talks to a family that was camping and returns with 1/2 bag of charcoal that we could use. In exchange, I think we gave them some shirts and maybe some other food items.

For dessert, we all wanted smores. But we didn't have any marshmallows. However, we had a bag of small cinnamon cake donuts that I bought several days ago. Neil put the donut on the grill topped with Hershey chocolate and I layered that on top of a granola bar. Pretty delicious. Afterward, we sat around and shared some experiences so far on the trip. The journey was coming to an end soon. Jon and Christine had to drive to Charlottesville to get a battery or something, so they were not around. Glenn and I had our own cabin. Cute and very tasteful and adequate. Just not enough time to enjoy it fully.Read more

Day 30 Wytheville, VA - Daleville, VA
Miles - 102
Turtles rescued - 1
Black bear and baby cubs spotted - 3
Emergency repair on Wes's bike - 1

Down to just a few days left in this amazing adventure. People are getting gitty, anxious and nervous all at the same time. Its been a L.O.N.G. 30 days. It has gone bu fast - and it has gone by slowly.

This morning, I woke up at 4am to finish my blog. Last night, I could barely type and decided to finish up this morning. I finished up around 5:30am just in time to get ready for the day and then go down and help Glenn load up the van.

It was kinda overcast in the morning but cleared up before breakfast. We all went over to the Cracker Barrell for breakfast. Glenn and I shared the Old Timer's breakfast. Just before we left, I checked to see if there were any letterboxes in the area. There was one at the Best Western Parking lot - and that was on our way out of town. So, with Wes's permission, we followed the clue and did a letterbox. Very easy. Glad Glenn did this for me. We also drove by a tiny tiny church. I got a picture.

About 20 minutes up the road, one of Neil's friends that lives in North Carolina drove up so he could cycle with the team. What a kind friend to do that. He was all decked out in the cycling outfit and he rode probably an hour or two before he has to ride back and get his vehicle.

Just right after this, Wes' chain on his bike kept breaking or was creating problems for him. He would ride for 3 minutes, then stop. Do that again several times, til finally, he had some screws out and was really working on it. It looked like he had it repaired. And we started to drive to meet the team. They had only gone 1 mile up the road where they started to have a conversation with a man and his wife or girlfriend. They were in a Sprinter van. Once we rolled into them, Wes decided he needed to find a bike shop. He searched the internet and found one just 20 minutes up the road.

We asked the other bikers to get their stuff that they would need like food items. Then we quickly left. Glenn drove on I 81 towards Blacksburg. Then off the interstate to a bike shop in a Kroger's shopping center. While they were getting that repaired, I walked over to Kroger and bought a case of water. I think we were there for 45 minutes. And then we called Jeff and they were just sitting down to eat lunch at Fatz.

25 minutes later we were at the restaurant also. I had soup and salad. Glenn had chicken. Now it was time to roll again. Heading North on the side streets on the rolling hills through farmland. We didn't seed corn like we used to see in Kentucky and Missouri.

We went through one tunnel and I saw one covered bridge. We stumbled upon a barn and Jon took some photos of the blue bike against the old barn.

As we were driving towards the Super 8 motel tonight, Neil saw 2 ladies trying to get a couch through the front door. Glenn, Wes, Matt, and Caroline helped this family. Then afterward, Neil was able to have a conversation. Glenn and I went on to the hotel to get checked in. Tonight, Glenn and I are together.

We met Neil's cousin, Monty. He lives several hours from here and drove down to see them. We went to a Chinese restaurant for supper tonight.

We got back to the hotel room by 9:45pm. Another late day. We get to sleep in 30 minutes later tomorrow.Read more