It was a cold night for sure. Unlike last night, zipping our sleeping bags together didn't help at all. In the middle of the night we had had to unzip them and zip them individually. Joey didn't sleep good because he was freezing. Somehow, I was warm enough that I was able to sleep good, which is strange because usually it's the other way around. The pastor arrived around 8 or 8:30, so we packed up as fast as we could and ran inside where it was warm. Angela told us to take our bikes and put them into an extra room in the church so we wouldn't have to worry about them outside. Almost right away, we were enjoying snacks, and soon after a breakfast of fruit, "arroz con leche" (which was my favorite), donuts, and a few other yummy things. Everyone arrived, got their plate of food and headed into the sanctuary. It is kind of neat because the way they do it here is everyone has breakfast during worship, which helps the families because the kids always got really hungry. The best part about this church is that it is bilingual. Worship was conducted in both English and Spanish, which was just so cool. Joey and I really enjoyed that, especially since we are planning to try to learn Spanish when we get back. This congregation is full of lots of kids, and I was surprised to hear about all of the activities they have for their youth. Everything from dance and music to a whole bunch of other things! The most memorable part of the service today was the kids sermon. It was so fun. They did a song about following God they had learned yesterday at one of their big youth activities. It started with one boy and as the song went on, he would point to random people in the congregation and they would join the line to "follow God." By the end of the song, the whole congregation was up and walking around the church. It was lots of fun. I have to admit that I'm a little jealous that my church didn't have that, well of course it would have had to have some more kids there when I was little. After the service, Angela and her husband Curtis asked us if we were in a big rush to get on the road. Since we knew we had a place to stay about 80 miles away, we really weren't in any rush. Angela and her husband Curtis insisted on taking us out to lunch if we weren't in too big of a hurry. Of course we would love that! So, we left our bikes in the church and hopped in their car to head to a restaurant. With so many choices, we decided to go to Applebees. I normally get pasta, but I saw a cheeseburger that someone had ordered and after that, all I wanted was a burger. Joey of course got his usual, a bacon cheeseburger. We had a great time talking with Angela and Curtis and are so glad we had the chance to get to know them a little better. They said that if we wanted to get any dessert to just go right ahead and get some. At first we were thinking maybe we would split (my favorite dessert!!) a triple chocolate meltdown, but they said that we should each just get one. So, that's what we did- boy are those desserts just heavenly! After getting back to the church, we took a couple pictures and then were off on our way. It was a very fun morning indeed. By the time we left it was almost 2 pm, it had stopped snowing, and it wasn't quite as bone chillingly cold. It was however, still windy- a head wind of course. and chilly. We made a quick stop at Lowe's so that I could get another pack of wire for me to make little bikes with. The wind slowed us down a lot today. We had hopes of making it to Chatsworth, but we knew we would be pushing it. While riding through one of the tiny little towns, we stopped at a gas station for a quick break. When Joey pulled out of the parking lot, he noticed that he had a flat tire on his front wheel. Bummer! So, we headed for some place that we would be out of the way and out of the wind a little while he changed it. We ended up finding a church with a little porch on it that did the job. Poor Joey froze his fingers off a little changing it, but it is really only a one person job, and if I was doing it, we'd be there for an hour. As usual, I did what I could by just getting out the tools that he needed. Those darn pieces of wire from the tractor trailer tires, the get us every time. After having that flat, we knew our chances of making it to Chatsworth like we had hoped were even slimmer now. We still were going to try though. When we were getting close to being done with our ride, a nice guy slowed down in his car to see if we needed any water or anything, but we didn't. Such nice people always looking out for us. Once the sun went down it got really cold! After getting into the little unincorporated town of Ramhurst (which was about 6-7 miles away from our goal for the day) we headed to find somewhere to set up. We saw a sign for a Baptist church, so we headed in that direction. When we got there, the parking lot was full of cars. We saw the sign that said service had started at 6, so we figured they would be done shortly. Joe and I would have gone in to join the service, but we didn't want to go in when it was just about over. Since Angela gave us a whole bag of goodies, from crackers to cookies, we had a little snack of those while we waited. When church was over, a flood of people came out, and with it a TON of youth. Still so nice to see so many kids involved in the church, that is has been a frequent occurrence down here. We peaked our heads in the door and then once some of the congestion cleared out, went in to look for the Pastor. A nice man greeted us and welcomed us, since we were obviously newcomers. He pointed us in the right direction of the Pastor, and when we told him our story, he was just so thoroughly impressed. The pastor said that it would be absolutely fine to set up our tent there for the night. As we were getting our tent set up, a parishioner (the first one that had initiated contact with us), Philip (and his wife Sherri) invited us to come to their house and sleep inside where it was warm. We were obviously up for that!!! Upon asking how far away their house was, we learned that it was about 5 miles away. Knowing that we were probably tired, it had gotten really cold out and that it was not very safe to ride there in the dark, Philip ran home, got his truck and came back to get us. A couple other parishioners waited with us so that we could wait inside out of the 30 something degree temperature. We got the bikes all loaded, and headed off to Philip and Sherri's. It worked out very nicely because they lived in Chatsworth, the town we had been hoping to get to today, so we ended up there anyways. Upon arrival, we got settled, each took a shower, and then enjoyed an amazing dinner of sloppy joes, beef pasta noodles, macaroni salad, strawberry pie, and sweet tea. We had a great time talking with Philip and Sherri and relaxing in the warmth on the sofas. Later on, we watched the movie Wedding Crashers on their nice tv before going to bed. Both of us slept in living room- one on couch and one on air mattress w/ a comfy little mattress on top of that (I got the mattress!!!). Joey and I were just SOOO happy to be inside where it was warm! Despite riding in the cold and wind, today was an amazing day. Somehow we still managed to ride 42.07 miles, even though we didn't leave until after 2.
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