It's a God Thing
I was to do a 200-mile ride with Silver Cyclists on Saturday but it didn't happen. I left home in the dark at 5:30am to make it to some guys home by 6. I found the neighborhood but couldn't find the house. They were leaving at 6 sharp so I decided to soft-pedal it south on Cedar ave and figured they'd eventually catch me. I got to Northfield 25 miles later and hung around at one of the main intersection expecting to see the group. Jeff Thompson showed up 5 minutes after I got there and we headed to the coffee shop expecting them to show up there any minute. 15 minutes later we figured they must've rolled through town and skipped the java knowing that they weren't going to get 200 miles in by sitting in a coffee shop. We headed out with hopes of catching them along the way. An hour later we were in Kenyon where we spoke with a couple other cyclists and they said they saw our group 30 minutes earlier about where I'd expect them to have been. They were probably less than 3 miles ahead of us but Jeff wasn't interested in doing 200 anyway so I decided I'd just shoot for 100 and call it a day.
We had the best time talking along the way. We go to the same church and much of our conversation focused on our Christian walks. We talked politics some and realized we're both cut from the same cloth: conservative. I first rode with Jeff maybe 10 years ago but only raced with him once—8 years ago at the Headwaters 100 mile race in Park Rapids. We both finished in the pack that day. Jeff does a lot of racing. I think he said he races about 30 times a year. He's a cat 2 which puts him one less than the pro category. He's a very good rider.
We decided that we should get together with our wives sometime and go out to dinner. We both also realized that maybe we weren't intended to meet up with the group that day as we likely would never have gotten to know each other as well as we did.
Yesterday morning I was going to take a pass on church but at the last minute, I decided to go. As we were leaving our seats and walking toward the exit doors we happened to run into Jeff and his wife, Tracy, and their two kids, another God thing. The service we were at probably had close to 750 people and for us to run into them was not likely. It's been a couple years since I've last run into Jeff at church. Tammy and Tracy were able to spend some time talking which I thought was nice. I do think God intends for us all to become friends.
We had the best time talking along the way. We go to the same church and much of our conversation focused on our Christian walks. We talked politics some and realized we're both cut from the same cloth: conservative. I first rode with Jeff maybe 10 years ago but only raced with him once—8 years ago at the Headwaters 100 mile race in Park Rapids. We both finished in the pack that day. Jeff does a lot of racing. I think he said he races about 30 times a year. He's a cat 2 which puts him one less than the pro category. He's a very good rider.
We decided that we should get together with our wives sometime and go out to dinner. We both also realized that maybe we weren't intended to meet up with the group that day as we likely would never have gotten to know each other as well as we did.
Yesterday morning I was going to take a pass on church but at the last minute, I decided to go. As we were leaving our seats and walking toward the exit doors we happened to run into Jeff and his wife, Tracy, and their two kids, another God thing. The service we were at probably had close to 750 people and for us to run into them was not likely. It's been a couple years since I've last run into Jeff at church. Tammy and Tracy were able to spend some time talking which I thought was nice. I do think God intends for us all to become friends.
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