Category: Freedom Tour

Is it possible to stand for justice…peacefully? Can people on bicycles really claim to “make a stand for justice”? Shouldn’t we storm the brothels, blow stuff up Rambo-style, rescue the victims and take out the bad guys? We’re riding bikes. In funny-looking helmets and colorful jerseys. Not exactly what we picture when John Wayne rides […]

On my last bike ride, the odometer clicked past 2,000 miles for 2019. That means I’ve cranked more than 39,000 miles since my first two-block ride in 1999. Depending on your perspective, that’s either a lot of miles or it’s not a big deal. Either way, this milestone offers an opportunity to reflect. I didn’t […]

Does your GPS have a name? We call ours Bertha. Her calm, reassuring voice is always available to tell me where to turn. If I mess up and take the wrong road, Bertha gently guides me back to the correct path. Often her soothing voice suggests, “Make a legal U-turn.” Bertha’s advice is always accessible, […]

It’s Suicide Awareness Month. We see efforts across lots of media platforms designed to help us understand how pervasive this issue is and how many people suffer in often quiet desperation. Still, for those who’ve never experienced that sort of extreme despair, depression and suicide can be difficult to comprehend. As someone who struggles with […]

Which way do we go? It’s a frequent question as we plan for FREEDOM TOUR 2020. Do we do same-old-same-old or something bold and brand new? It’s like standing at the edge of a cliff staring into an abyss of endless choices. How to decide? Sometimes we need to look back to find the next […]

We enjoy sharing our journeys. Here’s a video look at Colorado Mountain Tour 2019. Four mountain passes and 16,200 feet of climbing in four days. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride! Can’t see the video? Click here.

Prayer has gotten a bad reputation. In our broader culture, I’ll pray for you has sadly become a hollow platitude. “Thoughts and prayers” has become a way of saying, “We feel kinda bad, but we probably aren’t going to do anything about it.” We’ve allowed the perception that prayer is about inaction. Every day on […]

We live in communities. Neighborhoods, towns, churches, families all can be places where people come together toward some common purpose. They can also be places of oppression, isolation, and inequality. I’ve thought a lot lately about community. Because it’s difficult, because we do these bike tours, because I spent 35 years in classrooms. Today I’m […]

We completed two amazing tours. Community is hard. Whether it’s a bike tour/mission trip, a neighborhood, a city, a state, or a country, bringing folks together from different places, with different backgrounds and beliefs and different reasons for showing up, and asking them to work toward a common purpose takes a lot of work. Classrooms […]

On our bike tours, we sleep in churches. Each night, generous congregations allow us to invade their space with coolers, sleeping bags, and cycling equipment. When we leave each morning we do our best to leave the spaces just as we found them, clean and ready for use. In Breckenridge, Becky and I slept in […]