olympic national park, washington

Olympic National Park

 We are at the Lake Quinault Lodge in Olympic National Park and will be here for two nights. I found out that Lake Quinault translates as “the lake between two rivers.” It’s a beautiful place and the weather is cool and comfortable. With the windows open, I’m sure we’ll sleep well tonight.

Becky and Kevin are here at the lodge. They drove here from Delaware, Ohio. Becky is Margaret’s cousin and Kevin is her husband. Becky will be pedaling with us on the ride. Phil and Gale are up the road about a mile, camping in their RV at Rain Forest Resort Village. Phil was the minister of music at our church for about ten years. Gale is his better half and their home is Ft. Worth, Texas. Phil is the cyclist of the two. So . . . on Sunday morning, Becky, Phil, and I will head east on our bikes while Kevin, Gale, and Margaret drive the vehicles. They are the life-savers, carrying all of our necessities in the vehicles. We are not what are called self-supported cyclists, where we would carry all of our gear with us on our bikes. Nope, we, being spoiled, carry only ourselves, some water bottles, tools, spare tires and tubes, and have all the rest of our things carried in the motor vehicles. Pedal smarter, not harder.

We are, as I said, in Olympic National Park and surrounded by the handiwork of the Creator. The sky is blue, the lake is clear and clean, the trees are incredibly huge, the air is invigorating, and it seems like at every corner on the road there’s a waterfall! We also visited the World’s Largest Spruce Tree, 58’-11” circumference, 191’ tall, and about 1,000 years old. Lots of wood! All of this beauty reminds me of Psalm 19:1 “The heavens are telling the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Creation is so beautiful that at times we forget the Creator. Remembering Him simply makes it all better. Soak in both.

Tomorrow we plan on being tourists. We will be ferried to a few much-visited places, take lots of pictures, get stamps in the National Parks Passports, buy stickers of places we visit, eat too much, and end up being one day closer to Going to Maine!

Three days til we pedal through all this beauty.