August 16

I talked to Abe a couple times this weekend as he had taken a break at a pastor's house. He said the positive thing about staying with people is that he sleeps better than in his tent. The negative thing is that people eat poorly, and he needs to maintain pretty high protein because of his energy output. It has also been raining off and on and was supposed to rain today, but he has (finally?) bought a rain coat and was going to go regardless, as he is well rested now, and needs to keep going to get in under the deadline. Right now if all goes well most likely he will be in Khabarovsk sometime on the 23rd, but he still has almost 500 miles to Vladivostok. And the very last date he can be in the country is Sept 4. Wednesday he said will be a difficult day because he will hit mountains again, so will have to do a lot of walking uphill.
Sunday was our anniversary. Certainly a far different day than we had on our 40th celebration last year! One of the men suggested that he just drive Abe and his bicycle to Khabarovsk. :) Obviously--he didn't get the idea. I would say at this point he is more into dogged determination than anything else. That would be symbolic of his approach to any task in life he takes on when the going gets rough.
The wonder is that we can talk regularly, although I probably will not talk to him again until Wednesday.

August 12

I thought this time I would put up a map of what is considered Far Eastern Russia.Where Abe started in Chita is about where you see the red and gray lines intersecting half way between Lake Baikal and the "hump" of China that intrudes into Russia. Abe is on the other side of the "hump" still north of Blagoveschensk. I talked to him yesterday and he was near Shimanovsk, this is about 500 miles from Khabarovsk. He hoped to travel to Belogorsk by tomorrow evening because it is a sizeable city.From yesterday he figured it would take him a maximum of 8 days travel to get to Khabarovsk, then he will be dropping south to Vladivostok which should be a bit under 500 miles. He had made contact with a student of his from 1994 and was staying at their apartment over night. He had had a lot of rain again which is miserable traveling on a bicycle. But he will most likely rest both Saturday and Sunday before continuing on again. Otherwise he sounded in good spirits.

August 11

My daughter has spurred me on to good works--meaning I should update this blog. I guess I'm still a bit jet lagged and dealing on a low key basis yet. Anyway, I did talk to Abe on Saturday and he was doing much better. He had had two days of rest and then gone some 40 miles or so to a personal contact with a pastor in the Amur province and was going to stay two nights there. The superintendent of that area was coming in also to meet with Abe so chances were that they would stay up all night and talk. He said the church meets in the pastor's home which looks more like a large shed than a home and is on the primitive side. I'm sure he was asked to share on Sunday, and I'm sure he laid some challenge before them. The need is so great and there is very little spiritual activity going on in that area.

I tried to call Abe again but he must be out of cell phone range. His legs were feeling better and the swelling had gone down in his ankles. He sounded much more upbeat and I'm sure it was a combination of rest and of being with people he could talk to. Especially about ministry!

August 5

I talked to Abe this morning but will keep this short as I am a bit jet lagged. Bottom line is that he has put in a pretty rough three days, two of them with a lot of gravel which is not only dangerous but also jarring, and yesterday with mostly uphill climb. He is feverish and showing a lot of stress on his legs and body so is taking a 4-day rest. Presumably he will start to descend and it should be easier going, but...there is descending and descending. He is halfway between Chita and Khabarovsk according to his calculations. I'll try to give more detail of exactly where he is next time.

July 31

Abe was able to call Esther again. Here's her commentary:

He sounded a bit more upbeat this time, although he’s had a wet few days. I think he found a good place to stay so that made him feel better. He has biked 680 kilometers [410 mile] so far. He could have done more today (Saturday) and gone over 700, but since he had found a decent place to stay and the locals advised not going further as there isn’t much for the next 150 k [90 mile], he decided to put up there for the next two nights. He is taking Sundays off, as is his habit, and it is much more refreshing when you have a roof over your head. Last Sunday he was just in his tent.

He got caught in a rainstorm two nights ago and woke up in the morning with about a liter of water in his tent and everything floating or drenched. There was nothing to do but pack up and go on, so he did and by early afternoon it was hot and sunny again so he stopped and laid everything over the guardrails which were burning hot, of course. He had just laid everything out when suddenly a cloud came over and it just opened up and poured rain! Naturally, all his stuff was drenched again, only worse. All his documents, his Bible, all his clothes, his shoes, everything was totally soaked. There was nothing to do but pack up so and go on, so he did. After a bit the rain lessened and so he stopped and wrung out his socks, went on for another 500 meters, stopped and wrung them out again and so on for a little while—his shoes were just that soaked! He was able to stop at a little café for dinner; but it was sunny and nice out and since he hadn’t made a lot of progress in the morning because of everything being so wet, so he decided to keep going for a few hours. It stays light till about 11pm.

He went about 20 kilometers (roughly two hours) and then it just got dark so quickly that he didn’t have time to stop and find a place for the night. He kept biking in the pitch black, but then had to get off and walk because he just couldn’t see anything. Suddenly the clouds opened and a bit of light came through and there was a bit of a turn off in the road and a bus shelter right there. He felt like the Lord guided him right to it. It was brand new and clean, no one had messed it up and it was enclosed on three sides as well as with a roof. He was able to set up his tent inside by anchoring it to the bench legs and there was just enough room for his tent. No sooner had he gotten it all set up than it began to pour down rain again and poured the whole night through. He said that there was gravel washed across the road in some places. All of his things were still wet, including his mattress and all his clothes. Thankfully his sleeping bag was dry and he has a reflective sheet/mat and blanket that he was able to use on top of the mattress and on top of the sleeping bag, which kept him dry and almost warm enough.

It took him extra long on Saturday morning to pack up, so he didn’t get started till about 11am and around 3pm he reached the little town where he is right now. After talking with some of the local truck drivers he decided to stay in the little hotel place that they have there. There is a banya (sauna type thing) in the room next to his, so there is a hot water pipe going through his room and it is really warm in there, so he is drying out everything he can.

Despite the adventures of the last few days he sounded more upbeat than earlier this week. He has biked one third of the way to Khabarovsk and one quarter of the way to Vladivostok, which he feels good about. He said the road is generally good. It is a three lane highway, always up and down so always a slow lane for trucks, which is good for him of course. It is built like a dam into the mountains. It is generally about one storey up and in some places two, three or once he even went across a place that was about four storeys above the mountainside. There is, thankfully, a guardrail along the side, but one night when he was walking with his bike in the dark he stepped over the guardrail—either to try to find a place to camp or just for safety in case a vehicle came and didn’t see him—unfortunately it was one of the places the road was built up quite steeply and he went sliding right down! His bike caught on the ledge at the top and he was able to hang on to that and climb back up, but he said that without that he didn’t know how he would have gotten back up.

The first few days it was difficult for him to eat very much, I’m sure partly because of the heat, but he said that his appetite has picked up now and he is hoping to be able to eat a little extra today and tomorrow as he is concerned that he hasn’t been eating enough. On top of that, the local drivers tell him that there are no cafés or anything for the next 150 k’s, which is over a day of riding, so he needs to be prepared on Monday and Tuesday for that. Also there is another stretch of gravel coming up. He has hit three or four gravel stretches so far, ranging from seven [4 1/2 mile] to over 20 kilometers [12 mile]. Thankfully he hasn’t fallen so far or injured himself in any other way although he does have blisters on his feet. His knees and feet are holding up pretty good. He is sore, but thinks it is probably from sunburn, although he has tried to use sunscreen as much as possible. His feet were swollen, but after he rested on Wednesday the swelling was completely gone, which he was thankful for.

He will come to the Yakutia Road in a few days and after that it things should slowly start to get easier. Well as far as terrain. He isn’t sure where the highest point of his ride is exactly, but thinks that once he is on the Yakutia road the terrain will gradually go down to the Amur River. It’ll still be uphill a lot, but hopefully less and less, which should make things a little easier for him.

He appreciates everyone’s prayers and said he is reading his Bible a lot and doing a lot of thinking.

As of July 28

Abe was able to call Esther again. I have not had any success in getting through to him although one time I could vaguely hear his voice! This is what Esther wrote:

He said a lot of places don’t seem to have connection. He is doing good. He’s been able to bike 100 k [60 miles] a day, which is what he had planned. So he has come about 400 k (240 miles) and is about half way through the Chita Oblast [province] and hopes to reach Amursk Oblast [province]Saturday evening. He took today off. The place he came to today was supposed to be really good and the café is, but the hotel wasn’t finished. Eventually they found a place for him to stay in a shed with one of the workmen, but he was a bit bummed cause they don’t have any running water or anything so he can’t really clean up or anything. It made it sound like maybe he didn’t take Sunday off.

He said the weather is still hot 35ish [95 Fahrenheit] during the days, but only like 13 [55 Fahrenheit] at night, so that is a huge drop. The area is really mountainous, but the roads are really good. Since they are brand new they are built to good standards (plus being brand new there is no frost damage yet), although he has come across several stretches where there is only gravel.

Overall he sounded good, like he wished he could get a hot shower, but like he felt like things were back on track and going well. He has a couple of days coming up where he isn’t sure what he’ll find for food, but so far he has been able to eat ok and is just pacing himself in his riding. He starts at about 8am and goes till maybe 7:30pm or so.

Whoops!

Esther sent this message to me today:

Dad called again this afternoon. He said it is so hot there that he can only ride for 15 minutes and then take a break. He said he only went 15 kilometers in two days, but I think he meant 150 cause he said it took them two and a half hours to drive back. A driver had misdirected him and he had somehow gotten on the wrong road and was heading south for the Chinese border, so he had to go all the way back to Chita to start over and is planning to do so tomorrow. Thankfully a truck driver was just leaving from that stop and had an empty load so took him and his bike back to Chita and showed him where he had gotten off on the wrong track and stuff.

He isn’t sure he’ll be able to ride much during the day though with this heat, esp. because it is so mountainous and the inclines are really steep—trucks are stalling out on them. He pushes his bike up for 15 minutes and then rests. Very slow going. He is concerned about how the heat will affect his progress and said that if he can’t get very far this trip he’ll just do what he can, store his bike there someplace and then go back and finish up next summer.
He sounded pretty good, but of course it is discouraging to labor so hard and then find out that you have been going in the wrong direction!