Wilmington to Long Beach

Actually, I finished on the extreme south end of Long Beach, just a half mile from the Orange County line! In addition to Ingrid and Randall from yesterday, I added two new Sole Mates – Cecilia and Bruce, also from our church.

Spotlights This Week:
Always: Hope Chapel Missions
Charity Spotlight: Focus on the Family
Church Spotlight: Hope Chapel – Hermosa Beach, CA

The day was cloudy but dry, with a rainstorm (the first in a series) due to move in tonight – and as I’m writing, it is raining. Bring it on!!!

The route today was a contrast in scenery. We started with this…

…and ended with this:

The end of the day was rather hectic. We got to our end point just as our bus arrived – on the opposite side of a very busy street. It was apparently a ‘time stop’, meaning that the bus waits there until a specific time before leaving. As it sat there longer and longer we became more hopeful that we might make it, dashing (certainly jaywalking) across that street and trying to catch the driver’s attention just as he was about to leave – and he waited!

After I got back to my car I still had to drive the next day’s route to make my parking/bus decisions.  ‘Looks like it’ll be a piece of cake.  Good parking, with ample stops for Bus 1 – the only one I’ll need through the entirety of Orange County, as it runs right along PCH. (Yay!)

THEN, I had to drive an hour home (just as it was beginning to rain), arriving with only an hour to shower, then download and type the words for the songs I’d be using to lead worship at our mini church meeting.

For the first 6-8 months of my trek, I tried to keep up with my guitar practice for the days when I led our mini-church worship, but it just got too difficult to keep up with.  Nowadays I do what one of my Sole Brothers calls “Karaoke Worship” – downloading songs on my iPad and doing a ‘sing-along’. 😀

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The rain is expected to move in (and through) overnight and tomorrow morning – if it does what’s expected, I’ll try to get 10 miles done tomorrow afternoon. I need to take advantage of breaks in the weather, as there are several waves of storms coming between now and next Tuesday.  Any miles I can do now means no walking in the rain!

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¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. ~ Romans 8:18-21