SEA TO SHINING SEA: Rain, rain and more rain

DAY 15 - Water-skiing across America.  We're starting to get a complex. Today we rode from Prineville to Mitchell. Four and a half hours. 49 miles.  Steady rain the whole way.  Steady, steady rain.  Our gear is keeping us dry but when the hands start shriveling, you start praying for a change to dryness.

You get lots of time to think riding along at about 10 mph.  (Today we averaged 9.6 with 2,972 feet of total ascent.  I'm happy with that.) Thinking started at about 7:30 a.m. with the Mamas and Papas piping through outside speakers at Ray's Super Market. "You don't understand, that a woman like me can't love, just one man.  You've gotta go where you want to go, do what you want to do, with whoever you want to do it with."  That was the late '60s, early '70s. Free love.  "Love the one you're with."  Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Then my mind went to a recent letter in the Gazette commenting on the Bible class being discussed at Cape.  God bless the First Amendment. The writer expressed doubts about some of the miracles in the Bible.  I started writing a letter of rebuttal in my mind, each one starting with such and such a writer's letter rocked my world. Never did finish it. When you start exploring believing or not believing in miracles (I'm a believer) the exploration gets to be wide ranging. I'll write a Barefootin' column on this one in a couple of weeks.

Also outside Ray's, while Becky was buying some bananas and I was contemplating a $5 rotisserie chicken special, an older gentleman eased his way toward his truck.  The sign on the side of the red pick-up already had my attention.  Well digging/Water Witching.

He uses a brass welding rod to find water.  It picks up the forces he feels from the presence of water under the earth's crust. "Been doing it 50 years. Can't tell you how it works.  It's just a gift from the Great Almighty."

Pray for dry.  At this point it might take a miracle.