2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

We spent the night in Blythe and we decided we liked the early start schedule so we again arose at 4 am and prepared for departure. This morning was a little different as we had to backtrack 20 miles to Doug's stopping point from yesterday and his route for today took him right past our hotel. It was nice to have the time for morning devotion and our preparations conversations about what to expect of the day ahead. So, I took Doug to the starting point for the day and raced him back to the hotel where we would meet for the free breakfast the hotel offered. I was first back but Doug took only about an hour to ride the 20 miles (took me 30 min). The traffic was very sparse out here as Doug only encountered 8 cars in a 20 mile stretch of highway. We ate breakfast and then finished packing and headed for Arizona as we were almost across our first state. This day was pretty uneventful during the ride - and some days uneventful is good. Doug did more climbing and I enjoyed the beautiful rocks, mountains, flora and fauna as we again played leap frog. We are in a pretty comfortable rhythm and that is good. It is nice to be out of the desert and going through more small towns. The temperature is much cooler here making it easier cycling for Doug. He made it to our destination of Aquila for the day and he met me there as I was waiting for him. There were again no hotels nearby so we drove 24 miles on to Congress, Arizona to spend the night at the Sierra Vista Motel. It was a very nice, small privately-owned motel. It only had 5 rooms but it was very meticulously kept. The owner was a wonderful lady in her early sixties. She said if we could of have been there earlier she would have been able to take us riding on her four-wheelers. I was disappointed because that would have been awesome! We checked in and took our travelling gear inside to rest and shower. After we were rested Doug had asked the proprietor what we should see and do in town. She pointed us to the old Pioneer Cemetery and the gold mines. The cemeteries were interesting as Doug was driving his truck off-road to see them and so were the the gold mines. This area is a very popular area for gold mining. The lady at the motel said the miners from "Bering Sea Gold" and "Gold Rush" actually spend their winters here mining.

When dinner time arrived, we went to the locally recommended restaurant "Nichols West". The owner was a bloke from London, UK named Simon Nichols that somehow ended up in the small town of Congress, Arizona opening his own restaurant. The food was fantastic! The food was comparable to anywhere I have eaten - both in the US and UK. I had an avocado egg roll and it was delicious. I had to try the "Fish and Chips" to see if he had traditional British Fish and Chips and they were pretty good. (Fish and Chips in the UK are very popular and I like to try them everywhere in my travels to see how they compare). Doug had a great looking burger and we finished the meal with a British bread pudding and ice cream. We did have time to talk to the owner and our waiter and it was a pleasant conversation. I spoke with our waiter about what were his goals in life and we had a deep conversation about Jesus and where he was being call to serve. I did pray for him and he was very receptive to the prayers and words I had to speak over him. We returned to our quaint little motel and slept peacefully all night. It was a good day! God is so Good!