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For more information on Ryves Youth Center: https://ccthin.org/ryves-youth-center
This day was a long slog, which means it was a lot of hard work. I rode over 130 miles today, going through the cities of Hondo, Castroville, and finally around the northwestern corner of the city of San Antonio up towards the community of Spring Branch.
Once I got out of San Antonio and was going north, I got into what is called the “hill country” of Texas. It has a lot of rolling hills that go up and down, up and down! It was a lot of work to get over them. It’s easy to go down (you just let the bicycle wheels roll on their own and pedal a little) but it takes a lot more time to get up them, so you are working hard a lot! Here is one picture of the hill country:
Once I got to Spring Branch, I was very tired but also happy because I went there to visit my friends the Gulley family! Let me tell you a little about them. I met them about 12 years ago when I lived in the San Antonio area for awhile, but I hadn’t seen them for a long time because I’ve been living back in Indiana. This is my friend Shane: He has a wife, Heidi, and two children, John and Sophia. John is already a grown-up and Sophia is a teenager who is finishing High School. Shane and John are very good at fixing things. Heidi works as a physical therapist assistant and helps people to get better when they have problems with walking or moving their bodies around. Sophia loves to write—she writes stories. When I got to their house, I saw a note on the refrigerator that Sophia had written for her dad Shane to help cheer him up. Sophia has been sick for a long time. She has been hurting a lot in her life, but she isn’t hurting all the time. Sometimes she is doing well, and she seemed cheerful when I talked with her. She also has a service dog that helps her feel better when she is sick. Sadly Heidi and Sophia were not at the house because Sophia was in the hospital, but I visited with Shane and John and we got to do a video call with Sophia and Heidi. The last time I saw Sophia she was only 6 years old and now she is 16, and we talked for awhile about the things that she likes and what’s been going on with her. One thing I’m sure is that Sophia has a lot of trust in God to help her through all the hurt she has to go through in life. When I told Sophia that I’m not perfect as a teacher, she told me not to worry, because the only perfect person is Jesus. We had a good talk, though. Who do you talk to when you’re hurting? I hope you have someone you can go to who you know loves you—maybe mom, dad, grandma, or grandpa. Or maybe even Jesus!
This is a picture of Shane and me:
Shane and I also played Chinese Checkers at dinner. He was trying to block my pieces from getting to their spots and I told him I think that is cheating! We were just playing for fun, though.
Here are some other pictures. Some of them are from the area from Hondo to San Antonio, and a few are of the hill country north of San Antonio. I didn’t get any pictures of San Antonio itself, other than (I think) the city limits sign.
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