A Train, a Bridge, and Memorial Day

Content Advisory: This blog post is written and designed with children ten years old and younger in mind. Kids, you can go ahead and skip this paragraph and start reading. Adults, make sure you get permission from your child before reading. If you don't have a child, it's okay to get permission from your niece, nephew, 2nd cousin once removed, or that little girl who lives next doors who's always leaving her toys in your driveway (In all seriousness, I encourage all of you to share these blog posts with your children, maybe even read them to your children who are not yet able to read).

(Click here to find out what this ride is all about. I encourage all who are able to support the children of Ryves Youth Center with a donation. Click here to make a donation.)

Today I started in Harrisburg, Illinois and will end up in Mayfield, Kentucky. Right now I am in Paducah, Kentucky, so I have about 21 miles to go. When I'm done, I will have gone about 82 miles for the day.

One of the first things I saw this morning was a neat little "train." It's not like a regular train, though. Let me show it to you:

I hope you can see it OK. Instead of locomotive like a regular train would have in front, this one has a tractor. And instead of railroad cars like you might see on a regular train, this one has three sets of  two "cars" that are made out of barrels. The first two are white, the second two are blue, and the last two are blue. Why do you think that whoever made the train picked those colors?

Would you like to ride on a train like this one?

(It was for sale, but I didn't buy it. It would be too far to try to drag it back to Indiana, especially on my bicycle!)

Today I crossed a great big river called the Ohio. The Ohio River crosses through many states, but it this part of the country, it separates Illinois from Kentucky. That means when I crossed it, I started in Illinois and ended up in Kentucky on the other side. The bridge was very long--about a mile long (One mile is about the same distance to go from Ryves Youth Center to the CVS at 12 points, or from Ryves Youth Center to Highway 41 in Terre Haute). It took me probably 6 minutes to get across on my bicycle. I took a video of the ride across (without using my hands--because that wouldn't be safe). Here is a picture that I took from that video when I was up on the bridge:

Off to the right side of the picture, in the middle, you can see the Ohio River way down below. Just above that, you can see some trees. The Ohio River is one of the largest rivers in our country. The Wabash River, which goes through Clinton and Terre Haute, IN, actually empties into the Ohio River. Even though I was up so high on the bridge, I wasn't really afraid of falling--you can see that there are safety rails that make it so cars and bicycles and motorcycles can't fall of the bridge. You will also notice that the road looks different from a regular road. That's because it's called a "steel deck bridge." Instead of putting regular road material (like asphalt or concrete) on the bridge, they put down this strong steel grate going across the bridge. It felt a little weird beneath my bicycle tires, but my bike moved over it OK!

Finally, I wanted to talk about Memorial Day. Today is Memorial Day, which is a day that we remember all of the soldiers, sailors, and marines who have been killed while trying to defend our country. It can  be hard to think about that, about people dying and such things. But I think it's important to know that you can talk to the people you love about anything--even about dying. When I was in the Army and I got sent across the ocean to the country of Iraq, one of the soldiers who had helped me out a lot ended up getting killed in some of the fighting while we were over there. His name was Warren, and he was a very nice man. In fact, when we were first going over to Iraq, he tried to help me feel better about it, because I was very scared. It makes me sad to remember that Warren died, but I still try to talk to his family--his mom, dad, brother, and niece--I try to help them when I can. And they've helped me a lot, too.

One time a little girl told me that her grandpa had died, and she said, "I'm gonna be sad forever." It's true that we can be sad for a long time when somebody dies, but it's also true that it sometimes helps us feel better to talk about our feelings. Today I prayed for Warren and all the soldiers, sailors, and marines who died, and for their families, that they would know God and have comfort. If you have lost anyone that you love, I hope that you have someone you can talk to about it.

(I was going to share with you a picture that I took for Memorial Day at a cemetery today. It showed the grave of a former soldier, with a flag in front of it. However, since my computer is acting up, I won't be able to share it).