faithrunner

I have officed in Las Colinas for about two years. Before then the B. H. Carroll Theological Institute offices were in downtown Arlington. Living in Plano, I assumed I could never commute on my bike to work. The distance and with city streets 99% of the way, it would be too risky and the traffic would be horrendous at rush hours. Thanks to my friend, Jeff Holder, who cycles to his office frequently, I experienced a relatively safe route to work on my bike; 100% pedaling with no public transit assistance. My ride to the office (minus the ride from my house to where I met Jeff) began at 0500 at my house. I have a Urban500 bike headlight , and it worked well. Only drawback was it has a 1.5 hour rechargeable battery that lasted until daylight but would not be helpful beyond that time limit. Traffic was light (surprise!) until we got close to the Valley View/635 interchange about 0645 or so. But even then Jeff had steered the path through parking lots and less-traveled roads to get m...

I recently watched the documentary Cars vs Bikes on Netflix. I used to compute sometimes to the church on my bike, and now I take the DART Rail Orange Line occasionally to the B. H. Carroll's offices in Las Colinas . So when my riding buddies said they were riding Gravelthon! on the levees of the Trinity River and the subtitle of the event was "adventure in the heart of the city," I thought I'd join them and add to the adventure by seeing if I could go from my home in Plano to the event in West Dallas and back riding only a bike and public transportation.  The gravel grinders on the Trinity River Levee The adventure began when I rode my bike from my house to the first bus stop. My last post told about the gravel grinder that turned into a cycling tough mudder. The road crud clogged up my freehub, and the cassette would not engage with the axle. Basically, you spin your pedals forward like you would if you were peddling backwards. Since a little WD-40...

My last scheduled event of 2016 was the Iceman's Challenge outside China Springs, TX. You could not have asked for a better course or worse conditions. On ride day, it was raining, 45 degrees, and a northerly wind at about 20 mph. Depending on your perspective, it was either ideal or the worst conditions ever for a gravel ginder. I ride to be with friends and for the adventure, so this definitely ranked high on both meters. The Peloton: Jason, Me, Erik, Rebecca, Graham, Amy We had all registered for longer distances, but when we woke up in Waco and it was pouring rain and we saw the conditions as we rode to the starting line, we all opted for the shortest 31-mile distance. That was plenty on a day like this.  Mud, mud, and more mud Riding was difficult, as you can imagine, but everyone took the conditions in stride and laughed our way through the hills, mud, wind, and rain. You really get to know people when you are on the road with them in these conditions and fun t...

For many years I have invited Christ followers to see the church and themselves as "a mission outpost where every member is a missionary in his or her own mission field." Whenever I find someone else calling for the same way of living, I get fired up and realize maybe the idea is more than a catchy phrase.  Meet Sean Benesh . He lives in Portland with his wife, Katie, and his three sons. He is a missionary on a bicycle . He has written a short book called, The Bikeable Church , which I endorsed because I was captured by his questions and heart to be a missionary in the true sense where he was planted. He's some of his thinking and challenge: Why do we continue to insist on auto-based commuting patterns for church life and worship? What if we simply reduced the scale and scope to that which is bikeable and/or walkable? As missiologists one of the principles behind exegeting a city is to learn how people naturally gather for fellowship and community. Most often...

I commuted this morning on my bike from my house to a men's small group and then from the group to my office . I met up with Jason along the way, and we made it without major incident from our homes to our destinations on the streets and bike trails of Plano . The reason I would blog about this is that our town is not really suited for commuting by bike on the streets .   Suburbs are built for cars, not bikes and pedestrians. Bicycles in this town are for recreation and sport, and walking is for exercise. Anything "everyday" is 99% done in a car. It's designed that way. Yes, the City of Plano is making strides to make motorists aware of bikes  on the streets (See below), but they are still dominated by motorized vehicles and angry drivers . I recently connected with a virtual acquaintance, Sean Benesh , who lives and commutes in Portland. He muses about such things as being Metrospiritual and creating a "bikeable" church. He has dipped in...