New Heights

So last Monday I got a phone call from our team manager..."I need you in Dallas asap to train for a couple days and then ride a show in Louisiana this weekend." My first thought..."cool." After I hung up..."crap! I've got to deliver!"

Everyday since coming to California has been an adventure and each one seems to be more exciting than the one before. I hopped aboard a plane for Dallas and arrived at our team's facility at the Moore's house in Krum, Texas that night. HUGE thanks to Wade and Michelle Moore for letting a complete stranger show up, stay in their house and raid their pantry! :)

I arrived Tuesday night and learned that Wednesday was to be our day for practice. Around 11am the bike I was to ride showed up and I was informed it had been crashed a few days prior. One of the wheels was about to fall off and no one really knew what was wrong with it. After 2-3 hours of working on it I felt I had it fixed for the most part and decided I'd take a run at the ramp. Apparently it was "fixed" all too well and I managed to over jump and miss the landing. I got a lovely little mark above my eye for my trouble.

With no time to worry about getting it looked at, I reared around and hit the ramp again, this time a tad slower. The rest of practice went pretty soundly. No more crashes and I was able to get through my whole progression of tricks.

Thursday was spent in the truck driving to Baton Rouge Louisiana. Upon arrival at the arena Friday afternoon I really began to get nervous. While the bike was running great, it was still semi unfamiliar and I was going to be jumping to a metal landing ramp instead of dirt, another first. Additionally the ramp we were using was a little different then what I'm used to (hence the over jumping).

The promoter was great and let me scoot the ramp up close to the landing and work my way back. After about 20 min we were jumping at show distance which was 65 ft. Practice was good and I actually like the metal landing. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to wait for the show to start at 8. The down time would've been nice but it was just more time to sit and think about doing everything right. Not going to far, not coming up short. I wasn't so much worried about my tricks, or the people in the stands for that matter. I just wanted to have the distance down.

Show time rolled around and it went off without a hitch. We ended up doing three shows Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. The only hickup was when I managed to wheelie over on myself in front of a couple thousand people. Not a big deal, just hurts the pride :) But everyone said that its normal to have some sort of a crash at your first show. Another fun bit was that a great friend of mine from my church in Hood River was able to come to the show. He lives in Louisiana now and actually was only about ten minutes from the arena so that was great to have him there for my first show.

I titled this blog New Heights for a couple of reasons. Obviously doing a show is a new thing and was my goal in moving to California but this weekend I learned to rely on God in a new, deeper way than ever before. SO much was out of my control this weekend. I didn't know what I was getting into or what to expect. There were frustrations at some points along the way and a lot of unknowns. I just kept calling and texting folks asking them to pray for the show and the whole weekend and it was amazing. I keep having to relinquish control and trust that God has me here. I'm having a blast, I enjoy the people I'm with on this tour but every day is seemingly another unknown. We're heading to another show this weekend in Georgia and I'm just trying to give God every day and say "this is where you have me." All I can do is trust that He will continue to sustain me and continue to provide as I'm on this journey.

Thank you so much to my friends, family and supporters that have been behind me on this journey. It'll be exciting to see what comes along next!!!