Melbourne to Vero Beach, Florida 36.4 miles (58.6 km)

Sunrise at Melbounre, Florida

Zach was the young guy who helped me out at the Organic Food Center (www.organicfoodcenters.com), along Highway AIA in Indialantic. I stopped to purchase a joint formula supplement. I can really feel a difference in my knees when I take a joint supplement (glucosamine sulphate, MSM, anti-inflammatory herbs) versus when I don't. By the age of 40 we dramatically slow down the production of cartilage in our joints. I'm just inside 2 weeks of my 51st and let me tell you, with the stress of cycling all these miles, my knees feel pretty stiff. The supplement seems to alleviate all of the knee stiffness and the anti-inflammatory herbs help with recovery and keep my shoulder and chest pain quiet.

"Slow Down and Enjoy Life" was the message outside of Station 64 of Brevard County South Beach Fire Rescue.

Melbourne Beach is south of Melbourne and it was here that I saw a sign by the Chapel by the Sea, an Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart," has always been tough for me. I've spent much of my adult life doing life my way; making choices and then asking for God's blessing rather than being quiet and seeking what God might desire of me and for me. We're created with free will, free choice and we are created with the ability to create. Sometimes in our free choice we end up creating an humbling mess. It's all good though because those humbling messes are teaching us something and leading us into a deeper relationship with God.

In 1986, I pulled into Vero Beach after having cycled across the state of Florida via Highway 60. Back then, my impression of Vero Beach had been stifled by what had happened to me on Highway 60 earlier in the day. Today, I rode into the community along A1A and then turned onto Highway 60 heading east toward the beach. I was struck by how bright, cheerful and upscale the place was, which left me wondering if Vero Beach had changed that much in 27 years or had I? Regardless I decided to stop for the day and experience the town.

Christ by the Sea United Methodist Church is along Highway A1A in Vero Beach and displayed the message, "Faults are thick where love is thin." That simple phrase has been on my mind most of the day. Most people when they see the word love, they immediately think in terms of romance, but I don't think that's where 'love' in this phrase is coming from. Rather, it entails "love' as the selfless, non-judgemental giving to another. It seems that no matter how hard I try to be loving a loving individual towards others, conditions get in the way. By 'conditions' I mean the expectations and rules that we have. Some are childhood learned rules and expectations, others are adopted along the way and some are reflections of another person's rules and expectations for love and being loved. Sometimes the conditions are imposed by me, and at other times the conditions of being loved are imposed by the one I'm intending to love. I think that there's as much truth in "Faults are thick where love is thin" as there is in saying "It's tough to love when walls are up." Regardless, this makes the unconditional love that Jesus has for all of us all the more amazing to me.