Heading Into 2025 With Some Relatively Easy Cycling Plans

I was a Sophomore in college back in 1985 when the movie Back to the Future came out. Back then -- as a 20-year-old -- I viewed Marty McFly's going into the year 2015 as something far in the future. By then, I would be 50 years old! Well, here we are... heading into 2025 and in three months I'll be 60. As I've shared on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, my 60's will primarily consist of cycling for fitness. I plan to explore more of our nation's rails-to-trails. I want to cycle the 240-mile Katy Trail across Missouri, but am going to put that one on hold a little longer as I explore some other trails with the limited days I have available from the office.

This has been another year when cancer has made an invasion into our family. I remember doing some running events in the 1990's to raise funds to fight cancer (including the Relay for Life event), and it is an ongoing battle that so many people face. It is a disease that has impacted both my family and my wife's family -- but thankfully not the family that Kelley and I have together. With the latest impact on my wife's side of the family, I've been thinking about Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, who is the patron saint of perseverance in the face of adversity. I've seen incredible perseverance when it comes to the cancer battles that parents and others in our family have faced over the decades. Their perseverance and faith has been inspiring to me.

In 1988, St. Philippine became the fourth citizen of the United States to be canonized, and the only saint to ever reside in Kansas -- where my wife is from, and where her mother and siblings still reside. Despite considerable adversarial conditions, in the mid-1800's St. Philippine opened multiple schools, including the first free school west of the Mississippi. She also cared for the Potawatomi Native Americans near Mound City, Kansas. The Potawatomi, witnessing her constantly kneeling in prayer, nicknamed her "Woman who prays always." St. Philippine was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1988.

With that said, there is a rail-trail in Kansas that is very near to where St. Philippine lived and ministered. It is known as the Prairie Spirit Rail-Trail and is 52 miles long between Ottawa and Iola, Kansas. Right in the middle of the route is the town of Garnett, where my wife previously resided and where my mother-in-law currently lives. I am looking at cycling that route over the course of two days in May 2025. I would begin in Ottawa and cycle the 52 miles in a day to Iola, where I would stay in a hotel. I would then cycle back to Ottawa the next day. Of course, I would see my mother-in-law in Garnett as I pass through both times, and there is a St. Rose Philippine Duchesne Catholic School in Garnett.

The Prairie Spirit Trail is about 30 miles west of where St. Philippine ministered in Mound City, Kansas. As I cycle the route, I would share information on my social media about this particular saint. Again, St. Philippine is the only saint that resided in the state of Kansas -- and actually ministered there about 20 years before Kansas became a state in 1861.

I'll be aiming to do other rail-trails in 2025, but they will be shorter routes of only 100 miles or less.

Gotta Roll,

Paul J. Staso

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Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past

What Exactly is Heroism? Is it Strength... Endurance... Patience?

In his book Job: A Man of Heroic Endurance, Charles R. Swindoll examines what Job’s sufferings can teach us about humanity and faith. In Scripture, Job is the central figure in the Book of Job, which focuses on God’s justice during difficult times, and how God guides us through times of suffering. Ultimately, Job endures many trials and often feels abandoned by God. However, God never actually abandons Job.

Swindoll's book teaches readers how to embrace God’s challenges. Using Job as an example, he explains that we find answers to our questions in unexpected places — and God doesn’t always give us the answers we expect. Epitomizing strength, endurance, and patience, we can all learn from Job’s life story. 

Heroes come in all forms. Job doesn’t stand idly by watching his life crash down around him. He consciously endures the trials God throws at him. Battening down and enduring hardships are heroic qualities. Life is unavoidably difficult. What separates heroes from the rest of us is how they deal with those difficulties. Just as Job learns the most about himself when he is suffering, we learn through our mistakes and disappointments. We rarely learn anything about our spirituality or ourselves when life is easy. Challenges make heroes of us.

Job suffers in the way we all suffer; his life is terribly unfair. Many can relate to his problems: he loses his family, his property, and his health, and his life is one catastrophe after another. However, because these catastrophes are timeless, Job speaks to everyone regardless of what era they live in. Job represents humanity. One of Job’s most poignant moments is when he loses all ten of his children at the same time. Standing over their graves, wondering what to do with his life, his wife tells him to renounce God, to give up and let his grief consume him, the way it consumes her. Job, however, refuses to give in. He simply vocalizes his faith in God. It doesn’t matter how God treats Job — Job never strays from the path.

Job suffers every insult imaginable. His friends turn on him; covered in agonizing welts and sores, everyone says he is to blame for his own misfortune. Job asks God for guidance, but God never answers him. Somehow, through this silence, Job stays true to God, and God finally rewards him. Yet, God’s rewards are never certain, and it takes an incredible amount of trust by Job to believe in Him.

God doesn’t bless Job with any special powers to help him endure what life throws at him. All Job has is his humanity, and this is what saves him. This is comforting; we are all capable of enduring life’s trials.

Gotta Roll,

Paul J. Staso

_______________________________________

Visit my YouTube channel -- https://www.youtube.com/user/pacetrek

Click on any of the links below to see some of my adventure photos:

• United States in 2006 (3,260 miles solo in 108 days at age 41)
• Montana in 2008 (620 miles solo in 20 days at age 43)
• Alaska in 2009 (500 miles solo in 18 days at age 44)
• Germany in 2010 (500 miles solo in 21 days at age 45)
• The Mojave Desert in 2011 (506 miles solo in 17 days at age 46)
• Various Photos From Mileposts Gone By
• Students Worldwide Who Ran With Me Virtually
• Roadside Sights From My Running Adventures
• Some Cycling Moments From The Past