Friday, August 22

Another week has almost gone by already and I HAVE NOT been able to blog since Sunday. My apologies to all of you who have faithfully been reading this blog. In a nutshell, it has been a very busy and EXCITING week for me.

First of all, after a very enjoyable and relatively easy 121 km. (75 mile) trip from Chatham, I was able meet my family again yesterday afternoon in London at the high school (LDCSS) where we were camping for the evening. Maybe that's why the trip seemed so easy. I had "other" things on my mind. AND I was able to go home last night and and sleep in my own bed. What a treat that was. (I slept like a log - no snoring of course).

It has been almost eight weeks (tonight) since I was last home. That's a long, long time! Our puppy dog Cole thought so too. No sooner did I come through the door and he barked like I was a complete stranger. Good thing he doesn't bite! It took quite a bit of persuasion on my part before he allowed me to become his "friend" again. I am happy to report that all is now well in that department. I hope he remembers me again in a week and a half when our journey is over

The welcome at the high school was a very "moving" moment for me. First of all there were a LOT of people from all over the region there to greet us. More importantly, in my case, there were quite a few members of my church waiting to say hi to me. It was SO GOOD to see them. Thank you so much for coming. That really meant a lot to me. (One dear friend, Joanne and her husband Jerry, who were not able to make it in to see me, made sure that I received a whole box full of blueberry muffins. Did I say something about liking blueberries some time ago? Thanks a lot! I must also say that anytime there are people waiting to welcome us it is such a heart warming experience. I sometimes get the feeling that some of them are "living through us" as we travel across the continent and are so wrapped up in journey from reading all of the blogs of the various cyclists that they almost feel that they are the ones journeying right there with us on the bicycle. And in many ways they are. My own strong feeling in that regard (and I tell all of my supporters this) is that while I (we) may be the one(s) doing the cycling part, I consider them to be VERY MUCH an integral part of the TEAM. Without their daily prayers (which I know are being said on my and all of our behalf) as well as their financial support, none of this journey would have been possible. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER. I'm sure most of my fellow cyclists would concur with that sentiment. I want to thank all of you again so much for being such an important part of this "journey of a lifetime" as we travel across this beautiful country together.

From the moment we arrived at the high school, tables lavishly laden with baked goods of every kind (all donated), ice cream, all you could eat, donated by the local dairy board of the area and chocolate and white milk (as much as you could drink), donated by a dairy farmer from my home church, awaited us. And then there was supper! It was simply delicious. Fresh, locally grown, peaches and cream sweet corn donated by another very generous individual from my home church of Aylmer, hamburgers, sausages, bowls and bowls of all kinds of salads, and a host of other delectibles (is your mouth watering yet) made up the main menu. Again everything was donated by many willing hands from the London churches. And later in the evening, well the desserts were "out of this world." I'm sure that even the most diet conscious person there, could not resist a sampling of at least two or three of them. I'm not that diet conscious and I like pretending that since I am "working" really hard each day cycling that I must burn at least 8000 calories and can therefore "get away" with having more than my fair share of these sorts of things. I have also convinced myself that most desserts now a days do not have very many calories and I can therefore "pig out" even more. Sadly, that type of thinking will have to end soon as the tour draws near to a close or I will find myself quickly putting on thirty or forty pounds. That would not be good.

Wednesday saw us leave Richmond to make the 30 km. (20 mile) trek to Marine City where we would take the ferry across the St. Clair River and enter Canada. We all had to "congregate" by 10:00am as that was when we would begin crossing. What a sight to see 192 cyclists all with the same "Sea to Sea" jersey on and 35 support staff, all with their "Sea to Sea" T shirts on, gathering at the ferry.

The crossing went impeccably smoothly. It took about five or six ferry loads to get us all across (which includes all the gear and support vehicles as well). Canada Customs had a master copy of all of our names and as we entered through, all we had to do was show our passport and we were on our way. No questions asked what so ever. It was amazing! Even Corrie our SAG driver who tows the port a pottie with him got across without incident. He was a bit worried about it. You never know when it comes to these kind of things. I'm sure it's not every day, that "poopers" come across the border. The day before we had been warned by Ed, our tour organizer, that NO ONE was to use the port a pottie as we had to "declare all the contents" when we went across. In his dry humour, he had warned, "that they would be taking DNA samples of any contents found inside the port a pottie and would severely prosecute the perpetrator of such a grave offense when they found out. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Tears were streaming down my eyes. Any way Corrie and his "port a pottie" have arrived safely in Canada.

Speaking of arriving in Canada, there is something that happens to me every time I cross the border out of the U.S. into Canada. I can't really explain it but there is a feeling of tremendous relief and a strong sense that I am now safely on home turf and that everything will be O.K. from here on in. I get it every time. Maybe some of you have experienced that as well, perhaps some of our American friends who cross over from Canada back home to the U.S.

What a warm welcome we all received when we arrived on shore. I'm sure there were several hundred people there lining the "gang plank" and cheering us on as we came through one by one. A feast of goodies including hundreds of cupcakes with a little Canadian flag stuck in each. And of course what homecoming would there be without "good ole Tim Horton's coffee." It's been a long time since any of us Canadians have tasted one of our favourite brews. Thanks to the Sarnia and Wallaceburg churches who put it all together. Over the past three days I have continually heard comments from many of our fellow American cyclists who can't get over the tremendous "Canadian hospitality" they have recieved not only at the border but in Chatham, Mt. Brydges London, Ingersoll, Woodstock, Brantford, even Cambridge who came down to Brantford and hosted us refreshments today. Way to go Canada! It makes me proud to be Canadian and proud to host our great American friends and indeed all of us in this wonderful manner.

Cynthia Aukema (many of you know her from the blogs as the gal who went "down" in our cycling group just outside of Denver and broke her pelvis) met us on the Canadian side and cycled with us to Chatham, her home town. She is one "tough bird" as it has barely been three weeks since her injury. She wanted to have our "group" over for supper and also to sleep at her place that night. What a wonderful family her and husband Ralph have. Thank you so much for your tremendous hospitality. It was so good to have her back with us. She intends to cycle to Niagara and then make a decision as to whether she will try to make it to the east coast. Personally, I have no doubt that she will "go for it." Watching her cycle these past couple of days, I know she can do it.

Tuesday saw us cycling the 155km. (96 miles) from Laingsburg "Sleepy Hollow State Park" (which by the way was a great park to tent in). I was on "last sweep" for the day, along with two other (Pieter and Andy). What that meant, is that we had to be the very last cyclists in for the day, "sweeping" any stragglers in. It also, usually means that it will be an extremely long day. Normally, in the past, Andy and I have have been able to "wiggle" our way out of being the last sweep by promising to do extra work in setting up camp the previous afternoon as well as getting up at 5:45am the next morning when we actually are to sweep, to set up the breakfast "stuff." Of course this is never a problem for us as we are normally up at 5:00 am anyway and often help set up breakfast as it is. In return, the "young bucks" as we refer to the younger university guys in our sweep group, who love to sleep in until 7:25 (breakfast ends at 7:30am) promise to be the last sweep for the day. They're always the last to leave any way. Good deal isn't it. I think so. It's worked every time so far except this time because these four "young bucks" wanted to get into camp earlier so that they could go "bull riding." Yes, I wrote it correctly, they had a friend in Richmond who was setting them up to ride a number of bulls. Crazy isn't it. I thought so but they were serious and excited about the prospect and we were not going to stand in the way of them being bucked off and trampled on by a mean bull if that is what they wanted to do for excitment. Actually, I am quite envious of their tenacity to take on just about anything, being totally oblivious to the possiblility of injury in the process. Oh to be young again. I look back to my growing up years and I know for a fact that there are a LOT of things that I did then that I shudder about now. (Anyway, they did go bull riding and had a great time doing it. Alex is still limping from being bucked off and hitting the ground real hard (he could hardly ride bike the next day) but I know that he would do it again in a heart beat.

As I said, being last sweep usually means a long, long day on the road, especially when the trip is almost a hundred miles. Yes, it was long. We left camp at shortly after nine am and about twenty miles into the trip we came across a couple of the slower cyclists who had stopped for a rest. We encouraged them to "hit the road" again and then looked for the nearest restaurant for a coffee so that they could get a ways along. So the day went. I could probably tell you the names of every coffee shop between Sleepy Hollow Park and Richmond. We did get into camp though at 6:45pm, a bit later than the 1:30pm that we are normally used to. However, I am O.K. with it. You just have to get mentally prepared ahead of time that this is the way it will be for that day. The rest falls into place accordingly.

On Monday we rode from Grand Rapids to Sleepy Hollow State Park, a short trek of only 101km or 63 miles. It's amazing to hear myself say "short trek" of only 63 miles. A year ago, I considered 10 miles to be a HUGE journey. The trip was probably the easiest we have encountered on the whole journey. The terrain was relatively flat and the wind was behind our backs the whole way. As I recall it, this is only the second day that we have had a tail wind the entire day, the entire way so far. There have been times when we have had tail winds for a part of the day, but most often we have encountered either cross winds or worse yet a head wind. Maybe God was "looking out" for the sixty new riders who joined us in Grand Rapids and for whom this was their first day's ride.

Along the way, I met a wonderful couple at Walt's SAG stop. Walter finds some of the neatest spots to park his motor home. This time he saw this farm and pulled in and simply asked the owner if he could park his vehicle there for the next four or so hours. Of course he explains exactly why he wants to park there and all about the tour. This couple were quite excited to have him there and parked themselves on the front veranda of their house to watch as we began to cycle in. As a result, I got to meet Tony and Pat, the owners of the farm house. I really enjoy talking to the people I come across each day whether it be in the restaurant, on the street or where ever and so when I saw Tony and Pat on the veranda I made a point of going over to chat with them. As it turns out, Tony was born in that house (he is an elderly gentleman), a house that his great grandfather built in 1848 out of solid oak (there are majestic oaks everywhere in this area). He loves to collect old farm machinery and so, being a former farmer myself, I was quite interested in having a peek and taking some pictures. I also got a picture of Tony and Pat sitting on their veranda chair. They wanted a picture of me too. Funny how things go when you take the time and make the effort to stop to talk to strangers. You just never know, some of the interesting people that you might encounter. I heard that a little later as other cyclists came through (we were near the front again - got to live up to our London Express name right) that Tony and Pat picked up their chairs and sat with Walter at the SAG wagaon (his motor home) to talk to the other cyclists as they arrived. Isn't that neat.

Well that pretty much brings me (and you the reader) up to date with my experiences on this trip the past week. I had better being going as it is 6:45pm and I may have missed out on supper. I sure hope not, though I think I could survive with all the refreshement stops we have made today. Till next time, take care.