Sunday, August 17

It has been a very busy and exciting last few days for me. First and foremost, I was able to see my entire family from Aylmer. Seven weeks is a long, long time to be apart from your loved ones and so I couldn't wait to see them. My wife and four children (and our eldest daughter's boyfriend were all there along with George and Marj Steenbergen, great friends of ours from Aylmer who acted as chaperones. Thanks so much to them for helping make it all happen. Unfortunately, they got held up at the Sarnia Bridge which was shut down because of a gas leak and were unable to see all of us ride in together to Calvin College. However, they arrived shortly thereafter and we had a wonderful reunion. It was so good to see them. The whole weekend turned out to be a great time for all of us.
Several other "Aylmerites" were down too; John and Sandra D.H., Joanne D.H and a couple of daughters to see Bill, Gordon W., as well as Pete and Marian. It was so good to see so many familiar faces again. Thanks for making the trip.

Saturday was a great ride in from Grand Haven to G.R. Our group of six or seven (sometimes eight) was reduced to three as the others were either on "sweep duty" or were riding with family members who were riding for the day. We had a number of "pit stops" along the way for refreshments and just to say hi to people who were cheering along the road. The first such stop was a family who were gathering to greet one of the riders. We stopped to say hi and introduced ourselves. Most people don't know where Aylmer or St. Thomas is so we usually see we are from the London, Ont. area. When we said this to the group, one of them right away said, "Oh you're part of the "London Express." She had faithfully been reading a lot of the blogs and it seems that several of them had referred to our "early bird" group with that term. We had a good laugh at that. It's the first time I had ever heard of us being known by that name.

I have heard of others who have wondered, in jest, if we actually cycle the whole route each day or if we have a secret arrangement with one of the SAG drivers to drive us half the distance so that we are so far out front and then wait around, stopping at coffee shops to let some of the others catch up and make it look like we actually had biked the whole distance. Because we leave so early, (usually before 6:30am) there are many cyclists who actually never see us on the road, only in camp each night - hence the comment. But that is the first time that I have heard the term "London Express."

Another funny incident happened at our first refreshment stop at Lamont Chr. Sch. There was a significant group waiting as we arrived and no sooner had we stopped and gotten off our bikes than one of the ladies who was looking at the names written on our vests commented to me, "Louis Bosma, you did not blog last night." We then had a good laugh. Actually, last week I had blogged four times, which is a record for me, but she was right. I had not blogged the night before. Apparently, she was enjoying reading my blog. That was nice to hear. We have heard of people who actually spend 3 to 4 hours a day reading the cyclist's blogs and feeling very much a part of the trip through them. That's great!

After leaving the school, we next stopped at Woodlawn CRC for more refreshments and a light lunch with lots of baked goods. The sugar bread and big bowl of fresh blueberries was simply delicious.

Then it was off through the city of Grand Rapids. What is a day's ride without being off the course and so we found ourselves once again asking the locals for directions. Just as we hit the right path again we bumped into three young riders from G.R. who were cycling from Grand Haven with our group for the day. What a God send. They knew their way through the city and so we asked if we could "latch on." No need to get off track unnessecarily right. We could see they were pretty good cyclists. One of them made the comment that there were three "BIG" hills up ahead and so off we went. As I said they were pretty good cyclists and were intent on showing their prowess, at least by the way they were cycling. I kind of had to chuckle at them. We politely let them lead the way because they knew the way and when we reached the BIG hills (which were not really much of a hill to us, given the mountain passes we had climbed), they huffed and puffed their way up while we kind of casually cycled past them and then slowed down at the top to let them catch up. We made really good time through G.R., arriving at Calvin College before noon. Thanks for the ride guys. We were very grateful to have been led through. Who knows, we might still be out there if it hadn't been for them.

One other note of great interest, especially for our immediate group of cyclists and that is that Cynthia A. was back in the saddle on Saturday. Her doctor had given her the O.K. if she felt she was able and willing to try and so there she was on Friday night in Grand Haven geting ready to give it a try. (John and I had put her bike together the night before in South Haven). She was not quite ready to ride with us just yet. She wanted to ride at her own pace in her own space with her son Andrew. Understandably she was quite nervous about it all given what had happened less than three weeks earlier. She did great and was able to do the whole distance for the day averaging close to 24km. per hour. Fantastic! God really did answer a lot of prayers on her behalf. She plans to go back to Ont. and meet us at the border in three days and then cycle with us again, hopefully the rest of the way, the Lord willing. She'll take it day by day.

Thursday and Friday saw us heading up the eastern side of Lake Michigan, from Chesterton to South Haven and from South Haven to Grand Haven. We left the central time zone behind at the Indiana/Michigan border (we had to jump across a railroad and a freeway to get those pictures) and entered the eastern time zone.

The ride up the coast is simply beautiful. The houses are beautiful with lush flower gardens and huge trees. It reminded me very much of riding through a park. Part way up the coast on Thursday we stopped at a wonderful Swedish bakery nestled in a Swedish community. The patrons were, not surprisingly, mostly Swedish. They do know how to make really good coffee there.

A little further on, we had a refreshment stop at St. Joseph's. This community brought back several memories for me. My first one was ten years ago when a busload of 40 of our youth from Aylmer, St. Thomas and London area were on our way back from Minneapolis from a SERVE project. St. Joe's had graciously allowed us to stay in our church that evening. It had been a blistering hot day and we did not arrive in St. Joe's until 10:30 at night, exhausted and still sweaty, not to mention stinky.

We got the kids to get their bags unpacked into the church, quickly set up their sleeping mats and sleeping bags and grab their swim suits. At 11:00 pm we all headed down to the beach. I remember very distinctly the full moon that night and the calm, warm waters of Lake Michigan. What a treat for all of us, not to mention refreshing.

The other memory is that of having gone to St.Joe's/Benton Harbour on SERVE with our youth group about seven years ago. The city is very culturally divided with a river running right through the middle of the two cities. As I remember it, on one side of the river (St.Joes), almost
the entire population is Caucasion. On the other side, (Benton Harbour) almost the entire population is African American and over the years there has been a lot of racial tension between the two. We worked in Benton Harbour in some pretty rough areas that you would not want to be in at night. We stayed at a church on the other side of the river. It was one of my favourite sites of the twelve that I have gone to over the years.

Friday saw us head through the beautiful, tourist, harbour town of Saugatuk early on in the morning. If you ever have the chance, make sure to take your time to visit the down town area. We had a little time on our hands and so found a great coffee shop down a back alley where I met a young lady, Marg who was busy typing on her computer outside the shop. She is a writer and was very interested in what we were doing. I shared one of my Sea to Sea bracelets with her and she willingly put it on. She was also very interested in checking out some of the blogs.

Then it was on to Graafschap CRC the "mother church" of our denomination some 150, plus years ago. There is a lot of history of our denomination here. After being treated to a delicious lunch of sandwiches, baked goods, and lots of fresh blueberries for me (they're good for you) we checked out the basement of the this church that houses a museum of many artifacts of the early church of that time period. Several of the older members of the congregation were on hand to give guided tours and answer our many questions. I'm sure they were in their glory, well deserved because they did a great job. It was very interesting. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in the area.

I ended up talking to some of the church members (what's new there, right) and inadvertently was left behind by the group I generally cycle with. It turned out to be a great opportunity to cycle with others and take a couple of side trips. The first was to see a huge windmill in South Holland along with a replica Dutch village. Generally you have to pay to see this (seven dollars, I believe) but we were able to kind of sweet talk our way through for free. Thank you to the kind lady who let us in.

Then it was on to Russ's Cafe for a big piece of fresh blueberry pie. Do you get the sense I kind of like blueberries. I love them. We have passed by many a blueberry farm and the plants are simply loaded with ripe berries. My mouth is watering as I think about it. I must admit that there are times when I am very tempted to stop and help myself to a few. So far I have been able to resist the temptation but,.....

We then took another side trip to Dave's (a fellow cyclist from South Holland area) who invited us to see his boat at the lake. As it turned out, his boat is a 41 footer with two big diesel engines and a beautiful interior that can comfortably sleep six or eight people. We stayed for an hour and had a really neat talk about our families. Thanks for the hospitality Dave.

Then it was through the town of Sheldon. An interesting note about the name of Sheldon. In the 1800's when the town was being settled, the time of the horse and buggy and wooden bridges, there was a family that was crossing the bridge in their horse and carriage when the bridge suddenly capsized. Three of the children drowned as a result. The incident shook up the entire town and thereafter whenever anyone crossed the bridge they would comment, "Oh the poor children" in their thick Dutch accents. Over time the name kind of stuck but gradually changed to Sheldon.

That evening we stayed in the Christian Conference Center outside of Grand Haven, a beautiful, family campground situated right on the beach of Lake Michigan. There were a lot of campers there for the weekend. For supper we were treated by Home Missions to a delicious dinner of steak, vegetables and all the chocolate brownies you could eat. Of course, being on a strict diet, that was a no, no for me - NOT. That evening we also said goodbye to some 12 or so cyclists who will be leaving the tour in Grand Rapids. It is always kind of sad when it comes to saying goodbyes as we have over the past number of weeks become very much a close knit family. It was very fitting to end to evening by celebrating communion together.

Today we were privileged to be a part of the huge celebration service here in G.R. There was an estimated over 6,000 people present. Shane Clayborne (sp.?) the very gifted speaker, challenged us to be channels of justice and restoration in a very broken world. He spoke vividly of his experiences of working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta and how one could be Jesus to the people God has called us to reach out to. He certainly gave us a lot to think about as we reflect on our own lives and how we reflect Jesus each day. What do people see as they look at us?

Tommorow we begin week eight. Only two more weeks remain for those of us who have travelled from Seattle. For the fifty or so cyclists who have joined us for these last two weeks, their journey is just beginning. Isn't that a fitting picture of our lives as Christians. We are all on that journey of life. Some have come quite a ways and the trip is "winding down" so to speak while for others of us, it may be just beginning. Looking forward to meeting some of these "new" cyclists. I am also looking forward to soon crossing the border as it means that I am getting closer to home. Am also looking forward to extending some great Canadian hospitality to everyone, especially our American friends, some of whom have never visited our beautiful country. Till next time, take care!