While nine weeks might have been a little long to be a nomad, I truly appreciate the opportunity that I had to experience God’s creation as well as the interaction with His people. Even before the tour started I told myself to expect the unexpected, and I would say that my anticipation of what was to come was certainly met, and even exceeded. I recall from my first blog listing several things that I would miss while on the tour – and while the coffee and beer often left something to be desired, this was made up for in other, more important areas. The sense of community and the relationships that were formed as we traveled together from one location to another made this experience a great blessing. The idea that this was essentially a church on wheels (forgive the terrible pun!) gave deeper meaning to much of our actions and interactions.
Furthermore, I was excited to see the church take hold of a cause, poverty in this case, and genuinely engage the members of the communities through which we rode, bringing awareness to the needs of others. There was much discussion during the tour regarding the practicality of investing so much money into a bike tour – why spend so much on bikes and food and lodging and other ‘stuff’ for ourselves when we could have each stayed at home in our respective communities and invested that money in other agencies that directly assist the poor? And while there might be some truth in the math of dollar figures spent in areas of need, I don’t think that it is our place to judge the value of something that is done in the name of Christ. All along the tour, we as cyclists interacted albeit briefly with numerous individuals, and it is difficult to determine the effect that our words or our actions might have had on them. We may never know the lasting changes that were set in motion by the ‘simple’ act of riding across the country, but we can hope and pray that lives were changed for the better because of this tour, and that those affected by the ministries of the organizations we raised money for are blessed in tangible ways.
What now? During our last communion together my friend Julie gave a brief testimony, and in it she referenced a book – I think it was called ‘Touching the Void’ – about a man’s journey up Mount Everest. The main idea described here is that the top of Mount Everest is just another plot of land, no different from another except that there is nowhere else to climb. Julie made the link that in our tour, the last day of riding is no different from any other except that there would be nowhere else to ride. While at the end of such an epic journey some of us might have been searching for a memorable climax in that final day, it is really just another day with its own challenges and decisions to be made… which will in turn lead to yet another day at its close, and so on and so forth. What is important is not how many miles we biked and how fast we did it, or how many flat tires we changed, but rather the attitude we have and the decisions we will continue to make in light of what we learned while on the tour. Let this not simply be an end of something that will be missed, but an encouraging beginning to what lies ahead in each of our lives, and let it cause us to be mindful of the plight of others and receptive to how we might be the change in this world.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, if you have any input, questions, responses etc. I’d love to hear them. Feel free to e-mail me any time: r_vyn@hotmail.com.
Cheers,
Reuben
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Week 9 recap
Sorry for the delay in posting my last blog - I apologize for passively assaulting you with the title "ode to flatulence" at the top of my blog for so long! During the last week of the tour I just couldn't bring myself to write, mostly because I wasn't feeling my clever self - partially due to mental and physical exhaustion, partially due to homesickness etc. However, now that I find myself safely at home and sleeping in the comfort of my own bed (which was unknowingly kept warm for me throughout my two month absence... another story for another time!), there is no excuse - especially since my post-tour life has not exactly been characterized by a flurry of deadlines and responsibilities as I’m sure it has been for other riders. Therefore, here begins my final reflection, thereby bringing closure to this wonderful journey, sob sob...
After leaving the comfort of Southwestern Ontario, and the many positive interactions with family and friends, it was difficult to be motivated to get up every morning and ride. The thought of finishing was still ahead of us at this point, but yet seemed far enough away that there was still some grunt-work to be done. This was where my mental and physical exhaustion reached its peak, and I spent a few days at the back of the pack pedaling slowly and coming into camp late after multiple coffee breaks. Monday we had our last taste of Tim Horton's which was slightly sad - i have to say that Timmies doesn't compare in quality to Stumptown (awesome coffee had here in Portland), but its aroma embodies, nay personifies, the memories of my younger years in Canada - ah nostalgia!
Anyway, I snapped out of my funk when Billy D. told me that he expected me to perform on Friday, which was a day that saw nearly 7,000ft of climbing from Dalton, PA to Sussex, NJ. Now these Appalachian hills aren't as long as the Rockies, but several of the grades were much steeper than anything we had seen thus far. I went to bed early that night and woke up with the old folks before 6am - even to my surprise as i didn't set an alarm! I still didn't leave until 7:20am because of my absent minded nature - i had the hardest time finding several key objects: id, money, pump etc. Once I was on the road however, I quickly made up the time I lost by aimlessly wandering around camp. I wish that I had brought my speedometer that day since the steep grades which caused several riders to dismount and walk up, also provided for some great descending speeds! Many of these roads were winding and narrow, thus very scenic, and thankfully well maintained. About half-way through the route I found myself in the lead, and I arrived in camp shortly after 12:30pm as the gear truck and kitchen truck were getting situated. It felt great to hammer out the last ride before the easy stroll to the beach the following day.
The last day was quite a memorable one – I rode with the group of friends that I had become closest with during the tour: Hans, Nick, Julie, Kincso and Aaron. Despite some early sprinkles and a gash in the sidewall of my tire (which I managed to fix temporarily with a map and some crazy glue – thanks Nick!), the rest of the day was thoroughly enjoyable. We made one final coffee stop before meeting at the staging area for our police escort. At the staging area, which was still a good 7-8 miles from our final destination, Liberty State Park, we gathered for a group photo with all the cyclists. Riding in that escort with about 200 cyclists taking up entire sections of highway and city streets was pretty impressive – we took up one lane for the most part, and stretched the length of 3-4 blocks! When we arrived at the park we had a great view of New York, as well as the Statue of Liberty. We continued on pathways for another mile or so until we were welcomed by a large gathering of friends, family, and other supporters – it was a really neat way to end the tour. I had told my parents not to surprise me at the end of the tour (simply because I was going to be flying back too quickly to make it worthwhile!), so I didn’t have anyone waiting for me at the end. But after the tire dipping ceremony I pulled out some champagne – which I stealthily procured earlier that day and had been carrying since the staging area – and shared it with my riding buddies. Due to a busy schedule for the remainder of the evening, we were quickly carted back to our camp to prepare for dinner and celebration service at a local CRC.
The dinner was great, a nice catered outdoor picnic, but the service was much more meaningful in the end. The church was small and intimate, and I was sitting up in the balcony with my friend Annette where I could look out and see all the other cyclists, many of them with their friends and family. This was rather overwhelming, simply from the thought of the stories of each of these individuals and sacrifices that each of them made to be a part of this tour. It was one of those moments that cannot be described, except to say that there was a great sense of community and love, and the presence of God was certainly in that place.
After the service many good-byes were said as several people were leaving almost right away. I still had some packing to do, so I returned back to camp to arrange all of the ‘stuff’ I had acquired along the way, and pack it safely along with my bike for my plane ride home. The next morning involved a good amount of work as we had to strip the two semis down and get them ready for the return trip to Grand Rapids. The lovely decals which decorated these two trailers were nice to look at but very difficult to remove – I still have the blisters to prove it! The flight home was relatively uneventful, and I smiled as the pilot announced ‘cloud cover and light rain’ as we neared Portland… finally I was home!
After leaving the comfort of Southwestern Ontario, and the many positive interactions with family and friends, it was difficult to be motivated to get up every morning and ride. The thought of finishing was still ahead of us at this point, but yet seemed far enough away that there was still some grunt-work to be done. This was where my mental and physical exhaustion reached its peak, and I spent a few days at the back of the pack pedaling slowly and coming into camp late after multiple coffee breaks. Monday we had our last taste of Tim Horton's which was slightly sad - i have to say that Timmies doesn't compare in quality to Stumptown (awesome coffee had here in Portland), but its aroma embodies, nay personifies, the memories of my younger years in Canada - ah nostalgia!
Anyway, I snapped out of my funk when Billy D. told me that he expected me to perform on Friday, which was a day that saw nearly 7,000ft of climbing from Dalton, PA to Sussex, NJ. Now these Appalachian hills aren't as long as the Rockies, but several of the grades were much steeper than anything we had seen thus far. I went to bed early that night and woke up with the old folks before 6am - even to my surprise as i didn't set an alarm! I still didn't leave until 7:20am because of my absent minded nature - i had the hardest time finding several key objects: id, money, pump etc. Once I was on the road however, I quickly made up the time I lost by aimlessly wandering around camp. I wish that I had brought my speedometer that day since the steep grades which caused several riders to dismount and walk up, also provided for some great descending speeds! Many of these roads were winding and narrow, thus very scenic, and thankfully well maintained. About half-way through the route I found myself in the lead, and I arrived in camp shortly after 12:30pm as the gear truck and kitchen truck were getting situated. It felt great to hammer out the last ride before the easy stroll to the beach the following day.
The last day was quite a memorable one – I rode with the group of friends that I had become closest with during the tour: Hans, Nick, Julie, Kincso and Aaron. Despite some early sprinkles and a gash in the sidewall of my tire (which I managed to fix temporarily with a map and some crazy glue – thanks Nick!), the rest of the day was thoroughly enjoyable. We made one final coffee stop before meeting at the staging area for our police escort. At the staging area, which was still a good 7-8 miles from our final destination, Liberty State Park, we gathered for a group photo with all the cyclists. Riding in that escort with about 200 cyclists taking up entire sections of highway and city streets was pretty impressive – we took up one lane for the most part, and stretched the length of 3-4 blocks! When we arrived at the park we had a great view of New York, as well as the Statue of Liberty. We continued on pathways for another mile or so until we were welcomed by a large gathering of friends, family, and other supporters – it was a really neat way to end the tour. I had told my parents not to surprise me at the end of the tour (simply because I was going to be flying back too quickly to make it worthwhile!), so I didn’t have anyone waiting for me at the end. But after the tire dipping ceremony I pulled out some champagne – which I stealthily procured earlier that day and had been carrying since the staging area – and shared it with my riding buddies. Due to a busy schedule for the remainder of the evening, we were quickly carted back to our camp to prepare for dinner and celebration service at a local CRC.
The dinner was great, a nice catered outdoor picnic, but the service was much more meaningful in the end. The church was small and intimate, and I was sitting up in the balcony with my friend Annette where I could look out and see all the other cyclists, many of them with their friends and family. This was rather overwhelming, simply from the thought of the stories of each of these individuals and sacrifices that each of them made to be a part of this tour. It was one of those moments that cannot be described, except to say that there was a great sense of community and love, and the presence of God was certainly in that place.
After the service many good-byes were said as several people were leaving almost right away. I still had some packing to do, so I returned back to camp to arrange all of the ‘stuff’ I had acquired along the way, and pack it safely along with my bike for my plane ride home. The next morning involved a good amount of work as we had to strip the two semis down and get them ready for the return trip to Grand Rapids. The lovely decals which decorated these two trailers were nice to look at but very difficult to remove – I still have the blisters to prove it! The flight home was relatively uneventful, and I smiled as the pilot announced ‘cloud cover and light rain’ as we neared Portland… finally I was home!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Ode to Flatulence...
One of the possibly lesser discussed topics on others' blogs might be that of flatulence, so I just wanted to address the issue, lest it be forgotten!
Let me preempt my rambling by saying that we have all appreciated the food provided for us by the kitchen staff - Lavone and her team have done some very wonderful things inside that kitchen truck, and they continue to amaze us with new savory dishes.
That being said... something in the change in diet that we have all undergone during this tour has caused the large majority of us to experience increased flatulence. At first this was slightly embarrassing because no-one was certain whether it was just themselves, or if others were possibly suffering from similar symptoms. As we grew closer to one another - physically, emotionally... and chemically - we quickly realized that nearly everyone was powered by more than just their legs - we were now gas-powered!
Early on, most people tried to be somewhat modest in their emitting of the aforementioned substances, however it did not take long before all caution was thrown to the wind and one could hear a symphony of farts blasting from tents in all directions. It would be great if this were the only place that farting was witnessed, however, several riders have been so bold as to fart in the gear truck, in the dinner line, and other unmentionable places! I must admit, I'm not innocent on this matter, but i do strongly advocate for a return to our more modest days when one didn't have to worry about what type of scents one experienced around camp, and we could simply appreciate the lovely aroma coming from the kitchen truck.
Enough said!
Let me preempt my rambling by saying that we have all appreciated the food provided for us by the kitchen staff - Lavone and her team have done some very wonderful things inside that kitchen truck, and they continue to amaze us with new savory dishes.
That being said... something in the change in diet that we have all undergone during this tour has caused the large majority of us to experience increased flatulence. At first this was slightly embarrassing because no-one was certain whether it was just themselves, or if others were possibly suffering from similar symptoms. As we grew closer to one another - physically, emotionally... and chemically - we quickly realized that nearly everyone was powered by more than just their legs - we were now gas-powered!
Early on, most people tried to be somewhat modest in their emitting of the aforementioned substances, however it did not take long before all caution was thrown to the wind and one could hear a symphony of farts blasting from tents in all directions. It would be great if this were the only place that farting was witnessed, however, several riders have been so bold as to fart in the gear truck, in the dinner line, and other unmentionable places! I must admit, I'm not innocent on this matter, but i do strongly advocate for a return to our more modest days when one didn't have to worry about what type of scents one experienced around camp, and we could simply appreciate the lovely aroma coming from the kitchen truck.
Enough said!
A triumphant return to the motherland!
Disclaimer: I apologize in advance for the length of this post. However, if you refer back to my original post, I believe I warned you all about this 'narcicistic' endeavor, and as you may know - i do have a tendancy toward verbosity. So without further ado...
On Wednesday we crossed the border by ferry into Canada and were welcomed by a large group of supporters - as well as plenty of tasty Tim Horton's coffee and other delights! Since that time I have been enjoying the company of family and the warmth of a real bed.
I arrived in Chatham and was met by my grandpa. We went back to his place near Ridgetown and had the typical meat, potatoes and vegetable dinner - i hadn't had grandpa's meatballs in quite some time, so this traditional meal was a welcome bit of variety to my normal diet! Then, as tradition would have it, after dinner we went for a crop tour - although I think grandpa recognizes the fact that I intentionally left my agricultural career behind for a reason, and so rather than the more extensive tour that i'm sure my brothers and father would still get, he simply pointed out which of my uncles or cousins owned which plots of land, and we returned to the homestead for a couple cold ones. I always enjoy visiting my grandpa, and was happy that Chatham was a stop on this tour. I did hear a few of the same stories retold again, but no trip to grandpa's is fcomplete without hearing the one about the little old lady in the back of the church who stood up told the pastor that her husband's first wife was perfect.
The next morning (Thursday) grandpa dropped me off back in Chatham and I continued on to London where I stayed with my brother Richard. On the route leading to London, one of the participants of the Canadian Sea-to-Sea tour in '05 organized a 40km time-trial for us. I obvioulsy couldn't back down from a little friendly competition, although i was slightly nervous because my title of the fastest rider on the tour was now on the line, and time-trialing isn't my strongest suit either! Anyway, luckily the rider who I was most concerned about began just in front of me, so i had my sights on him the entire time. I caught up to him about 20k into the race (he started 1 minute ahead), but i couldn't get much of a lead on him after that. he caught back up to me shortly thereafter, and for the last 10 miles of the race we rode side-by-side. This really helped as we pushed one another to keep up the pace. We finished together, and so my victory was secured - my final time was 1hour and 3 minutes (unofficially). This was about as fast as i had hoped for considering the slight head-wind we were riding into. At any rate I was relieved to have endured that effort and retained my title. We then proceeded to ingest several pounds of tasty roast at a nearby CRC church that was hosting us for lunch.
Later that day, upon entering the city of London we were greeted by a group of people from one of the local churches. I was about to blow right by when I heard some one call out my name - it was my cousin Hannah. This was quite a surprise to see her out there, and it was nice to catch up briefly. When I arrived at my brother's place he was "working" outside on the deck, but he quickly put his laptop away and we enjoyed a couple of Mr. Sleeman's finest in the shade of his new gazebo/tent. When Tara came back from work we drove over to the high school where everyone was camped out and picked up my stuff. It's always nice to give friends and family a better picture of our set-up and introduce them to the people we constantly blog about. After chugging some chocolate milk provided by the local church (this is a rare treat, and therefore worth highlighting!) we returned home for dinner, which was awesome and healthy - way to go Tara... and Rich!
I signed out of the tour in London, and printed off some rough maps to guide me on a detour that I had been hoping to take for some time. I went to visit my Uncle Jake and Aunt MaryAnne in the Guelph area - they live close to where I grew up, and our families were quite close when we lived there. I had the chance to pass by my old high school on the way, and I took the same route that I had taken on several occasions when I had biked to school in the past... ah, nostalgia! My cousin Jeremy showed up that evening as well which was nice, and we caught up on our respective life situations and aspirations (isn't it amazing how you can make something so regular sound so much more sophisticated with the right choice of words? ok Reuben, too much coffee!) Right, so the next morning I slept in and had a relaxing coffee with Jake and MarryAnne on their new patio, and finally got on the road after 10am - that's the way every morning should go!
For those of you who worry about my safety on the roads I won't describe in detail the route I took to arrive in St. Catharines, but I will say that I am safe and sound at my Aunt Yolanda and Uncle George's house, and am looking forward to seeing my parents and other relatives this evening.
More interesting and more concise posts to follow...
On Wednesday we crossed the border by ferry into Canada and were welcomed by a large group of supporters - as well as plenty of tasty Tim Horton's coffee and other delights! Since that time I have been enjoying the company of family and the warmth of a real bed.
I arrived in Chatham and was met by my grandpa. We went back to his place near Ridgetown and had the typical meat, potatoes and vegetable dinner - i hadn't had grandpa's meatballs in quite some time, so this traditional meal was a welcome bit of variety to my normal diet! Then, as tradition would have it, after dinner we went for a crop tour - although I think grandpa recognizes the fact that I intentionally left my agricultural career behind for a reason, and so rather than the more extensive tour that i'm sure my brothers and father would still get, he simply pointed out which of my uncles or cousins owned which plots of land, and we returned to the homestead for a couple cold ones. I always enjoy visiting my grandpa, and was happy that Chatham was a stop on this tour. I did hear a few of the same stories retold again, but no trip to grandpa's is fcomplete without hearing the one about the little old lady in the back of the church who stood up told the pastor that her husband's first wife was perfect.
The next morning (Thursday) grandpa dropped me off back in Chatham and I continued on to London where I stayed with my brother Richard. On the route leading to London, one of the participants of the Canadian Sea-to-Sea tour in '05 organized a 40km time-trial for us. I obvioulsy couldn't back down from a little friendly competition, although i was slightly nervous because my title of the fastest rider on the tour was now on the line, and time-trialing isn't my strongest suit either! Anyway, luckily the rider who I was most concerned about began just in front of me, so i had my sights on him the entire time. I caught up to him about 20k into the race (he started 1 minute ahead), but i couldn't get much of a lead on him after that. he caught back up to me shortly thereafter, and for the last 10 miles of the race we rode side-by-side. This really helped as we pushed one another to keep up the pace. We finished together, and so my victory was secured - my final time was 1hour and 3 minutes (unofficially). This was about as fast as i had hoped for considering the slight head-wind we were riding into. At any rate I was relieved to have endured that effort and retained my title. We then proceeded to ingest several pounds of tasty roast at a nearby CRC church that was hosting us for lunch.
Later that day, upon entering the city of London we were greeted by a group of people from one of the local churches. I was about to blow right by when I heard some one call out my name - it was my cousin Hannah. This was quite a surprise to see her out there, and it was nice to catch up briefly. When I arrived at my brother's place he was "working" outside on the deck, but he quickly put his laptop away and we enjoyed a couple of Mr. Sleeman's finest in the shade of his new gazebo/tent. When Tara came back from work we drove over to the high school where everyone was camped out and picked up my stuff. It's always nice to give friends and family a better picture of our set-up and introduce them to the people we constantly blog about. After chugging some chocolate milk provided by the local church (this is a rare treat, and therefore worth highlighting!) we returned home for dinner, which was awesome and healthy - way to go Tara... and Rich!
I signed out of the tour in London, and printed off some rough maps to guide me on a detour that I had been hoping to take for some time. I went to visit my Uncle Jake and Aunt MaryAnne in the Guelph area - they live close to where I grew up, and our families were quite close when we lived there. I had the chance to pass by my old high school on the way, and I took the same route that I had taken on several occasions when I had biked to school in the past... ah, nostalgia! My cousin Jeremy showed up that evening as well which was nice, and we caught up on our respective life situations and aspirations (isn't it amazing how you can make something so regular sound so much more sophisticated with the right choice of words? ok Reuben, too much coffee!) Right, so the next morning I slept in and had a relaxing coffee with Jake and MarryAnne on their new patio, and finally got on the road after 10am - that's the way every morning should go!
For those of you who worry about my safety on the roads I won't describe in detail the route I took to arrive in St. Catharines, but I will say that I am safe and sound at my Aunt Yolanda and Uncle George's house, and am looking forward to seeing my parents and other relatives this evening.
More interesting and more concise posts to follow...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
More random pics
Hans and Nick showing off their tan lines for the camera...
Me looking pensive... contemplating life at a coffee shop near Dordt College
Julie and I trade bites from two very delicious doughnuts, mmmmmm!
Julie and I trying to perform the same stunt while biking... we didn't fare as well this time!
Me looking pensive... contemplating life at a coffee shop near Dordt College
Julie and I trade bites from two very delicious doughnuts, mmmmmm!
Julie and I trying to perform the same stunt while biking... we didn't fare as well this time!
Three states later, and the first one to GR!
Last week, in 5 days of riding I travelled through 4 different states. Monday started in Wisconsin and ended in Illinois. Tuesday (which ended up being one of my longest riding days ever!) we arrived at Trinity Christian College outside of Chicago. Wednesday we stayed at Indiana Dunes State park in the northwest corner of Indiana. Thursday we entered Michigan, and on Friday a few of us pulled a double and found our way to Grand Rapids a day early.
Here's a little recap of this weeks highlights:
Monday was the infamous ride with my mom, see previous post.
Tuesday was my sweep day and we were on a bike path for about 35 miles. However, several riders (yours truly included) took a wrong turn at a fork in the road. We successfully navigated our way back to the route and stumbled upon the usual suspect, everyone's favourite 'long day rider', Gayle Harrison. When we got to the next SAG we took a good half hour nap to give her time to get ahead. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of her... she made it in safely, but our crew had a few problem flats that kept us out until 7:40pm. This was too bad too because I was supposed to meet my parents at Trinity that afternoon... although as this was the place where those two lovebirds first met i'm sure they were lost in the memories and didn't even notice my absence(jk)! So mom said her final good-byes to everyone she had met on the tour and my parents were off to return home to the real world. That night I enjoyed a few local brews at Aaron's parents' place - I highly suggest the Goose Island 312 if you can find it!
Wednesday was a very eventful and enjoyable day. We were well fed by one of the local churches along the route, after which I joined up with the usual suspects: Hans, Nick, Julie, Carrie (who returned to the tour for this week), as well as Stephanie. We were laughing and carrying on as usual, and enjoying a beautiful bike path which lead us away from the urban mess which some might more affectionately refer to as Chicago. At one point on the path Nick was pulling three of us... literally pulling, yes! Carrie grabbed on to Nick's safety vest, I grabbed on to hers, Hans grabbed mine... then Julie tried to grab on to Hans and things went wrong. Hans went down and landed square on his rear end, and i'm still not quite sure how I didn't go down with him. Steph was behind us the whole time recording this scene with her camera, i'll try to get the clip soon. Somehow my rear wheel went out of true in this incident, but it wasn't too bad and I was able to get it fixed in Holland on the way to GR.
Thursday we entered Michigan and I stopped to visit Lesa, who is back from her Peace Corps assignment in Guatamala, as well as her family at Ben and Mindy's house in the St. Joseph area - the route came within three blocks of their house, so it was easy to find. I showed up earlier than expected - around noon - and I surprised Mindy who was cleaning the house in preparation for the family's arrival. In typical fashion, I figured Lesa (aka Mota) would have let them know I was meeting them there, and Mota figured I would have called ahead of time, but everything worked out fine and the rest of the crew showed up an hour later. It was good to see them all again, albeit a brief visit.
On Friday, Kevin, Kyle and I decided to skip the night in Grand Haven and head straight to Grand Rapids. After a quick pitstop in Holland we carried on to GR and arrived much faster than we anticipated even though we were biking straight into a headwind. With extra time to kill I found my way back to the ole butter factory to surprise some of my former co-workers. It's been two years since I worked at Butterball Farms, and not much has changed since then - I did found out that my position is once again vacant... But as much as I would love to work with that crew again, I just couldn't move back to that city.
We stayed at kevin's old house in east town, and we completed the typical GR experience by going to Yesterdogs for some late night hearty grub. It was great to wake up Saturday and know that I didn't have to get on my bike, other than a short 10min jant to the alma mater, Calvin College, to meet up with the tour again.
Here's a little recap of this weeks highlights:
Monday was the infamous ride with my mom, see previous post.
Tuesday was my sweep day and we were on a bike path for about 35 miles. However, several riders (yours truly included) took a wrong turn at a fork in the road. We successfully navigated our way back to the route and stumbled upon the usual suspect, everyone's favourite 'long day rider', Gayle Harrison. When we got to the next SAG we took a good half hour nap to give her time to get ahead. Unfortunately, that was the last we saw of her... she made it in safely, but our crew had a few problem flats that kept us out until 7:40pm. This was too bad too because I was supposed to meet my parents at Trinity that afternoon... although as this was the place where those two lovebirds first met i'm sure they were lost in the memories and didn't even notice my absence(jk)! So mom said her final good-byes to everyone she had met on the tour and my parents were off to return home to the real world. That night I enjoyed a few local brews at Aaron's parents' place - I highly suggest the Goose Island 312 if you can find it!
Wednesday was a very eventful and enjoyable day. We were well fed by one of the local churches along the route, after which I joined up with the usual suspects: Hans, Nick, Julie, Carrie (who returned to the tour for this week), as well as Stephanie. We were laughing and carrying on as usual, and enjoying a beautiful bike path which lead us away from the urban mess which some might more affectionately refer to as Chicago. At one point on the path Nick was pulling three of us... literally pulling, yes! Carrie grabbed on to Nick's safety vest, I grabbed on to hers, Hans grabbed mine... then Julie tried to grab on to Hans and things went wrong. Hans went down and landed square on his rear end, and i'm still not quite sure how I didn't go down with him. Steph was behind us the whole time recording this scene with her camera, i'll try to get the clip soon. Somehow my rear wheel went out of true in this incident, but it wasn't too bad and I was able to get it fixed in Holland on the way to GR.
Thursday we entered Michigan and I stopped to visit Lesa, who is back from her Peace Corps assignment in Guatamala, as well as her family at Ben and Mindy's house in the St. Joseph area - the route came within three blocks of their house, so it was easy to find. I showed up earlier than expected - around noon - and I surprised Mindy who was cleaning the house in preparation for the family's arrival. In typical fashion, I figured Lesa (aka Mota) would have let them know I was meeting them there, and Mota figured I would have called ahead of time, but everything worked out fine and the rest of the crew showed up an hour later. It was good to see them all again, albeit a brief visit.
On Friday, Kevin, Kyle and I decided to skip the night in Grand Haven and head straight to Grand Rapids. After a quick pitstop in Holland we carried on to GR and arrived much faster than we anticipated even though we were biking straight into a headwind. With extra time to kill I found my way back to the ole butter factory to surprise some of my former co-workers. It's been two years since I worked at Butterball Farms, and not much has changed since then - I did found out that my position is once again vacant... But as much as I would love to work with that crew again, I just couldn't move back to that city.
We stayed at kevin's old house in east town, and we completed the typical GR experience by going to Yesterdogs for some late night hearty grub. It was great to wake up Saturday and know that I didn't have to get on my bike, other than a short 10min jant to the alma mater, Calvin College, to meet up with the tour again.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The Wisconsin Experience
In a short span of time (only three riding days) we passed through the great state of Wisconsin. The most noticeable difference compared to Iowa was the quality of roads as well as the coffee, not to mention the wonderful people who hosted us in Madison. They treated us like royalty all weekend long - from shuttles to do laundry, to movies and great food, we were very well taken care of.
My dad came up Saturday night to retrieve his wife, and they found a campsite not far from where we were staying. They kindly lent me their vehicle that night so that a number of us youngen could go out and enjoy all that the downtown had to offer. We went to the university district which is set on the beautiful lake Mendota, and tasted a variety of local micro-brews at an open air patio. On Sunday after the celebration service and lunch - where I gleefully consumed 4 brats in addition to several salads and handfuls of cookies - Amanda came to visit for the second weekend in a row. After sending both my mother and Amanda for a ride on Billy's Harley, we set out in search of a coffee joint to relax for a bit. We drove for a while but couldn't even find a starbucks, so we ended up going to the arboretum for a walk. The rest of the evening was very relaxing, and i sent my mother to bed early since she had a long day ahead of her on Monday...
This was to be my mother's last hoorah on the trip. For several weeks she had been planning on cycling for a day, and that day finally arrived as we left Madison and headed for Woodstock, IL. She was very excited, although slightly anxious as well, but before I even had a chance to say good-bye to dad and Amanda she was already a mile down the road - i had to work pretty hard just to catch her! She kept a faster pace than I had anticipated, especially since her bike weighs twice as much as mine and she doesn't have clipless pedals either! The day was very enjoyable, it was good to spend some quality mother-son time together - we both were amazed that during the two weeks she was on tour we hardly saw one another, so this was very special for both of us. We passed several groups of riders, and were in the first third of those arriving in camp that afternoon - which is pretty good since we didn't leave any earlier than i normally do myself! Maybe it was her fast pace, or maybe it was the excitement of the weekend's events, but i needed two naps in order to recover after this eventful day...
pics to come later, sorry - it's supper time!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Saddle sores...
Seing as there is not much to report about our long days through the rolling hills of Iowa, I'll resort to a short rambling on everyone's favorite sbject: saddle sores. Please, only read on if you are not negaively affected by graphic descriptions of "private" matters.
One of the most painful experiences that a cyclist can endure isn't always a result of a bad crash, but rather is often due to saddle sores. For a more complete description of this term, please check the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_sores. The frequency and seriousness of saddle sores is obviously increased when one spends increasing amounts of time on the road. Therefore, on a 9-week tour, this becomes an extremely important issue! Most of us combat this potential problem through the use of products such as bag balm, udder butter or even vaseline - really anything slimey will do the trick! Nevertheless, regardless of your product of choice, not even the professional cyclist is immune. Case and point, I struggled with this issue thrugh parts of week 3 and 4. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that I was grateful for the amount of hills we had which required me to be up out of the saddle! You'll be happy to know that everything down under has healed quite nicely and with the addition of my aero-bars I now have another position available for my beehind on my saddle.
Sorry if this may have caused you to lose your appetite, but this is a fact of life that we cyclists deal with on a regular basis, and I thought this might give you a better insight into my daily joys and struggles of life in the saddle!
ps. no pictures will be posted on this subject, lest they be circulated around the Pentagon on the basis that they were somehow mistaken for blown up images of WMDs in Iraq... (this is for the Arrested Development fans out there!)
One of the most painful experiences that a cyclist can endure isn't always a result of a bad crash, but rather is often due to saddle sores. For a more complete description of this term, please check the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddle_sores. The frequency and seriousness of saddle sores is obviously increased when one spends increasing amounts of time on the road. Therefore, on a 9-week tour, this becomes an extremely important issue! Most of us combat this potential problem through the use of products such as bag balm, udder butter or even vaseline - really anything slimey will do the trick! Nevertheless, regardless of your product of choice, not even the professional cyclist is immune. Case and point, I struggled with this issue thrugh parts of week 3 and 4. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that I was grateful for the amount of hills we had which required me to be up out of the saddle! You'll be happy to know that everything down under has healed quite nicely and with the addition of my aero-bars I now have another position available for my beehind on my saddle.
Sorry if this may have caused you to lose your appetite, but this is a fact of life that we cyclists deal with on a regular basis, and I thought this might give you a better insight into my daily joys and struggles of life in the saddle!
ps. no pictures will be posted on this subject, lest they be circulated around the Pentagon on the basis that they were somehow mistaken for blown up images of WMDs in Iraq... (this is for the Arrested Development fans out there!)
Entering Iowa
On Monday we entered the great state of Iowa... much the same scenery as we found in Nebraska: corn, soybeans and a very limited amount of coffee shops. We started to head north in order to arrive at Dordt College on Tuesday afternoon. We were very well received there, with dorm rooms to sleep in and a pizza and chicken dinner. I hadn't been to Dordt since I last visited my brother Justin there some 8-10 years ago, and there have been many changes made to the campus.
My friend Paul (used to live in the 10th street house in Portland with me) met me there along with his friend Nina, and we hit up the free bowling lanes for a few games. I somehow managed a score of 145 in the first game, but things steadily declined from there.
Later that night we had a celebration service, so i threw on the ole yellow shirt and suit jacket combination for good measure. Most everyone went to bed early since Wednesday was the first of three consecutive century rides. When we woke we were greeted by sheets of rain, although this was somewhat of a welcome surprise compared to the heat that we had been experiencing previously. After a typical dining hall breakfast, we hit the wet roads with eager anticipation of a west wind... and we certainly got it. The clouds cleared around noon, and the tailwind pushed us all the way into Algona - it's great to ride at 20+ mph and not have to pedal!
Today again, we set out for another 112 miles. However, this time we weren't as fortunate with the winds and actually had to work for this one! I took my sweet time mostly today, making long stops for gas station coffee and ice-cream, as well as popsicles provided by John Elzinga's fiancee who has been following along with us since Omaha.
Well, i pretty much stink, and i'm sitting in a public library making their keyboard all dirty, so i'm going to head back to camp and clean up... hygeine standards really go out the window on tours like this - except for purell, but don't get me started!
My friend Paul (used to live in the 10th street house in Portland with me) met me there along with his friend Nina, and we hit up the free bowling lanes for a few games. I somehow managed a score of 145 in the first game, but things steadily declined from there.
Later that night we had a celebration service, so i threw on the ole yellow shirt and suit jacket combination for good measure. Most everyone went to bed early since Wednesday was the first of three consecutive century rides. When we woke we were greeted by sheets of rain, although this was somewhat of a welcome surprise compared to the heat that we had been experiencing previously. After a typical dining hall breakfast, we hit the wet roads with eager anticipation of a west wind... and we certainly got it. The clouds cleared around noon, and the tailwind pushed us all the way into Algona - it's great to ride at 20+ mph and not have to pedal!
Today again, we set out for another 112 miles. However, this time we weren't as fortunate with the winds and actually had to work for this one! I took my sweet time mostly today, making long stops for gas station coffee and ice-cream, as well as popsicles provided by John Elzinga's fiancee who has been following along with us since Omaha.
Well, i pretty much stink, and i'm sitting in a public library making their keyboard all dirty, so i'm going to head back to camp and clean up... hygeine standards really go out the window on tours like this - except for purell, but don't get me started!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Weekend visits
The past few weekends I’ve had the chance to visit with friends and family which has been great. It started with the surprise visit of my parents in the Denver area – which turned out to be a longer stay for my mom – and then I briefly visited with Adam and Megan in Denver, and then with Amanda as well Adrian’s dad near Omaha.
I had hoped to visit with Adam and Megan on Saturday, but our epic climb brought us into town late that day, not to mention Adam was rather sick at the time. But we finally got together Sunday evening for a short night-cap at his lovely abode just north of Denver University. Megan is studying in the law program at DU and through her resourcefulness, landed her and Adam the chance to live in the Phipps mansion free of charge in exchange for some weekly duties organizing events etc. I didn’t take many pictures, but I couldn’t stop from habitually picking my jaw up from the floor – this place was immaculate! Just to name some of the details: there were original manuscripts in the library from Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and others; there was an ornate Steinway in the living area next to the covered tennis courts; murals and much fine wood carving in well decorated rooms.
We enjoyed a few brews in the soda fountain room which was signed by many of the Phipps guests – Marilyn Monroe among many others. It was great to catch up if even for a short while.
This past weekend in Fremont (near Omaha)…
My friend Amanda came to visit from Iowa City and she picked me and my mom up in Fremont after my long sweep day, and brought us to Adrian’s (my roommate in Portland) parents place - they live in Elkhorn, just outside of Omaha. It was too bad that Adrian wasn’t there - he just flew home a few days earlier. This is now the second time that I have visited his parents without him actually being at home!
It was great to spend a night away from the busy-ness of the tour, as well as enjoy great company, the comfort of air conditioning, and the blessing of being able to sleep in a real bed! We also got to enjoy some great German products that they brought back from their recent travels.
Mark, Adrian’s dad, is the pastor at Bethany Lutheran in Elkhorn, Nebraska and we had the opportunity to attend one of the services Sunday morning. Mark kindly pointed us out as his guests and had us stand during the service – he told the congregation about the tour, and had me show everyone my stellar farmer’s tan. That afternoon we shared a great Sunday dinner together – thanks for grilling Mark! This was such a refreshing and restful weekend, and I’m now ready for another long week in the saddle.
Here's a pic of Amanda and I next to the gear truck at camp:
And here's evidence that my mom is indeed earning her keep on the tour!
I had hoped to visit with Adam and Megan on Saturday, but our epic climb brought us into town late that day, not to mention Adam was rather sick at the time. But we finally got together Sunday evening for a short night-cap at his lovely abode just north of Denver University. Megan is studying in the law program at DU and through her resourcefulness, landed her and Adam the chance to live in the Phipps mansion free of charge in exchange for some weekly duties organizing events etc. I didn’t take many pictures, but I couldn’t stop from habitually picking my jaw up from the floor – this place was immaculate! Just to name some of the details: there were original manuscripts in the library from Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain and others; there was an ornate Steinway in the living area next to the covered tennis courts; murals and much fine wood carving in well decorated rooms.
We enjoyed a few brews in the soda fountain room which was signed by many of the Phipps guests – Marilyn Monroe among many others. It was great to catch up if even for a short while.
This past weekend in Fremont (near Omaha)…
My friend Amanda came to visit from Iowa City and she picked me and my mom up in Fremont after my long sweep day, and brought us to Adrian’s (my roommate in Portland) parents place - they live in Elkhorn, just outside of Omaha. It was too bad that Adrian wasn’t there - he just flew home a few days earlier. This is now the second time that I have visited his parents without him actually being at home!
It was great to spend a night away from the busy-ness of the tour, as well as enjoy great company, the comfort of air conditioning, and the blessing of being able to sleep in a real bed! We also got to enjoy some great German products that they brought back from their recent travels.
Mark, Adrian’s dad, is the pastor at Bethany Lutheran in Elkhorn, Nebraska and we had the opportunity to attend one of the services Sunday morning. Mark kindly pointed us out as his guests and had us stand during the service – he told the congregation about the tour, and had me show everyone my stellar farmer’s tan. That afternoon we shared a great Sunday dinner together – thanks for grilling Mark! This was such a refreshing and restful weekend, and I’m now ready for another long week in the saddle.
Here's a pic of Amanda and I next to the gear truck at camp:
And here's evidence that my mom is indeed earning her keep on the tour!
Denver to Omaha recap
The past week was rather long and hot – our average distance bumped up to 90-some miles per day, and the humidity slowly became a factor… needless to say, leaving the mountains was a little difficult for me. The possibility for additional excursions is diminishing as rapidly as the scenic photo opportunities – unless you’re into horticulture!
I began the week riding solo: listening to music, collecting my thoughts and spending some time in an introspective state. It was really refreshing to start my days this way, and it really gave me a renewed perspective on why I am doing this tour, and what it means to be a part of an initiative like the Sea to Sea. However, the long straight roads of eastern Colorado and Western Nebraska started to wear on my patience, and after a while I would find some friends to ride with on the route. Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to have several pools to cool off in along the route this past week – that definitely rejuvenates the body after the long days!
Here's a shot of me riding solo... oh wait, this was actually from Denver's celebration rally - the plaid sports coat has become a sunday tradition now!
This week was also spent trying to convince our friends who left us in Denver (Carrie and Kincso in particular) to rejoin us on the tour. Things are looking positive, and that gives a number of us some additional motivation to make it through the Midwest humidity. Carrie actually paid us a visit in Minden as she drove back from Denver to Minneapolis. Thanks again to Mrs. Groen for the ice-cream that afternoon!
The last day of this week I was on sweep duty, and it ended up being alright – the day, while quite hot and humid was rather enjoyable. The regular group of 7 riders (plus another this day) took our time and stopped soon into the route for coffee/lunch to make sure we wouldn’t catch up to any riders too quickly. We did catch up to the infamous Gayle Harrison – one of our ‘long day riders’ that is incredibly motivated and has a wild sense of humour – and I enjoyed riding with her, sharing laughs carrying on. For Gayle's take on this lovely day, see this link: http://gayleharrison.blogspot.com/2008/08/saturday-august-2-riding-with-reuben.html
Next week looks to be much of the same: long days with high heat and humidity… now I remember why I left the Mid-West for the cool climate of the Northwest!
I began the week riding solo: listening to music, collecting my thoughts and spending some time in an introspective state. It was really refreshing to start my days this way, and it really gave me a renewed perspective on why I am doing this tour, and what it means to be a part of an initiative like the Sea to Sea. However, the long straight roads of eastern Colorado and Western Nebraska started to wear on my patience, and after a while I would find some friends to ride with on the route. Thankfully, we were fortunate enough to have several pools to cool off in along the route this past week – that definitely rejuvenates the body after the long days!
Here's a shot of me riding solo... oh wait, this was actually from Denver's celebration rally - the plaid sports coat has become a sunday tradition now!
This week was also spent trying to convince our friends who left us in Denver (Carrie and Kincso in particular) to rejoin us on the tour. Things are looking positive, and that gives a number of us some additional motivation to make it through the Midwest humidity. Carrie actually paid us a visit in Minden as she drove back from Denver to Minneapolis. Thanks again to Mrs. Groen for the ice-cream that afternoon!
The last day of this week I was on sweep duty, and it ended up being alright – the day, while quite hot and humid was rather enjoyable. The regular group of 7 riders (plus another this day) took our time and stopped soon into the route for coffee/lunch to make sure we wouldn’t catch up to any riders too quickly. We did catch up to the infamous Gayle Harrison – one of our ‘long day riders’ that is incredibly motivated and has a wild sense of humour – and I enjoyed riding with her, sharing laughs carrying on. For Gayle's take on this lovely day, see this link: http://gayleharrison.blogspot.com/2008/08/saturday-august-2-riding-with-reuben.html
Next week looks to be much of the same: long days with high heat and humidity… now I remember why I left the Mid-West for the cool climate of the Northwest!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
A weekend of surprises... and epic climbing
On Friday afternoon, I was just sitting down to write my blog when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and to my surprise saw my mom and dad – I wasn’t expecting to see them until I arrived in Madison, so this certainly caught me off guard. They joined us for dinner and I slowly introduced them to several of my friends. I was really glad that they were able to witness the peloton meeting as this was quite a special one with a lot of involvement from individuals who were leaving as well as their friends who were asked to speak on their behalf. Since a number of my close friends were leaving I gave a little speech, specifically on behalf of Carrie.
That same evening Tyler made mention of a mountain not far from the route that we should venture up. Since my parents had rented a car and were previously planning on driving up that very mountain the next day, I conscripted their help and they, along with Alex’s parents who were also visiting, acted as our support and gear crew. We were looking at an extra 50 miles of riding on a day that already had 5-6000ft of climbing planned. By the next morning our group of willing and able bodies numbered 11, and we left Winter Park just before 7:30 after procuring a 5 gallon bucket of water from the kitchen truck.
Here is the whole group before departing:
The day did not start off well as Tyler was taken down in a bit of a mix-up, and he ended up with a broken collar bone and cannot continue on the tour. After he got picked up by the SAG wagon, we continued up the first pass of the day which brought us to over 11,000ft. We regrouped at the top and hit the fast, smooth descent – I hit my highest speed yet at 56mph drafting behind an SUV (if he wouldn’t have kept tapping his brakes it could have been higher!)
Me at the top with my parents:
Here is a link to a video that Josh took of me on the descent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg6lLzlG43s
And here is one of a paceline we had going on with all of us descending into Idaho Springs before beginning our climb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2udgDUwNI
At the bottom we made a quick stop and then began our off-route adventure. We climbed for 14 miles in order to reach the base of Mount Evans, and were greeted there by our parents who had plenty of snacks and beverages to replenish our stock. From that point we began the real adventure – this climb was also 14 miles, but had plenty of switchbacks. After 4 or 5 miles we were already above the tree line and could see quite a distance. It kept getting colder as we neared the summit, and at mile 10 it began to thunder – thankfully it didn’t rain too much and we were able to reach the summit intact. From that point we could see the city of Denver (50 miles away) and beyond. We took several pictures and waited for everyone to reach the top… which was no easy task in our condition, since our sweat and rain drenched clothing quickly cooled us off in the 40 degree weather! The descent was even colder, but the pride in our accomplishment was worth all the suffering. In total we biked 136 miles and climbed 1155ft. We arrived back to Denver in record time, but still missed dinner. That night a good number of us went out to celebrate the last night for our dear friends.
Pics from the summit of Mount Evans:
After Sunday’s celebration service I went out to coffee with my parents and sarcastically threw out the idea that mom stay on tour for a couple weeks to help out with SAG vehicles or in the kitchen. She came around to the idea rather quickly, although she was rather apprehensive that dad would be able to take care of himself for two weeks on his own. Once it became established that dad would indeed be able survive, the details began to be sorted out, and we talked with Ed the tour manager (who had already been looking for extra help) who gladly agreed to have her join.
Here she is next to the kitchen truck:
So mom and I both said good-bye to dad Sunday afternoon, and we set about getting her all set up in camp. Thanks to some generous donations things fell into place rather quickly. I’m glad she is able to join for a short while, but now I guess I’ll have to be on my best behaviour for the next little while! I’m not sure what type of adventures I could get into anyway since we’re out of the mountains now – looks like we’ll have a lot of long straight roads with plenty of heat and humidity ahead of us, ugh!
That same evening Tyler made mention of a mountain not far from the route that we should venture up. Since my parents had rented a car and were previously planning on driving up that very mountain the next day, I conscripted their help and they, along with Alex’s parents who were also visiting, acted as our support and gear crew. We were looking at an extra 50 miles of riding on a day that already had 5-6000ft of climbing planned. By the next morning our group of willing and able bodies numbered 11, and we left Winter Park just before 7:30 after procuring a 5 gallon bucket of water from the kitchen truck.
Here is the whole group before departing:
The day did not start off well as Tyler was taken down in a bit of a mix-up, and he ended up with a broken collar bone and cannot continue on the tour. After he got picked up by the SAG wagon, we continued up the first pass of the day which brought us to over 11,000ft. We regrouped at the top and hit the fast, smooth descent – I hit my highest speed yet at 56mph drafting behind an SUV (if he wouldn’t have kept tapping his brakes it could have been higher!)
Me at the top with my parents:
Here is a link to a video that Josh took of me on the descent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg6lLzlG43s
And here is one of a paceline we had going on with all of us descending into Idaho Springs before beginning our climb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT2udgDUwNI
At the bottom we made a quick stop and then began our off-route adventure. We climbed for 14 miles in order to reach the base of Mount Evans, and were greeted there by our parents who had plenty of snacks and beverages to replenish our stock. From that point we began the real adventure – this climb was also 14 miles, but had plenty of switchbacks. After 4 or 5 miles we were already above the tree line and could see quite a distance. It kept getting colder as we neared the summit, and at mile 10 it began to thunder – thankfully it didn’t rain too much and we were able to reach the summit intact. From that point we could see the city of Denver (50 miles away) and beyond. We took several pictures and waited for everyone to reach the top… which was no easy task in our condition, since our sweat and rain drenched clothing quickly cooled us off in the 40 degree weather! The descent was even colder, but the pride in our accomplishment was worth all the suffering. In total we biked 136 miles and climbed 1155ft. We arrived back to Denver in record time, but still missed dinner. That night a good number of us went out to celebrate the last night for our dear friends.
Pics from the summit of Mount Evans:
After Sunday’s celebration service I went out to coffee with my parents and sarcastically threw out the idea that mom stay on tour for a couple weeks to help out with SAG vehicles or in the kitchen. She came around to the idea rather quickly, although she was rather apprehensive that dad would be able to take care of himself for two weeks on his own. Once it became established that dad would indeed be able survive, the details began to be sorted out, and we talked with Ed the tour manager (who had already been looking for extra help) who gladly agreed to have her join.
Here she is next to the kitchen truck:
So mom and I both said good-bye to dad Sunday afternoon, and we set about getting her all set up in camp. Thanks to some generous donations things fell into place rather quickly. I’m glad she is able to join for a short while, but now I guess I’ll have to be on my best behaviour for the next little while! I’m not sure what type of adventures I could get into anyway since we’re out of the mountains now – looks like we’ll have a lot of long straight roads with plenty of heat and humidity ahead of us, ugh!
Week 4 recap
Sorry for the lack of posts lately - it's a combination of many things that i will not expound upon here. So without any further ado...
The fourth week of the tour from Salt Lake to Denver was our longest and most challenging thus far, and naturally I was in my glory (ergo limited time for blogging)! It involved many hill climbs, both those on the route as well as off.
Day-by-day:
• Monday: left after sweep
• Tuesday: entered Colorado, camped in a town called Dinosaur.
• Wednesday: swept all day, got into camp after 7pm… thank goodness for a relatively cloudy day!
Go sweep team C!!
• Thursday saw a 7 mile hill climb at an average of about 6-7% grade. I brought some road chalk along for the ride and wrote some encouragement on the road for those behind me. Once I got to the top I turned around and descended to mark the 1 mile and 2mile distances to the top, and before I could mark the third a truck passed me, so I hopped on for a ride down the hill, and then turned around and did it all over again. I definitely got some dirty looks from other riders as they climbed it for the first time…. Oops!
Me at the top of Thursday's climb
• Friday: recovery day of 35 miles which involved a good hour stop to watch another stage of the tour
• Saturday: a ridiculous climb up Mount Evans (elevation ~14,270) before arriving in Denver - see next post for more info on that ride.
Other highlights:
• During this week my tent was already set up upon my arrival three days in a row starting Wednesday – thanks Nick, Hans and Carrie! It’s such a blessing to have such good friends that look out for each other and actively seek to serve one another.
• This was the last week for three of our good lady friends: Carrie, Kinsco and Laura. Their pleasant smiles, senses of humour and shining personalities will be dearly missed! Julie originally planned on leaving as well, but then wisely decided to stay.
pictured below are Julie (left), Kincso (middle), and Carrie
• Communion peloton meeting on Friday evening at Snow Mountain Ranch which included parting words by and for these friends as well as others leaving in Denver.
The fourth week of the tour from Salt Lake to Denver was our longest and most challenging thus far, and naturally I was in my glory (ergo limited time for blogging)! It involved many hill climbs, both those on the route as well as off.
Day-by-day:
• Monday: left after sweep
• Tuesday: entered Colorado, camped in a town called Dinosaur.
• Wednesday: swept all day, got into camp after 7pm… thank goodness for a relatively cloudy day!
Go sweep team C!!
• Thursday saw a 7 mile hill climb at an average of about 6-7% grade. I brought some road chalk along for the ride and wrote some encouragement on the road for those behind me. Once I got to the top I turned around and descended to mark the 1 mile and 2mile distances to the top, and before I could mark the third a truck passed me, so I hopped on for a ride down the hill, and then turned around and did it all over again. I definitely got some dirty looks from other riders as they climbed it for the first time…. Oops!
Me at the top of Thursday's climb
• Friday: recovery day of 35 miles which involved a good hour stop to watch another stage of the tour
• Saturday: a ridiculous climb up Mount Evans (elevation ~14,270) before arriving in Denver - see next post for more info on that ride.
Other highlights:
• During this week my tent was already set up upon my arrival three days in a row starting Wednesday – thanks Nick, Hans and Carrie! It’s such a blessing to have such good friends that look out for each other and actively seek to serve one another.
• This was the last week for three of our good lady friends: Carrie, Kinsco and Laura. Their pleasant smiles, senses of humour and shining personalities will be dearly missed! Julie originally planned on leaving as well, but then wisely decided to stay.
pictured below are Julie (left), Kincso (middle), and Carrie
• Communion peloton meeting on Friday evening at Snow Mountain Ranch which included parting words by and for these friends as well as others leaving in Denver.
Monday, July 21, 2008
more random pics
Here are a couple pics of me and a few other guys drafting behind one of the support vehicles. Jonathan, our media support (camera man), was riding along with the driver and snagged these pics from the back window. I was the last one left standing, and according to Betsy (the driver), i hit 56 miles per hour along a level stretch. i would guess i hung on for a little over a mile.
This is a picture at the bar for Jonathan's birthday:
Here is my favourite slime-bucket, Billy D. enjoying a drink:
This is a picture at the bar for Jonathan's birthday:
Here is my favourite slime-bucket, Billy D. enjoying a drink:
Best day of the tour yet...
Friday was a relatively uneventful day as we travelled from snowville to willard - there was a stretch of road that was really rough, so by the end of the day many of our derrieres were not feeling so peachy... More on the lovely topic of saddle sores to come later. The highlight of that day was a stop at a rocket display in the middle of the desert. That night we stayed at a state park and camped right next to Salt Lake, on the edge of the rockies. This is Josh on the left, and Nick in the middle (these are the same two guys that went on the 'epic ride' with me from Kennwick to Sunnyside and back to Pendleton):
This then leads into what has been my most memorable day on the tour thus far. At the peloton meeting that night we talked about the route to come which was 97 miles with 5700ft of climbing from Willard to Park City, most of which was to occur after mile 60 as we pass through the downtown of Salt Lake. Tension definitely began to rise throughout the evening as we anticipated the longest and most difficult ride thus far. Breakfast was moved up by a half hour (starting at 6am, rather than 6:30), and still there were some that decided to leave even earlier to ensure they would make it the whole way.
I took my time as usual and left just before the sweep team as usual. The roads were great, and the first 60 miles heading into Salt Lake went by fairly quickly. Lunch was provided by a local church, and after a short stop there I began to climb the first of two hills. The grade wasn't near as hard as anticipated from the profile we received the night before, and I was at the top before I could even reach my lactate threshold (see wikipedia for more info on this term). At the top I talked with some locals and they informed me of another hill climb nearby that is much more difficult. So as usual, I rose to the occasion and headed up another mountain pass that was 4miles at 6-9%. The whole way up I couldn't help but recall my days in France with the never ending switchbacks, and the view from the top was spectacular. After taking in the sights I enjoyed the descent and rejoined the route.
The second official cimb of the day took us up an interstate at about 5% for a good 3-4miles. I drafted a few semis as they slowly climbed up the hill at 10-15mph, and then I came up upon a fellow rider who was hanging to the back of a tractor trailer riding a free ticket to the top. Come to find out it was our head chaplain, Len. I busted out laughing at the situation because he was just content as could be cruising along at 5-6mph... I think he did complain about his hand hurting slighlty. Anyway, I took a few pictures to capture the moment. Later as I came to one of our rest stops I showed the pic to several other riders, and after much discussion we determined that this needed to be made into print and presented to Len during the next peloton. So I stopped at a 1 hour photo lab near our destination, and had it developped with the inscription, 'Keep on truckin Len! With love, from all of us on the Sea to Sea tour 08'. Here is the image before photo shop:
Because of my typical late departure, the extra hill climb, as well as the trip to the photo lab, I didn't arrive to camp until 5:30. To my surprise, Nick already set my tent up, so I didn't need to lift a finger. We were at another state park, and this one was even better than the last (despite the long walk to our site). Later that night we went down to our site and had a camp fire, complete with hotdogs which the kitchen ladies kindly donated to us. Aaron played the guitar, and we shared many a story before cashing in our chips around midnight. All around this was one of the most interesting and eventful days of the tour.
Sunday was nice and restful - we had the service in the evening this time so we slept in and had breakfast at a leasurely pace. A bunch of us went into town, Park City, which is an expensive ski town with a really nice main street. There was a flea market going on and a number of us got a free 10 minute massage at one of the booths.
On the way back home I stopped at a Rite-Aid with Jen (tour assistant manager who was in on the whole picture situation) to pick up a frame for the photo of Len. We got back and tried to get everyone to sign the picture as discretely as possible. After the celebration service we began the peloton meeting, and orignally jen and I were going to wait until monday to present the framed photo, but Len must have caught wind of what was going on and made an announcement of a 'rumour' going around camp about him having been pulled up the hill by a semi. He went on to claim that what you couldn't tell from the picture was that he was actually helping push the truck... Anyway, at this point jen ran and grabbed the photo, and I ran up and stole the mic to give my side of the story. It was a rather comical bit, even though I didn't have as much time to plan as I had hoped.
This then leads into what has been my most memorable day on the tour thus far. At the peloton meeting that night we talked about the route to come which was 97 miles with 5700ft of climbing from Willard to Park City, most of which was to occur after mile 60 as we pass through the downtown of Salt Lake. Tension definitely began to rise throughout the evening as we anticipated the longest and most difficult ride thus far. Breakfast was moved up by a half hour (starting at 6am, rather than 6:30), and still there were some that decided to leave even earlier to ensure they would make it the whole way.
I took my time as usual and left just before the sweep team as usual. The roads were great, and the first 60 miles heading into Salt Lake went by fairly quickly. Lunch was provided by a local church, and after a short stop there I began to climb the first of two hills. The grade wasn't near as hard as anticipated from the profile we received the night before, and I was at the top before I could even reach my lactate threshold (see wikipedia for more info on this term). At the top I talked with some locals and they informed me of another hill climb nearby that is much more difficult. So as usual, I rose to the occasion and headed up another mountain pass that was 4miles at 6-9%. The whole way up I couldn't help but recall my days in France with the never ending switchbacks, and the view from the top was spectacular. After taking in the sights I enjoyed the descent and rejoined the route.
The second official cimb of the day took us up an interstate at about 5% for a good 3-4miles. I drafted a few semis as they slowly climbed up the hill at 10-15mph, and then I came up upon a fellow rider who was hanging to the back of a tractor trailer riding a free ticket to the top. Come to find out it was our head chaplain, Len. I busted out laughing at the situation because he was just content as could be cruising along at 5-6mph... I think he did complain about his hand hurting slighlty. Anyway, I took a few pictures to capture the moment. Later as I came to one of our rest stops I showed the pic to several other riders, and after much discussion we determined that this needed to be made into print and presented to Len during the next peloton. So I stopped at a 1 hour photo lab near our destination, and had it developped with the inscription, 'Keep on truckin Len! With love, from all of us on the Sea to Sea tour 08'. Here is the image before photo shop:
Because of my typical late departure, the extra hill climb, as well as the trip to the photo lab, I didn't arrive to camp until 5:30. To my surprise, Nick already set my tent up, so I didn't need to lift a finger. We were at another state park, and this one was even better than the last (despite the long walk to our site). Later that night we went down to our site and had a camp fire, complete with hotdogs which the kitchen ladies kindly donated to us. Aaron played the guitar, and we shared many a story before cashing in our chips around midnight. All around this was one of the most interesting and eventful days of the tour.
Sunday was nice and restful - we had the service in the evening this time so we slept in and had breakfast at a leasurely pace. A bunch of us went into town, Park City, which is an expensive ski town with a really nice main street. There was a flea market going on and a number of us got a free 10 minute massage at one of the booths.
On the way back home I stopped at a Rite-Aid with Jen (tour assistant manager who was in on the whole picture situation) to pick up a frame for the photo of Len. We got back and tried to get everyone to sign the picture as discretely as possible. After the celebration service we began the peloton meeting, and orignally jen and I were going to wait until monday to present the framed photo, but Len must have caught wind of what was going on and made an announcement of a 'rumour' going around camp about him having been pulled up the hill by a semi. He went on to claim that what you couldn't tell from the picture was that he was actually helping push the truck... Anyway, at this point jen ran and grabbed the photo, and I ran up and stole the mic to give my side of the story. It was a rather comical bit, even though I didn't have as much time to plan as I had hoped.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
First flat of the tour!
So I was hoping to be able to go the whole tour without getting a flat, but at about mile 10 on Wednesday (between Gooding and Burley, ID) I broke my streak – I was playing around with my phone while riding and apparently something punctured my sidewall. Currently the total number of flats is somewhere around 200+ between all riders, with roughly 30 who are still yet to get their first flat.
The rest of the day was really good though – it started with a tour of a dairy farm which is run by a friend of my small group leader, Lou Haveman. It was quite the operation – they have 1,700 head that they milk three times a day, and they had a rotating device in the milking barn that holds 50 cows at a time. From there we arrived in Twin Falls, and were provided lunch by a local Reformed Church. The next stop of the day took us on a very small detour to visit Shoshone Falls just outside of town. The falls are higher than Niagara Falls, but less volume I think. Even with the short climb to get back out of the canyon we descended to see the falls, it was very much worth the detour – actually, I went back down the hill to do it again because I wasn’t satisfied with the length of the climb. We followed the canyon for a good part of the day and had a few good opportunities to look out into it.
At the end of the day I was pretty exhausted though – I think all the time I’ve spent in the sun because of the lolly-gagging I’ve been doing lately finally got to me. So I decided to strap on the aero bars and give myself a real workout to regain some energy (I know that sounds bass-ackwards, but it works!). So this morning I slept in till nearly 7am as usual and slowly gathered myself together before heading to a local diner for coffee around 8:30am. The sweep team joined Slime-bucket Bill and I for a while, and I finally got on the road around 9:30am. After loosening up the legs in the first ten miles I felt pretty good and decided to time trial and see how fast I could complete the day. This was an 86 mile route with about 3000ft of climbing, and there were only two small towns between Burley and Snowville (we crossed into Utah today, yeah!) so I wasn’t really missing out on any sightseeing. I helped Joanna up the second hill of the day since she was struggling when I got to her, but after that I didn’t slow down for anything except a couple short water stops. My total ride time was just over 4hours with a final average speed of 20.7mph. This was also with a good headwind for 10miles and a cross-wind for 20. I could feel myself getting stronger over the past couple weeks, but I definitely surprised even myself today!
The town we’re staying in tonight, Snowville, UT, apparently has a population of 171, so we are approximately doubling their size! We’re staying in a good sized park, but we had to rig up our own shower system since they don’t have a public one – it consists of a couple blue tarps tied up at the backstop of a baseball field with a cold water hose suspended from above. The temperature was shocking at first, but it certainly speeded up the process of community showers!
Rumour has it that tomorrow we’ll be staying in a state park in Willard that has a lake and a beautiful beach… I hope it’s true!
The rest of the day was really good though – it started with a tour of a dairy farm which is run by a friend of my small group leader, Lou Haveman. It was quite the operation – they have 1,700 head that they milk three times a day, and they had a rotating device in the milking barn that holds 50 cows at a time. From there we arrived in Twin Falls, and were provided lunch by a local Reformed Church. The next stop of the day took us on a very small detour to visit Shoshone Falls just outside of town. The falls are higher than Niagara Falls, but less volume I think. Even with the short climb to get back out of the canyon we descended to see the falls, it was very much worth the detour – actually, I went back down the hill to do it again because I wasn’t satisfied with the length of the climb. We followed the canyon for a good part of the day and had a few good opportunities to look out into it.
At the end of the day I was pretty exhausted though – I think all the time I’ve spent in the sun because of the lolly-gagging I’ve been doing lately finally got to me. So I decided to strap on the aero bars and give myself a real workout to regain some energy (I know that sounds bass-ackwards, but it works!). So this morning I slept in till nearly 7am as usual and slowly gathered myself together before heading to a local diner for coffee around 8:30am. The sweep team joined Slime-bucket Bill and I for a while, and I finally got on the road around 9:30am. After loosening up the legs in the first ten miles I felt pretty good and decided to time trial and see how fast I could complete the day. This was an 86 mile route with about 3000ft of climbing, and there were only two small towns between Burley and Snowville (we crossed into Utah today, yeah!) so I wasn’t really missing out on any sightseeing. I helped Joanna up the second hill of the day since she was struggling when I got to her, but after that I didn’t slow down for anything except a couple short water stops. My total ride time was just over 4hours with a final average speed of 20.7mph. This was also with a good headwind for 10miles and a cross-wind for 20. I could feel myself getting stronger over the past couple weeks, but I definitely surprised even myself today!
The town we’re staying in tonight, Snowville, UT, apparently has a population of 171, so we are approximately doubling their size! We’re staying in a good sized park, but we had to rig up our own shower system since they don’t have a public one – it consists of a couple blue tarps tied up at the backstop of a baseball field with a cold water hose suspended from above. The temperature was shocking at first, but it certainly speeded up the process of community showers!
Rumour has it that tomorrow we’ll be staying in a state park in Willard that has a lake and a beautiful beach… I hope it’s true!
The morning routine
I find it amazing that people who are on “vacation” (here defined as a period during which one is not performing regular work duties) still insist on setting there alarms and waking up before the sun rises! Granted, it does take a considerable amount of energy to complete some of these routes, but I don’t believe it is necessary to pack up one’s tent at 5am when breakfast isn’t supposed to begin until 6:30am. Now this is all in good humour, since I admit that my way isn’t always the best way for everyone at all times… but I think some people on the tour are misinterpreting the Latin phrase carpe diem – personally, I believe that the day is best seized when the sun is up and the oatmeal is hot!
For the first few weeks I was waking up with the early crowd because I would get woken up by the aforementioned eager beavers. Now I have developed a little more strategy in my tent placement – I typically stake out an area and declare to anyone that attempts to set up next to me that, “this is designated as a late waking area”. Furthermore, I have progressed in my ability to drown out the early morning noise of others. More often than not there are a dozen or so that are already on the road by the time I get up – if for some reason I wake up and see more than 20-30 tents (out of the total 150) I roll over and continue sleeping.
Many people also seem to have a very systematic routine, and can swiftly and efficiently get on the road. For me, I wouldn’t say that I have much of a routine – I make at least 5 trips to the gear truck, and often wander around aimlessly. I tried to survey a few people to see how they structure their morning, but then I realized that it’s just not worth it for me. I typically leave just before the sweep team closes the trailer (and on a few occasions I’ve had to go the day without certain items because the trailer had already been packed!) and then go out for coffee with my favourite ‘Slime-bucket’ who most people refer to as Billy D. (he’s our camp manager who rides a Harley Davidson). Even after all my dilly-dallying I’m still in the first 1/3 of people to arrive at camp – there wouldn’t really be much benefit to being the first into camp each day since then I’d always be unloading the gear truck and setting up the dinner line. And as much as I love helping out, i don't want to be doing that all summer long!
more random thoughts to come... because there are plenty of subjects that I could expound upon, and give my highly esteemed opinion.
For the first few weeks I was waking up with the early crowd because I would get woken up by the aforementioned eager beavers. Now I have developed a little more strategy in my tent placement – I typically stake out an area and declare to anyone that attempts to set up next to me that, “this is designated as a late waking area”. Furthermore, I have progressed in my ability to drown out the early morning noise of others. More often than not there are a dozen or so that are already on the road by the time I get up – if for some reason I wake up and see more than 20-30 tents (out of the total 150) I roll over and continue sleeping.
Many people also seem to have a very systematic routine, and can swiftly and efficiently get on the road. For me, I wouldn’t say that I have much of a routine – I make at least 5 trips to the gear truck, and often wander around aimlessly. I tried to survey a few people to see how they structure their morning, but then I realized that it’s just not worth it for me. I typically leave just before the sweep team closes the trailer (and on a few occasions I’ve had to go the day without certain items because the trailer had already been packed!) and then go out for coffee with my favourite ‘Slime-bucket’ who most people refer to as Billy D. (he’s our camp manager who rides a Harley Davidson). Even after all my dilly-dallying I’m still in the first 1/3 of people to arrive at camp – there wouldn’t really be much benefit to being the first into camp each day since then I’d always be unloading the gear truck and setting up the dinner line. And as much as I love helping out, i don't want to be doing that all summer long!
more random thoughts to come... because there are plenty of subjects that I could expound upon, and give my highly esteemed opinion.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Good times...
So, you might wonder what we cyclists do on days that aren't too long or difficult. Besides taking enormous detours to add on extra hill climbs, we do manage to find other ways to amuse ourselves. For example, on Monday while biking from Boise to Mountain Home, Idaho we stumbled upon a pirate ship sitting in someone's front yard. 
We then began thinking up choreographed moves that we could do as we rode past other riders, for everyone's entertainment. It began with the Macarena, then transpired to moves such as the Sprinkler, the Shopping cart, the Lawn mower,and the Canoe. There may also have been a jousting duel between me and John Elzinga mixed in there as well. Keep in mind, this was all done riding no hands down a deserted highway... and no animals were harmed in the production of the short films mentioned above... (i'll try to post some of these later, but the network is struggling at the moment)
Later that day we stopped at a bike shop as we entered the small town of Mountain Home, and found a pair of training wheels. A good handful of us each pitched in a few bucks and we bought them with the intention of putting them on the bike of our head chaplain, Len Riemersma. I rigged it up after dinner, and later that evening during the Peloton meeting we presented his bike to him. We explained that we wanted to make certain that he would be kept safe throughout the tour! Pastor Len has a great sense of humour, and is doing a great job of sheparding this flock. He's a joy to ride with, and he has a great eye for photo opportunities - here he is on some type of harvester:
Today, we arrived in a town called Gooding, where Jenna Zee and I hit up a couple local thrift stores. I scored a retro suit jacket and slightly matching tie, as well as some aviator sunglasses, while Jenna picked up a nice blue frilly dress. We looked pretty stylin cruising down Main Street in our old outfits and expensive bikes!
Sadly, none of the local bars have the tv channel we need to be able to watch the tour - yesterday we swarmed the local bar with about 30 people to watch stage 10. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up in the next town. Well, good night to you all!
We then began thinking up choreographed moves that we could do as we rode past other riders, for everyone's entertainment. It began with the Macarena, then transpired to moves such as the Sprinkler, the Shopping cart, the Lawn mower,and the Canoe. There may also have been a jousting duel between me and John Elzinga mixed in there as well. Keep in mind, this was all done riding no hands down a deserted highway... and no animals were harmed in the production of the short films mentioned above... (i'll try to post some of these later, but the network is struggling at the moment)Later that day we stopped at a bike shop as we entered the small town of Mountain Home, and found a pair of training wheels. A good handful of us each pitched in a few bucks and we bought them with the intention of putting them on the bike of our head chaplain, Len Riemersma. I rigged it up after dinner, and later that evening during the Peloton meeting we presented his bike to him. We explained that we wanted to make certain that he would be kept safe throughout the tour! Pastor Len has a great sense of humour, and is doing a great job of sheparding this flock. He's a joy to ride with, and he has a great eye for photo opportunities - here he is on some type of harvester:
Today, we arrived in a town called Gooding, where Jenna Zee and I hit up a couple local thrift stores. I scored a retro suit jacket and slightly matching tie, as well as some aviator sunglasses, while Jenna picked up a nice blue frilly dress. We looked pretty stylin cruising down Main Street in our old outfits and expensive bikes!
Sadly, none of the local bars have the tv channel we need to be able to watch the tour - yesterday we swarmed the local bar with about 30 people to watch stage 10. Hopefully we'll be able to catch up in the next town. Well, good night to you all!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The weekend in Boise
It is now Sunday evening, and our two day stay in Boise is about over. The week ahead of us is looking a little more challenging than the previous two, so my detours from the route might not be as significant this time around. However, rumor has it that there are some really cool sand dunes and a big waterfall not too far from the route that we may have to venture out and find.
On Saturday, I rode a nice light tempo - still recovering from the week's more difficult rides. I had a chance to ride some of the day with Gerald Krabbe, a participant from the 05 tour who was visiting his son Josh. It was nice to have a short reunion, as Farmer John has also been tagging along wih us for a short while. We had to say goodbye to a few riders who only had the time to sign up for the first two weeks. All of us young folk went out to celebrate Joel's last night at a local watering hole - Joel was a great guy and he will be missed by all!
On Sunday we had a great celebration rally that was hosted by a Reformed Church that was a recent plant from about five years ago. It was moving to see how well we were received and supported by the Body of Christ, especially one that belongs to a different denomination (apparently there aren't any CRCs in Boise). We were provided lunch again which was extra special for me and the rest of my sweep team since it ment less work for us!
After not being able to watch the Tour de France, a few of us decided to go floating/swimming in the river running through the city. When biking home from the service i saw a good number of tubes and rafts floating down. So I grabbed my air mattress and biked down to the park where everyone starts. The water was freezing, and it took a while to get used to, but John Vanderveen and I gathered up the courage to share my mattress and try out the rapids that populate the 3-4 miles stretch of river. After overcoming the initial shock of cold water we had a great time - even managed to stay upright through a couple rough parts of water. We got out at one point where people were jumping off of a bridge into the water, and we started talking to a few locals. They were shocked that we actually made it down the river on such a flimsy flotation device, and they offered to take us the rest of the way in their strdy rafts. They were two sheets to the wind, and were jumping from one raft to the next causing quite a stir. It was quie amusing! They then were kind enough to give us a ride back to the park where we began (and also where we had our collected value of $6,500 worth of bikes locked to a picknick table), and then back to the high school we are staying at - we arrived just in time to clean up the last of dinner! We didn't exactly have a plan when we began floating so we were very grateful for their assistance (Thanks Gabe!)
Well, I hope you all had a good weekend, and keep the comments/e-mails coming. I love hearing from you all! Cheers
On Saturday, I rode a nice light tempo - still recovering from the week's more difficult rides. I had a chance to ride some of the day with Gerald Krabbe, a participant from the 05 tour who was visiting his son Josh. It was nice to have a short reunion, as Farmer John has also been tagging along wih us for a short while. We had to say goodbye to a few riders who only had the time to sign up for the first two weeks. All of us young folk went out to celebrate Joel's last night at a local watering hole - Joel was a great guy and he will be missed by all!
On Sunday we had a great celebration rally that was hosted by a Reformed Church that was a recent plant from about five years ago. It was moving to see how well we were received and supported by the Body of Christ, especially one that belongs to a different denomination (apparently there aren't any CRCs in Boise). We were provided lunch again which was extra special for me and the rest of my sweep team since it ment less work for us!
After not being able to watch the Tour de France, a few of us decided to go floating/swimming in the river running through the city. When biking home from the service i saw a good number of tubes and rafts floating down. So I grabbed my air mattress and biked down to the park where everyone starts. The water was freezing, and it took a while to get used to, but John Vanderveen and I gathered up the courage to share my mattress and try out the rapids that populate the 3-4 miles stretch of river. After overcoming the initial shock of cold water we had a great time - even managed to stay upright through a couple rough parts of water. We got out at one point where people were jumping off of a bridge into the water, and we started talking to a few locals. They were shocked that we actually made it down the river on such a flimsy flotation device, and they offered to take us the rest of the way in their strdy rafts. They were two sheets to the wind, and were jumping from one raft to the next causing quite a stir. It was quie amusing! They then were kind enough to give us a ride back to the park where we began (and also where we had our collected value of $6,500 worth of bikes locked to a picknick table), and then back to the high school we are staying at - we arrived just in time to clean up the last of dinner! We didn't exactly have a plan when we began floating so we were very grateful for their assistance (Thanks Gabe!)
Well, I hope you all had a good weekend, and keep the comments/e-mails coming. I love hearing from you all! Cheers
The Mount Dooley mishap...
Wednesday evening we were in Baker City, and since I had so thouroughly enjoyed the final climb up Mount Dooley that took place at the end of the stage race there three weeks prior, I thought it would be a great idea to incorporate a small detour to revisit that climb during Thursday's ride. I looked on the atlas and it seemed that it would only add 5-10 miles on to the regular route. I invited a few strong cyclists to join me, thinking we'd have a group of 4-5 riders... Well, by the next morning several people jumped on the band wagon, and there were 17 people in total.
We left around 8am and rode easy for the first ten miles leading up to the climb. From that point we all climbed at our own pace and met at the top. It was just as beautiful as I remembered ( 7 miles at 5% grade, switch-backs and a great view). We descended and regrouped at the bottom to head toward our destination. Well, in two different spots we ran into gravel roads, which meant we were stuck in a valley. Our water supply was running low, thankfully we met a farmer on the road who pointed out a house where we could get water - this house was unoccupied, and was actually the post office for this small area. After talking with the farmer about how to reach our destination, it became clear that the only option was to climb back up the mountain and return to Baker City to rejoin the regular route. Some of the riders were not too pleased with this predicament, however I did provide them with a disclaimer before beginning this adventure, stating, 'i do not assume any responsibility or liability for your participation on this ride, you are assuming your own risks by following me...etc.'
At any rate, we took it easy up the hill, and spirits were actually rather positive at the top. As the last rider, Johnny (the camp loud mouth) arrived at the top, Nick and I bellowed as best we could, 'Do something beautiful!' We then gathered for a photo and headed all the way back into town.
At this point we split into smaller riding groups and after grabbing something to eat we started on the regular route. It was now 1:30pm, and most riders who followed the regular route had already arrived at camp and been realxing for quite some time since the distance was a mere 45 miles. I joined the lead group and we set a pretty good pace, averaging over 20 miles per hour - we did have a pretty good tailwind which helped significantly. Nonetheless, we were very proud to have beat the sweep team who arrived 5 minutes after we did.
The stats for the ride:
Total miles: ~107 miles
Miles in the wrong direction: 62
Elevation climbed: ~4000ft
Number of riding buddies lost because of my poorly planned excursion: ?
The town of Huntington was rather quaint and relatively impoverished. A visit to the museum and the bait an tackle shop for free laundry provided a good start to the evening. Then after dinner, a handful of us decided to climb one of the hills surrounding the city. It took a good 45 minutes to hike up, and by the time we got there it was already dark out. The view was still worth it, and after sending some light signals down to camp (with our handy headlamps) we slowly descended - this proved to be rather difficult because of the steep grade, loose soil and low visibility, but we made it back in time to meet up with the rest of the crew at the local pub for a well deserved brew.
After all of this activity, I decided that I should rest up a little, so Friday I rode with Len (our head chaplain who is a wonderful man, hopefully I will get a chance to tell you more about him leter) and a few girls. We were on the hunt for fun and interesting pictures. Some of the things we shot were horses, old tractors, us on top of a hay mound and in a rusted old truck. I wish I could post some of them for you, but as usual, the internet connection has beeny spotty at best, and uploading pics on our connection is almost out of the question.
We left around 8am and rode easy for the first ten miles leading up to the climb. From that point we all climbed at our own pace and met at the top. It was just as beautiful as I remembered ( 7 miles at 5% grade, switch-backs and a great view). We descended and regrouped at the bottom to head toward our destination. Well, in two different spots we ran into gravel roads, which meant we were stuck in a valley. Our water supply was running low, thankfully we met a farmer on the road who pointed out a house where we could get water - this house was unoccupied, and was actually the post office for this small area. After talking with the farmer about how to reach our destination, it became clear that the only option was to climb back up the mountain and return to Baker City to rejoin the regular route. Some of the riders were not too pleased with this predicament, however I did provide them with a disclaimer before beginning this adventure, stating, 'i do not assume any responsibility or liability for your participation on this ride, you are assuming your own risks by following me...etc.'
At any rate, we took it easy up the hill, and spirits were actually rather positive at the top. As the last rider, Johnny (the camp loud mouth) arrived at the top, Nick and I bellowed as best we could, 'Do something beautiful!' We then gathered for a photo and headed all the way back into town.
At this point we split into smaller riding groups and after grabbing something to eat we started on the regular route. It was now 1:30pm, and most riders who followed the regular route had already arrived at camp and been realxing for quite some time since the distance was a mere 45 miles. I joined the lead group and we set a pretty good pace, averaging over 20 miles per hour - we did have a pretty good tailwind which helped significantly. Nonetheless, we were very proud to have beat the sweep team who arrived 5 minutes after we did.
The stats for the ride:
Total miles: ~107 miles
Miles in the wrong direction: 62
Elevation climbed: ~4000ft
Number of riding buddies lost because of my poorly planned excursion: ?
The town of Huntington was rather quaint and relatively impoverished. A visit to the museum and the bait an tackle shop for free laundry provided a good start to the evening. Then after dinner, a handful of us decided to climb one of the hills surrounding the city. It took a good 45 minutes to hike up, and by the time we got there it was already dark out. The view was still worth it, and after sending some light signals down to camp (with our handy headlamps) we slowly descended - this proved to be rather difficult because of the steep grade, loose soil and low visibility, but we made it back in time to meet up with the rest of the crew at the local pub for a well deserved brew.
After all of this activity, I decided that I should rest up a little, so Friday I rode with Len (our head chaplain who is a wonderful man, hopefully I will get a chance to tell you more about him leter) and a few girls. We were on the hunt for fun and interesting pictures. Some of the things we shot were horses, old tractors, us on top of a hay mound and in a rusted old truck. I wish I could post some of them for you, but as usual, the internet connection has beeny spotty at best, and uploading pics on our connection is almost out of the question.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The epic day of riding...
So, as I mentioned earlier, I had forgotten my toiletry bag in seattle and had it shipped to one of our destinations. It was scheduled to arrive three days later than the night we stayed there (due to miscommunications between the residence hall staff where I left the item). At any rate, the package was now scheduled to arrive monday, and I somehow decided that it would be a good idea to back-track 50 miles to chase it down, and rejoin the group later that evening. Our camp manager, Bill Denharder (who I now refer to as 'Uncle Bill') offered to drive back from Kennewick to Sunnyside to get the package, but I declined the offer because I wasn't 100% certain that the package would be there, and I didn't want someone else to have to do my 'dirty work'. Plus I figured his could become an epic day to be remembered for weeks and months too come...
So I plotted out my route and determined that the roundtrip mileage would be roughly 150 miles - this sounds like a lot, but I had previously done 175 miles through the French Alps, so I figured this was managable. I then sarcastically asked a few friends to join me on the adventure, and Nick was the first to take the bait. Then before we went to bed, Nick and I talked with Josh and convinced him to come as well. I was very happy to have such good company, because here's how the day went:
We started out at 7am (for the first time ever I was one of the first riders to leave!) and were met by a good headwind, but managed to reach Sunnyside by 9:30. We camped out at the school to which I had sent my package, and from there I searched around town for the UPS truck. I finally found it around 11am, but the driver kindly informed me that my package was in a different truck which was currently in the next town over, and not scheduled to arrive until 2-4pm. So we saddled up again and biked another 8 miles in the wrong direction to meet the driver at a gas station (this was kindly pre-arranged by the first driver I met). We stocked up on water, and I bought the guys lunch, and we finally got the package around 12:30pm. From this point, we had 108 miles to go to our final destination. We cruised on a slight downhill for an hour, then hit a good 1000ft climb in the heat of the day, with no shade whatsoever. Upon reaching the summit we could see for over 10 mile - rolling hills of wheat fields. We continued south toward the Columbia River into another good headwind. We were moving along at a pretty good clip, and there was even a chance that we were going to beat the sweep team in. But then we stopped at a state park and took some pictures before beginning the final climb of the day. We had just enough food and water to deliver us safely back to camp, and we arrived just in time for the nightly peloton meeting, where we shared the experience of our day with the group. Here's a little re-cap of Monday's riding statistics:
Total mileage: 176 miles
Total riding time: ~9hrs10mn
Average speed: ~19.5
Water bottles consumed: 21
Be sure to check out the Sea-to-Sea site: www.seatosea.org, they did a short interview with us three and said they'd post it on the website soon.
Anyway, it was great to get cleaned up again and have all my necessities... I guess the no-shower, no-deodorant routine has finally come to an end - maybe now i'll make more friends!
Monday's ride was beautiful. I think some of the old CRC folks might have fretted some since we went through Hell's Canyon, but we all came out alive! I was once again one of the first ones in camp after leaving later - the 176 miles didn't slow me down too much today!
Today we rode another easy 50 miles, and are now in Baker City - the same city where I had a stage race one week prior to joining the tour. We finished early and our now watchin The Tour on tv at the local watering hole. this may become a ritual over the next few weeks as the Tour de France continues.
Until next time...
Cheers!
So I plotted out my route and determined that the roundtrip mileage would be roughly 150 miles - this sounds like a lot, but I had previously done 175 miles through the French Alps, so I figured this was managable. I then sarcastically asked a few friends to join me on the adventure, and Nick was the first to take the bait. Then before we went to bed, Nick and I talked with Josh and convinced him to come as well. I was very happy to have such good company, because here's how the day went:
We started out at 7am (for the first time ever I was one of the first riders to leave!) and were met by a good headwind, but managed to reach Sunnyside by 9:30. We camped out at the school to which I had sent my package, and from there I searched around town for the UPS truck. I finally found it around 11am, but the driver kindly informed me that my package was in a different truck which was currently in the next town over, and not scheduled to arrive until 2-4pm. So we saddled up again and biked another 8 miles in the wrong direction to meet the driver at a gas station (this was kindly pre-arranged by the first driver I met). We stocked up on water, and I bought the guys lunch, and we finally got the package around 12:30pm. From this point, we had 108 miles to go to our final destination. We cruised on a slight downhill for an hour, then hit a good 1000ft climb in the heat of the day, with no shade whatsoever. Upon reaching the summit we could see for over 10 mile - rolling hills of wheat fields. We continued south toward the Columbia River into another good headwind. We were moving along at a pretty good clip, and there was even a chance that we were going to beat the sweep team in. But then we stopped at a state park and took some pictures before beginning the final climb of the day. We had just enough food and water to deliver us safely back to camp, and we arrived just in time for the nightly peloton meeting, where we shared the experience of our day with the group. Here's a little re-cap of Monday's riding statistics:
Total mileage: 176 miles
Total riding time: ~9hrs10mn
Average speed: ~19.5
Water bottles consumed: 21
Be sure to check out the Sea-to-Sea site: www.seatosea.org, they did a short interview with us three and said they'd post it on the website soon.
Anyway, it was great to get cleaned up again and have all my necessities... I guess the no-shower, no-deodorant routine has finally come to an end - maybe now i'll make more friends!
Monday's ride was beautiful. I think some of the old CRC folks might have fretted some since we went through Hell's Canyon, but we all came out alive! I was once again one of the first ones in camp after leaving later - the 176 miles didn't slow me down too much today!
Today we rode another easy 50 miles, and are now in Baker City - the same city where I had a stage race one week prior to joining the tour. We finished early and our now watchin The Tour on tv at the local watering hole. this may become a ritual over the next few weeks as the Tour de France continues.
Until next time...
Cheers!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
First week completed!
The first week of cycling has come to a close, and we're now in Kennewick, Washington. Monday, we will head into my home state of Oregon... still passing through the desert though, so not much change in scenery will be expected!
Anyway, our community is really developing quite quickly, and it's great to see so many different people come together and get along so well. I had originally anticipated having more time to read and communicate with friends and family, but it's difficult to pull myself away from the group, as there are so many interesting and unique people on the tour. Speaking of unique individuals, I should mention that each morning we are waking to the sound of our camp 'loud mouth' named Johnny Pierce saying in the loudest most monotone voice possible: 'let's do something beautiful!' (this is a line from our theme song which has now become a running joke, all in good fun of course). Johnny also took it upon himself to announce my presence several times to the whole group, at dinner and at our peloton meetings, still not sure why - but now everyone knows who I am!
The riding has been much easier the past few days with much shorter distances, and not too much climbing. We did experience a few thunderstorms recently, but nothing too serious - and this actually helped to cool things off a little. For the 4th of July we were welcomed by the church in Sunnyside, WA, and we had a wonderful Mexican-style dinner, followed by root beer floats and a firework display put on by the city. (Side note: this was my first 4th of July as a true American, it felt a little more like home, but being surrounded by Canadians it seemed just the same as Canada Day). Yesterday I road with our fellow loud-mouth and a couple other friends, and we stopped for some wine tasting - the Columbia Valley has some great wines! Later that night we went down to the local watering hole and sang karaoke at the top of our lungs – some highlights were ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’, and a version of Amazing Grace sung by Marcus and our head Chaplain, Len.
Today we had another celebration service - it was hosted outdoors at our camp along the Columbia River by the Kennewick CRC. They also provided us lunch and several water activities this afternoon – several people went waterskiing, wakeboarding, although there were a few too many people and I decided to float down the river on an air mattress that I purchased yesterday. I hope to get much more use out of that device as the summer continues!
Tomorrow I might be going out for over 150 miles as I am expecting a package to arrive in a town that we stayed in on Friday night, about 50 miles back from where we are now (it’s a long story!). So I’m hoping everything goes as planned…
Well, it’s almost dinner time, so I’m gonna get going. Until next time...
Anyway, our community is really developing quite quickly, and it's great to see so many different people come together and get along so well. I had originally anticipated having more time to read and communicate with friends and family, but it's difficult to pull myself away from the group, as there are so many interesting and unique people on the tour. Speaking of unique individuals, I should mention that each morning we are waking to the sound of our camp 'loud mouth' named Johnny Pierce saying in the loudest most monotone voice possible: 'let's do something beautiful!' (this is a line from our theme song which has now become a running joke, all in good fun of course). Johnny also took it upon himself to announce my presence several times to the whole group, at dinner and at our peloton meetings, still not sure why - but now everyone knows who I am!
The riding has been much easier the past few days with much shorter distances, and not too much climbing. We did experience a few thunderstorms recently, but nothing too serious - and this actually helped to cool things off a little. For the 4th of July we were welcomed by the church in Sunnyside, WA, and we had a wonderful Mexican-style dinner, followed by root beer floats and a firework display put on by the city. (Side note: this was my first 4th of July as a true American, it felt a little more like home, but being surrounded by Canadians it seemed just the same as Canada Day). Yesterday I road with our fellow loud-mouth and a couple other friends, and we stopped for some wine tasting - the Columbia Valley has some great wines! Later that night we went down to the local watering hole and sang karaoke at the top of our lungs – some highlights were ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’, and a version of Amazing Grace sung by Marcus and our head Chaplain, Len.
Today we had another celebration service - it was hosted outdoors at our camp along the Columbia River by the Kennewick CRC. They also provided us lunch and several water activities this afternoon – several people went waterskiing, wakeboarding, although there were a few too many people and I decided to float down the river on an air mattress that I purchased yesterday. I hope to get much more use out of that device as the summer continues!
Tomorrow I might be going out for over 150 miles as I am expecting a package to arrive in a town that we stayed in on Friday night, about 50 miles back from where we are now (it’s a long story!). So I’m hoping everything goes as planned…
Well, it’s almost dinner time, so I’m gonna get going. Until next time...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Riding through the heat
Well, it is now Thursday of the first week of riding… it’s amazing how time flies! It’s great to be back into a relatively familiar routine – things are coming back quickly from the 05 Canadian tour. Not to mention, at least half of the participants are Canadian, so it feels like old hat again.
The first day of riding was long and easy – we had to stay in the bike safety groups that we had from the weekend. We rode out to Golden Beach on the Puget Sound and had breakfast provided for us on the part of a local church. From that point we rolled out in our groups at two minute intervals, it was a pretty cool send-off – felt like the beginning of a stage race, only minus the racing! We took it nice and slow to loosen up the legs and get to know each other – with more than 150 people including support staff, there are still people I don’t know… maybe by jersey I’ll know everyone!
Day two I quickly became labeled as the “ringer” of the group… I left just before the Sweep team (rotating teams pack up the truck and are the last to leave camp) and was the first one to reach Stephen’s pass 30 miles into the ride. I felt right at home climbing 4000ft, however some others didn’t quite enjoy the climb as much as I did! There were a number of waterfalls along the climb that significantly cooled the air, as it was an extremely hot day. This was also Canada Day, and as expected we found ourselves at a bar (they stayed open late just to accommodate us since we were such a large group, maybe 20 +) and proceeded to sing Oh Canada at the top of our lungs!
The heat has continued over the past few days reaching at least 100F on several occasions. Today, Thursday, I was on Sweep duty and so I was the last to leave camp… not a new thing… I don’t know how people manage to leave by 7am, I’m still trying to rub the sleeping sand out of my eyes and shove oatmeal down my throat at that point! Anyway, since we didn’t want to spend all day waiting for the slower riders to finish a bunch of us decided to go out for coffee and visit the local bike shop for an hour and a half. We then meandered along the route which brought us through a beautiful desert valley in central Washington, and we arrived a few hours later at Yakima. Upon arrival the temperature was roughly 100 so it was time for a beer… this seems to be a regular patter:
Wake up… bike…shower…drink a beer… go to sleep, and repeat!
Thus far I have not gone through withdrawl of coffee or beer as Washington coffee shops and bars have proven to provide fine beverages. Let’s hope this continues throughout the country!
The kitchen staff has been doing a great job of providing delicious food for a large group of people, it’s quite an impressive sight to see so many hungry cyclists get fed!
Anyway, I hope you all are well, I’ll keep in touch,
God bless,
Reuben
The first day of riding was long and easy – we had to stay in the bike safety groups that we had from the weekend. We rode out to Golden Beach on the Puget Sound and had breakfast provided for us on the part of a local church. From that point we rolled out in our groups at two minute intervals, it was a pretty cool send-off – felt like the beginning of a stage race, only minus the racing! We took it nice and slow to loosen up the legs and get to know each other – with more than 150 people including support staff, there are still people I don’t know… maybe by jersey I’ll know everyone!
Day two I quickly became labeled as the “ringer” of the group… I left just before the Sweep team (rotating teams pack up the truck and are the last to leave camp) and was the first one to reach Stephen’s pass 30 miles into the ride. I felt right at home climbing 4000ft, however some others didn’t quite enjoy the climb as much as I did! There were a number of waterfalls along the climb that significantly cooled the air, as it was an extremely hot day. This was also Canada Day, and as expected we found ourselves at a bar (they stayed open late just to accommodate us since we were such a large group, maybe 20 +) and proceeded to sing Oh Canada at the top of our lungs!
The heat has continued over the past few days reaching at least 100F on several occasions. Today, Thursday, I was on Sweep duty and so I was the last to leave camp… not a new thing… I don’t know how people manage to leave by 7am, I’m still trying to rub the sleeping sand out of my eyes and shove oatmeal down my throat at that point! Anyway, since we didn’t want to spend all day waiting for the slower riders to finish a bunch of us decided to go out for coffee and visit the local bike shop for an hour and a half. We then meandered along the route which brought us through a beautiful desert valley in central Washington, and we arrived a few hours later at Yakima. Upon arrival the temperature was roughly 100 so it was time for a beer… this seems to be a regular patter:
Wake up… bike…shower…drink a beer… go to sleep, and repeat!
Thus far I have not gone through withdrawl of coffee or beer as Washington coffee shops and bars have proven to provide fine beverages. Let’s hope this continues throughout the country!
The kitchen staff has been doing a great job of providing delicious food for a large group of people, it’s quite an impressive sight to see so many hungry cyclists get fed!
Anyway, I hope you all are well, I’ll keep in touch,
God bless,
Reuben
Anticipating the departure...
Here begins a truly narcissistic experience that I hope will mildly entertain at least 1/5 of those who read it... Yes, I'm now joining the ranks of the several million bloggers that populate the realm of cyberspace... I even bought a computer/phone that is smaller than the size of my hand and does everything but brew my morning coffee, so I'm geeked up and ready for the summer!
If this blog becomes even a remote success I doubt that I will continue beyond the end date of this bike tour as my life is otherwise much less interesting. I do apologize in advance for any unnecessary verbosity to which I am often prone... it's a professor thing - and while I don't hold the title of Dr. yet, I am beginning to feel these tendencies percolate the very essence of my person. Ok enough with the fine print and disclaimers, here is my first ever post (sorry no pics as of yet):
I'm currently on my way up to Seattle to start the tour. I decided to take the train for the first time ever in the States, and what a beautiful trip this has been. I may just have to travel this way more often - Vancouver Olympics 2010 will be very accessible! Anyway, we check in today and have service tomorrow as well as a bike safety course that I'm supposed to help lead. Then Monday we will begin our two-wheeled nomadic journey. I'm very excited to be a part of such an awesome adventure, and am looking forward to reuniting with some friends from a previous similar tour across Canada, as well as making new friendships among the 200+ participants. I'm also excited to visit many friends and family that live along the route we'll be taking - as much as I love camping and the outdoors, I know I'll really appreciate the comfort of a real bed from time to time, and of course fellowship with familiar friends! For a closer look at the tour route and other pertinent information check out our tour site: www.seatosea.org.
Insert shameless plug here: If you haven't donated to the cause it's not too late, just search my name on the site and follow the instructions to donate online. To those of you that have already contributed, I express my sincerest gratitude - because of your generosity I've met 95% of my initial goal of $10,000. I was very glad to not have to try my hand at a bake sale or any other means of fundraising involving activities that I am not particularly gifted at!
While there is much to look forward to on this tour, there are also several thing that I will miss. Listed not necessarily by order of importance, here are a few things that I will miss:
Portland's many stellar micro-brews
Good coffee - Starbucks and Timmies just don't cut it for me anymore!
My brothers at the Franklin House, and all my friends and colleagues in Portland
The crazy neighbours next door
My Ironclad racing team and the immense fun/pain of stage races! (Eva, I have plenty of available advertising on my calves for you - just let me know what to write!)
Imago Dei (my church in Portland)
I could go on, and I'm sure more things will come to mind as I pedal eastward, but that's the list for now.
Well, this is it for now, I'm about to arrive in Seattle. I hope to hear from many of you over the next couple months - drop me a line or send me an e-mail. Please also remember to pray for my safety on the road! Thanks, and I'll post again soon,
Reuben
If this blog becomes even a remote success I doubt that I will continue beyond the end date of this bike tour as my life is otherwise much less interesting. I do apologize in advance for any unnecessary verbosity to which I am often prone... it's a professor thing - and while I don't hold the title of Dr. yet, I am beginning to feel these tendencies percolate the very essence of my person. Ok enough with the fine print and disclaimers, here is my first ever post (sorry no pics as of yet):
I'm currently on my way up to Seattle to start the tour. I decided to take the train for the first time ever in the States, and what a beautiful trip this has been. I may just have to travel this way more often - Vancouver Olympics 2010 will be very accessible! Anyway, we check in today and have service tomorrow as well as a bike safety course that I'm supposed to help lead. Then Monday we will begin our two-wheeled nomadic journey. I'm very excited to be a part of such an awesome adventure, and am looking forward to reuniting with some friends from a previous similar tour across Canada, as well as making new friendships among the 200+ participants. I'm also excited to visit many friends and family that live along the route we'll be taking - as much as I love camping and the outdoors, I know I'll really appreciate the comfort of a real bed from time to time, and of course fellowship with familiar friends! For a closer look at the tour route and other pertinent information check out our tour site: www.seatosea.org.
Insert shameless plug here: If you haven't donated to the cause it's not too late, just search my name on the site and follow the instructions to donate online. To those of you that have already contributed, I express my sincerest gratitude - because of your generosity I've met 95% of my initial goal of $10,000. I was very glad to not have to try my hand at a bake sale or any other means of fundraising involving activities that I am not particularly gifted at!
While there is much to look forward to on this tour, there are also several thing that I will miss. Listed not necessarily by order of importance, here are a few things that I will miss:
Portland's many stellar micro-brews
Good coffee - Starbucks and Timmies just don't cut it for me anymore!
My brothers at the Franklin House, and all my friends and colleagues in Portland
The crazy neighbours next door
My Ironclad racing team and the immense fun/pain of stage races! (Eva, I have plenty of available advertising on my calves for you - just let me know what to write!)
Imago Dei (my church in Portland)
I could go on, and I'm sure more things will come to mind as I pedal eastward, but that's the list for now.
Well, this is it for now, I'm about to arrive in Seattle. I hope to hear from many of you over the next couple months - drop me a line or send me an e-mail. Please also remember to pray for my safety on the road! Thanks, and I'll post again soon,
Reuben
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