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!

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.

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:

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.

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 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.

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!

random pics...

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

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.

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!

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...

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

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