Passport Time...

It isn't -- yet -- mandatory to have a passport to enter the US at a surface crossing. It is for air travel, and supposedly it soon will be for surface crossings as well. Consequently, all Canadian passport offices are reportedly buried under applications. I've heard stories of 90 minute waits.

The seatosea tour next summer will be crossing the border twice, and even though passports are not yet mandatory, HQ has stated on their cyclist guidelines that all cyclists must have a passport.

(ours is not to reason why ... )

My own passport was long expired, so it was time to get another one. As I visited the Passport website, I discovered that they had an option for an on-line application. You still had to bring paperwork in person to a passport office, but most of your information is already in their
computers since you filled it in on-line. They just need to scan the barcode of your application, and verify the information of your guarantor (and check your IDs and take payment...).

But the number one most important thing about the on-line application option, is that when you bring your paperwork to the passport office for filing, you get to go into a "special" line up, which moves quicker.

Today, I got around to dropping off my own application at the office. I got there around 11:30 am, on a Wednesday, and the office must have had about 50 people in the waiting room. (No, I'm not making that up!) As I entered the room, with dismay, a guard approached me and checked my form and then issued me a number (F937) and told me to sit down watch the board under the "F" and wait.

I had barely sat down and found the sign board when I saw my number pop up, and I was called up to see an agent.

My jaw was on the floor. I was done and out the door maybe five minutes after entering the office. The agent was joking about me "feeling the eyes" of everyone else in the waiting room who I'd just skipped past.

The Group is Growing...

One of the many factors that encouraged me to take up this cycling and fund raising challenge was the knowledge that I would not be alone in this.

First of all, we have the SeaToSea Headquarters helping us with logistics, planning, support and much more more. And of course, there will be all the other cyclists who are cycling. When the actual ride takes place, I know I'll be surrounded by all kinds of encouragement and other group dynamics. And I trust that I'll be providing that to my fellow riders as well.

But sooner than that, and closer to home than that, are the other local cyclists.

Here in London at my home church we have a group of cyclists planning to cycle all or part of the trip. Yet we have also come together now, to plan and work together with all the fund raising, as well as the bike training that we need to do. We call ourselves the "Peddles and Prayers" group. (We also have several non-cyclists in the group, who are helping immensely!)

For myself it was the existence of this group that helped me make my own decision to join this tour. The thought of all that bike training -- hours and hours alone in the saddle -- as well as all that fund raising that we are expected to do ... well I can see how it would seem intimidating. But with a supporting group of people around you, it doesn't seem like such a daunting task.

Gayle was the first, and John soon after that. Then came Scott and Pieter. And then myself. Wow, five cyclists, that's a big group. But that wasn't all. We now have Mike, who joined a couple weeks ago, and just a few days ago Ralph signed up.

And then there were SEVEN.
(However, unlike in that familiar Agatha Christie mystery novel, our numbers have been going up!)

So, Kirsten, are you going to make it eight?

Ow, my bum hurts!

How do you guys manage it?

I just got back from a 2hr ride. 41.5 km. It was a slightly larger loop than last week. This time I went west on Oxford St out of town until it hit Vanneck, and then north and pretty much the same as last weekend.

Oxford St West is, I think, a pretty good road for training. It has 3 long hills as you leave town, which is a good workout I suspect. I think they're all at least a half km long incline, maybe longer.

But I digress. My hands are hurting again, but my butt is hurting worse. How do you long distance riders manage this? When I started down this road, I wondered if my back would force me to consider getting a recumbent bike for the tour, but maybe it'll be my backside that casts the deciding vote.

ttfn.
...art