Bingo!, Community, and other such things...

5:20 at the end of a 7-hour-in-the-saddle day is probably not the best time to try and write a blog. My butt is sore, My knee did it's share of giving grief today, and just all-around worn out. On the other hand, the showers were hot, roomy, and no waiting in line. I'm clean, the tent is up, and oh joy, a library right next door to the camp with WiFi. Cool.

Even better, Peter VanNord is across from me blogging, And I'm sitting next to Barb Mellema, trading barbs... (groan) and the fellowship helps dispel the tiredness. Let us press on!

Best do yesterday first.

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Monday, Aug 17: Grand Rapids to Laingsburg.
Stats: Distance approx 110km, max 54.4km/h, avg 27.3km/h !!!
(my typical average for a 50km+ ride is 23-24km/h)



It was the best possible start to this for all those newbies like me. There was a strong tail wind, and we just flew. I had intended to take it easy, being the first day and all that, but I also decided to ride with Pieter... Hmm, those two might be mutually exclusive goals. We started with Ralph also...



... but we left him behind at the first stop, which was at a church in Lowell that did it's best to stuff us to the gills. Fresh Fruit! Quiche! Chocolate Milk! If only I'd known I would have eaten less breakfast.

Our speed was going fine and then later on we hooked on with a group of four -- Julia Wissink, Ryan Bruxvoort, Jeff Schoon, and Jonathan "unknown-surname" -- and started riding with them. Mysteriously the pace just gradually kept increasing. It was fun to talk with them, but before I knew it, we were in the mid/high thirties, and then hit 40km/h. What a blast, thanks to the tailwind and draft. But 40 was getting tough to maintain and at one point I lost the draft and it was game over for me. I dropped back like 75 meters in what felt like seconds. Still, we rolled into camp between 12:30-1. The gear truck only beat us by about 30 minutes. I wouldn't count on that happening again.

The state park was fine, but the line up for showers was long, and there was no wireless in sight. Hence, no one blogged. Did you notice?

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Yesterday was also the start of Bingo in camp as well, at least for us newbies.

Oh yeah, all us 60 who joined in GR are the "newbies". It's not that surprising when you consider that they've spent 7 weeks forming a community, and here we are crashing it for the last two weeks.

But I think the fear was unfounded. There's been lots of outgoing connections being made. Sarah, Stephanie, Julia, and Josh all approached me to say "hi". Many others have been just as welcoming. And there has been lots of bingo going on... "Oh, you went to Calvin also? You live where? Do you know so-and-so? Hey, I think I used to know you..."

Bingo!

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Today, on the other hand was a hard hard introduction to what it can be like on SeaToSea.

Tuesday, Aug 19: Laingsburg to Richmond, MI.
Stats: Distance 155km, Max 52.3km/h, Avg 22.2km/h, Total time in saddle **6:56** Ouch.

Going 150+km would be hard enough, but there was a strong, continuous headwind ALL day. Even at 5:45am (Not a Typo) when I was taking down my tent the wind was blowing it around. Hey, what happened to calm mornings? I left at 6:30, as I knew it would be a long hard day.

And this is taking too long, so I'm going to sum up.

Lots of community building today. I rather like stopping at all the SAG wagons, as it gives us more time to talk with different riders.

Gayle introduced me to "Vitamin I" this morning - which is what her doctor calls Ibuprofen. I had some, but hadn't used it yet. My knee started to ache already around 20km out, so I popped two at the first SAG stop, which helped stabilize that, and even minimize it a bit. Come lunch time I took two more -- without them I rather doubt I would have finished the day. When people hear about this they express concernand advice ranging from other medication to changing my type of clipless pedals. But the best, I think, was Terry Kuipers from Aylmer, who simply made it a point to stick with me for about half the ride and made sure I was still going along.

Community!

Also on day two I experienced two, count'em, two flat tires. Sigh. First one was along a rather busy stretch of road, with a large shoulder, thankfully, and in my brand new hardcase front tire. (fume!) Thanks go to the five younger riders who simply pulled over and stopped to help, without asking. Unfortunately, we still struggled to get it back on (note to self: never, ever buy a bike with Sunrims again!!!) and we pinched it. We should have listened to our gut feelings and redid the job, but it seemed to be okay and holding air. But 4km later I stopped at the final SAG, and pulled out their floor pump to properly get the tire up to 100psi... BOOM! Yup, pinched it. Now I had an audience -er- community to help me deal with it. Pastor Len offered to take a collection to help buy me a new tube. He's very gracious that way, we cherish him. Got the old tube patched, and put it in more carefully this time -- snapped one of my tire irons. (Hey, MEC, sell better tire irons!)

Community again.

And peleton is in about 10 more minutes so I need to go experience a bit more community.

Later, folks!
...art (tomorrow, the border!)