Friday Aug 22 -- London to Hamilton (Redeemer College)

Stats: 125km, Avg 22.7 km/h, Max 54.8 km/h, Time 5:30
Arrived about 3pm. (would have been 2:15 if not for the driving range calling Len's name...)

What a great day.


Hot, to be sure. Especially after we hit Brantford and the wind was either blocked mostly by trees and buildings, or maybe it dropped a bit.

I'd like to apologize for referring to Pieter as a "Goof" in yesterday's blog. He's a great friend, and a great pastor, and a great biker, but those actions of yesterday do not deserve the adjective "Goof". Now, if he does any future goofy things, I'll reserve judgement. ;-)

It was nice to spend the evening at home, but the tour was not over yet, and my subconscious knew it, as I woke up before 5am... Scott+Linda gave me a ride back to camp, and we joined everyone at 6:30am getting some snacks/lunch together, getting our bags stashed, lubing up... (yes, HeatherF, I do take your advice!)

Ralph, Scott, Pieter, and I got on the road at 7am. Just 4km down the road we passed the house of a fellow from our church that they knew, so they stopped to roust him out of bed for a quick hello. I kept going. I wasn't going particularly fast, and they're all strong riders, so I figured they'd catch up soon enough. And besides, I didn't know the gentleman they visited.

Some time later I was cycling with some others when Pieter blows past with Eritia hot on his tail.

I called encouragement to Eritia.

Note that this is the same Pieter who told me that I didn't need a map of today's route because he had one, and besides, he'd ridden the route before... So how does this do me any good now? I may have to revisit that paragraph above, Pieter. :-)

But I'm just kidding. Everyone needs to find someone to ride with who matches their pace, and it is not always necessarily the same folks that you hang out with in Camp, as illustrated by my ride today. Today I rode a bit behind the Hoekstras from Chatham, then a bit with Randy DeWolde and Fred Meyerink (but only a bit -- they're too strong), and some also with Bert Slofstra into Woodstock. Finally I hooked up with Len Riemersma, Bob + Lisa Brouwer, and Melinda and Karen for the rest of the day. They welcomed me into their group, and their pace as well as their outlook on the day seemed to suit me quite a bit.

We're now entering the non-stop-buffet portion of the SeaToSea tour. There was an early SAG stop outside of London. Then we hit a church in Ingersoll who fed and watered us. Then again on the other side of Woodstock we were also treated well (complete with clean porta-potties with running water for handwashing!) And again in Brantford -- but by a Cambridge church I was told? And finally another stop for lunch on the other side of Brantford.

Hmm, yesterday I was pleased to step on the scale and note that I was another 5lbs down. I'd best be careful!!!!

There were some downright mean and annoying hills on the approach to Woodstock. I say that because the up side of each valley was significantly higher than the down side. But we did finally earn some nice downhill coasts as we got into Woodstock. But I agreed with Bert Slofstra that the placement of those stoplights at the bottom of a great hill takes all the fun out of cycling them!

I was pleased to bump into my wife's Aunt/Uncle Jenny+Cameron Linnell at the Woodstock picnic
She reads all the blogs, so probably knows the other cyclists better than I do. But I did manage to introduce her to two riders that she'd read of, which was very nice.

Oh, and "Hello!" to Annette at the first Brantford (Cambridge?) stop. Sorry I had to run but the other riders were almost on the road and I didn't want to miss my group.

I used to read all of the blogs, so I knew that Len is a golf fan. And it just so happened that there was a driving range that came into view just ONE km before our final stop at Redeemer. Well Len didn't even ask, he just turned his bike into the driveway. I wasn't going to join in at first, but I "weakened". It's also our vacation, so lets do some goofy things every now and then. I don't think I've held a golf club in 20+ years, and you could tell. Len could make the ball fly, as could Bob. (check out the top picture, what is Karen doing there in the background?)


And here we are, our "golfer" pose. Mini-Putt, here we come...


And now I've had a fudgsicle, set up my tent, showered, washed my clothes from today, went to the refreshment area and had some chips and an ice cream bar and chocolate milk and soda and an orange and some other snacks, and now am sitting in the cool air conditioned calm of the Redeemer College library. Supper is in a half hour, hosted by the college. Why am I hungry again?

Tomorrow, St .Catharines and seeing my folks. Short ride too, only 74km, but do you think I'll be able to sleep in?

ps: No Ibuprofen today, No knee pain. Whee!