Aug 24: St.Catharines

Mostly Photos, not feeling that inspired for words...

Sunday Celebration service at Queenston Heights park. The "meet and greet" and "ministry fair" and "peach social" was supposed to happen from 2pm-4pm. It rained from 2-4, pretty much steadily, though it increased and decreased in intensity.

Some took advantage of the downtimes. No names will be released...


People headed over to the outdoor, uncovered, totally wet grass, ampitheatre at 4pm anyways.

The rain, stopped...

The service, went well...



Afterwards there was a humongous bbq/picnic. I was expecting them to just feed the riders and crew, but the food just kept coming, and it seemed to feed everyone who stood in line. What an immense undertaking. It seems that ALL the local CRC congregations have had a hand in at least some aspect of hosting us here in St.Catharines (various meals, and so on.)

On the bus back to the school for the night.


Tomorrow, the border once more, and on to Byron, NY, to an RV Park. 123km in total. I would be surprised if there was internet available tomorrow night. We'll see.

Saturday August 23, Hamilton to St. Catharines.

Stats: I forgot to check the bike computer before I left to go to my parents, so I'll have to add those in later. I do know I hit a max of 60.5km/h going down Woolverton Rd, descending the Niagara Escarpment -- I could have gone faster but decided that was enough and applied brakes. a 12% grade is nothing to mess with! The Distance for the day was about 74km. Arrived around 2pm.

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Happiness is opening up your laptop on your parents patio -- your older retired parents, who don't have a computer, let alone an internet connection -- and discovering that their neighbours have an open wireless connection. ;-) ;-)

Frustration is finding that it is a bit finicky and you need to sit just so and in just that place for it to work. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers!

Today was scheduled to be a short day, just under 75km, which is really not a terribly long ride for people who have been training for 100-to-150km-per-day rides. So Pieter and I elected to laze around a bit this morning and leave late.

After breakfast I helped him sort out some technical issues with his camera and blog, visited with some other folks, and finally we got packed up and on the road by the incredibly late hour (in Sea To Sea terms, that is) of 8:30am. My tent was one of the ten last tents standing, probably less. But even though the sun was up, it was still drenched with dew, so I might as well have torn it down at 5:45am.

The non-stop buffet continued. Most riders took almost no food with them today, as there was no point to doing so. I lost count of the number of stops. We crossed along the south side of Hamilton, and then continued along Ridge Rd which has some stunning vistas overlooking Hamilton from the top of the escarpment.




There were two refreshment stops along there. Then there came the death-defying race down Woolverton Rd, descending the escarpment, which I mentioned above.



After that we entered Grimsby, where we had to stop at the local Dutch store, which was handing out free cake to riders in honor of Eritia Smit, who is an employee there. Then came a stop at Shalom manor where many eldery residents were delighted to see us and wish us well. That was just a "visiting" stop, as the next refreshment stop was just a km up the road at the Grimsby CRC who treated us to fresh peaches with vanilla ice cream, as well as donuts. Good thing I did not have seconds, as our "lunch" stop at the Beamsville church was really not that far along the road. Salmon sandwiches, ham buns, egg salad buns, chips, and about 6-feet of table laden with cookies and goodies... Such a nice lunch. I skipped all the cookies/squares though, as I'm afraid of stuffing myself!

Then came some more crazy up and down hills, and a "Freezie" stop at Pieter Pereboom's Parents' house, and still another refreshment stop on the lawn at Jubilee Fellowship in St.Catharines. I left Pieter at his folks', as his son Jonathan was going to ride the rest of the day with him. At Jubilee I hooked up with Eritia, Katrina, and Justin and cruised in the rest of the short distance with them.



Well, almost. In Port Dalhousie we had to stop at the "famous" carousel where rides still cost a mere nickel. And Katrina, a rower from Michigan, had to stop for some photos of the Henley rowing club just up the road.




The remaining ride was not long, and we soon were rolling into the driveway of the Beacon Christian School in St.Catharines and greeting my brother and my folks, who were waving at the side of the road. As in London, the first order of business was to dry out the tent, and then repack it for the night, before checking schedules, putting my bike in the school for safekeeping, sorting out some clothes to take along, and then heading off for a night away.

Tomorrow, the celebration service at Queenston heights park.
Monday, off to cross the border once more, back into the US.

In The News...

A Quick Note from Saturday morning.

If you visit this link at the London Free Press website: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2008/08/22/6534256-sun.html
you will see a link to the video.

If you play the video, you will see snippets of my kids (holding signs) and Heather and the kids over Gayle's shoulder while she is talking.

Act quickly, as I have no idea how long the free press keeps these videos up on their websites.

Have a great day, it's only 74km for us today to St.Catharines, and Five (yes, FIVE) stopes hosted by churches and Shalom Manor on the way. So we're not going to be rushing, but it'll still take some time to get there.

...art

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!

Minor Quickie - Vitamin I

Just a quick addition... I know, and greatly appreciate, that people have been praying about my knees. Today's ride was 125 km and went from 7am to 3pm. I took some Ibuprofen at 7am -- a fellow rider had forgotten his at the gear truck and so I gave him some and popped some myself at the same time.

But I completely forgot to take it again at 11 -- 4hrs later when the next dose would normally be required. And the only ache I feel tonight is in my thighs which is just muscle soreness from all the work they're doing!

Tomorrow I shall try and skip the Ibuprofen and see what happens. I'm a bit wary of this, as Ibuprofen also can be a preventative measure, having it kick in before the pain starts.

I'll let you know...

Thursday Aug 21 -- Chatham to London.

Stats: 125.3km, Average Speed 23.6km/h, Max 52.3km/h, Time 5:18
In camp around 3pm. (I don't always remember to note that time.)

Another day of ups and downs. The wind was another headwind, though it was sometimes a bit of a crosswind as it was sort of from the SE and we were sort of going a bit NE.

Left Chatham just a bit before 7am with Ralph and Albert. Our friend Albert DeVries came out the night before with his track bike and rode with us today.

As if 120+ kilometers wasn't enough to do, some riders organized an informal "time trial race" on the flat(ish) roads between Chatham and London. They marked out a course of about 40km. Each rider had to ride solo -- no drafting allowed -- and they were started at intervals. (I forget, every 3 minutes?) I knew that some of the group would be up for it, but I didn't realize how many! 28 riders signed up!! And no, they were not all just young guys. Several girls signed up, and Pieter got Ralph to sign up.

Pieter was signed up also, but he'd left so early that he zipped past the location of the start of the race before anyone was there (or something like that) and missed it. What a goof. The race didn't start right in Chatham, but rather about 40km along the road. It ended shortly before Mt Brydges, which was our Lunch stop.

Albert reported later, with some embarrassment, that three girls passed him. Yeah, age catches up with all of us. (Sorry, Albert, but you knew that I'd blog this!) The winner, so I've heard (not officially) was one Reuben Vyn, which was no surprise to anyone, as he rides for the University in Portland, Oregon.

I had some more mechanical issues (remember I said ups and downs?). In Thamesville, which was not that far from Chatham, my left foot started feeling quite wiggly after crossing some tracks. I stopped my bike and discovered, to my shock, that I couldn't get my foot out of the pedal! Good thing I normally unclip with my right foot first, since I now had at least one foot solid on the ground. I had to take off my left shoe to get out of the bike.

Ralph and Albert heard me say something about my clip, but didn't realize the seriousness of this and were soon out of yelling distance. They thought I'd quickly catch up... needles to say I didn't. I was trying not to feel down, as I thought that my riding for the day was done. Several riders soon stopped --- you ALWAYS ask another rider if they're okay when you pass them stopped on the side of the road. I soon got one rider who had both a cell phone, and the emergency numbers, and a SAG wagon was called.

Art Smit and Melissa soon showed up, and Melissa, who was battling a migraine, surprised us by being able to loosen enough bits to get my shoe loose. It turned out that one of the cleat screws had just come loose. None of the threads seemed broken or stripped, and the pedal still seemed okay as well. We got it all put back together, and I was soon on.

Well, for 100 meters. Then I stopped again to adjust it... you spend months fiddling with your cleat position on your shoe, and I had clearly not got it back quite the same way!

And so I rode solo for a while, passed some people who weren't at the right pace, was passed by some others, and eventually came to a SAG stop and again found myself joining a peloton -- this time with Chris (no relation) Mulder, Ralph DeBoer, Julia, Jonathan, Jeff, Kaitlyn, and Neil Jaspers. 8 people riding together, mostly two abreast on these quiet roads, again makes riding into a wind a LOT easier. It was still a struggle at times, because they're pushing me at the top of my ability. But the community was great as they willingly slowed it down a notch a couple times when I was struggling.

Around km 87 we turned off course into Mt Brydges where we were again feasted by the local community (I think the Strathroy churches helped also, but I'm not sure) to a beef-on-a-bun lunch with salad and all kinds of melon and so on. I was careful not to stuff myself, but I'm surprised at the number of calories I can now pack away. (aside: stepped on the scale tonight and I think I'm 5lbs down...)


(Sorry, Indoor shaky Shot! But you get the idea)

Actually on rides I also need to regularly stop to eat. I now really see the bonus to cycling jerseys that come with pockets on the back, as other riders will reach back into their pocket and snag a banana or granola bar and eat it while riding. In this way you don't stop the other riders who are on a roll, and you don't get left behind to stop on your own. It's NOT a good thing, so I'm told, to let yourself get to the point that your stomach starts growling. Bonking, (running out of energy rapidly) soon follows.

But the flat demons struck again. I came out of lunch and found my front tire flat. That's #4 for me. Ralph and I tackled it and I soon got it done. Let me tell you, that a shady bit of grass by a church parking lot, is a MUCH more pleasant place to change a tire than crouching in the gravel on the shoulder of a road while trucks roar by at 80 km/h.

Ralph and I were now paired off and both of us were eager to make it home to London to see our families. Let me tell you it was really a bit weird to find myself cycling into London. The hill down Byron Baseline road was a joy to zoom down (that was my max speed, noted above). All the houses and trees also block the headwind, which makes it very hot, but does make pedaling a bit easier. Ralph met his wife Cora in Springbank park, and I pressed on to the Fork of the Thames. Ralph soon caught up, Cora was going to meet him at camp later. And the last few km sped by until we turned onto the bridge over the Thames into the park where I found my wife. I didn't expect to get choked up, but I did.

It struck me that I had just done something (biking home from Grand Rapids) that I could never have imagined doing just 12 months ago. We greeted a few folks there, grabbed some ice, but did not stay long. We both had the itch to get to camp!!! Ralph did not relish the idea of cycling through downtown, so we left the official ride route, and instead headed off down the east section of the bike path. It was a nice quick ride, and no traffic or stoplights to deal with. Soon enough we were rolling into the parking lot at the London District Christian School.

Here we had another great, amazing reception. We were handed some ice cold chocolate milk -- wahoo! and then some ice cream as well. What could be better? Well, dinner might be, but I'll have to find that out tomorrow, as I went home to spend the night in a real bed...

Tomorrow it's on to Hamilton.

Aug 20 -- Richmond to Chatham.

Hey blog fans...

Sorry about yesterday. There was some internet available, but as I was being hosted by the Grootenboers for pool, shower, and laundry use, I thought it would be rude to ignore them and stick my nose in a laptop.

Tonight I'm home, at my own house, at my own desk, and my beloved has graciously allowed me some time here to write. (she herself is busy reading other blogs...)

So again, I'll combine two days reporting into one (BIG!) post.

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Wednesday, Aug 20.
I forgot to copy the stats from my bike computer!!
I remember that I averaged about 22.2km/h which was not the best, but not too bad, all things considered. The scheduled distance was 90km.

It was an odd day, with 30km on the US side, then congregating at a park in Marine city, and then over on the Ferry, and then a party, and then riding on to Chatham. Heather already blogged some of this, so I can try and be brief.

Here is the nasty nail (Albert tells me that it is a concrete nail) that lodged in my rear tire while going down an unpleasantly busy road in Michigan, about 10-12km out of Richmond.



It was definitely NOT the nicest place to struggle with a wheel. Ralph Fledderus and Ed unknown-last-name helped me change the tire, which resulted in one snapped tire iron, and one successfully replaced tube. Pumped up again, and we were on our way to Marine city, which is a lovely picturesque little town on the water there.

I'll let the photos tell most of the story of this time at the park.

Hans Doef's helmet hair. Very cool


We made the local paper.


Pieter + Ralph relaxing along the water, as we had over an hour to wait.


Queueing up to get on the ferry. Y'know, 220 riders is a LOT of people in one place. ANd this is only a small fragment of them. We were all instructed to wear our SeaToSea jerseys (biking shirts) today.


The Customs agent told us not to take photos (I know we live in a post 9/11 world, but all of us thought this was silly.) but I'd already taken a few.


Alida van Dijk was beside me on the ferry and we traded cameras to take pictures of each other.


Yes, Margaret, Pieter was there.

lots of people with bikes on the ferry!

There was a MASSIVE party on the other side greeting us and feeding us!


Pieter and I stayed for a while, but as we had no family of our own there, we pressed on to Chatham. It was "just" a short 60km ride, into the wind. I lost Pieter about half-way. He kept jumping on faster and faster peletons of cyclists and ended up being #2 to arrive in Chatham. (Why no, Pieter isn't at all competitive, why do you ask?)

I ended up hooking up with Julia Wissink (even though she won't admit it in her blog. I'll have to razz her about that later...), Jonathan, Jeff, ... and a few others who helped pull me into Chatham to arrive still pretty early. There were maybe 50 bikes there when we got there.

It's really amazing what a difference riding in a group can do. By myself in that headwind I was doing maybe 23km/h and dropping to 21 at times with gusts. When they zoomed by, I popped onto the tail of the line and was crusing at 25/26km/h with the same effort, and with the benefit of great community. (I made sure to thank them afterwards, and they were delighted to have shared part of the ride.)

We ended up clumped a bit in Chatham with other riders due to being stopped by a train. While I understand the safety issues, it still can be a blast riding the roads with about 15-20 riders all fairly closely grouped. I promise, it was only for a short while, on very quiet streets, and we obeyed all the rules of the road -- plus all the smart rules of peloton riding.

The Chatham community rolled out the red carpet. There were people cheering us into the parking lot, showing us where to park our bikes, shuttling us to the bike store, offering us the use of their pools, showers, and laundry. And to top it all off they served us a scrumptious supper.

(Whoever made the brownies with a layer of caramel inside... oooh, YUM!)

I first caught a ride to the bike store for some more tubes (grumble grumble) and then went off for a swim, shower + laundry at Roger + Deb's place

I knew both of them 18+ years ago when we were all at Redeemer. (I was a young employee) And it was a big surprise to see Roger there looking for cyclists to offer hospitality to.

And this is getting real long, so I think I actually will break it in two.

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On Wednesday evening I was asked to read the "Prayer for the road" after Peloton.

At night, in our small groups, we always go over the section in the sea-to-sea "Shifting Gears" devotional concerning the next day. And at Peloton they always pick someone to read the prayer for the road part. As I was from London, an as we were going there the next day, Alida van Dijk asked me (in the middle of the ferry crossing!) if I would read the devotion that night.

She told me that we were allowed to editorialize a bit, if it isn't too long. When I looked over the prayer, I discovered that it had nothing at all to do with London, so I came up with the following -- with 15 minutes prep time before Peloton! Since I wrote it down in my notebook, I thought I'd post it here. And I tried to be honest and not polish it up any more... I do tend to write better than I speak, I think.

"The Prayer for the road says absolutely _nothing_ about London. So I thought I would share this little factoid. YES, London was named after London, England. It was so named by Govern Simcoe back in the late 1700s (as Pieter Pereboom, trivia history buff extraordinaire confirmed for me earlier.)

"He had the grand idea that London would become the capitol of Upper Canada, which seems rather silly in hindsight, as London is not on any of the Great Lakes, which was of course the main "highway" for travel and commerce overseas back then.

"Lond is a town of about 308,000 people ... if I remember correctly from all the training rides when I passed a city limit sign.

"Like much of this area, London is heavily dependent on the auto sector. As well, it is the home of many of our fellow cyclists here tonight.

"... and NO, London was never the capitol of Upper Canada, or Ontario, or anything."

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more later...