Blue Skies

Day 0 : Orientation and Training

Despite only getting 4 hours of sleep the previous night, I only managed to get to sleep around 1:30 or 2:00 AM EST. Of course, that’s at 10:30-11:00 PM PST, so it’s really not so bad.

I awoke at 5:30 local due to the light streaming into the window of our dorm room in University of Washington. I naturally rolled over and continued sleeping, only getting up around 6:30.

Breakfast was followed by worship, introduction, orientation and a short lecture on bike safety. Then after lunch, we grabbed our bike gear and bikes, and headed to the parking lots for some on-bike safety workshops.

The rest of the afternoon was off, so I took the opportunity to familiarize some Americans with the proper rules for playing Euchre. My deck of Canada flag cards trumped any complaints that since we were in America we should play their way.

A group photo, supper, and then off to the Celebration service, jointly organized by a number of local churches.

Coming up tomorrow : Tire dipping ceromony by the ocean, then a gentle 80 km to Kennewick, Washington.

As a side note, the tour has raised over $1.5 million dollars, and the fund-raising hasn’t stopped.

Day -1 : Photos

Bikes ready to go on the aircraft:

Waiting at Pearson:

In the airport at Phoenix, Arizona:

Day -1 : Toronto to Seattle (not by bike)

Well, our first day turned out a bit different than we expected. We got up in the wee hours of the morning (about 4 oclock) to drive to the airport. Just as I started to load the van that my boss kindly lent us, it started to rain. By the time we got to loading the bike boxes in, it was a full fledged thunderstorm!

We had to pick up Peter so he could arrange to bring vehicles back to their proper location (thanks Pete!), and getting to his place was fun. The rain was so hard that the traffic on the 403 had slowed to 60 kph at some points. The lightning was close, and played havoc with my night vision.

Nevertheless we did get to the airport on time.

Navigating the airport with two huge duffel bags and two huge bike boxes, we headed for checking for our flight to Chicago (and from there we’d have a connecting flight to Seattle), just to find out that our connecting flight had been canceled due to weather in Chicago. The best alternative that they could come up with was to route us through Phoenix, Arizona and from there to Seattle. So we waited an extra four hours to leave. I found an internet kiosk, ($2 for 10 min) and I managed to get the Sea to Sea contact number and also had time to email the family. I called the contact number, and left a message when no one picked up. I had forgotten the time difference and called poor Erin at 4:30 in the morning!

Well, then we traveled a few extra hours, had lunch in Phoenix (looks dry there) and made it to Seattle just in time for supper!

We spent the next hour or two at a “meet and greet” and also managed to steal enough time to put our bikes back together. My bike box had the tape on the bottom give way during transit, but everything seemed to make it alright.

Then to bed a little early (1 AM Ontario time, heh), and up for breakfast. Yay food!

Pictures when I get them from Eritia.

June 21 : 120 k

Last Saturday gave the final opportunity for a good long practice ride. Eritia and I got up early (ok, not so earlier, but earlier than my work days!) on a Saturday morning, loaded up our bikes into our respective cars and drove to Thorold. We set off along the beautiful Welland Canal towards Port Colborne.

The weather was great, we had blue skies and a sunny day. We followed the Greater Niagara Circle Route, a nicely paved recreation path that saw us go from Thorold to Welland to Port Colborne to Fort Erie to Niagara Falls. Technically the route would have taken us to Lake Ontario and around to Saint Catherines, but once down the escarpment past Niagara, we cut West to shorten the ride from about 150 k to a more managable (for the sake of time) 120 k. Check out Eritia’s blog for a map of the route.

No  problems with nausea this time around, although again I was pretty beat at 90 k. Fortunatley, a short stop at Niagara Falls for photo ops gave my body some time to come up with more energy.

Also last week I had a nice 50 k ride to Freelton and back, incorporating a ride up Sydenham Road and a 68 km/hr ride down Rock Chapel Road. No time for such things this week; the bike is at the shop getting a tune-up before the trip, and I’m spending more time looking at lists and paperwork to make sure everything is good to go.

In other news, I’m at about 95% of my fundraising goal. I can only thank God for providing the funds to reach a figure that seemed unreachable in December. The exact figure is a bit shakey due to a backlog of work at the Sea to Sea office, but it appears set to rise in the next couple of days anyways.

June 7 : St. Catherines, 150 k

So between only remembering to write when at work, and only having the photos on a computer at home, this got delayed a little. My compromise now is to edit in the photos when I get home…

Edit: And here it is…

Last Saturday Eritia and I went on a 150 km bike ride. It was a bit more than I was expecting, since the organizing email estimated the distance to be about 100 k, and we were only going to add another 10-20 by cycling to the starting point. So we set out (slightly late) on a gorgeous Saturday morning, heading along Main to Chedoke Golf Course, and taking the stairs up the mountain (which by the way is a great cardio workout especially when you’re hauling your bike with you). We ended up arriving 10 minutes late, and most of the people had left already, except for a couple who showed up 5 minutes late and also missed the group. We cycled with the couple to St. Catherines, with a nice strong wind on our back. The weather was beautiful (although i did forget sunscreen and the sun was pretty unforgiving), and we maintained a relaxed pace till we got to our destination.

When we got to St. Catherines, we managed to find the church where they were holding a pancake breakfast for some cyclists from that area. We met up with the main group there, and had a bit to eat… a bit too much in my case. The way back was much rougher, since the wind (about 25 km/hr) was directly against us and I was fighting nausea from the food. The food, by the way, was excellent; the quantity of food sitting in my stomach was the main issue. We went with some faster cyclists, but unfortunately ended up not being able to keep up. Well, Eritia was doing a decent job keeping up, but I just couldn’t. Somehow my energy reserves had become depleted, and the Gatorade wasn’t quite helping enough. So the two of us made it home by ourselves. I was pretty beat after that… had a bite to eat, a shower, and then I slept for 2 hours. Had a good sunburn too.

The total for the trip ended up being just over 150 km, and it took just under 6 hours of cycling. We had initially planned to go to MEC that day, but I was so tired and it was so late in the day when we returned that the trip had to be postponed. That distance, by the way, is the furthest I have ever cycled in a day by a good margin. I’m pretty sure that I haven’t done much more than 80 km in a day ever before.

I managed to get a bit more cycling in this week too (after a good day or two rest from Saturday!), and ended up trying Sydenham Road again. This time I did not almost collapse at the top, I didn’t feel like throwing up, and I didn’t stop to rest at the top. Apparently a bit of extra training, plus just taking the hill a bit slower will do wonders. That, and the stiff wind on my back.

May 31 : Halton Hills

Again with the no pictures, my apologies. I don’t tend to carry cameras around with me yet, and no one else thought to take some shots.

Last Saturday, Eritia and I decided at the last minute that we would join in the group ride at Halton Hills. On Friday, we had discussed going to the ride, but we couldn’t quite figure out how to get both our bikes there without taking two vehicles or utilizing a bike rack that neither of us trust.

However, Eritia woke me up Saturday morning, since she had decided to experiment and eventually managed to fit both of our bikes into her car. Sure that we were going to be late, we headed up, with the knowledge that rain and thunderstorms were in the forecast.

We managed to get there nicely on time, and accompanied three other Sea to Sea cyclists for a great 81 km ride. At the beginning the wind was against us, and there were a number of short uphill slopes as we gradually made our way up the escarpment (which is rather gently sloped in that area). It was well worth it on the ride back, since I ended up beating my previous speed record by hitting 84.2 kph. I was a little unsure of whether to trust my speedometer, but other cyclists reported speeds of mid-70’s, and I passed one or two people, so I think it’s fair.

In the end, the forecast rain held off pretty much completely until the ride home. God instead treated us to a wonderful morning of blue skies and intermittent clouds, and really a delightful temperature in which to be cycling. Within ten minutes of packing up and heading home, we were driving through a thunderstorm!

All in all, the ride was excellent, and a much better experience than the 80 km on Victoria Day. Riding in a group of 5 is an excellent change, and it makes the distances much more manageable. I didn’t really notice any equipment issues this time, although I am now the owner of a pronounced glove-tan that makes it look like I’m wearing white mits everywhere. That should blend in within a few days if I keep up my lunch time walks, though.

On a quick fund-raising update, monies collected have now surpassed 70% of the target $10,000.