Sorry, We have not had Internet at camp, and I do not see that problem being fixed anytime before the end of the tour. So I write this post from the house of my father's cousin (Plaizeer family) as they graciously offered to have for our overnight stay in London, ON. I also have some tech. difficulties of my own. I will most likely not be able to post any recent pictures as I cannot seem to get my computer to sync with the memory card of my camera.
The end of week 7 and the beginning of week 8 have been bery good to us. As we are now on the east side of Chicago, there are many more CRC churches that have been hosting meals for us and opening their doors to us. It has been absolutely wonderful! Just before Chicago, we stayed at Trinity College in Palos Heights, Illinois. They served us a pizza dinner and let us sleep in an air conditioned building - certainly a much welcomed retreat from the outdoors. We then made our way up towards Grand Rapids and enjoyed stops in South Haven and Grand Haven, where at the later we stayed at the CRC conference grounds. The conference grounds were a beautiful area that had a gorgeous beach on Lake Michigan. Made me question why I went all the way to Mexico for my honeymoon (quite possibly could have been that the water in Lake Michigan during August was still not above 55 degrees).
My pilgrimmage to Mecca (Grand Rapids) then was almost complete and we enjoyed a short (75km?) ride into Calvin College where I met Lindsey who had just got off the plane and boogeyed over to the College to meet me. Let the joyous, hugging, kissing, teary embrace that was 4 weeks overdue commence. Lindsey and I enjoyed the weekend together and made it to Fifth Third Ballpark where several thousand people from the area joined us in our largest celebration rally of the tour.
This week has been quite pleasant to date. We have enjoyed cooler temeperatures (highs around 26-28 degrees) and no rain. By Wednesday we entered into Canada by ferry in Sombre, ON. There was quite the crowd waiting for us along with copious amounts of Tim Hortons coffee and several hundred cupcakes iced in Canadian colours. It was a homecoming for many, and even if we didn't have family/friends waiting for us, it just plain felt good being back in Canada - Ontario at that. We made it to Chatham Wednesday evening and much of the CRC community came out and hosted us for showers and pool use at local houses and they all brought food to camp and put on a potluck dinner. Today, we are in London and my dad's aunt, Helen Plaizeer, found me and we went back to her family's house where I am staying in luxury for the night. An interesting note form the day: Bill Wybenga, one of the veteran riders on the tour set up a 40km time trial today. So, about 30 of the top riders went off in one minute intervals individually to see how fast they could go across the relatively flat distance. There was a head/cross wind on this day coming from the ESE and the course was NE the whole way. We have some strong riders on tour and the elusive time to beat was 1 hour. If the wind were not hurting them as much as it was, I am sure a bunch of them would have broken it, but they did not. Our strongest rider, Reuben Vyn, did in fact win the race, but not by much more than 1 minute. His time was 1 hour, 3 minutes. Second went to John Vanderveen - 1 h 4 min. I went ahead of the riders at the one blind corner of the route to direct them and traffic as smoothly as possible. We then had a roast beef lunch at Mt. Brydges, at Hope CRC before finishing our ride into London.
I look forward to a beautiful bed and mattress this evening...sweet!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Week 7 - Day 4
Well, the 'feeling' of the tour has definitely changed for myself as week 7 begun. The daily average went from 150 km in week 5 and 6, down to 100 km in week 7. It has been very well received by both myself and the rest of camp; a welcome relief! Not only has the distances decreased but so has the temperatures over the last couple of weeks. We are now only getting forecasted highs of 27-28 degrees. Once again, an extremely welcome relief! I remind myself that these changes have not only been a 'welcome relief' but a huge answer to prayer. I believe that I cannot and will not ever fully understand the scope at which this tour is being prayed over. It is amazing to overhear a conversation, or hear a random story of how God is providing for us - and then to hear that someone on the tour knew other people who were praying for us. Also, to roll through a town or a local CRC and to hear people saying "We're praying for you all." - it never ceases to encourage.
Some notes from the week thus far:
- This week alone we have already travelled in 4 different states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. (pic is of me crossing into Illinois - this was the only sign we could find on the west end of the state)
- Our ride through Woodstock featured a historic downtown;
and then during the ride (Tuesday?) we also saw more historic downtowns - even with an old replica paddle wheel boat along the way.
- Tuesday also featured our first police escort through a busy part of town. He seemed quite proud to be helping us, and quite tired from constantly escorting groups of us up a hill situated along the route.
- On Wednesday, we had 4 CRC stops along the route - 3 were within 15 km.
- On Wednesday we also rode through inner city Chicago, unfortunately a tornado had ripped through parts of town on Monday.
- I am looking forward to Friday and Saturday because there are only 150 km we have to travel between these 2 days. As well, I get to see my positively BEAUTIFUL bride which I have not seen in 4 weeks, on Saturday, in Grand Rapids!!!
Some notes from the week thus far:
- This week alone we have already travelled in 4 different states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. (pic is of me crossing into Illinois - this was the only sign we could find on the west end of the state)
- Our ride through Woodstock featured a historic downtown;
and then during the ride (Tuesday?) we also saw more historic downtowns - even with an old replica paddle wheel boat along the way.- Tuesday also featured our first police escort through a busy part of town. He seemed quite proud to be helping us, and quite tired from constantly escorting groups of us up a hill situated along the route.
- On Wednesday, we had 4 CRC stops along the route - 3 were within 15 km.
- On Wednesday we also rode through inner city Chicago, unfortunately a tornado had ripped through parts of town on Monday.- I am looking forward to Friday and Saturday because there are only 150 km we have to travel between these 2 days. As well, I get to see my positively BEAUTIFUL bride which I have not seen in 4 weeks, on Saturday, in Grand Rapids!!!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Week 6 - Day 7
Wow, wow, and wow! After this past wednesday, thursday, and friday I feel that it has certainly been a productive week! In three days, and more than likely for the first and last time ever, we biked 525km. The distances were 182, 182, 161 (113miles, 113 miles, 100 miles) which means we did 3 consecutive American 'centuries' (rides over 100 miles) in a row. Now, I was quite anxious to get these rides underway by the beginning of this week but still had Monday and tuesday to get through. By this time we knew that the wind would be the sole determinant on whether we had good days or bad days, seeing as the terrain was relatively flat through Iowa and Wisconsin (but not as flat as you may think!?!?!). Unfortunately, on monday and tuesday we were treated to more of the 
usual as we battled a strong crosswind and tempermental headwind. To say we were all quietly ganging together and praying hard for favourable winds on wed, thurs, fri would be an understatement. We had our weather report, as usual, the night before our ride on wednesday and the camp basically arupted into applause as a wind from the WEST was announced for our first 182 km day! Indeed it was a westerly wind, and not even rain for 40-50km (which did happen) could dampen our spirits for this large ride. We improvised to make our own fun anyways.
usual as we battled a strong crosswind and tempermental headwind. To say we were all quietly ganging together and praying hard for favourable winds on wed, thurs, fri would be an understatement. We had our weather report, as usual, the night before our ride on wednesday and the camp basically arupted into applause as a wind from the WEST was announced for our first 182 km day! Indeed it was a westerly wind, and not even rain for 40-50km (which did happen) could dampen our spirits for this large ride. We improvised to make our own fun anyways.So, wednesday was done, the ride was good, and more importantly, the mood was good around camp as we now had accomplished one of the two longest rides of the tour. As for Thursday, the winds were supposed to be relatively the same but the ride seemed to be a little bit more of a battle (a slight crosswind) and I felt quite tired from the days ride previous. So, in short, I 'dragged' throughout the day, was in no rush to get anywhere, and didn't get into camp until 5:00pm (having left at 6:30am). Made for a long day - but the two longest days of the tour, or of my life for that matter, were DONE! I had a quick dinner, peleton meeting, and small groups, and off to bed for this tired soul. But we were not done yet, we woke up friday mo
rning and left around 7am for our friday ride (Christeena, a girl I was riding with, had a flat tire when she woke up in the morning). The first 30 km were on a terrible road, that we had no other way around, but we pushed through it on our way towards the Mississippi River. It was as though we were travelling down in time as we dropped into the Mississippi basin (the river flows through a 600 ft. deep valley in the state of Iowa). We could see the many lines of compresse
d rock formations and the plentiful old, large trees as we dropped into the valley. Once I saw the river and the bridge, I expected to see an old paddle wheel boat floating by - not the road crews and construction equipment that was there.
rning and left around 7am for our friday ride (Christeena, a girl I was riding with, had a flat tire when she woke up in the morning). The first 30 km were on a terrible road, that we had no other way around, but we pushed through it on our way towards the Mississippi River. It was as though we were travelling down in time as we dropped into the Mississippi basin (the river flows through a 600 ft. deep valley in the state of Iowa). We could see the many lines of compresse
d rock formations and the plentiful old, large trees as we dropped into the valley. Once I saw the river and the bridge, I expected to see an old paddle wheel boat floating by - not the road crews and construction equipment that was there. We climbed back out of the valley and reached our destination to another sense of accomplishment as we had sucessfully accomplished 525km in 3 days. However, there was still saturday to go. It's funny how I could ever think that a 116 km bike ride could ever be short, but apparently that's what 3 consective American centuries can do to you. We woke up to some rain on Saturday morning, and for the first time ever, it seemed as though camp did not want to wake up. I think the rain in the morning (which tapered off by 7am) as well as the 3 rides previous, may have had something to do with it.
Saturdays ride turned out to be a beautiful one, more of the rolling countryside of the state of Wisconsin (we were now in wisconsin as the Mississippi River seperates this state and Iowa). Nancy, I even took some pictures of a property we rolled by that came complete with a beach volleyball court, large mowed lawn, extensive gardens, and a pond! Hopefully you can get an idea from some of the pictures I took.
On another interesting note, I rolled over the 5,000 km mark on the bike this week - time for a tune-up!
I sign off on a quote I heard this morning: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
Monday, August 4, 2008
Week 6 - Day 1
Hi all - my first post. I must admit, I am quite undecided about my decision to blog. As I have journeyed thus far time has been at a premium as I find every waking (or should I say non-biking) moment to try to recover in an attempt to be just ready enough to make it through the next day. I must admit though, the end is in sight. I am quite happy to say that I will be much relieved at the end of this week as week 6 marks the end of the "long days" of the tour for the most part. Im week 5 and 6, the longest weeks of the tour, the daily average hovers around the 150km mark. In week 7, 8, and 9 the average drops to roughly 100, 110, and 115km respectively.
Now, another matter of business - Mr. Shawn Luimes - my riding partner, seems to be missing. You may find him lounging in air conditioning, sleeping in a normal bed, eating from a readily available refrigerator, drinking a cool refreshing beverage at free will, driving a vehicle at average speeds unimaginably fast compared to a cyclist, or even driving his 'other bike' - the bright shiny and fast red one that operates at the twist of the wrist, and also relishing in all modern conveniences previously unknown to him for the last 5 weeks. If you've seen him, let me know, and tell him to get back out here.
Just kidding Shawn. All joking aside, Shawn was amazing to have out here with me. We rode together every chance we had, and shared in the many ups and downs along the way. He stuck with me (even though I may have had some catching up to do at the beginning) but I wanted to let you know that you are a silent leader to me and many times encourages me, in turn allowing us to encourager each other to keep going, especially through the tough times. I don’t consider you being gone for the last 4 weeks of the tour, I thank you for joining me for the first 5 weeks.
I have certainly been enjoying myself thus far. Nebraska was a great state that I very much enjoyed riding through. However, Now we are into Iowa and things are looking quite similar. Flat plains, some rolling hills, and LOTS of corn! The day was good, approximately 144 km that I began myself (as I found myself completely lost in my first morning without Shawn) but quickly tagged up with Anne and Ed, two middle aged riders, who leave at roughly the same time and ride at roughly the same pace as myself. We trekked through the first 90km quite quickly and took a break at Betty’s café in a small town along the route, just on the Nebraska side of the Nebraska-Iowa Border (separated by the Missouri River). The winds were in our favour when we woke up for our ride (from the south) but by the time breakfast was done we were shocked to realize they had shifted 180 degrees, coming from the north. We were battling them most of the way until the Missouri River until we had a brief time of relief in the early afternoon. By the time we were 20km from camp the winds shifted right back into our faces and it was a tough haul into camp. But we made it and were relieved to realize camp was directly beside a Dairy Queen, as well as we were invited to sleep inside the air conditioned gym of the facility we are at. I guess that about sums up the day.
Continue to pray for Arnie (torn ACL), Tyler (broken collar bone), Cynthia (broken pelvis) who are all at home recovering and will n0t be rejoining us on the tour. As well, pray for Eretia, sister of Art (hurt knees – staying on tour as potential rider / support crew) who was involved in a very low speed (but none the less scary) accident in which a car hit her as she was riding through a parking lot. She is alright, just bumps and bruises, but was shaken up and will continue the tour.
Now, another matter of business - Mr. Shawn Luimes - my riding partner, seems to be missing. You may find him lounging in air conditioning, sleeping in a normal bed, eating from a readily available refrigerator, drinking a cool refreshing beverage at free will, driving a vehicle at average speeds unimaginably fast compared to a cyclist, or even driving his 'other bike' - the bright shiny and fast red one that operates at the twist of the wrist, and also relishing in all modern conveniences previously unknown to him for the last 5 weeks. If you've seen him, let me know, and tell him to get back out here.
Just kidding Shawn. All joking aside, Shawn was amazing to have out here with me. We rode together every chance we had, and shared in the many ups and downs along the way. He stuck with me (even though I may have had some catching up to do at the beginning) but I wanted to let you know that you are a silent leader to me and many times encourages me, in turn allowing us to encourager each other to keep going, especially through the tough times. I don’t consider you being gone for the last 4 weeks of the tour, I thank you for joining me for the first 5 weeks.
I have certainly been enjoying myself thus far. Nebraska was a great state that I very much enjoyed riding through. However, Now we are into Iowa and things are looking quite similar. Flat plains, some rolling hills, and LOTS of corn! The day was good, approximately 144 km that I began myself (as I found myself completely lost in my first morning without Shawn) but quickly tagged up with Anne and Ed, two middle aged riders, who leave at roughly the same time and ride at roughly the same pace as myself. We trekked through the first 90km quite quickly and took a break at Betty’s café in a small town along the route, just on the Nebraska side of the Nebraska-Iowa Border (separated by the Missouri River). The winds were in our favour when we woke up for our ride (from the south) but by the time breakfast was done we were shocked to realize they had shifted 180 degrees, coming from the north. We were battling them most of the way until the Missouri River until we had a brief time of relief in the early afternoon. By the time we were 20km from camp the winds shifted right back into our faces and it was a tough haul into camp. But we made it and were relieved to realize camp was directly beside a Dairy Queen, as well as we were invited to sleep inside the air conditioned gym of the facility we are at. I guess that about sums up the day.
Continue to pray for Arnie (torn ACL), Tyler (broken collar bone), Cynthia (broken pelvis) who are all at home recovering and will n0t be rejoining us on the tour. As well, pray for Eretia, sister of Art (hurt knees – staying on tour as potential rider / support crew) who was involved in a very low speed (but none the less scary) accident in which a car hit her as she was riding through a parking lot. She is alright, just bumps and bruises, but was shaken up and will continue the tour.
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