HOME! ... but not for long....

Here I sit at home at my familiar computer. It's 5 in the morning and my Sea to Sea pattern just kicks in. I am awake and ready to go. Marg and Jonathan will be up in a few minutes and we will get back to LDCSS, hop on the bike and ride.

I have had a hard time blogging lately because it has been very difficult to do so. For starters there was no internet on Monday at Sleepy Hollow State Park. Tuesday I was on sweep on the longest day of this leg of the tour and with all the 'newbies' riding. (Newby is a mildly disdainful tour term for a new rider joining in on the ride. I was a newby all last week and the young folks (and especially Brian) take great delight in labeling me as such even though I'm now now into my second week.) Tuesday was a 157 k ride with a headwind on all the east bound stretches with lots of hills. We waited back for a long time, but managed to hit the first riders at 11 am just 40 k in. These were young folks for the most part, indulging in a second breakfast. We shooed them off, telling them we didn't want to see them again and they sheepishly zoomed off and we, in fact, did not see them again. We hit the first exhausted riders about noon at 75 k in - they were more than willing to get sagged in. We tossed their bikes up on the wagon and off they rode. They were the first of at least a dozen riders who just could not manage the stiff headwind and the hills. We palyed a cat and mouse gamer with the slowest riders all day, staying back far enough to give them space to ride freely, but keeping within close enough distance to give them help as needed. We finally got into camp at 6:30. Having stated at 9 that meant we were on the road for 9 1/2 hours. Pretty wearying all in all. But not as wearying as it must have been for some of the riders we swept in. Some had been on the road for 11 or 12 hours! And they had to get up the next morning and do it all over again.

Wednesday we crossed the border - Hello Canada - and made our way against headwinds into Chatham. When fighting headwinds it is best to push hard and to ride with others. After the ferry I rode with Art Mulder from London for a good while. Then we got caught by several pace lines, moving pretty fast. We hopped ion to one. Then another faster one came by and I hopped on. Then another faster yet. By now Art was back and I assumed cruising along in a pace line in the back - correctly as I later found out. Finally I caught on with a breakaway group consisting of Bill Wybenga and Marti DuPlessis. Bill is a hugely relentless rider and Marti a former top athlete in South Africa. They were booking and I hammered to catch they're draft. We simply sailed into Chatham and upon arrival as I looked around I discovered we were the first ones there. Fun.

Yesterday I rode with the London Express so named because John VanderSteen from London is its leader, I guess you'd say. They ride very steadily and powerfully into the once again, seemingly inevitable headwind.

We reached Mt. Brydges at 10:15, the first group to do so, when we were supposed to not arrive there till 10:30. Whoops! But, what a spread they laid out! Amazing. it was very cool for me to be there because the lunch was sponsored by three church Met. Brydges and the two Strathroy churches who are sponsoring me. From there it was a short hop into London and the biggest reception we've received so far. Wow! TV, newspaper, watermelon stand, ice cream booths lined the whole route in through London and the bike path. Marg and Jonathan first met me at Springbank Park with a big welcome and then again at the forks of the Thames and then again at the Christian Highschool. The scene at the Christian high looked a lot like a carnival (in a good way) with crowds and booths and all kinds of things. Among the press of folks and activities, groups headed off to work sites at missions in town, or off to the velodrome. Gil Clelland came out with a group of street kids to interact with the riders about the issues of poverty in a Canadian city. John and Robin Wotherspoon, Jay and Alistair (friends from Ilderton) came out to take in the scene which was so cool. Jonathan and I really wanted to tour them around the camp, so I left Gil and the group, trusting that he'd be OK. The scene was very full, let me say, and very satisfying for me to see because I had so little to do with creating it. Marg and I will get some pictures up ASAP to let you see.

And this morning it is on to Hamilton. Gotta go. Get on my bike ad ride! Love it!