OK, here we are at Calvin. Let me split this into two parts yesterday and today.

Yesterday Ralph Fledderus and I were heading up the route along the coast from South Haven to Grand Haven, when a rider comes up asking if we knew where Pieter Pereboom is. Freaks me out a little because he's wearing an official sort of jersey that looks a lot like police jersey. (Why does the worst flash into our minds so easily at times like that?) It was in fact Ed Speyers, a missionary with Wycliffe that our church sponsors and he wondered if it would be OK to ride with the us for a day. Of course its OK, ride along! Ed grew up in London, but now lives in Holland Michigan, so it was extremely handy that he knew the area. We headed to a very cool little coffee shop in Saugatuck for some hot chocolate and then followed our own scenic guided tour up through Holland. We had a grand lunch stop at Graafschap CRC that was just amazing. It is simply astounding how much response we have have since hitting the south end of Lake Michigan. Churches all along the route have set out loads of food and drinks, If you don't watch out, I think you can easily gain weight on the tour. I try my best to keep it down.

We had a short day, just 80 k or so, so we lingered at some of these places a bit. Ed is a strong cyclist and Ralph doesn't dare complain whne HE ride's too fast so we made some good time. We had a great talk that ranged acrss the topics of life and church and family. We had a great time.

When we got to the CRC conference grounds, Ed needed to head back home and then catch a ferry across the lake to Wisconsin. But before he left he wanted top meet some of the 'blog stars' of the trip. He had been reading the blogs and he has developed a list of favorites. So I dutifully traipsed him around camp introducing him to folks.

Dinner was another wonderful part of the day. Home Missions put on a steak barbecue that was just wonderful. I tried to still the eating frenzy within me, but I don't know how well I succeeded. In the eveing a number of us went out to the lake view up on the dunes and I took some of the young folks down to the beach and showed them the special 'sqeaking' sand that is found in this area. It was a hit.

Back at camp Louis had landed the job of fixing Gayle's tire. Once we got it off we discovered a series of issues: 2 broken spokes, an untrue wheel. and a tire too big for her rim. We tried a few things, got a tire on and as we were pumping it up (10:15 or so) we blew it up, but good, in an explosion that could be heard for miles certainly throughout the camp.

Today.
This mornig Rick (good bike guy) had found a solution to Gayle's problem and had the bike rideable by the time I got back to my tent after breakfast. Unfortunately, as I have heard it, 10 k out it blew up again. Fortunately Gayle had a cell phone to call the sag wagon. Unfortunately she had somehow riden off course and the SAG could not find her. Fortunately Fred and Tim Nydam, from First CRC London and riding for the day, were also off course and found her. Fortunately, together they were able to flag the sag wagon and work a solution for the bike. Unfortunately, there by now had been an 1 1/2 delay and the issue was how to get to GR and the mass ride on to Calvin's Campus by 12:30. The route most of us rode avoided Lake Michigan drive, but Tim and Fred quickly recognized that the only chance of getting in on time was to run straight along it. Fortunately they had a tail wind blowing them in. And so as all the riders were waiting to ride on to campus, here coems Gayle, streamers trailing in the wind, and she is able to just make it. 28.5 k/hr average - awesome. Big thanks to Fred and Tim. Good job guys.

I rode with Ralph for the first part of the day. It was actually cold, but it was a nice ride. We made decent time. Then some young bucks rode up and here I went. Not crazy fast this time because we had church stops every 10 k or so. We worked mightily not to eat ourselves sick. But we did have a fun time racing up hills. That's an excellent workout and livens up the day some.

Riding on to the campus was very neat. Lots of people lined the roads: you would not say throngs or anything, but a good number cheering us in. Then we got off the bikes and did the meet and greet thing. I am amazed at how many people there were that I know. Here's a bit of a list: Peter and Marja Slofstra and grand daughter, Morris Greidanus, Fred and Trish Wassink, Jenda and Ryan, Andrea, - I could go on and on. One of the most surpising ones was to see Lynn Setsma with grandon Josh Nieuwenhuis in tow. I'd riden with Josh dor two days and we are in a small group together and we'd never bingoed that. Bingo by the way is so easy to do on this ride. There really is never more than 1 degree of separation in the CRC.

Enough for now, time to try and find wife Marg who is coming today, but apparently has been delayed by a gas leak that cleared the Bulewater bridge for an hour and a half this morning.