A Ride in the Park

Art Mulder with family freinds at Shalom Manor.

Cyclists visiting Shalom manor.

Today's leg of the tour felt like a ride in the park. It started on the streets of Hamilton whose stop lights seemed perfectly synced to frustrate cyclists. Then we made our way toward the escarpment on the East side of town to Ridge Road which runs along the top of the Niagara escarpment for 14 k or so. My guess is that there were more pictures taken of the that view of Lake Ontario, Stoney Creek, and the far shore, than any other single spot in the whole tour - considering the fact that we have 50 more cyclists than at any other time. We'll see what all the blogs look like. We then followed Ridge Road with its vistas for 10 k till we got to our second Church Stop Fruitland CRC. Hope CRC in Oshawa had actually preceded them by locating at the beginning of the Ridge Road but they were mostly there to see Grandpa Ralph Fledderus. What followed then was a stop every 5 to 7 Kilometres - The Dutch Bakery in Grimsby where Eritia works had mocha cake again (1 piece this time), then Holland Homes had a reception, Grimsby CRC, Beamsville CRC, Then the Perebooms had a spot with Bill and Wilma VanHeusen and Marg and Jonathan as support staff, then Jubillee CRC in St. Catharines. In addition to this there were lots of people in lawn chairs on the side of the road cheering us on. At Holland Home one of the folks said too loudly in an aside to her neighbour: "Are these the famous Sea to Sea riders?" It certainly feels a bit weird to be a celebrity wearing the insignia of spandex and the Sea to Sea jersey.

When we got to Mom and Dad's, Jonathan was all ready with his bike and helmet to ride the last 18k into St. Catharines with me. Gayle happened to pull up just then and Jonathan really wanted to bike with his friend Gayle, so there we were with the three of us Gayle on her comfort bike in front carefully leading the way and signaling back to us, then Jonathan on his mountain bike and me out back on my racer - it must have been quite a sight - pictures to follow. Jonathan did very very well. He had no trouble with the pace and no trouble with the hills on number 4, the Middle Road. We stopped at the carousel at Port Dalhousie and a bunch of bikers followed us and we have a great time going around a couple of times. Then the short hop to Beacon and there we were. More food, a foot massage, clean the bike and then home to Mom and Dad's with Margaret.

What strikes me about these days is that they are so full. There is swirl of activity surrounding you and you need to keep focused on the task of getting on the road cycling and doing all the little things that need to be done to make that happen. Get up, roll up sleeping mattress and sleeping bag, get dressed in bike gear in the tent, pack up the tent, go to bathroom, get sunscreen on for the day, eat breakfast, make a lunch and stow it on your pannier on your bike, clean dishes, put all the stuff that belongs in the gear truck (night cloths, etc) in it, pack up your hockey bag with your sleeping stuff, tent and chair and lug it to the pile at the gear truck, check your air, brakes and chain on your bike - unless you did some of those the night before, put on your gloves, sunglasses and helmet, get on your bike and ride. Reverse the order of most of those things when you get back. There is a routine to this you just need to learn. You have something like 30 objects that you need to use and keep track of every day and store each of them where it belongs. And you essentially have three places to put those at any one time: your shelf in the dear truck, your hockey bag, and your bike. And those shift because the gear truck is inaccessible during the day (it is traveling and so are you) and during the night (it is locked while we sleep). You can't just set something down and leave it the way you might at home, or you wind up losing it (most often you can retrieve it from the bulging lost and found bin a couple of days later). Everybody loses something sometime to paraphrase Dean Martin - or is it Dean Maarten (inside joke). It is a mental puzzle that you need to keep on top of.

On accidents: The other day coming across the border John DePooter of Wallaceburg was riding for the day. We'd talked a few months before when I had preached in Wallaceburg and he'd told me how excited he was to ride and how he was going to organize a real reception at the border for the ride. I saw him at the reception - which was amazing - and he was keen to ride. Ride he did for about 5 5 when hos carbon fiber front fork snapped and he went over the handlebars and face first into the pavement. Absolutely crazy. He broke his nose, split his lower lip to the gum, suffered scrapes and bruises all over and generally wrenched his body. Here is what his daughter Jody, member of my church wrote: "... my Dad is OK. His face is very scratched up, he had to have his lip sewn back together, along with his nose. His nose is also broken, but he is waiting for an appointment to get that fixed. We are thankful it wasn't worse. Jody Andody. I guess these things happen and you are at your peril when they do. The next day a rider went down on a railroad track - separated shoulder, the next day after a rider touched a back wheel and his bike slid out from under him. (I wrote about that yesterday). I remember the Shifting Gears book telling us that it is inevitable - you will fall. I guess the hope is that it is not bad when it does. Makes you recalculate the percentages though.

A little note: a month ago I rode from home from London 200 k and took shelter from a thunderstorm at a fruit stand. I chatted then with Rachel the proprietress and explained to her that on a Saturday a month from then 200 cyclists would come by her stand. Today I stopped back in at the stand and Rachel was not there. The proprietors were all curiosity though, about who all these riders were, so I explained it to them and handed them a card. They promised to check out the website: cool.

Pictures later.