margaret's Portrait Gallery

It was good to hang out with Gayle Harrison on Sunday afternoon/evening. She's looking great and now has a new pair of traveling pants that fit. Here she is on Monday morning with a smile and a fresh set of streamers for the new week ahead. Note the gear truck with laundry baskets (2/rider) for people's personal supplies.

Alida Van Dijk crossing the continent for the second time.

Marjorie, Kevin and Laurie Pasma with Kevin's new tire. (Says it cost more than he's ever paid for a car tire!) Jake, sporting a crisp red and white De Venci shirt (maybe the LDCSS Art Dept is rubbing off on him) was around, but not at this moment, getting ready for the day's sweep duties.

Leanne Talen-Geisterfer and husband Caspar catching up quite a few years with Pieter. Caspar's riding along on a Honda for the week, helping out with errands, good deeds, etc.

More Photos from margaret

Day One, 2 km to go.

A good arrival in Woodstock, IL. Nice helmet hair, Pieter!


Christeena Nienhuis walking past the gallery of gear bags set out by the sweep team for people to claim. Note the stacked laundry pails.


New home-sweet-home in the colourful tent-to-tent city. Art's hand-crafted chair got a few compliments from neighbours.

Starting Photos from margaret

Here are a few photos of the start of Boomer's Pedal to the Sea -- captions below each photo.
(I am totally new at this blog posting stuff -- there were more photos -- I don't know why they didn't show up. I'll try again. Dial-up makes this an exercise in patience!)


Waiting for the ferry at Sombra ON, on the way to Brian and Amanda's wedding rehearsal in GR, the same place C2C will cross the border less than 2 weeks later. We took this route because we came upon crazy long lineups at the Sarnia/Port Huron border, fall-out from a bomb threat the previous day which had actually closed down the bridge and evacuated customs officials -- not that we had any idea of this at the time. I guess checking out the border website prior to leaving home will become part of our international travel routine from this point on.

Day One Madison WI, 7 a.m.: Ready to Roll

Rookie Pieter and Veteran Ralph


And they're off!

From Woodstock to Trinity

Here is my first blog from the road. I tried getting on last night but Gayle's computer, which she graciously has offered to let me use, was not picking up the signal.
So at this point I've made it through two 130+ days. They went well. I rode with Ralph both days. Yesterday we cruised along with wonderful temperatures. The landscape was very pretty Wisconsin dairy country. Pretty little farms tucked in among green hills. To me it looks a little like the Middleearth Hobbit shire.

It is a very interesting experience riding with 150 people who know each other fairly well, have their routines and alegiances solidly in place. Life just swirls around you and you either join in ot you miss it. Everyone is making a great effort to be good and welcoming, but there is a learning curve to this.

Today's ride was more challenging, not because the riding was longer or harder, but because the route was hard to follow. Specifically we spent nearly 3 hours on the Fox River Trail a bike path that runs north to south down the western suburbs of Chicago. What was hard was that the path branches in places and you had to guess which fork to take. It also breaks in places where you need to cross to the other side of the river, ride through some city streets, and pick up the spore of the trail at wherever you can find it. Ralph and I made it the whole length with lots of stopping and puzzling things out. Many did not. It's almost 5 and not everyone is in yet. A number of folks I have spoken with lost the trail and then just headed out on the streets and highways and made their way over land. One person losty the trail stopped at a gas station for a map of Chicago, and figured his route out that way. Hope everyone makes it in, but it might be tough for sweep and the sag wagons to find everyone.

After getting off the bike path, we had long strectches of busy highway to negotiate. I felt strong so I asked Ralph if it would be OK to let 'er rip the last few miles in. He was OK with that, so I just flew in. My guess is at an average of 35k/hr. Lots of fun. Tomorrow is a very short day so I so thought I could afford it.

Oh, one other thing -- what a hoot: There is a real premium in camp on getting up early and getting going - especially in the older post 40 set shall we say. The posted time for breakfast is 6:30 but many people are done with breakfast by 6:00. So I went to bed last night as darkness fell, all keyed up to get up at 5 like a good dooby.
After sleeping for what seemed like a long time,I woke up. I felt pretty rested and there was this orange glow on the east side of my tent. So I figure it was morning. It's very quiet in camp so I figure I am getting a good head start on eveyone, great. I check the clock on my cell phone. Shucks, its not working: it says it is 11:30 pm. Oh well, get packed up, roll up my sleeping bag and my mattress, get dressed in my cycling clothes bundle everything in my duffle bag and zip open the tent. I stick my head out and its pretty dark, and no one is moving at all, wierd. Let me check my cel clock again. 11:45 that can't be right. I look out again for the orange glow. On the highschool wall are these big orange cvoured lights I had not noticed before I went to bed. And the sky is good and dark. And no one is stirring. AT ALL. Only then did it dawn on me that it actually was before midnight.
So I settled back down determined not to unpack everthing and just sleepthe night in my clothes . I kind of fell alseep for a bit and woke up cold, so I hauled out my sleeping bag. 12:30. Later I woke again and the ground was feeling pretty hard. Haul out my mattress, blow it up. Then I finally fell asleep till morning: 5:10.
Despite these self-inflicted trials, I had a great day riding and we are now here at Trinity College in Palos Heights where the welcome has been really great. Even though I am only two days in I did laundry because I have worn all my Sea to sea togs and wanted them clean and because its free and I'm Dutch.

There is a lot more to say, but this is what I can get done for now. On Monday Marg (my wife) rode along the tour ad coaught up with Ralph and I just as we were pulling in to Woodstock. She took some pictures which we will post soon.

We're Here!!

We're here!! Marg and I pulled into the parking lot of the Crossroads Community Church - A Ministry of the Christian Reformed Church (in smaller letters below the name on the sign) at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. The first person we saw at the gear truck was John VanderSteen, a little banged up - but he's tough. By and by, we ran into most of the riders we know, Ralph, Rita, Gayle, the Bentum sisters, Rita, Alida, Paul Hoekstra, Jake Kuipers, Pete VanNoord, Bill DenHarder, Terry Kuipers and lots more folks we were meeting for the first time. So many people - the extroverted dimension of my nature shifted into high gear. Had a very nice long talk with Walter the sag driver from Lacombe Alberta.

Pretty much immediately Marg headed off to the movies with Gayle and Barb Mellema - I begged off the chick flick experience and just stayed in camp and browsed around. I don't know, my guess is I met almost everybody whose blog I read over the last few weeks - I missed a just a few. It was fun to go to them and discuss their blog, tell them how much I appreciated reading them. I got set up with Jen and Ed to handle the official part of things, got my t-shirt and jersey. There was a choir concert in the church - more milling around, then supper, a short prayer service and then I was introduced with the other joining rider, Melissa Kloostra, at the brief peleton meeting. By then darkness was starting to close in, a few folks clustered around the gear truck cleaning their bikes. Ralph showed me the routine of lading your water bottles before you went to bed. The mosquitoes (small little nasty ones) came out in numbers and folks melted away into their tents.

I am very glad that I am here. Right now it is 5 am and I am at the local Day's Inn with Marg. Had a good sleep, but I am ready to ride. Breakfast is from 6:30 to 7:30. We're shooting to get there early and then I'll get on the bike and ride. John helped me fine tune the bike yesterday afternoon and it is ready to hum along. I'm about 1,000 K in on the new bike, so it needed the attention - much appreciated John.

Had a few issues with my sometimes gimpy back the last couple of days, but it's feeling pretty solid this morning. Thank the Lord that after 15 years of on and off trouble, I've learned a thing or two about how to handle it -- mostly learning patience to let it heal...

So, here we go. I am pumped!! I covet all your prayers - again on Friday someone pitched over the handle bars, broken collarbone and off the tour. They say it happens in an instant.

It's All Downhill From Here, right?

It it's almost time to leave.
Here's the schedule:
Today: Immediately: Leave for Grand Rapids and a 5 pm wedding rehearsal.
Tomorrow: Perform 2 pm wedding (Congratulations Brian Bork and Amanda Bakali!!) and have a fun time at the reception and celebration that follows.
Sunday: Get up head to Madison, find a church somewhere and finish the rip. Get registered and set up etc.
Monday: Ride!
Gayle Harrison called this morning from the road to chat. She's doing well, hanging in there, SAGing it when she absolutely has to -- and stopping in at a Hobo Convention in Britt Iowa?!?

Note my profile picture. The Cyclist on the Roof. It is all downhill from Madison isn't it??

Here it is the evening of Monday August 4 and I am at my brother's house in Ithaca. Earlier today we toured the Sea to Sea route coming in to Ithaca and there are a couple of spots folks really ought to check out on the way into town. About 15 miles north of town (25K) there is a gorgeous waterfall that is just a 3/4 mile walk up from the road. It is called Taughannock Falls and is the highest falls in the US west of the Rockies. The river downstream is very smooth bottomed and you can get nice and wet on the walk up to the falls. Across the road you can swim in Lake Cayuga at a pretty little beach. About 10 miles down the road is restaurant called Glenwood Pines that challenges patrons to attempt downing four of their 6 oz Pine Burgers in the space of an hour. Should you succeed, your photo is memorialized on the wall of fame -- alongside, I should say, a signed photo of Joe Niewendyk who, we were told, lives in the area. I am in training and trying to watch the calories so I stuck to just one Pine Burger which was plenty. The route here is very hilly. I wonder how the tour veterans will compare it to the Rockies.
Enough for now. Time to be social with family.
Less than one week from today, I ride!