Closing Thoughts

It's hard to put down closing thoughts. Memories of this great but unusual summer will continue. Photos need to be organized, and some reflection of this "blur" is needed. So my closing thoughts are somewhat limited at this point.

After the cycling was over, my family and I and Fred and Elly spent the next few days in NYC. NYC - talk about a zoo! It's not at all like some of the places we cycled through this summer. But we saw a fair bit, including Yankee Stadium, some very old churches (cathedrals), the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, Times Square, Wall Street, and Central Park. The subway system is something else too.

It's a little weird to get back to Chilliwack after being gone for two months. It's like I missed the summer here, and I guess I did. My summer was spent on the seat of a bicycle, all over North America. It would be nice if I could now have a summer here in Chilliwack with my family and all, but that will have to wait to next year. Hopefully we will have a nice fall so we can do a few things.

Lots of thanks are due.

My wife Shelley - thanks for your support, prayers, and encouragement before and during the tour. It was so good to see you in Denver, the best surprise ever! It made the next 5 weeks easier. I missed being with you while I was away, especially on Sundays, and always looked forward to seeing you at tour's end. I love you lots.

My children - Ryan and Matt, thanks for picking up the slack at home, mowing the lawn and helping Mom out. Thanks also for your prayers and for those of Trevor and Kathleen as well. It was great seeing you all at the finish in NJ and touring NYC with you.

Sea to Sea support staff - Thanks Ed and Jen for your great organizational skills. You did a great job. To Pastor Len for leading our peleton meetings and keeping us spiritually focused as well. To our SAG drivers Walter, Julie, Betsy, Cory and his portapottie, Art, Pete, and Joe. We were often so glad to see you, especially in those hard, hot days in the mountains. To Alida for her medical aid when needed. To our truck drivers, Steve, Marvin, and Bert and to Billy D for keeping watch and care over the gear truck. And to our kitchen crew Dini, Betty, Erna, Rose, Lavonne, Diane, and Geri. We ate like kings, burned those calories off, and then ate some more. You all did a great job.

Fred and Ruth Everett - my NJ friends, thanks so much for your support. You got your church involved, prayed for me and the others, picked family members up from airports, hosted Shelley and Elly for a couple of days, drove us back to NYC, contributed financially, and basically gave up a lot for us all. And in your gracious manner you say you were the one who was blessed. You made it all so much easier for us and we can't thank you enough.

Fred Meyerink - this trip wouldn't have been the same with out you. We had a blast, laughing at each other and with each other at some of the events and incidents over the entire tour. Sorry about your shelf situation, really.

My fellow Sea to Sea cyclists - so many of you made this trip a pleasure to be a part of. I wish all of you God's blessings for the future and may you all continue to be a blessing to others. You were to me.

My office staff and co-workers - thanks for keeping my desk clean and taking care of business during my absence. I'm impressed. I guess I can take more holidays now.

All of my friends and supporters - thanks for your support in prayer for the cyclists and for your donations to the cause of ending the cycle of poverty.

Chilliwack CRC and Unity CRC (NJ) - thanks for your prayers and involvement in the tour. The send off in Chilliwack was great. It seems like such a long time ago now.

Churches and supporters on route - the church communities who hosted us for meals, places to stay, and led the celebration rallies were fantastic. You made us feel at home and bent overback wards to help us with shuttles to bike shops, sites to see, laundry, road side stands, and cheers and encouragement and whatever else was needed. You were great and greatly appreciated. We also really enjoyed our stays at Dordt, Trinity, Calvin, and Redeemer.

Most importantly I am thankful to God for watching over me and my fellow travellers during the past two months. He enabled me to take on this challenge and gave me all that I needed finish this journey. It was songs like How Great Thou Art, When Peace Like a River, Great is Thy Faithfulness, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing etc that went through my mind over and over while cycling up the mountains and enduring the heat of the first half of the trip. I'm thankful for safety while cycling and also for my family while I was away. God made a wonderful world for us to see and enjoy and people we could enjoy it with. I was truly blessed to be a part of this Sea to Sea bicycle tour.

And so I say farewell to you my blog readers and supporters. Remember that this was more than a bicycle trip across North America. Hopefully the money (over $ 2 million) and awareness raised will help to end the cycle of poverty so prevalent in our world. Thanks again.

Day 62 Sussex to Jersey City

Today was our last day for the bike tour. Fred and I left at 7:30. It was a little drizzly, but again fairly warm. We had our last breakfast from the camp trailer and every one was in a pretty good mood, most being excited to finish the tour and see family again.

Some NJ people who had a roadside water stop the previous day also set up a refreshment stop along the route today. We stopped there and then began the hills again right after that. Fred had a front tire flat at around 10 AM, a good time for me to eat my sandwich. Shortly after getting going again, some other NJ people had a snack and refreshment stop. After staying there for a while I noticed Fred's front tire was flat again. Not a good sign. So Fred replaced the tube and on we went. Five minutes later we heard the tube blow again. Three flats in less than 10 miles! We were by a Shell station now and it was obvious that a new tire was in order as Fred's existing one had a hole that a new tube would again break through and burst. It was about 10:30. Fred contacted Julie W, one of our SAG drivers about the need for a new tire. To make a long story short, Fred finally got the new tire at 12:15. We had to be at the rendezvous spot with all of the other cylists for our group photo at 1 PM and the Kearney police were going to begin our final 10 mile trip to Liberty State Park at 1:30. We had less than 1 hour to get to the meeting place and we were quite aways away yet. So we cycled like madmen, picking up Theo B (BC)and Kaitlyn K (ON) on route. The sweep riders Alex V (AB) and Peter K (ON) caught up to us about then and we all got to the meeting place at with just a few minutes to spare. We missed the group photo, but caught the more important police escort. What a relief!

The police escort was pretty cool. We had to go at a slower pace through the streets and neighborhoods of Jersey City and were given a whole vehicle lane to get to the park. People in vehicles going the other way honked and waved, no doubt wondering what was going on. Quite a sight I'm sure. The police would block the intersections so we wouldn't have to stop, sirens going and all.

We got to the park boardwalk and began to look for the Statue of Liberty. Finally we saw her and the end was in sight. Fred and I biked on the right side of the path and I soon saw Shelley and Elly. Fred E was there too, camera clicking. We stopped for a kiss and a hug from our wives and then carried on to the water front. I saw our children then too for the first time in two months. Talk about excitement and a bit of chaos. We all said the Lord's Prayer together then the cyclists went down to the water to dip tires.

From there we were bussed to Eastern Christian School (45 min drive) where we could get our belongings. Then off to the Everett's home for a shower (10 min drive) and a quick refreshment. The final dinner was at 6 PM followed by a Celebration Service at Cedar Hill CRC.

Fred E and his business partner drove us to our Manhatten apartment, an old renovated building built in the 1800's, after the service. We got there probably close to 11 PM. Quite an action packed day.

Day 61 Dalton to Sussex

Today would be our last "long" ride so we left a little earlier, at 7 AM.
As we are in the Poconos Mountains the hills started right away and continued the whole 130 k. We started under cloudy skies, but it was not as cool as some of the previous mornings. There was no wind to speak of.

This area of Pennsylvania is very nice. Besides cycling, a car ride in the countryside here would be great. Lots to enjoy.

We stopped for brunch around 10:30 AM in Hawley PA. The "London Express" and a number of other cyclists were at this restaurant as well. We sat with Louis B (ON) and Barb M (IA).

Getting back to the hills, we had 7000' of up hills and the same footage of down hills. There was never any long flat stretches. We were basically going up or going down. The hills were never really long (not like the Rockies and the Cascades) so they were fine and the downhills were really nice.

We crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey after lunch. Dave T (MI) biked quite a bit with Fred and I today. We always get a hoot out of Dave.

Fred and I stopped at a bakery (Cove Point Bakery ?) just before Sussex. They had some nice looking pie there, but none by the slice. What could we do but buy a whole pie? (peach/blueberry) We had some there and took the rest back to camp where we arrived at around 3:30 PM. Fred Everett of NJ was already at camp (Sussex Chr School) and it was great seeing him. He and his wife Ruth had hosted Shelley and Elly for the two previous nights and was most helpful to us with transportation from the airports etc.

Tonight's dinner was hosted by the Sussex NJ and Goshen NY CRCs in the Sussex Chr School gym next door to the Sussex church. It was another great meal and the hospitality of the people here was greatly appreciated.

Later that night it began to rain pretty good. Also at around 4 AM Fred heard some rustling by his tent where we had left the left over pie in it's plastic container. He thought it was me (like I'm going to eat pie outside his tent at 4 AM) but it turned out to be a raccoon. The rotter ate the rest of our pie!

Totals for day: 137 k, 6:02 on the saddle, 22.7 k avg (much lower due to all the hill climbing)

Day 60 Binghampton to Dalton

Today we passed into the state of Pennsylvannia. We left at 7:30 under cool and cloudy skies. We had a heavy dew last night so again, the tent flies are packed away wet. The border of NY and Penn state was early on in the ride, at the 33 k mark. There was a big descent right after the border.

At Halstead PA, a guy had set up an old Shell station on one side of his house and even had Superman in a phone booth (pics). The area is really nice, but everything seems a little backwoods. We stopped at Janet Leigh's Country Kitchen for some food around 10. We sat with Ed G and Ralph F (ON). One of us ordered blueberry pie (probably the best on tour) and one of us had blueberry pancakes. By the time many more cyclists stopped by the restaurant's blueberry and other fruit pies were all consumed. This restaurant was just before a town called Hop Bottom.

We cycled underneath a really neat old rail road bridge used by the Lackawanna RR (pics). Apparently it is still used although I wouldn't have thought so. It didn't look in great shape up close.

The final 10 k of the day is when we had some serious hills to climb, some with grades of 14%. That was the start of the Poconos mountains. The hills were steep but never really long (nothing like the western mountain passes) and of course the down hills were great. We got to Lackawanna State Park at 12:15. As the gear truck wasn't ready yet we hung around the park concession stand. A man named Bob asked me about the tour and ended up giving me $20 to add to the Sea to Sea pot, my first donation from a stranger while on tour.

Totals for day: 92 k, 3:30 cycling time, 26.1 kph avg (15.7 mph avg)