Sunday, Aug. 10th celebration service

Well finally I'm back in business I hope. One of the cyclists brothers helped to rectify the problem. Not sure what he did but it works. I will paste some of my previous diary entries on this day. We arrived in Madison yesterday on a beautiful day. I got in too late to join the celebration festivities at a park close to the Crossroads Community church where we are staying. Apparently they had instruments and the whole works to welcome everybody. They have been great hosts here. You could sign up for various activities. There was also a massage therapist as well as foot massage service available. The service was awesome. Great praise and worship team to lead us and the pastor spoke on the fruit of the Spirit - faithfulness. Good message to start us off for the week. It is beautiful out today. A nice cool breeze, sunny and around 75 f. I think. We were also shuttled for laundry service to a local laundrymat yesterday and today. I actually cleaned up my own bike. Got instructions from someone else. Yesterday we rode on a bike path for quite a few kms. and it was packed sand so the bike got pretty dirty as well as rain yesterday morning for a while. Everything was wet when we packed up our tents. It doesn't take very long to dry once we set it up in Madison. Two new cyclists joined the tour. Peter Pereboom and a girl from Michigan. I can't believe how fast these two past weeks have gone. Yesterday morning my legs were pretty stiff and achey from some steep hill climbs the day before and the long days on the bike also did it's number on my legs I think. I'm starting to get to remember more names. Wisconsin is a beautiful state. More forested areas and crossing the Mississippi River was a beautiful site. I did take a few pictures before going on the bridge. The roads in Wisconsin were much better than Iowa the last few days we spent in that state. It was pretty scarry on one particular road especially. There were huge ruts and holes in the road so you needed to be constantly looking down. We couldn't really enjoy the view very much. We were allowed to sleep in the church last night so Margaret and I slept on the couches they had in the Youth room. Well I shall attempt to download some pictures. Hope it works. I'll try and keep in touch but will make no promises as time becomes a factor some nights. There isn't much time by the time you get into camp, shower, have supper and pelaton mtg. as well as small groups. I try to get to bed by 9:30 or earlier depending on how long the ride is the next day. This afternoon at 4:30 there is a special choir at the church here.

July 29, 2008
addition to blog: July 28th:
I wasn't sure I would be able to stand the heat, but we took several breaks and drinking more water and energy drinks than I've ever consumed I did make it which was 143 kms. The worst part of this day was that we never got any relief from the heat. If there was a sign on the side of the road we were happy just to sit in it's shade for a few minutes. You couldn't stand around too long or it is very hard to get going. It felt sooo good to get to our destination which was Fort Morgan. We had the use of the highschool showers and gymn. It was a nice cool night for sleeping. We finally got in by 5:15 - 8hrs. 40 mins. on the bike total - avg. 22.5 kms. per hr.

July 29th ride: 141 kms. from Fort Morgan to Wray
What a beautiful day compared to yesterday. It was nice and cool when we started out about 7:00 a.m. The road was a beautiful paved road with nice wide shoulders for most of the way to Wray. What a difference when the weather is a bit cooler. It was around 93 by mid afternoon but there was a nice breeze. We did have a head wind after lunch. Peter and Joe are still with us. They decided to stay an extra day...no objections from Margaret or I since we get to sleep in the trailer for another night. Tomorrow we'll have to set up our own tents. I did have a flat today. Didn't even notice it until I looked down at my front tire . We were riding with all ladies and Peter and Joe had just passed us when it went. Fortunately for us about 9 guys came along and of course we acted like we didn't know how to change the flat. Johnny Pierce and Peter Kranenburg changed it for me. You need a lot of power to use those little pumps that attach to your bike so I was very grateful with these guys stopping. One of the others who passed us said "how many North Americans does it take to change a flat tire". We had a good laugh over that one. Hopefully I can add some pictures at one point when the satellite actually works good. I am now going to open my album to page 2 and see what surprise my kids have for me. We are having a birthday party for Adrian's birthday. He's going home with Joe & Peter. The younger set are all at a local pool which is close to our campsite. We had to walk or ride if we so chose to have a shower which is about 8 blocks away. Peter and Joe thought they'd pull a fast one on us. We took the truck to have our shower and low and behold when I got done there was no truck in sight until we had walked about 4 blocks. Nice guy!! We are having a lot of fun and it's amazing how much energy you still have after cycling all day. Today we got in around 4:00.
A very good day.
July 30th - Wed. Wray to McCook
I feel so bad that the satellite isn't working properly. It's got to be frustrating for the media guys who set it up. Today I will tell you what a typical pattern is for every day. Get up around 5:00, get dressed, take down the tent and make sure you don't leave anything inside the tent before rolling it up...been there, done that, get your lunch made for the day, eat breakfast, lots of carbs, my usually breakfast is oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon and milk. Fill up water bottles, check the air pressure in your tires and do an overall check of the bike. Put all your stuff in the gear truck and drag your bag with tent, chair etc.beside the gear truck to be loaded later by the sweep team. All this takes about 1&1/2 hrs. total. It takes a bit to get into a system. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have it all organized. I should have written something down every day because I'm not sure what kind of a day it was. All I can say is it was hot, hot, hot. We start off around 6:30 in the morn. and by 9:00 you can feel the sun starting to beat down on you. We have had a bit of cloud cover on some of the days. I believe this was a pretty good day for riding. We stopped at the Nebraska state line sign to take a picture. We also crossed another time zone so are now only an hour difference from home time. When we got to McCook, Peter and Joe and Adrian had set up Margaret & my tents up for us. Nice way to arrive after a tired, hot ride. During the night there must have been an owl in the tree right near my tent because I could hear him very clear. I wanted to get out to take a look but thought I may not be able to get to sleep after. Sleeping has been a problem so far but I'm hoping that when I get into more of a routine with everything after the first week it'll get better. I am so enjoying opening my album every day. It certainly connects me to my family being so far away from them. You don't know how much it means to me!! Thank you dear children & grandchildren!!
July 31st - Thursday, McCook to Minden
No change in the weather. Those who rode from Seattle have been in this heat since June 28th. They only had a few sprinkles here and there but continuous hot days of 90-100 plus. It's got to break one of these days I hope. The countryside is more lush around here than in Colorado. Corn and soya beans are the staple crops you see alongside the road. Miles and Miles of it. Finished the day around 6:00 I think. I was supposed to be in by 5:30 to help with supper but got in too late. We just have to help set up and serve. There were enough others on the sweep team. Ralph and Dora were on my sweep team. The suppers are unbelievable for such a large group. We get a real variety of exclusive meals. Every day is different. We sure aren't suffering!!
Aug. 1st. Minden to York-Friday
Started out early in the morning again. I felt pretty lousy today, dehydrated and lack of sleep I think. I had to help with breakfast this morning so we didn't get away until 7:30. It was tough at first until I stopped several times to get a bite to eat and drank tons of water. Things were going pretty good until after a no. of kms. we had construction and were down to one lane. The shoulders were very rough so couldn't ride on them. They let us through but when the oncoming traffic started to come our way a transport truck was coming on toward us and we had to get on the shoulder which was torn up. Right when I got on the shoulder there was a pile of dirt and I fell at that point but no serious damage and off we went again. This was the longest day I have every gone on the bike- 151 kms. Felt good when I got in to York University.

Aug. 2nd - York to Freemont - Sat
Last night I was on sweep which means you need to be at the next destination by 5:30 to help set up for supper and serve. This was another over 150 km. day and we started off with a head wind. Thank goodness it was fairly flat at the beginning but we were in a head wind for about the first 40 kms. which was tough. You're constantly pushing. Very tiring. Once we turned we had nice rolling hills down one and almost up the next without much hard peddling. I had gone about 84 kms. on hwy. 92 and was coasting down a hill when I had to get over on the shoulder (which was rather rough) when I heard this rattling on my bike. I thought it was something wrong with the tire but realized when I stopped that the back brake had lost a nut that secured it to the bike. Had to call one of the sag wagons and Julie came to my rescue about 1 hr. or so later. Found a nice shady spot on the hill under a tree. Dora, my biking partner that day stuck with me till Gayle came along and waited with me until Julie came along to pick the bike and myself up. That of course ended my biking for the day. Rather disappointing but out of my control. Just like life I guess. The scenery was pretty along the way. Lots of beautiful cash crop farming which looked very lush. People around here say the weather is unusually hot around here. One of the sags took us to a laundry mat tonight so it was nice to get that over with.
Stayed up later tonight and sat around and talked to Andy H. and Bert & Diane S. and Marg. It was very stiffling sleeping but I did have a good sleep when I
finally put in ear plugs and fell asleep. So great knowing we don't have to cycle tomorrow and can actually sleep till 8:00 or so instead of 5:00

Sun. Aug. 3rd.-Sat. Aug.9,
This week has flown by. Can't believe I've been on the tour for 2 weeks. On Sunday we went to a Lutheran church across the street from the local Y where we were staying. On Sunday some of the young people were skating in the arena. What a contrast. Hope someone took a picture of someone in their cycling shorts and skates holding a hockey stick. We slept in tents at the local Y and some of the younger set stayed indoors. It was such a hot day today. I believe the temperature was 105 with the humidex reading. There were buses going to two services in Omaha which would be an hour long bus ride so some of us decided to go across the street instead. One was a church that reaches out to inmates and I guess there were some testimonials. Apparently it was quite a unique service. Others went to a more traditional church also in Omaha. It really paid off for us to go across the street. The church there was wonderful. There were probably about 20 of us or more that went. We all wore our yellow sea to sea t-shirts and of course they announced what we were all about. The next thing we knew the pastor announced that we would all receive refreshments and goodies. Well they kept feeding us all afternoon. One of the guys from the church even went home and made more fresh brownies. They also told us we could sleep in the church at night. Someone stayed there all night so we could do that. It was nice and cool. We slept in the foyer and hallways. A beautiful church with wonderful people. We gave them a shifting gears book and they asked all of us to sign it.
Mon. Aug. 10
This was 138 km. day I believe. It was a pretty good day if I can remember. I haven't been keeping up my blog because of the sea to sea satellite not working properly and it seems I can't get on any other wireless connection. Not sure why. Tues. was around 143 kms. or so I think and then on Wed. and Thurs. were our longest days, 182 kms. in a row. Wed. went very well. We had super weather and the roads were nice and quite. A few hills but nothing major. Margaret and I rode together and we made it in just over 8 hours. Had to wait until after supper to have a shower. Thurs. was another 182 km. day and that was much more tiring because we had head winds pretty well all day. Margaret wasn't feeling well so I went with Dora and Rita. I started the day off on the wrong foot because when I went to check the air in my front tire the tube blew. Well Ed G. was nice enough to come to my assistance and put another tube in which when being pumped up we found it had a leak in it. We still left around 7:15 or so in spite of the flats but then I kept loosing air and found out there was a bulge in the tube. It hadn't been seated properly so another tube gone. Some young guys came to my assistance and changed the tube. I had to continue to put air in every time we came to a sag driver. I did make it in to camp and George was kind enough to check the tire when we got in to camp and found the slow leak. He patched it up and it looked good the next morning.
On Friday we crossed the Mississippi river into Wisconsin. What a beautiful spot. I did take one picture of the river but it would've been nicer from the middle of the bridge but of course couldn't stop there since it was very busy with traffic and no bike lane. Going down just before we got to the bridge was a very steep hill nice and long. The roads at the beginning of today were very bad. Lots of ruts in the road. You had to keep your eyes on the road in front of you to dodge these long ruts and holes in the road. Ed said he was pretty worried about the ride today because of the road conditions. Another road had a nice paved shoulder but there was a rumble strip down the one side all the way and then they had put fresh gravel on the right side of the paved part so very narrow to bike on plus you had to often get over on the road because of gravel on the paved part. Very scarry since it was a major road and very busy with transport trucks, etc. Thank God we all made it without major injuries although Don fell on the loose gravel and cracked his collar bone I believe. He had to be taken off the tour. You feel so bad when someone gets injured like that because after all the training and doing so good on the first 5 weeks of the trip he has to quite. I got another flat just as we got into Wisconsin. John V.S. just happened to be at the tourist office while I was there having a bite to eat and so he graciously changed the tire for me.
Sat. Aug. 9 - This was a nice short day compared to the other days this week. We woke up to rain around 4:00 or so and I got up about 4:30 and started packing up everything in the tent and got dressed. We had to pack up our wet tents but at least I didn't get wet inside the tent. We never got away until after 8:00 trying to decide what to wear and to stay dry. It didn't rain once we got started but because it was quite cool we kept them on for a while and finally stripped down to shorts and top when the sun came out. It was a beautiful day for cycling - middle to high 70's pretty well all day. Had a great ride and got into Madison around 3:00. The roads were very well marked because we had to make a lot of turns when we got into Madison. There was one guy on a recumbant 3-wheeler - Bill and I was just watching someone's video picture of two guys pushing him each on one side up 2 huge hills - amazing how strong some of these guys are. There was also one of two guys drafting behind a manure spreader. We had a great day. There were some steep hills but a lot of rolling hills. The church here has been great .