Two short rides

It was sooo good to wake up yesterday morning and know we have just a short 75 km. ride to Grand Haven and what a beautiful day it was. Pretty cool in the morning. It's not the nicest thing when your tent is wet from morning dew and you have to pack it away wet. This is the last day I have to set up my tent. Peter and Joe are coming tomorrow and hauling the trailer. I get to sleep in the trailer along with Margaret and Joe and Peter gets to sleep in the tent. Luxury living for the last two weeks of the tour. If there is one thing I am not particular fond of it is waking up at such an ungodly hour and having to take down the tent when it seems like I should still be sleeping. My brain doesn't usually kick in until around 9:00 in the morning. As we cycle closer to Grand Rapids there are more well wishers and people along the way encouraging. It so neat when you see a group of people cheering you on as you cycle. Each day I feel more connected to the group as a whole. When I started out today my legs seemed very sluggish and achey. We also had some head winds again. I thought we would be pushed along by the prevailing west winds??? Not sure what happened to that theory. We had a few stops along the way today. It's kind of ironic sometime; we are cycling to create an awareness of global poverty and we are getting fed so much along the way. It shows us again how truly blessed we are as a nation and sometimes it is hard to comprehend the many in our own neighbourhoods who live in poverty. A little over half of the way to our destination for the day we arrived in Graafschap. This is where the first CRC in North America had it's beginnings in 1857. There is a small log cabin where they originally held church and then the church they still worship in today. They have opened a museum of the history of the Reformed churches in Ontario. Very impressive. Just as Margaret and I were cycling to finish the day's journey we met Peter and Joe heading towards the church. Nice surprise because I didn't expect to see them until we got to the Conference grounds. We stayed at the Conference Centre in Grand Haven for the night. A beautiful campground right on Lake Michigan. Too bad we couldn't have stayed there for a few days. World Missions put on a great dinner for us at the conference grounds. There were people leaving the tour and at Peleton meeting they each had an opportunity to speak. It was quite moving. I think it would be difficult to leave in the middle like that. Of course people have family, committments and jobs to go back to.



Sat. Aug 16th

Peter and I got to sleep in the trailer on our own tonight since Margaret & Joe went to visit Margaret's relatives in Grand Rapids. Woke up an hour earlier than I had to. My watch said it was 6:00 when it was really only 5:00. I wondered why it was so dark out when I got up. We are now in eastern time zone. I wondered why nobody was up yet?? We left the campgrounds around 8:00 I think. Wally, Margaret's brother is joining the ride today until St. Catharines I think. There were more people along the route which was only 71 kms. today. Another beautiful ride. A few hills near the end of the route but a very good day with awesome weather. Hardly any wind and we did have a tail wind today. We arrived at Calvin around 12:30 after stopping at a school and a church for refreshments. All this eating is only going to get worse as we cycle into Ontario. I think we'll be "grazing" all day long by the sounds of it. Good thing we're cycling but there is a limit right? We all met for a staging as we rode into Calvin College grounds together for about 3/4 of a mile. What a thrilling feeling when we are all cycling together. It made me realize what a large crowd we really are and next week we will be adding about 60 more. Tomorrow is a lunch and after we will gather at a ball park for a celebration service. Please check other blogs for pictures. I'll get someone to give me some lessons on how to post pictures someday. I only get frustrated when I try it. Later...