Wrapping up the end of the sea to sea tour

Once again I have been unable to post in my blog because of the inability to connect to a wireless connection. I will wrap up my blog entries today and post my previous diary entries. Hope this has given you some idea of what my 5 weeks have been like and the experiences I have had. Overall it has been an awesome experience even though sometimes now it seems like a blurr it went so fast. The summer is almost over and it will be back to normal life in a few days when I get adjusted to being home. There will be many adjustments to have to get used to but I'm sure it won't take long before things will get back to normal and the business of life back home. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, friends and church friends again and sleeping in my own bed which I did last night already. I do plan on continuing to ride my bike while the weather is still favourable. It felt good already not to have to get up at 5:00 or 5:30 today. Came home to a beautiful day feeling good and grateful to be back.


Sunday, Aug. 24th - Had breakfast in our motel room and drove to Char & Ken's place. Jared, our son-in-law came on Sat. night yet after haying all day on Saturday, so I did get to see our entire family, even all the in-laws!! Karen & Jared left again around 4:30 Sunday so it sure was a short visit for Jared since Karen and the girls came on Friday already. I so much appreciated and enjoyed seeing everybody. We wondered if the celebration service was going to happen at the park in Queenston because it poured rain in St. Anne's. Peter called Billy on the cell phone and he said it was still on. Apprarently it had also poured at the park but when the service started the sun came out and it was sunny and clear for the rest of the day. What a blessing. It was so awesome to see so many people sitting on the hill. I'm sure there would have been more if the weather forecast would have called for less percentage of rain. The singing was great. David Raakman was the M.C. and sang a song he had written himself for this occasion. A beautiful song. It was good to talk to so many people after the service. People from our church in London, people from the Athens congregation. Also met others whom we hadn't seen for a long time. It definitely has been a wonderful week coming in the Canada especially from London to St. Catharines were I connected with so many people and where the reception in so many places was so overwhelming. The support was muchly appreciated!! It also has been a very busy week. After we left Ken & Char's place we went back to Niagara-on-the-Lake and hit the sack pretty early.

Monday, Aug. 25 - Well, today we're back in the U.S. The crossing at the boarder went so smoothly, we didn't even have to show our passports. We just crossed customs all together and no questions asked. The head guy at the boarder was so impressed with how orderly we were all gathered and ready and with what we were doing, they made it very easy for us. Was this God's intervention also?? At our pelaton meetings we often talk about God moments and this certainly was one of them. It was a pretty easy day today. 121 kms. or so I think. I'm a bit behind in my diary but I do remember the tough days. Beautiful roads to bike on and nice wide paved shoulders. So much less stress when cycling this way.

Tuesday, Aug. 26th - We are getting closer to the end of this tour. Today we started out with four of us, Margaret, Sharon, Greta, Dora and I. I think I will be disappointed in some ways it is over. We did have some long climbs today. Nothing major but still, they were "hills". At least I didn't have to use my granny gear so I know they were that hard. It seems I am getting to know more people now and feel very relaxed and comfortable. Mind you I don't have to set up my tent and take it down every day. I get the luxury of sleeping in a trailer. It will be hard to say goodbye to some people. We had our last small group meeting tonight and talked about how this trip will affect us when we go back home. There were several on this trip, about 20 or so who do not have a job to go back to. A special prayer was said on their behalf. We had a great lunch stop at a local CRC farmer's place. Awesome food. One of the cyclists wives, Dorothy VanderLinden immigrated to this area and this was her home church putting on this dinner. A great meal with lots of food and cold drinks. There were also lots of signs along the way to encourage us.
Wed. Aug. 27th - Lots of hills today. We climbed 900 ft. in total today. We are definitely getting into the foothills. We are still in New York and Friday we will be in Pennsylvania when the real hills begin. We'll see what the day brings, one hill, one pedal at a time. When we got in to our destination, the local church Valley View Christian Reformed church they had refreshments ready for us, great hospitality once again. They also provided supper for us - a local speciality called "spiedies" which is basically pork or chicken shish-ka-bobs done on the barbecue and wrapped in bread. Claire Elgersma grew up in this area. She has family still going to that church. Had pelaton but no small groups tonight. The internet at the school was working and I could have blogged but low and behold my dear husband was gone and the computer of course was in his truck. Sorry.........blog readers. You probably won't be able to read anymore until I get home as the sea to sea wireless isn't working. What a bummer!!

Thurs. Aug. 28th - The weather was cloudy all day today but a nice comfortable temperature for cycling. Wore a jacket for most of the day. The first 80 kms. was a breeze. Basically downhill all the way except for a few hills. We kept anticipating the hills that showed on the graph for today and then the last no. of kms. we turned a corner and low and behold there it was... a 14 percent grade hill. Very steep and tough. Didn't think I could make it but with a lot of self-talk and my lowest or highest gear (never can figure that out) I made it all the way. What a sense of accomplishment. I was so hungry when I got in, I had a large container of fries at a local restaurant at the State campground where we are staying tonight. Two and a half hours later I ate a full meal. This has got to stop in a few days. I'm going to have "pig-out" withdrawal when I get home, that's for sure. Can't believe the large portions of food I can consume. We had a beautiful final communion service together tonight after pelaton. What a moving experience. We all formed a large circle (around 200 people) and passed the bread and wine to each other and ended with Praise God from Whom All Blessings flow. Various people also shared their experience of this trip. This was the last night the ladies had to prepare dinner for us. Tomorrow is a big day so need to get up early! 5:00 probably. Good night one and all..

Fri. Aug. 29th - This was the tests of all tests for me today as I knew this would be the hilliest and most difficult part of my portion of the trip. The weather was overcast all day which was a real blessing since it was perfect for climbing. We started out shortly after 7:00 with Dora, Rita, Joan and myself. Dora and Rita W. are stronger on the hills. I am slower and so we decided from the beginning it was probably too hard to stay together today with lots of climbing. I cycled quite a bit of the day by myself but met up with Herb G. along the way and then steered him on the wrong road since I thought the arrow had a turn to the left. Thankfully Ad, another rider noticed we were heading wrong and steered us in the right direction. Thank goodness we had only gone a few extra kilometers. My bike bag also came off in this town, I think it was Carbondale. It landed right on the road and a kind lady noticed and stopped until I could get a chance to pick it up. It would have been totally crushed if she hadn't stopped as would my camera which was also in the bag. I spent some more time on my own which I didn't mind too much except you really have to discipline yourself on the hills to keep going because some of them were pretty tough. Going down was the awesome reward. What an exhillerating experience. At one point I was going 69.7 kms. per hr. which I didn't notice until the end of the day when I checked my highest speed for the day. Scarry but an awesome feeling. I met Andy H. and he joined me the rest of the way into camp. I was so grateful to him because there was still a fair amount of climbing and it is so much better cycling with someone else rather than by yourself, especially during the difficult climbs. I told him to go ahead since I didn't want him to have to wait for me on the hills but he insisted to stick it out with me. This is beautiful country, in the heart of the Adirondacks I think it is. Today we also crossed over into Pennsylvania It was sooo good to get into camp that night and have a shower which ended up being cold but still refreshing once you got over the shock of the cold water. Slept like a log of course that night.

Sat. Aug. 30th- The final day!!! Wow, hard to believe. It was still 98 kms. and we had to leave early because we needed to get to within 10 kms. before The Liberty State Park and have our picture taken and form into a pelaton to ride in to Jersey City together by 1:00 that afternoon. It had rained the night before so we wondered what kind of a day it would be. Katrina (our weather reporter each night at Pelaton) informed us of 30 per cent chance of rain. It was cloudy and a bit drissly at times but by the time we got to the staging area for pictures the weather was clearing up. We still had a few tough hills to climb although not as bad as the day before. Once we got over the two hills the rest would be pretty easy, rolling but nothing major. Today I rode with Greta since her cycling partner couldn't ride today and I was also on my own. We stopped in a town, can't remember the name since we rode through many towns today, and were resting in a driveway of a what appeared to be a new furniture store. It must've been before it opened because someone came to open it while we were there and asked about us. The lady we talked to heard of sea to sea and offered us to use the washroom. After we got out she asked if she could pray with us. It was pretty awesome that a total stranger would just take hold of our hands and say a prayer for our safety and the tour. I did end up having a flat today. There was so much garbage along the road and since it had rained the roads were wet and stuff sticks to your tires, I must have picked up something along the way. We had the bike turned over to take the wheel off and low and behold Dirk another cyclist stopped to give us a hand. These guys come at the most convenient times I must say. We were soon on our way again and made one more stop at a Dunkin Donut shop (still had time to work it off!!). The place was filled with yellow sea to sea shirts. I was about to go out to get my camera but then most of them left so didn't bother. It looked quite impressive. We kind of took over the place for a while. We had to wear our official shirts today for the pictures. There was a beautiful view of the Jersey City downtown and the Statue of Liberty as we climbed a hill and started descending in a town before Jersey City.We got to the staging on time to get on the picture. Some hadn't arrived yet but they had to get us ready to form into a big group to ride into Jersey City to the Liberty State park together. We were escorted for 10 kms. by police cars. One cruiser rode at the beginning with Billy D. on his motor bike following nd all the cyclists behind and there was another cruiser at the back of the group. What a site it must have been. We took over an entire lane and every once in a while a cruiser would put on his siren and lights and fly past us to get to the next intersection. Everything went so smoothly. We cycled through a very poor area of town and had many well-wishers along the way, taking pictures and cheering us on. What a way to see Jersey City. I had never been here before today. I felt really bad for one guy who had a flat tire just before we were ready to take off as a group and by the time he got his tire fixed it was too late for him to join us. He had to ride in with a vehicle and was so disappointed because he had started in Seattle and was not able to ride the last kms. He did get to dip his tires into the water though. Of course it was beyond his control. What a thrilling moment to see so many people near the end of the water's edge. So many people and the excitement that we made it to the end was quite an emotional experience. We all lined up our bikes at the water's edge and prayed the Lord's prayer together. I walked into the water with my bike and held it up as Peter took a picture, after realizing the battery had died. Go figure!! God has been so good on this trip. He has blessed us all with no serious or life threatening injuries, with awesome weather and a visible witness to many people as we cycled along from state to state to province. So many sea to sea cards were handed out and inquiries made as to what we were all about. "Praise God from Whom all Blessing flow". As many of the speaches we heard throughout the tour, this is not the end and we need to keep the focus of the global poverty problem in front of us and get active in doing something about it when we return home, in our own communities and abroad. For me the community spirit has been a big plus. We were all one in this project, working to raise awareness for one cause and it was great to get to know so many people from all over. I think I could have continued on for a few more weeks just to get to know more people even better. Who knows where our paths may cross. It was an awesome community spirit with people of all ages, from 18 to 81 and people from all across North America. For the church in Athens where I grew up I have included a picture of Betty Terpstra who was part of the kitchen team, Jake Kuipers and Peter and myself on the last day of the tour after the supper we enjoyed that evening in Jersey City. The celebration service was awesome with a lot of singing and excellent speakers. A great way to end this amazing tour. The last thing were all the goodbyes'. This is always difficult since you don't know when you will see people again, especially those you got to know quite well. So ends another chapter of my life during the last 5-6 weeks I have been away this summer. This has been an opportunity of a lifetime I would not have missed. Who knows where the next one will be?? God's blessing to you all.