To my faithful followers of the blog….
Thanks so much for reading this, I hope you have enjoyed and been entertained. For the most part I have enjoyed writing it, and been entertained….sometimes I have thoroughly enjoyed plotting what to write, other times, I just go with the flow, and the words that come out are blatant and true.
Tuesday, August-26-08
Today started out rough, I lost my camera (or so I thought-generally I am pretty good about being organized),so somewhere in the time between last nights camera and this morning’s wake up. It was when I was going to take a picture of Marty and Coby (the newest Canadians on tour – meaning yesterday, they went to become official citizens of Canada…. after living in Canada for sometime, and most definitely they are proud Canadians), at that point I realized that I didn’t have my camera and started the search. I searched my laundry baskets two times…took out my tent and set it up…looked inside, shook out the fly, looked around the picnic table where I was the night before, looked and searched, asked a few people….and still at a loss for where I had placed it. With that first half hour wasted….I went ahead and ate some breakfast pondering in my brain where I had put it, I knew it was in my sweatshirts pocket…so I went back to look in my baskets for the sweatshirt I wore…not there… I was about to give up… when I thought, maybe I had gone to bed with it still in my sweatshirt so I was hoping it was in my sleeping bag!!! OH BABY, it was, I was so happy to find it in the bottom of my sleeping bag….since it is the last week I am trying to get in some extra photos about all the things that come along in a day.
The two new official Canadians!
RIDING friends…. Jonathan, Jeff, Annette, Marc, (Ryan last 40k), and Matt from t-bay.
I was in a slump, not liking the fact that every pedal stroke we take, is making me closer to the end of the tour, closer to ending this chapter of cycling, closer to going back to work (I love my job, but I also love this- torn!) Again, every motion forward is driving us physically to the end of this tour, so peoples thoughts and feelings are being bombarded by the end of this tour….some of us thought that there would be a lot of hype, a lot of energy, but mostly it is mixed emotions and thoughts of not having enough time with those we have grown fond of. WE also are taking a little longer in the riding time, to chat longer with those we ride with and really getting to know some phenomenal people.
Riding in the early morning is a very nice time.
The nine weeks have definitely had an effect on many, and causes us to reflect upon what we are going back to, as well as what we have left. It is not that life has really changed, its just that our routine of life has been altered, and we are made to think about what we do, and reflect upon how we can fall back into what we normally did before this.
Returning to the familiar which may now be strange, back to work, retirement, school, home life.
This morning was chilly, and Marc mentioned he needed a second heart to pump his blood back up his legs. It was chilly and it didn’t help what with biking into the wind, and it blowing what warmth we had off of us.
When we got to the town of Avon, about 35-40 k in we decided to have a coffee break, which turned out to be a second breakfast for many. The place was crowded, and those who worked there running off there feet….our table needed more coffee, so I grabbed a pot, and served us, then wandered the place and served others…a little bit of help goes a long way.
Moving along, there wasn’t much interaction with locals other than in the breakfast stop this morning. We had a lunch stop provided by a CRC church at the 80k marker, on someones farm. It was lovely to have breaks today, as the rolling hills, which normally I love and conquer oh so willingly, were beating me rapidly, and causing me to sometimes come down to a screaming low km/hr when all I wanted to do was fly over them.
Much appreciated, was when Jonathan and I started playing a game...(we play games often) this time we played word association, which made the last 10k fly by.
The camp we are staying at is beautiful, caught the sunset, had peleton, and last group meetings. Things are winding down as we prepare to come to the end of this journey and tour. Friends have been made, people will be missed and hearts were touched. We need to remember the cause and the purpose why we set out 9 weeks ago as well as what is in our hearts.
The internet is down, and probably down til the end of the tour, but I will try and get these up along the way.
port for when Harper's jet landed. They were there to cheer him on and shake his hands. IT was a very fun exbition for those who went.
On the weekend I also took photos for my cousins wedding. It was a fantastic day, and I am very pleased with the photos, the weather and the colour that
