Day 62 - Congers, NY to Staten Island, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h32m32s
Distance: 94.15km
Avg Spd: 20.7km/hr
Climbing: 605m

We're done!  We made it.  The tires are dipped.  The journey is complete.  And what a ride it has been.

I intend to write a full follow-up in the coming days (once I'm home and unpacked), but for now I'll just recap the day and show some pictures of the ride and festivities.

The ride today was an easy one, and I would love to do it again one day.  Our route took us along highway 9W through the Palisades, which is a hugely popular cycling route for the locals.  The pavement is new, the hills roll continuously, there's virtually no traffic and the shoulders are wide.  We cruised on this road for a while, then took a left and all of a sudden we were on the George Washington bridge... which was absolutely crazy busy with cyclists and runners, but totally amazing with a view of Manhattan.

We all met up at the Staten Island Ferry terminal just after 11am, and boarded the 11:30am ferry across the bay.  We saw the Statue of Liberty from the distance, and reflected on our ancestors who arrived at Ellis Island many years ago, and what the statue meant to them at that time.

Offloading from the ferry, we staged behind a police car, and were escorted a few short blocks to Project Hospitality's building and parking lot for a few short words from the folks that would feed us dinner later.  We then processed, en-mass, to Midland Beach for the tire dipping ceremony.  It was a lengthy enough ride, but pretty cool to see everyone in their jerseys taking up the whole road and running red lights.

At the beach, we had what seemed to be very short periods of time to snap a few photos, pose for the official photographer to get his shots, dip our tires, circle up and pray, and then we were on the road again.  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the beach...

Rich, Clement and Luke missed the ferry to get over to Staten Island, so arrived at the beach just as we were about to depart.  Clement got a picture with us all on his camera, which I'll have to get later.  We quickly piled them into Kaitlyn's parents' truck and they followed the procession to Mt Loretto, where we would clear out our baskets, box our bikes, eat our last banquet together and say our goodbyes.

A few short hours after dipping our tires, my bike was in a box, my baskets were emptied, and my bags were packed.

At 6:30 we had our final meal, followed by a brief presentation of memorable moments, and at 9pm my driver showed up and I had to duck away.

And just like that, the tour is over.  9 weeks.  6,057km.  6 flat tires.  1 fall.  2 laundry baskets.  Desert Heat.  Colorado mountains.  Iowa rain.  Ontario food.  Memories for life.  And friends for life.

Day 61 - Hyde Park, NY to Congers, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h03m15s
Distance: 92.55km
Avg Spd: 22.8km/hr
Climbing: 1,170m

Today was another rough day for me, and I wasn't in a good mood for most of the day.  I could recount all the reasons why, but there's no point in reliving it all.

My legs hurt again, so I rode slowly.  The Top Guns stuck with me for a bit, and ended up dropping me from SAG 1 to SAG 3, then we regrouped.

Our route took us over the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge.  This bridge was built in 1889, and has recently be redone into a great pedestrian walking bridge.

The second half of the ride took us down the 9W highway, along the Hudson River, and through Bear Mountain State Park.  It's a beautiful road, but without a shoulder, so it made for some sketchy moments.  Here's a view from part-way up the hill.

Camp tonight is at Congers Lake Memorial Park.  I've got my tent set up right on the lake.  It's gorgeous.  Except right across the lake are train tracks...  hopefully they don't come through to frequently!

Tomorrow is our big entry into New York.  Not sure what to expect, other than a short-ish ride, and a ride on the Staten Island ferry!  Luke, Clement and Rich should be meeting me for the tire dipping on the island at 1:30pm, then we'll be packing up, having our farewell dinners.  By 8pm tomorrow this tour will be done.  Hard to believe.  But it's been a riot.

And here's my final plug to ask for a donation.  We've made it almost all the way, and tomorrow is the last day to donate.  If you haven't made a donation yet, please follow this link and make a donation to help us reach our goal of $2M.

Day 60 - Albany, NY to Hyde Park, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h15m12s
Distance: 108.53km
Avg Spd: 25.5km/hr
Climbing: 819m

Today, I am as tired and sore as I have ever been.  I rode slow, but had to leave my group at SAG 3 to ride even slower.  I am becoming ever more ready to reach our destination, and give my weary legs a rest.

Despite the fatigue, the ride was beautiful today, through lush, treed backroads and many small towns on our way into Hyde Park.

We stopped just outside of Hudson at a McDonalds along the route for some early morning refreshment.  It was here that I had perhaps the most awkward conversation with another patron in the men's restroom about the tour.  And he didn't make a donation.

At SAG 2, however, Julie and Doug set up at a fruit stand, and the owner gave them a box of peaches for us to enjoy.  They were a touch on the hard side, but still delicious.

Not much more to report about the ride today.  Brandon was on the road after his chain break yesterday.  We rode with Ryan, but didn't see any awesome road-side attractions to get #elevelo shots.

Camp tonight is a bit of a rough one in terms of facilities, but it is at a nice park.  We are at Hackett Hill Park.  We are again short on restroom facilities, and the showers were ice cold.  We actually set up the outdoor showers in the field, as it was hot enough outside to make the ice water almost pleasant.  Almost.  There is an outdoor pool, but they are out of chlorine, so it was closed for our use.

The good news is we only have two more nights of sleeping in tents!  Tonight and tomorrow!  Saturday night I'll be in a real bed in a hotel in New York, and hanging out with my good friends Rich, Clement and Luke!  After 9 weeks away from home and with minimal contact with friends there, I'm very much looking forward to some holiday time exploring the Big Apple with these guys.

I was thinking today about things that I will miss about life in camp and on the tour once we're done.  I'll miss:
* Asking "What time is breakfast?" when it's always posted at 6:30, but served at 5:15
* Setting up and taking down my tent every night
* Clearing all the bugs out of my tent before sleeping every night
* Putting on sunscreen every morning
* Screeching owls singing us to sleep
* Cicadas/spiders/earwigs
* Qwirkle - the best tile/boardgame ever!
* "Sleeping in" until 6:10
* Ice cold showers
* Having my biggest worry be whether I'm on sweep-duty
* Eating as much as I can and want at every sitting
* Chamois butter as part of the morning routine
* And so much more...

Day 59 - Whitehall, NY to Albany, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 5h10m13s
Distance: 123.17km
Avg Spd: 23.8km/hr
Climbing: 617m

Today was tough for me.  I didn't think I went too hard yesterday, but I had nothing left in my legs today.  The Top Guns wanted to ride together, but it was tough keeping the pace going.

We stopped for second breakfast at Eli's in Schuylerville, Saratoga for a delicious omelet.  Mark blazed on ahead of us, and missed out as a result.  Turns out this cafe, as well as the thrift store down the street were run in partnership with the Community Church that was also located on the street.  (The thrift store did not have the movie we are searching for...  our quest continues).

Most of our day was spent riding alongside the Hudson River, following the Champlain Canals.  We started at Lock #12 and almost made it to Lock #1 in Albany.

Crossing the river at Albany was pretty sweet, too.

A bit of excitement came 4km from camp when Brandon snapped his chain going up the second last hill.  We tried to break it open and shorten it up, but my tools were insufficient, and we didn't have the muscles to make it work.  He ended up walking/scooting his bike up the hills, coasting down them, and I pushed him along on the flats.  We made it to camp only a few minutes later than we otherwise would have.  I think he's out now trying to find a bike shop to get a replacement.

Camp is at the Albany YMCA, so we had a sweet swim and hot-tub experience, and are now sitting around the building updating our blogs and checking our Facebooks.

Day 58 - Ausable Chasm, NY to Whitehall, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 5h13m01s
Distance: 133.61km
Avg Spd: 25.6km/hr
Climbing: 1,815m

Today was a tough one.  Heat, hills and headwind made the riding tough.  But I rode with Ryan, and we took our time.  The hills must have scared everyone, because at 7:25am, this was the scene in camp: (no tents, breakfast cleaned up, only a dozen riders kicking around).

Right out of camp, Ryan spotted a run down firetruck, and that started our #elevelo posing for the day.  Throughout the day we got him on a bridge, on a wood pile, in an apple orchard, and in the archway of a church.  Check out his pictures on his blog (thebicycleatlas.tumblr.com).

I also snapped a picture in the orchard, as it reminded me of hanging out in Grandpa Zwaagstra's orchard back in the day...

Yesterday we stopped for ice cream across the street from the World's Largest Macintosh orchard, and thought of him again, wishing my camera battery wasn't dead.

The riding today was gorgeous, but challenging.  We climbed a ton.  Over 6,000ft.  The roads were fresh pavement with good shoulders, or minimal traffic.  It was rolling hills, though, so we would go down one only to turn a corner and face another uphill.  The town of Port Henry, in particular, had a nasty 14% grade to get up into town.

All day, we cruised along with Lake Champlain on our distance left, and passed through a new town every 10-20 miles.  In Willsboro we stopped at a bakery.  In Westport we stopped for a drink at Everybody's Market, and were surprised with a huge selection of VHS' and DVDs that we perused in our ongoing attempt to locate "Breaking Away".  We were unsuccessful.

In Moriah, we left town, and I saw a sign on the left of the road that I had to stop to check out.  Turns out Lake Champlain, like Okanagan Lake (which my hometown of Kelowna sits beside), has a lake monster named "Champ".  He is remarkably similar-looking to Ogopogo, but has a heart on his tail, and could possibly have been sighted more frequently than his Canadian brethren.  The sign actually lists all the people who have supposedly spotted him, along with the date.  Sightings go back to 1609 when Samuel de Champlain first caught sight of the beast.

Camp tonight is an interesting one...  we're at Whitehall Marina RV Park.  There's not much room for tenting, and there's not much for facilities.  Think three toilets for 150 people...  line ups are going to be long in the morning!  Contrary to what the name implies, the park is actually a peninsula that juts into a swamp, and the actual marina is right next to the river and lock system another 500m up the road.  But there is hookups for our gear and kitchen trailers, and we are finding refuge in the pub/restaurant in the marina.

Day 57 - Montreal, QC to Ausable Chasm, NY

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h30m27s
Distance: 123.02km
Avg Spd: 27.3km/hr
Climbing: 485m

Quick post tonight as we are at a camp ground with mediocre internet that will be shut down soon...

Average ride today - not too long, not too hilly.  We rode through some great bike trails before leaving Canada, and had gorgeous pavement through most of the roads into camp on the American side.

We're at Ausable Chasm Campground tonight, right beside this awesome chasm.  It is perhaps the most touristy natural spot I've ever seen.  You need to pay to walk the trails, pay to tube the river, and pay to get closer than the road over the chasm from where this picture was taken.

Highlights today:
* Sculpture garden, including an iron representation of the Last Supper
* Swimming in the pool at the campground
* Entering back into the USA!

Day 55/56 - Cornwall, ON to Montreal, QC

Daily Stats:
Time: 3h52m47s
Distance: 105.87km
Avg Spd: 27.3km/hr
Climbing: 218m

Great ride on Saturday, and fun times in Montreal today...

I left camp with the Top Guns on Saturday, and we crossed into Quebec on a side street parallel to the 401, and took a picture at the little roadsign.

After navigating some tough traffic through a busy section of town, I found myself at a garden center with Julia, Shannon and Ryan and everyone else was up the road.  We had stopped to take a picture of Ryan #eleveoing in the giant deck chair out front of the restaurant, then struck up a conversation with the nice lady working the store.

A little restaurant in Beauharnois was our next stop for Ryan's first taste of poutine!

We arrived at our destination - the Kahnawake Survival School - and set up camp.  This is a new facility that will be opening for their first day of classes shortly after we leave in the morning.

Our first mission was to do laundry.  Brandon borrowed a van, and we ventured into town to find the laundromat.  But that was easier said than done.  We ended up talking to a local at the gas station, who directed us to a non-descript white building off the main road that wasn't evened signed.  But sure enough they had washers for us!

Eukre tournament was the action for Satuday night, as we were far away from any night-life.

Sunday we got bused into Montreal for a church service at St Paul and St Andrews.  It was a gorgeous old church building, and we were led in a mixture of liturgical and contemporary worship.

After church, Ryan's friend from college led us on a walking tour of Montreal.  We had a sweet lunch at Santropol - a "foodie" restaurant with some awesome sandwiches and milkshakes.

Walking from the restaurant to Old Town, where we were to meet our bus back to camp, we came upon the Pride parade blocking our path.  We watched the second half process past us.  I was shocked at the shamelessness of many of the participants...

Montreal is a great, busy, happening city.  There was so much activity - even away from the parade.  We also walked through a park right beside McGill University, and saw people lounging in the sun everywhere.  There were vendors, buskers, dogs, frisbee players and all sorts of other people.  And bikes!  There were bikes and cyclists everywhere.  There were dedicated lanes at many main roads, and bike share stalls on the major intersections.  I was thoroughly impressed with the extensiveness that cyclists were permitted and encouraged in the city.

Our final stop of the day was at Montreal Poutine for one more taste of the original delicacy before we return to the USA tomorrow.  Topped off with a French beer (La Fin du Monde), it was the perfect ending to our time in the city.

PS - Time trial results...  I won!  It ended up being a 16.3mile route, and I finished in 40m01s, average speed of 39.6km/hr.  Tim from NJ came in second in the mens at 40m09s. George won the masters category and Martin came in second.  Shirley won the womens, and Katie R placed second.  All winners took home some awesome silver plates as mementos.

Day 54 - Brockville, ON to Cornwall, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 3h36m31s
Distance: 110.38km
Avg Spd: 30.6km/hr
Climbing: 339m

Today was our time trial day!  Ryan Bruxvoort organized a 16 mile (25.6km) route from SAG #1 to a church in Morrisburg that one of the riders congregation had set up.  A time trial is an individual race against the clock.  Riders leave the start line in one-minute intervals, and go as fast as they can without drafting anyone or anything else.  We don't know the results yet, as they will be announced at peloton this evening. It was a fast, flat course.  My GPS tells me I averaged 39.4km/hr for about 40 minutes, which is a fast time, but I don't know if it was fast enough to win.

Because of the time trial, I stripped my bike down, taking the seat-bag off, and only taking one water bottle on the road today.  I carried all my essentials (food, wallet, spare tube, pump, tire levers and multi-tool) in my jersey pockets.  My camera did not make the cut, so I missed taking pictures of the event.

Cool things we saw:
* Fort Wellington, where the war of 1812 was fought.  Karel got some fun pictures of the Top Guns storming the fort.
* The Long Sault Parkway that connects eleven islands created during the flooding of the St Lawrence river in the 1950s.  There is a beautiful roadway (freshly paved) that connects the islands, a gives riders some spectacular scenery.

Tonight we're staying a neat facility, too - the NAV Centre.  It used to be a training base for Canadian air traffic controllers, but has been converted into a hotel, conference centre and fitness centre.  The showers here were definitely the nicest we've had in a very long time.

And for good measure, he's a typical shot of what my camping area looks like.  Tent airing out, fly drying from morning dew, shorts drying on tent, towel drying on the bike.  But today I've got shade!

Day 53 - Kingston, ON to Brockville, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 2h51m090s
Distance: 84.26km
Avg Spd: 29.5km/hr
Climbing: 520m

Not a bad day today.  The ride was short.  The weather was gorgeous.  The roads were fresh, new pavement.  And Brockville is a neat little town that we arrived at early enough to spend a few hours exploring.

At 50km, there was the opportunity to go on a 1 hour boat tour of the 1000 Islands.  We got there, and the lineup was crazy long (including four busloads of tourists!) so the guys and I decided not to go.  We hung around the parking lot for a while, and got a few shots of Ryan #eleveloing in the lineup and in the fountain.

While the majority of the riders were out on the ride, all their bikes and helmets were left behind.  Someone had the brilliant idea to play a little joke and move all the helmets to the picnic table, and interconnect the helmet straps and clamps...

We checked in at camp around 11:30am and were greeted by a handful of folks from the local CRC (First CRC?).  There was fresh baking, and candy and chips from the Brockville Tourism representative.  As the gear truck had yet to arrive, we ventured off into town to see the sights.

Our first stop in a new town is always the bike shop, so we stopped in at Cranks, and had a peek around.  Karel needed a bolt for his stem, and a few other guys had some minor things to pick up.  The owner was super helpful and friendly, an everyone got what they were after.

Other stops included the used DVD trade-in store, the army surplus store, the Salvation Army Thrift Shop and the "Everything Store."  Tomorrow Ryan is trying to organize a time trial event, and was looking for some cheap trophies.  It's looking like the event might be delayed 'til next week as a church is possibly setting up a SAG stop right in the middle of the stretch we were planning on using...  we'll see if we can recoordinate something else in the morning.

The other awesome stop in town was at the Book Trader - a huge, cluttered collection, which the owner claimed contained 70,000 titles. There were two full shelves of Louis L'Amour that I had to snap pictures of for my friend Ed, who loves this western author.

Mark, Ryan and I then got some pizza from a local pizzeria, and rolled back to camp around 3:30.  We're staying at St Lawrence Park on the west side of Brockville, and it's right on the St Lawrence River.  We swam in the water, then set up our tents on the grass-covered concrete reservoir right beside the water treatment plant. The view from my tent door is pretty awesome.

The same people who greeted us on arrival into camp also provided dinner for us tonight.  And it was as Dutch as dinners get: Borecole (boiled potatoes and kale), sausages, homemade apple sauce, ceasar salad, buns, and a huge selection of dessert.  Awesome!

Day 52 - Trenton, ON to Kingston, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h32m11s
Distance: 117.19km
Avg Spd: 25.8km/hr
Climbing: 683m

Today was the Single Speed Challenge, wherein riders were challenged to ride the entire route today in one gear.  No changing of gears was allowed to make it easier to go up hill, or to prevent us from spinning out going downhill.

I rode the whole route in a gear that let me keep a steady 26km/hr at about 70 rpm.  I could top out around 38km/hr, but could still grind up the hills.  Sprints were a lost cause as Karel picked a bigger gear than the rest of us, so he was able to power to a faster top speed than the rest of us could.

The bonus of riding in one gear is that by nature the ride is slower because it's too much work to spin at high RPMs to keep the speeds we would normally ride at.  So we took our time today.  Ryan and I got some more sweet shots of him #eleveloing, including him on a swing, on a pier, on a fake wooden canal boat, and on the top of a four-high stack of hay bales.

In Bloomfield we stopped at Bloomfield Bicycle Co. which is a sweet little bike shop that is packed with goodness.  And it is packed!  The owner said they have about 4,000sf worth of product crammed into 1,200sf of real estate.  Their tag line is "TV Sucks, Ride Your Bike."  I bought a pair of socks with the slogan stitched on them.  They had two Colnago bikes at the shop - one hanging on the wall from 1974, and another one from the 1990s(?) on consignment out on the street.  The other cool thing was they had two big bookcases outside on the deck lined with old books for $2ea.  Ryan perused the collection and walked away with five sci-fi novels to start his collection.

Just before the ferry ride, we took a 4km detour to see Lake on the Mountain - a naturally formed lake that sits a few hundred feet above Lake Ontario, and is only a few hundred feet away.  To this day, no one is really sure where the water in this lake comes from, as there are no rivers that feed into or out of it.  Because of its proximity to Lake Ontario, it is unlikely that the water table is high enough to feed it from an aquifer below the surface.  It is possible there is an underground spring nearby, but nobody knows for sure.

The ferry was a short, free ride from Picton to Adolphustown.  Nothing too exciting, but it was traveling without pedaling!

We also stopped for a while just outside of Bath, and hung out in the park on the lake.  It wasn't a warm day, so we didn't swim, but we did skip rocks and spend some time just chilling in the shade.

Tonight we're camping in Lake Ontario Park.  It's a great site right on the lake.  It used to be a campground, and as you can see in the sign, the campground is closed indefinitely.  Obviously, Sea to Sea got special permission to stay the night here.  First CRC Kingston brought out a pile of salads and desserts to supplement our spaghetti dinner this evening, and they also led us in worship to start and end our peloton meeting.

Think that's all for now.  It's early to bed as the mosquitoes and sandflies are terrible here...

Day 51 - Ajax, ON to Trenton, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 5h14m19s
Distance: 139.58km
Avg Spd: 26.64km/hr
Climbing: ?

Today started out rough.  From the moment I first awoke, I was in a sour, dejected mood, and the speed at which we were forced to race through breakfast and depart from camp did not improve my spirits.  I left camp with the Top Guns plus Ryan Bruxvoort and wanted to ride slow.  We did not.

At the twenty-kilometer mark, we arrived at Hope Fellowship Church near Oshawa and the reception we received there was amazing!  This is the home church of Stan & Bernice and Joan and Alice.  There were Timbits, coffee, lemonade, water, fruit, and a candy-bar!  Not to mention the multitude of people cheering every single rider as they arrived and departed.  We easily spent a half-hour here.

Just before we left the church, Peter Slofstra (the pastor, 2005 rider, and author of "In Tandem" documenting his ride, which I read before coming on the ride) met us in the parking lot and asked me how the ride was going.  I replied with honesty that today was a tough day for me as I was weary and missed home.  He took to the time to pray for us on the spot, and asked God to bless our ride, slow us down and to see the beauty in our day.

And from that point, my day turned around.

Brandon, Karel and Mark left just as I started talking to Peter, so Ryan and I rode together.  We ride well together, and enjoy exploring and taking pauses for cool photo-ops.  A rider that crashed last week and had to return home instilled an appreciation for hay bales in Ryan, so each day he is trying to take a picture of hay bales.  Here he is getting the shot for today just right.

Later in the day, we saw a caboose of a train car at a flower shop, so we got a shot of Ryan #eloveloing (raising his bike above his head) standing on the hitch.  We got another sweet shot of him doing the same pose buried in rows of corn.

Our third, and my favorite shot of #eloveloing took a little more sleuthing.  Entering Port Hope, we saw a neat bridge in the distance...

Closer inspection revealed that the bridge was in a golf course, crossing some rail tracks.  And the ramps were gated off.  But we found a way in, and got our shot.  They aren't posted yet, but check out Ryan's blog in the next day or two to see them all...  thebicycleatlas.tumblr.com.

Port Hope was a brief stop.  Lake Ontario is big, and could easily be mistaken for ocean.  I thought of the early explorers who first came to these shores, and wondered what their thoughts and confusions might have been when debating setting out in the massive expanse of water.

We also stopped in the little town of Cobourg for some delicious pizza, and laughed when we saw the Dutch bakery named...  "The Dutch Oven."

Fellowship CRC in Brighton was our last stop of the day, with a mere 15km to go.  This is the home church of Kaitlyn, Sara and Pastor Jake.  The folks here put on an awesome spread - including ice cream, Gatorade and oliebollen!

And I got a little reminder of home, as this church was one my friend Jess from Calgary grew up in.  And she "just happened" to be home this week visiting her family!  It was so good to catch up with her, and hear a little bit about life back home.

This evening, Kaitlyn's family invited a bunch of us over for dinner, and to crash on their basement floor.  They fed us a delicious steak dinner, with corn on the cob and some great punch with blueberries in it.  To top off the evening, we took a quick dip in their hot tub, and I'm finally calling it a night just before midnight.

Looking back on the day, God's presence and orchestration of things is hard to miss.  I'm super grateful for good friends, good food, reminders of home, hot tubs, candy-bars, eloveloing, pawn shopping and all the other good memories from today.  My legs felt like trash all day, but I still look back on the day and can honestly say it has been one of my favorite of the tour.