Day 50 - Ancaster, ON to Ajax, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h32m21s
Distance: 124.09km
Avg Spd: 27.3km/hr
Climbing: 520m

Good, flat ride today from Ancaster, through Toronto and into Ajax.  No serious events, but it was cool to see Lake Ontario, the CN tower, and the busy-ness of downtown TO.

Our route took us down some sweet secondary roads, just off the lake.  The streets were heavily treed, and the houses that lined them were mansions.

Note in the above picture that Brandon is wearing the "Traveling Tutu."  This is a new game started today where-in the recipient of the tutu must wear it for an hour, then pass it off to another rider.  If the Tutu is on your shelf in the morning, it's yours to start the day. I hope this game doesn't last for too long.

Here's a sweet shot of the bay as we approached downtown.

And a shot of the Top Guns (minus Karel, plus Adam).  Karel had passport issues today, and had to take the day off of riding to get a new one issued post-haste.  He's in camp again this evening and all is in place for our border crossing next week.

And another sweet shot of the lake with a bunch of sailboats.

The other highlight of the day was SAG 3, where Katie's mom, Marti, and another lady from Newmarket CRC had Drumsticks waiting for us cyclists!  As I've said before - Ice Cream is the way to a cyclist's heart!

After leaving the beach, we rolled through this awesome neighborhood, just off of Queen Street.  I had to chuckle at the sign on the left condemning street hockey players...

We're camped tonight at the Ajax community center.  Showers were available at the arena.  We can swim in the pool.  They have Internet.  There's soccer fields, basketball courts and a skate park within a stones-throw of camp.  We've just pitched tents on the greenspace in between two of the play areas...  and it works just fine.

Day 48/49 - Breslau, ON to Ancaster, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 2h12m40s
Distance: 71.60km
Avg Spd: 32.4km/hr
Climbing: 436m

The ride on Saturday was short, and as such, the Top Guns were the last ones out of camp again, and intended on a fast ride.  We did.

Maranatha CRC hosted our first SAG stop, where a large number of day-riders joined us, including Ed (the 2005 & 2008 tour director), Matt (Peter Wong's friend and organizer of the 2014 Love in Motion) and their friend Greg.  We cruised along at a very rapid pace for the rest of the day, all the way to Redeemer College.

Almost immediately arriving on campus, I was greeted by John, Connie and Spencer Byl (my aunt & uncle).  They live in Hamilton, and have been putting me up all weekend, feeding me wonderfully and showing me around town.

I spent Saturday afternoon doing laundry and drying out my tent, then we went to the mall to try and get my cell phone working again.  It was strange being around so many people again, all of whom were unconcerned with my existence and the journey I am on.  Saturday night we went out for dinner, then watched a movie into the wee hours of the evening.

Sunday was a busy day - John & Connie's church (Meadowland Fellowship CRC) welcomed all the Sea to Sea-ers to join their service, and fed us a great chili potluck.

My friend Meghan Thomson and her friend Rachel came to visit from St Catharines after lunch, and we grabbed coffee and caught up on life and quizzed me about life on the tour.

At 3pm today we held a celebration service at the Redeemer auditorium, that was attended by almost 1,000 people!  I forgot my camera, but rest assured there were lots of people, and lots of cyclists.  I'm not sure who led worship, but the band was amazing.  Representatives from World Renew, the RCA and Partners Worldwide all spoke briefly about their work, and encouraged the cyclists to continue the good work.

Dinner tonight was home-cooked goodness on the BBQ with John & Connie.  We went for an after-dinner walk down at Bayfront Park with Spencer and Dexter.

Tomorrow we're back on the road to Ajax, along with 36 new riders.  It's hard to believe we've finished seven weeks of riding already.  Seven weeks!  In two weeks from today, this trip will be a memory, and we will all be returning to our regular lives.  But the best of the ride is yet to come!

Day 47 - London, ON to Breslau, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h32m05s
Distance: 117.30km
Avg Spd: 25.9km/hr
Climbing: 806m

Easy ride today.  I last minute decided to ride with Ryan Bruxvoort from Indiana.  Besty Fox joined us for the first two SAG stops, then sped off with another group of girls ahead of us.

It was an awesome day.  The sun shone and the roads weren't too busy.  Highlights include:
* Lunch at Shakers restaurant
* A crop-dusting helicopter
* Marc Van Otteren drafting a semi at 45mph
* The small group sound-off challenge at peloton tonight
* Pics of Ryan hoisting his bike on top of a hay bale

No pics today.  We'll be in Hamilton tomorrow, and I get to see my aunt & uncle John & Connie!  So exciting!

Day 46 - Sarnia, ON to London, ON

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h35m17s
Distance: 128.37km
Avg Spd: 28.0km/hr
Climbing: 583m
Calories burned: 4,227

Today we started out with a little detour out of camp.  Karel led us back down to the waterfront to check out the bridges.  They were big and carried cars.  If you look closely, you might be able to see the "Welcome to Michigan" sign for the cars heading across to the USA.

The ride today was really flat.  We cruised along, but not too fast as there was a headwind from the NE.  Peter Wong and Eric Stehouwer joined us for the ride.  Somehow the corn fields looked that much better, knowing they are in Canada...

Did y'all see what I did up above...  listing the calories I burned today?  That's to help me justify eating this today: Bacon Cheeseburger Poutine from Smokes Poutinerie!  Nothing says "welcome to Canada" to the Americans like a little French fries, cheese and gravy - with extra toppings!  Brandon, Mark, Eric and Malori all tried this for the first time and were suitably impressed.

The route through London was largely through the river pathways. The pavement wasn't too smooth, but it was great to get away from the cars for a bit.

Accommodations tonight are at London Christian High School.  We're out on the soccer field, and a few folks are stretched out in the hallways.  Temps are supposed to drop to 10C tonight, so we should sleep great outside.

Day 45 - Imlay City, MI to Sarnia, ON (CANADA!!)

Daily Stats:
Time: 4h13m06s
Distance: 125.04km
Avg Spd: 29.64km/hr
Climbing: ??

We woke up today to a storm warning, and lightening flashing in the distance.  This is the scene during breakfast this morning...  the sun is up, no rain yet, but dark, ominous clouds were everywhere.

Around 7am, the skies opened up again, and unleashed torrents of water on us.  Thankfully I don't usually leave camp until 7:30-8am, so we were able to take refuge in the school for an hour, waiting for things to lighten up.  The rain certainly didn't stop, but it did ease up around 8am, so we hit the road.  The toughest thing mentally is to start a ride in the rain - it's like jumping into a cold lake: you just need to make the plunge.  Same thing this morning.  Once you're all geared up, all that's left to do is get wet.

And so we did.  We rode our first 45km in the rain, then after it stopped, we rode in the leftover slop and road grime.  By the time we reached Marine City, the rain had stopped, but we had a bit of headwind and the skies were clear-ish.  The beautiful, blue St Claire River met us, and we sat in a little cafe while we waited for the rest of the riders to arrive for our ferry crossing.

Fifty people was the limit on the ferry, so we took over two trips to get across, plus the semi trucks.  It was only cyclists on my crossing...

Immediately after we crossed through customs, the people of Sarnia had a big spread of cookies, coffee and watermelon for us in the adjacent park. The route into the school was also well marked with balloons and bright red and white signs.

Then when we showed up at the Christian School, the gym was all decked out in red and white Canada colors and the locals church prepared an epic meal of pork chops, potatoes and beans, not to mention a dessert table that blew my mind.

Tonight we're crashing at Karel's parents' place about ten minutes from the school.  We had hot showers, Wi-Fi, laundry and real beds with sheets!  Big thanks to Mr & Mrs Van Klaveren for hosting us guys tonight...

Day 44 - Sleepy Hollow SP, MI to Imlay City, MI

Daily Stats:

Time: 4h54m54s

Distance: 125.05

Avg Spd: 25.4km/hr

Climbing: 544m

Easy ride today.  I started out with the Top Guns, as we once again were the last ones out of camp.  We picked up two new riders - Leo and Peter - both from Ontario, who were also on sweep duty.

Leo rides a sweet, old Specialized Sekine from the 1970s, and we ended up hanging back off the pack after the first SAG.  After SAG 3, we teamed up with Ava, Malori and Betsy, and cruised through the rest of the day at an easy 25km/hr.

After SAG 3 the skies opened up and it rained for a solid hour.  It was cold and miserable.  Many people were caught off guard and didn't have the right clothes, but thankfully I had packed my rain jacket in my saddle bag.

We stopped for donuts and warm beverages in Lapeer at Max's Bakery and chatted with some locals and the owners for a good half hour before knocking off the final 20km to camp.

Camp tonight is at the Imlay City High School.  I'm camping out in the field, even though the gym was opened up for us to use.  It's too hot inside, so I'm counting on it being much cooler outside for sleeping.

Not much else exciting to report tonight.  But tomorrow we enter Canada!! (This means my cell phone will be back on tomorrow night...)

Day 43 - Grand Rapids, MI to Sleepy Hollow SP, MI

Daily Stats:

Time: 3h18m51s

Distance: 107.44km

Avg Spd: 32.4km/hr

Climbing: 491m

Short, easy ride today out of Calvin College.  We all had to meet for a prayer/send-off at 7am, so the ride group was somewhat 'equalized' today in our departure.  The Top Guns, along with Ryan B and John D were the last to leave camp, and we decided to see if we could be the first ones in.  It didn't end up happening, but we probably had the quickest ride time.

No pictures of the ride today because we were powering so much, but we did have a videographer ride with us for a good portion of the day.  Nick from Grand Rapids had been kicking around since Holland, wrenching our bikes and taking some pictures and videos.  Not sure when, but at some point I'll try and track down the rolling footage he grabbed from today.

Camp tonight is at Sleepy Hollow State Park.  The campground was built around a manmade lake, and is named after a local farmer named IB Crane (similar to the fictional Ichabod Crane from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow").  We'll find out tonight if there's a headless horseman that haunts this area...

There are 36 new riders and volunteers that joined us yesterday, so camp is absolutely overflowing with new people.  But it's only really noticeable in the lineup for dinner.

We started up a campfire after peloton and small groups this evening.  It's a wonderful thing to sit around a fire and laugh.  I'm incredibly exhausted this evening, so I left the group early and will be lights out in a few in minutes.