a big sigh, for all the right reasons.

with 3 days left now i am perfectly content with where i am, i'm almost sick of riding my bike (just a little bit) but still enjoying my time here. a lot of things are going to change very quickly and it will be tough to transition but also nice to break out of the routine. today we finally hit some hills, which i have kind of forgotten about, i didn't like them, the NY roads have been great but there is a lot of debris on the sides so i have still had 2 flats in the last couple days. this week has been great overall, on friday i woke up real early to book it to a Blue Jays game. i had back pack of my clothes but forgot it at one of the many lunch stops so i had to get a ride back to pick it up as i didn't have time time to bike back, i bike the hardest i have in a long time just to make it to camp on time to catch our ride. Brad Geerlinks parents were the ones taking us to the game and they were unbelievable this weekend. first they drove out 2 hrs to pick us up, then drove 2 hours to bring us to the game, then parked the vans while we watched the game, after the game they drove us back to their house and served us supper, the next morning they made us bacon and eggs and had two vehicles going different places as we cyclists are stubborn and don't concede anymore to the group plan. we changed our plans during the morning and they still went with it. as for me and a group, we were driven my Mrs. Geerlinks (Diane) to Niagra falls where she went with us on the maid of Mist (nice work Diane) even though she didn't really want to, another hour and a half of driving to get us to our rally. another super host for the record books. as well, thank you mom for the care package with more new clothes, no more though k as i need to pack it all home, oh and do you mind if i throw away the sleeping bag and mattress? the bag is more ripped and gross, the mattress leaks a lot and the pump has to be held together to work, i'm definitely chucking my tent as there is more duct tape on it than even red green would recommend, the poles are all split, the pegs are bent, and it wreaks to high heavens. Thank you to the Telkwa CRC for your letters of support on the tour, the last one was quite humorous even though i don't know who's faces were photoshopped on the 4 seat bike lol. k my battery is dieing so i gotta be quick. the hospitality on the tour continues as the other day when we were on sweep we stopped at the cozy kitchen restaurant for a second breakfast (we do that a lot these days) we all ordered our sizable meals and then were informed by our waittress that a fella named Pat at the other table was paying for our entire meal! he was retired but originally lived in Spokane Washington, which on this tour actually is close to home. this was after we recieved $10 towards our breaky from a lady who followed us to the restaurant after we had asked her where the best place was for breakfast. we gave the money towards the tour of course. In other news, i am now a full fledged celebrity as i had a minute long interview with "the Whale" radio station in Binghampton, Kaitlyn and I are also the subjects in this weeks caption photo in the Sea to Sea letter, feel free to submit your finest captions. as for those who surround me and make me feel better about my inperfections, Denise crashed again and now her bike is barely gonna make it to Jersey, Lawrence has been busy as the bike tech dude spending the hours on Denise's bike required to keep it running. When we crossed the border the first major stop was timmies, as we saw it in the states and knew we had to, the great part was that some people (like lawrence) who had gotten seperated from our riding group knew that we were there as soon as they caught up and saw it. it was a good day. I've had a couple top speed events lately. the other day we dropped down to the lake level on a 12% grade and i hit 86km/hr, as well a couple days ago i drafted a camper vehicle for like 8km at 70-80km/hr until he saw me and honked me off. last night the computer i was using died so i am now finishing and posting today sorry, today was an awesome ride even though there was over 7000ft of climbing. they were rollers so we coasted up most of the incline, we were 25km awasy from camp and then took 3 1/2 hrs to finish from there, we found a DQ and ended up sitting there cheering on all the bikers who passed and gave them cups of water from DQ on there way up the hill we were on, that was fun, in general everybody is in a pretty happy mood and just can't contain it. we're all yelling at each other in jest and laughing and feeling energized (at least my group anyway) This will be my last blog post for sea to sea tour so i hope you all enjoyed it. I am going to miss everybody soooo much in a couple days and am already feeling a little glum (i know its sounds oxymoronic) in some ways. ok i have to go, this last day is packed and is going by way too fast, i feel like its flying by me and i'm just trying to grasp at a couple of the hundreds of memories that are developing at the end here. love you all, thanks for reading, this has been one of the greatest experiences anyone could ever participate in. out.

your favorite title: picture time!

dad here's the plymouth superbird. we'll go through more later.

had to cross these tracks to take pictures by the indiana/michigan signs, got caught so they tied us up and left us for dead, they were nice enough to take a picture though, then we mggivered our way out with rocks and clif bars, don't ask me how we did it.

just a cool shot i thought of the dew on the tent in the morning.

yah us dutch boys are really tall, but seriously this is probably how tall stretch (mark) is, thus the name, he is not in this picture though, alex is the head and john V is the legs.

this was at the 5/3rds ball park for our Grand Rapids Celebration Rally, we were about to do our walkin entrance here.

we went to Peter's friends hobby farm where one of the guys had a warm room with all kind's of cool reptiles and such, my face is funny cuz he was getting close so i was smiling but pulling my head away.

also from our bullriding adventure, (i did not ride one as i kinda wanted to finish the tour for sure) this is alex getting slammed to the ground, he did well though, bit of a sore ride the next day.

posing with some excellent Canadian staples.
Well here i sit at 11:20 in the evening at my Aunt Diane and Uncle Nick's house. they fed me a really great meal (which i took forever to eat) and then we checked out my tour photo's (which they were gracious enough to sit through, all in all i had a great visit with them. since they live in ingersoll i rode an extra 27km past london with unlce nick to get there, so now i have even less to do tomorrow, sweet. today was pretty tiring though as i did a century ride in the end and 40km of that was a time trial 25 of us did which was organized by Bill Wybenga. Cool experience as it was a learning experience on how hard you can push yourself and still endure the ride. had my first experience with aerobars, didn't like em at all. so this morning i found out that ants will find anything. when i woke up at 6:15 (yes it's true) i was excited to eat the plate of desserts i saved from yesterday's awesome potluck dinner, last night i put the plate on a chair and figured it'd be safe...wrong, when i looked at it there were hundreds of ants who obviously climbed all the way up and were enjoying my desserts, oh well, lesson learned i guess. the good news is that i got cinnamon raisin bagel cuz i was up early enough! I'm not sure what to think right now about the fact we barely have over a week left. part of me is content to leave this physically demanding routine with very little downtime, while the other is sad that this beautiful bikeride packed with action is almost over. overall though i'm still in regular tour mode and just thinking about the day at hand. the hospitality has been amazing still and keeps going on into Canada. when we crossed the border we had a huge reception with all the canadian goodies we've been missing, such as sweetened ice tea and tim horton's coffee, in addition they had king mints, dropjes, canday, cupcakes, timbits etc. almost daily we've had lunch stops, to the point where its almost not necessary to pack a lunch, and i guess the kitchen ladies don't have many suppers to make as churches are doing a lot of that these days. way to go Canada! Guess what?! this saturday i am getting a white tire for the front of my bike, doug schoon ordered it on ebay and got it sent to St. Catherines for me, i'm so pumped. speakin of schoons, Jeff, doug's brother decided to get caught on the railroad tracks and got thrown down, injuring his shoulder, he's a tropper though and kept on biking...them schoons. anyway there is a lot more that's been going on but i'm wiped. if you're looking for a vacation, the seatosea bike tour is not your ticket, it's a great experience but not a relaxing holiday. i'm glad i know how to type with out looking at the keyboard or the screen as i am now typing with my eyes closed. i will post some pics though before i go to bed. here yah go. i know they're never biking pics, but really, riding a bike is only so interesting on a picture.

the nestea plunge

bloggeria, everybody's got it.

right now i'm sitting in the hotel lobby of the Prince Conference Center at Calvin, this University is also loaded. Our whole correspondence with calvin seems slightly dissjointed however, kind of like the community wanted us here but Calvin really sees us a nuissance. i'm not entirely sure why but a few other people have felt the smae way, just really minor things that hint at it i guess.
Yesterday was great as it was a really short day with 5 or so refreshment stops. Doug and I also proved the merit of sleeping in as we missed breakfast but then caught the free pancake breakfast that the CRC campground hosts (at a more reasonable hour), thus, behold we got an extra hour of sleep and a better breakfast (i believe it was just porridge, today) chalk another one up for they late risers. the ride was easy and without much effort most people (including the 130ish extra riders for today) made it in for the mass entrance into Calvin. Once we got in the gear truck was unloaded and then camp became desserted with all the people staying with friends, family and billets. in a way it was nice though as i just hung out, caught up on some interweb shannanigans, had a nap, and otherwise had a nice change of pace from the normal hyper socializing that is 140 ppl living together. this morning i tried to sleep in but got baked and steamed out of my tent so now i'm blogging and relaxing a bit more as we don't have lunch till 12 and then a celebration rally at 2pm, it breaks the day up poorly but i've enjoyed the morning time.
I'm beginning to realize that the east does have something to offer, i've really enjoyed passing through many of the towns lately as they just seem to have more charm. their midsized towns often have great downtown areas with lots of unique shops and cafes. perhaps this becomes less important once you live there but i think it makes a town. lots of character that seems to be lacking in many western cities i think of. I've already said to people on three different occasions that i could live in this place, Boise was one of them, Denver another, and now Holland Michigan. (although Boise and Denver are Central to West. dad maybe you can look at investing here ;)
In other news, dad i hate to make you more jealous than you are already with me being on tour, but the other day i was biking and in a window i caught a glimpse of the yellow fin of a plymouth superbird, thus i turned around and checked it out. full story later but after knocking on the door of this guys private garage, i saw a $1M purple Hemi Cuda (that's what it sold for at the Barrett Jackson a couple years ago, a 528k orange Hemi Cuda, the yellow superbird and more. i have pics of the specs too so you can tell me the stories when i get home.
well we've crossed another two state lines in the past week, i believe it is because we are so in shape that we just cruise through terrain at mach speeds. what can i say, we're amazing. Kevin pasma and i took some time at lake michigan however to do the Nestea plunge. if you don't know the commercial you won't get it but it was funny. pics later. The reason we have Nestea, and a lot of it, is that we recieved a ton of bottled juices and drinks from some organization and so the tour is trying to get rid of it at every possible turn as storage is an issue. thus we have had a plethora of drinks whenever we want. and with all the food that is coming out of the cracks in the east, combined with much easier days, we may all be obese luggards by the time jersey city hits. we may need a 2011 tour to work it off. i have not gained or lost a single pound though, and that story hasn't changed since about grade 11.
anyway i realize that when i have time i write way too much about not a lot, i apologize. uncle nick and aunt diane, i will try to get a hold of you as we're pretty close to ingersoll. if you wouln't mind emailing me your phone# (or dad, if you know it)I would really, really, like to see you guys, and maybe even ride with uncle nick for a day. enjoy for now.

a career as a tv tent setter upper.

this morning something happened, it was unbelievable, somethat that does not happen often, sorry what's that? a meteor shower? oh yah that too, but more importantly, i got up before 7am!!! unlike yesterday where i woke up at 7:20 considered sleeping in and getting breakfast on the route, finally jumped out of my tent at 7:30 and mad dashed it to the breakfast table to pick up some scraps. as a result of today's early rising i got the privilege of riding with John Vanderveen, Brad and others that i have not seen lately on the dusty trail. now i say dusty as today we rode a bike path for over 60k that was mainly packed dirt. we also got a ton of tarry oil on our tires from new pavement. my bike is filthy, but i will not clean it, no, i will wait till later. a bunch of us also did an extra 38k as we took a wrong turn on the bike path and had to get back onto the correct route. another century day for us. It seems as though a lot of weird stuff happened today, the traffic here is crazy and they don't seem to care about bikers, they don't stop ever and they run you off the road, just ask Heidi and Denise, Heidi likes to get in front of cars so they halt and cause the younger sister to crash into the back of the car. someone needs to seperate those two before someone gets hurt. by the way Bernice, thank you very much for doing our laundry on saturday, much appreciated. the skeeters here are starting to come back pretty harshly, just like home, i am not homesick. The days are really becoming more enjoyable again as there is more to see in shorter distances and we are starting to get into the CRC belt, apparently we have 11 CRC refreshment stops on saturday, but that's fine with me as i no longer seem to have the drive to push myself hard in pacelines or keep high averages. oh and did you know we're in chicago? the only thing i remember of chicago is that it took us 3 hours to get through one year on vacation. i remember looking at the people in the cars next to us in our motorhome in standstill traffic, woot. we're going to miss the downtown area though which is dissapointing. k so i'm bagged, again, quick journal entry and then bed. i may be on the news tomorrow setting up my tent, the news caster was getting some pretty intense footage of me putting the poles through the sliders. i've been on the news for this before too. i'm trying to brand my tv identity right now and i figure the tent setter upper is a great niche that hasn't really been tapped into yet. night

its been a week! time for pictures

wow i didn't realize it has been a week since my last post...i was actually informed of this little detail by Heidi and Denise's mom who surprised them with a visit and apparantly also reads my blog as it is conveniently at the top of the list...although i'm sure she likes my blog more than the rest. a lot has happened i guess, we've crossed two state lines, we've peddled our rear ends off, and we've even had a little fun along the way (say it in your children's broadcast voice). the few century days we had were long but the weather has been pretty favorable and so it has been bearable...although it poured last night and drenched everything, this week has been our first real experience with it...we made it half way without it. i've been doing pretty well as far as flats as i haven't had one in over a week and a half i don't think. Today Kevin pasma had one though and we had to use a $1 bill to keep the new tube from ripping open the tire further, we had to search for it though as we didn't want to use a five or 20. good ol american $1 bills. this week we also stayed at dordt for a night which and got to sleep in the dorms their, funny how while in college they seemed ghetto but that night they were a luxury. unlike college though our food on this trip has been amazing, i was saying to some of the guys that i could eat like this for the rest of my life and i'd be happy. Dordt sure seems to have a ton of cash though as it is a beautiful campus with some pretty nice buildings. the next morning we got to take whole roles of King peppermints for lunch, i may have taken four...but i figure that normally the early birds get great seletion but can only take a little bit, so by the end us normal people have nothing to choose from but a lot of it, so we get quantity over quality, that's how i justify it, and i share so its all good. my butt has been killing me still even with the new seat. oh well. i have also not been gettig near enough sleep (this blog isn't helping so be very thankful lol) and it is starting to show as i am a little more lethargic these days. still searching for that evasive white tire for the front, will keep you posted. lately it seems like we have been getting a lot more free food as well which has been awesome, refreshment stops including donuts, gatorade's and coffee, great pizza supper donated by dordt food services and dessert baked by local families, so good, and apprantly it is gonna get better as we go up into ontario...i hope they're right (wink - that's for you ontarians out there). k well i'm just going to load some pictures up now and then call it a week if that's ok, pretty tired. hope you passed your course mom lol, hope you're little rascal campers behaved and that work is going well darcy (remember you need money for australia when i get back) and i hope the cars are selling and the fish are biting dad. love you lots.


you're right mom, sharon did visit, and it was great, sharon i forgot to put it in my blog, here is a picture to make up for it!

Denise, Heidi, Kaitlyn and I watched a couple movies at the lutheran church across from our camp as they let us invade the church for the afternoon, this was the day it was like 104 degrees and crazy humidity. so nice.

this is the second refreshment stop after it had rained on us, we were all huddled drinking coffee under the covering, still all smiles though, it takes a lot to get this group to frown.

ah yes a great pose, this is the first time this trip i've worn my leg and arm warmers and my rain coat, apparantly everyone liked the way i had my jacket lifted around my waist. i realize this picture is wrong on so many levels lol.

ok so this is still at the refreshment stop, i guess the raind just does things to people, kevin and eric are crazy drivers.

this picture was meant to show a pace line in a cross wind as everyone was in formation, then eric moved, oh well, this is when lawrence and i were tagging along on the the Stehouwer(sp?) express (up front is larry with mark in tow, then lawrence at the back and eric on the left, larry mark and eric are father and two sons, father larry had many sons, many sons had father larry, mark is one of them, and so is eric, so let's all praise the lord.

just a cool pic of all our bikes in front of an old style main street building

hittin up wisconsin, the sign needs a bit of work, a few coats of solid stain would do the trick. "good thing Kaitlyn was there to BRIGHTON it up." - says kaitlyn

on our third century day everyone was feeling pretty good about the last two, so we stopped for an hour and a half at the simply cafe for an amazing lunch (although they ran out of their special and then out of turkey so i finally got an order in on my third try)right next door was the Prairie Peddler, a little bike shop where the girls picked up a t-shirt.

dad, this one's for you, we saw a car show today and i had to stop, there were only 10 cars at the time but then this 1972 Plymouth Cuda 340 (E body, Pistol Grip 4 Speed) just rolled in as we did so that was sweet. apparently there were gonna be like 75 cars there and the guy there said there are a ton of shows this time of year and if its raining one morning you just wait till later on in the day and go to another one, or the next day. figured you'd like that.

today is sunday and we have finally hit humidity. i cannot believe how much it makes you sweat. thankfully the luthern church right next door found out about our group and have been unbelievably hospitable. they've let us sleep in the church which is air conditioned and have been freshly making so many baked goods and snacks. they also let us use the gym for peleton. one of the ladies even specially made bowls of popcorn and snacks for a small group of us who were watching a movie inside. there have been some great memories from the last couple days. doug and i were riding together (as we were both unbelievably late in leaving) and came across a little turtle that was sunbathing on the side of the road. at first it was scared but did eventually poke its head out and walk around a bit. we asked others who had left earlier if they had seen it but unfortunately there eagerness left them without this great experience :) Yesterday we also had the great opportunity to lace up the skates as we stayed at the YMCA in Fremont which has a rink which we were allowed to use...it was amazing how fast all of us canadian boys grabbed a pair of skates and got a game going. there was one american on the ice...erik stehouwer...and it was obvious lol. he had red legwarmers underneath his tiny running shorts, combined with a toque under his bike helmet...so funny, so awesome. there were also a couple guys who had just rode in after 154km, before anything else they laced up and jumped on the ice in their spandex shorts and jersey, complete with bike helmet. i sustained my worst injuries on the tour so far on the ice though. lawrence got the puck and shot it at the net, unfortunately i was in the way and he can't keep the puck on the ice. shin meet puck...oh well i wasn't the only one and it was all worth it. this week is going to be crazy...if you've looked ahead in the devotional you'll see we have 2 180k days and other long ones...and it will be hot and humid. i think i'm ready for anything now though and the biking is no longer really taking any tolls, i feel like i am as conditioned as i'll get. could start having a few problems though with my knees. etc. we've been passing through some funny named towns lately, Max, Funk, Waco, Wahoo, and even Gresham, who is one of the guys on the tour (elegible bachelor anyone?) k well i need to get a good nights sleep. i will do another picture upload sometime, with my bombproof camera, a while ago in the tour i was going to take a picture of a group of riders in front of me and i crossed lanes to get a good angle...i hit the middle rumble strip and dropped my camera at 30km/hr. it smashed on the pavement and skidded off the road and got a big dent in the casing...still works like a charm...great camera. enjoy...oh and lawrence fell again...love that guy.

yawn

wow i can't believe the last time i blogged was last saturday...i would say time is flying by but this week has been long, hot and boring again. despite that though i have still been having good days, perhaps i'm more conditioned so these 150k days through the heat aren't so bad. on thursday lawrence and i killed it and cleared 153k in 4hrs and 26 minutes, avging 36.11km/hr haven't worked that hard in a while. as a result the first 70k today were terrible. we stopped in at a little cafe though and talked with a few groups of ppl, a biker even was going down the street and then turned around to talk to us. in the cafe a local baker was havin lunch and was so impressed with what we were doing that he went back and brought us two fresh round loaves of bread. we gave one to Walter, one of the SAG drivers. this week has been crazy with accidents. it seems everyday people are having serious falls, i think in the last week and a half there have been like 9 pretty major falls. wednesday was a sad day as i realized i forgot my favorite pair of shorts at the Wray community pool on monday...i've probably worn them like 8 times...(sigh). Kaitlyn fell...again...but her ego never seems to take a hit.(lol) lawrence fell, twice, his first one was going 10km/hr while looking back and yelling hi to someone, at which point he went over his handle bars into a ditch, his second one was doing about the same speed at which point he got hit my a car...or should i say he hit it...it was a parked SUV...lawrence is ok, although he has been having a rough week as tonight doug fell into lawrence and sat on his plate of food in his lap. you may wonder why i'm talking about others, i think its cuz not much has happened this week. i guess i did get politely asked 5 times to dismount the bronze horses in front of the invesco stadium in Denver (the bronco's home field) well i guess my life is pretty boring right now. that is not meant to offend all you people working hard out there...well maybe i am rubbing it in a little. Enjoy!