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.