Summary Report

We haven't had any web service for the past three days, and have the weakest of signals tonight, but I will try to put up a couple of the blogs I wrote in the in between time. No pictures tonight, although I've taken a bunch, but not a strong enough signal to upload any pictures.

In summary, the new roads have been much better (safer), but they have also been longer and more hilly. Today we rode through the Algonquin Provincial Park which is the Canadian equivalent to Yellow Stone National Park. It has a million lakes and is surrounded by lush greet forests. And the road went UP and DOWN all day.

It was also Joe's 64th birthday. (yea, he's just a kid), but we had a great dinner and celebration tonight. Tomorrow we ride to Renfrow, ON. which is a far out suburb of Ottawa...and then take our last day off on Sunday. We then ride for six more days to finish in Portland on the 31st.

Here are the other posts.

Ride Against Hunger
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

White Birches Camp Ground
Rode 80 Miles from Sudbury to Port Loring, Ontario

Topic for the day: Daily Routine

The one thing we have learned to count on is change. Two nights ago, we were stressed and distressed. We had ridden unsafe roads all day and had the prospect of several more days of the same. But we circled the wagons, re-planned our route, and today took off in a different direction—South rather than East.

About noon I told Joe that so far, we were geniuses. We had four lane highways, wide shoulders and wind to our backs. What’s more, it was Canada at its very best with lakes, beautiful rivers, and miles of woods in between. We rode 80 stress free miles into the most beautiful campground of our whole trip. So we are rejuvenated and excited about our final nine days of riding. We haven’t made a decision yet as to whether we will take another down day. We will decide on the basis of how tired we get over the next few days.

I thought you might like to know the routine Joe and I have fallen into. We pretty much follow this same scenario every day.

-Get up, dressed, breakfast and leave no later than 7 a.m. (When we first left Cindy and Kathy would come out and take pictures of us as we rode out of the campsite. Now they may wave out the door as we leave.)

-We ride 15 miles and take our first break, usually not more than five minutes, but long enough to stretch, maybe strip off jackets or long pants, and take care of personal needs.

-As we ride we take turns as the lead rider. If I start I ride one mile and then Joe charges by me and he leads for a mile. We do this to preserve energy. The second rider puts out much less energy than the leader as he is protected from some of the wind. We continue this practice throughout the day.

-At mile 25 we take our second break, just like the first, only here we may begin to take in some refreshment. Joe always eats half of a Luna or Cliff Bar, carefully saving the other half for the next break. My snack-food is a micro waved sweet potato that I eat during my breaks.

-We then take a break every ten miles thereafter without fail. At the ten mile mark whoever is leading just pulls over in as convenient location as possible. The breaks are almost never more than 5-7 minutes, and then we are on our way again. Each ten-mile segment takes about 45 minutes counting breaks.

-At mile 55 almost without fail, Cindy and Kathy show up in our rear vision mirrors and ask if we are ready for lunch. Most often we are, and so they stop and we eat lunch together someplace along the road.

-After lunch, Joe and I continue the ten-mile segments and usually finish well before 2:30 or 3:00 depending upon how many miles we are doing. Today we did 80 miles and completed our ride by about 2 pm.

-The rest of the day is taken up with setting up the RV, taking showers, naps (sometimes), bike cleaning and repairs, fixing dinner (Joe or I usually are cooking something on the grill). We have had absolutely wonderful meals, night after night due to the diligent work of Kathy and Cindy to find and prepare locally grown and produced foods.

-After dinner we get out our laptop computers and if we have adequate web-coverage, write and post our blogs, just as I’m doing tonight. We are usually in bed before 10 p.m., and then up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. ready to do it all over again. Is this living or what?

-It is working well for us and as of tonight we have only a few riding days left. We are beginning to talk about last days and last nights, and not buying any more of this or that. The challenge now is to stay in the present and ride today…not Friday of next week.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hard Riding Days!

Some days on a bicycle trip like this are pure pleasure. The riding comes easy and the beauty is overwhelming. Other days are not (pure pleasure). These days are hard work. From the time you start in the morning until the time you finish, it’s just a grind. Today was one of those days! From the moment we left the campsite and started up a 10% grade hill on gravel, to the dense fog and sharp hills, to the afternoon road construction, it was not a fun day. The simple goal became to finish the dang ride.

I’ve noticed, however, that what contributes the most to good days and or bad days is the attitude I bring to the ride. If I have an expectation that the day will be easy or fun or that I will be strong and have no problem with the hills, etc. etc. I will almost always be disappointed, and then start feeling cheated that the day didn’t work out “the way it was suppose to.”

The other (better) choice is for me to simply accept what is…and look for the good in it. If it is a lot of hills then I know that they are challenging me to get stronger and they provide a different vantage point to see the beauty of what is around me. If there is wind in my face, to enjoy the breeze and keep in mind that on other days that breeze has been at my back and pushed me up hills.

I work at bringing the positive attitude to the ride. Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes I fail terribly. But I am learning that I have much more control over my good days and my bad days than I thought before leaving on this trip, and that how I approach the day is the key to having more good than bad riding days.

This principle may hold true in other aspects of my life. I guess I’ll find out when the ride is over…just eight more riding days left to get us to Portland. We’ll be home before we know it, and then I’ll wish we were back on the road….so enjoy it Rich!

Today we rode 85 miles from Port Loring to Huntsville, Ontario. All our rides for the next few days are between 80 and 90 miles. Our average daily ride is now over 70 per day. Not bad for a couple old guys…and speaking of OLD, Joe Ossmann’s birthday is tomorrow. He’ll be 64 years old. We will celebrate!