Doug and Joy - Sea to Sea bicycle ride

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2008-09-02T21:07:00.001-04:00

As I'm writing this, I'm at home, sitting in my lazy boy chair, with a cup of coffee next to me. I'm not worried about my battery going dead because there's a electrical outlet next to me. It's a comfortable 77 degrees in our house, and If I choose to, it will remain 77 all day long.

This is likely our final entry to our blog, and we need to try to put closure to our 9 weeks of touring the United States on bicycles. When people ask us to describe our trip, I'm not sure that I have the ability to do that. The trip brought all of our emotion to their limits. I can still recall the excitement of leaving Puget Sound in Washington,and heading inland towards the cascade mountains. Then the 2nd day of the tour, when we reached them, climbing our very first mountain ever. The temperatures were in the high 90's, changing my 6th flat tire for the day and suffering from heat exhaustion . The grade was far steeper and longer then anything we've experienced before. I was exhausted and at that moment, if my phone had service, I was ready for a ride back to camp, and then to the airport.

Then I can also remember coming to a mountain river the water was crashing down with so much power we could hardly hear each other talk. I was thinking, "How amazing is our God, to create something like this."

If we were in a car we would have completely missed it, or been in to much of a hurry to stop and listen to the power of the falls, or move to just the right position to see the small rainbow made by the spray.

Then later coming to another stream the gently and quietly flowed through the ferns and trees.

I can remember riding into the canyons on the dry side of the Cascade Mountains that was so beautiful that riding on a bike was going to fast to take all the beauty in.

I realized that how blessed we are as Americans to have such a diverse nation. How each area of our country is different, yet ideally suited for something totally different. Some states have unending fields of wheat, while others have corn, beans, grapes, and hops.

We were also able to met many people who we'll not forget. People all over cherish the same thing, to be loved and treated with respect. We'll never forget Northern Lighthouse church, who go into the local prisons to reach the inmates. They bring them into their church and when all the other rehabs have failed, they show them that giving their life over to the Lord is the one rehab that will give them a new and better life.

Over the past nine weeks we've become very close to other riders, many who I'm afraid that we'll never see again.

We've also learned that we can live very contently with much less then we have. I remember after a day of riding, relaxing in a lawn chair next to our tent. As a slight cool breeze blew across me, I thought, "Why am I so blessed, I have a tent, chair, and now a cool breeze."

We are also blessed by so many people supporting us along the way. We know that many members of our home church prayed for our safety every day. Our family members encouraged us almost everyday by calling or writing encouragements on this blog. Strangers would spend hours, maybe even days preparing for us before we entered their towns so we had food and places to sleep. Others we didn't even know would pay for our meals in restaurants after we told them what we were doing. Still others open up their homes and let us sleep in their spare bedrooms at night.
How can we possibly thank all of you for your kindness shown to us?

Was the Sea to Sea ride a life changing event?
Over 2.1 million dollars were raised by the tour. Some of the money will go to micro loans for families in South America, and Haiti and Africa, struggling to survive. Some of the money will be going to help those in our own inter cities All of the money raise will be going to help families around the world and in the states. I think for these families, yes the tour is a life changing event.

Thank You

Doug and Joy

Saturday - Final Day # 61 Sussex to Jersey

2008-09-01T04:02:00.001-04:00

This morning, everyone was under the gun to get out of camp early. The trailers needed to be packed up and leave camp by 8:00. All of the riders were to met at a staging area 10 miles from Liberty State Park at 1:30 This meant we had almost 6 hours to cover 50 miles. On a normal day, riders leave camp through out the morning but this morning everyone left at about the same time which tends to create large groups of riders traveling together which is not necessarily a good thing for safety reasons.

After 20 miles it became obvious that we were going to have to kill a little time so we stopped a Dunkin Donuts. As what often happens, when several riders stopped somewhere, we all stop because we think that we might be missing something, so soon the restaurant will be over run by cyclist who don't really know why they are there other then they saw the others stop.

We made it to the staging area about an hour early, which was in the direct flight path of Laguardia airport, so I spent some time taking pictures of some of the jets coming in for landings.
While we were waiting to line up for our ride into Liberty State Park, we had our last group photo taken, plus a photo of all the riders who use Brooks Saddles on the ride. The plan is to see of Brooks will make a donation to Sea to Sea for rights to the picture. (I have my doubts)
Our Police escort arrived at 1:30 and we were off in what I think is typical New York style. The police sirens screaming loudly, and most locals ignoring them completely. It seems that everyone in Jersey honks their horn, generally followed by some kind of hand gesture. And unlike where we live, being held up in traffic in common place for most New Yorkers, because they seemed to take it in stride, and I think if we received any response, generally it was positive.
I could smell the saltwater before we were able to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. As we arrived at Liberty State Park, we lined up to dip our tires in the bay, we ended the ride exactly as we started it, 3,381 miles earlier, by all of the riders saying the Lord's Prayer.

Not to be outdone, our cooks took wooden spoons and threw them into the bay also.

Our friends, Fred and Marcia Hulst, were kind enough to drive from Michigan to New Jersey. They were at the park to pick us , and bring us to the Hyatt hotel and what would be our first bed since leaving Grand Rapids 2 weeks ago.

In the next few days I'm going to have to wrap this blog up, and get on with normal life again. We were told before we started this journey, that we wouldn't come back the same person as we left. I don't know if that's true, however I do know this. I have become much more aware of some things which I'd like to try to sum up in the next / final entry to this blog.

Doug and Joy

Friday - Day 61, Dalton to Sussex

2008-08-31T06:34:00.001-04:00

Last night, our nephew, Bill and Amiy Boekestine, came and picked us up, and took us to their home in Carbondale, PA.
(Picture of Bills family

We were able to catch up on a bit of laundry, and getting to know their family again. However it wasn't much of a confidence booster for tomorrow's ride. As their car flew almost effortlessly over the never ending hills and valleys of Pennsylvania, Joy and I knew that in the morning we'd be climbing these same hills. Even after climbing 5 mountain pass, and riding almost 3,000 miles, I wasn't confident that I could climb these hills. While not nearly as long as the western climbs, these were much steeper, and they just seem to never end. In fact, for the first time, I decided to leave my camera in the truck because I didn't want the extra weight on the bike. As we started out, Joy and I had every intention of riding together which we did up to Carbondale. As we left town, we came to the first of two, 700 ft. climbs. It's easier to be able to ride your own pace, and I tend to climb a bit faster then Joy does. So instead of me waiting at the top of each hill, or Joy trying to climb faster then she liked, we just each rode our own pace which worked out really well. Joy eventually hooked up with Lisa Brower, and I rode by myself most of the day. Our route took us up and over Mount Davis, the highest mountain in Pennsylvania. As we reach the summit we were welcomed by a group from the Sussex C.R.C. who had water, fruit and homemade cookies for us. The final 18 miles were pretty much downhill, into the town of Sussex. We stayed at the Christian School which is right next to the Sussex Christian Reformed Church. The Church members made more food then we could possibly eat and once again we all ate way to much.

Doug and Joy

Thursday - Day 60, Binghamton to Dalton

2008-08-28T17:15:00.001-04:00

Last night we Chennango Forks school which is in the process of be remodeled. I don't think our director realized that the construction company is working 24 hours a day so the school will be ready by next week. During the night, there were dump trucks running through the parking lot.

We left about 7:00 and we were soon out of the state of New York.

We were warned that Pennsylvania would be hilly and that certainly proved itself to be true. We stopped in a small town for our 2nd breakfast, and started talking to the locals about our trip.

As we were getting ready to leave the owner said that someone had already paid for our breakfast. I'm sorry I didn't get a picture or last name but Ross, Thanks again.

We came to a large cement train bridge crossing the valley, which was built in 1915 to transport coal from the mines.

The bridge is over 2,000 feet long and took 3 years to build by 500 construction workers. It saved the mining company so much money that within 4 years it was paid for.

Tomorrow we have a very hard day, 80 miles and over 6,000 feet of climbing. Every one is very nervous about being able to make it through the day. Please keep us in your prayers.

Doug and Joy

Wednesday- Day 59 - Romulus to Binghamton

2008-08-27T17:49:00.001-04:00

This morning was another very nice sunny morning. Just as yesterday, our ride started out very hilly again this morning. We've sort of gotten out of our climbing mode since we left the west, but Northern New York is very hilly. About 2 miles into our route, we came to a falls which were about a mile off our route, and up a rather steep climb. As we were cycling into the parking lot, I said to some people, "Please tell me this is worth the mile long climb we just did." I guess you be the judge.

We came to the town of Ithaca, New York, and after looking around through the downtown area, which is very nice. Joy wanted her picture taken riding a horse for our sister in law, Beth Post.

We asked some locals where is a good coffee shop and they all directed us to "give me coffee" as it was voted the best coffee in New York by someone. We found the place only a few blocks from where we were, and yes it was good coffee.

At about 65 miles we came to another welcome sign on a very nice farm silo.

I really like the old barns here and in fact this farm had an old wooden silo yet. They are not large farms, maybe a 100 acres, but they are very neat, family owned operations.

We are staying at Chenango Forks School tonight with a C.R.C. church right across the road. The church has offered to feed us dinner tonight, which we are very thankful for. Tonight will be our last night in New York. When ever I thought of New York, I've always only thought about New York City. However, It is a beautiful state, and I'm glad we had the chance to go through it.

Doug and Joy

Tuesday,Day 58 - Byron to Romulus

2008-08-27T17:27:00.001-04:00

We haven't had any Internet for the past several days, and we received the news that our wonderful Satellite dish is not going to be working for the remainder of the trip. I have some advise for anyone considering buying anything form Datastorm Technologies. Don't! And if you ever get into a situation where you have no choice, assume that it will never work, and then on the rare occasion that it does, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Today we rode 76 miles from Byron to Romulus. We woke up to a heavy dew on the ground and temps. in the low 50's. Our tent could not have been any wetter if we had dunked it in a bucket of water. The morning started out a little hilly, but it was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and no wind. East Palmyra C.R.C. was kind enough to provide dinner for us at one of the farms along the route.

This is our first time in upstate New York, and it is very scenic, with large dairy and crop farms along the route. So far, New York has had the best road for cycling on that we had. Large smooth shoulders are a real blessing.

We rode past large vineyards also and Joy and I decided to stop in and visit one.

We did a little sampling and took a short tour of the process of making wine.

Our stop for the evening was at Sampson State park, and absolute air force base from world war 2. It is a very nice park with wonderful view of the finger lakes. On the way in, I went for a wild ride on one of the jets on display.

How many of you think that this is real or photo shopped?

Doug and Joy

Aug. 24, Day 56, St. Catharines

2008-08-25T19:09:00.001-04:00

Last night we set our tent up right against the fence of a neighbor of the school. They were working in the backyard, so we started telling them about our tour. We found that they spoke only broken English, French being their first language. It's hard to understand how a group of people can isolate themselves so much, in an English speaking Country, that they are hardly able to understand or speak English.
At about 1:30, we took 2 school buses to Qweenston Park, near Niagara falls. Just as we arrived, the rain started pouring down on the several hundred people there. We walked to a restaurant in the park and sat down and ordered a cup of coffee. We sat for an hour and half waiting for the rain to clear. When we paid for the coffee it was came to $7:50. The rain cleared in time for the celebration rally to go on. As it turned out, it was very nice, and I would estimate that about 500 people came out.

When we got back to the school, Joy and I decided to pack up the tent and sleep inside the school building. We found a classroom that was unused , and laid our sleeping mats out for the night. We've become quite adapt at sleeping most anywhere.

Doug and Joy

Saturday Aug. 23 - Day 55

2008-08-24T12:11:00.001-04:00

This morning Redeemer Collage provided our breakfast which was a nice change for the oatmeal that we've had for the past 55 days. We had a shorter day today of 46 miles so we left Hamilton with the idea that we would spend some time in a few of the small towns, such as Stoney Creek, Grimsby. A short distance from Hamilton, we were on the top of the Niagara Escarpment, which runs for about 500 miles across Canada. It provided a great view of the city, and Lake Ontario.

Once again, the area churches provided us with more food then we could possibly eat. There were 5 stops along the way, on about every 5 miles. In the town of Grimsby, there was a Dutch bakery where one of our riders works at. We decided to stop there for coffee and sample the Dutch baked goods there. I didn't realize that there are some many 1st generation Dutch families living in this area. In the states, I don't think a bakery like this could survive, however here it seems to be doing well. I think it's because there are so many 1st generation Dutch families in this area.

As we were leaving Grimsby, a few other riders joined our line. As we rode down a narrow road with no shoulder, a truck with a trailer passed us, then immediately stopped, leaving us no where to go. Joy and I were able to stop without hitting the truck, however the next rider in line hit Joy's bike, and then fell in the middle of the road. She was ok other then a little road rash, Joy's derailer was severely bent leaving her unable to shift. We stopped in a parking lot and straightened it out as best we could.

When we arrived in St. Catharine, we went straight to the bike shop and had it fixed. We also purchased all new brake pads as they were pretty much gone from the Mountains.

In the evening we took a bus to Nigeria Falls. I'm not sure that I've ever seen the Canadian falls. They are much nicer then the American side, however it has become such a tourist trap, I doubt I'll ever return. The Canadian Government built a large Casino overlooking the falls. I estimate that there were 500,000 people in a 4 block area.

I had more pictures to upload, but I'm in a starbucks and the connection is bogging down, so I'm unable to upload them now. Tomorrow we may have a better connection.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and also for those of you who have taken the time to leave a response.

Doug and Joy

Friday, Day 54, London to Hamilton

2008-08-22T20:23:00.001-04:00

This morning, the sweep crew decided to plug 2 - 4 slot toasters, and 3 coffee pots into the same outlet. For some reason, none of them worked after a few seconds. Anyway, we had 4 stops to make at local churches today, so food certainly wasn't a problem. The route started out hilly as soon as we left London and continued for the first 15 miles. Our first stop was less then 20 miles from London, and when we arrived, we found tables loaded with sub-sandwiches , baked goods and of course, Tim Horton coffee. When we left our route took us down a quite county road, past several farm houses , one with a lady mowing the yard. As we went past the house, a German Shepherd and a black, half breed lab came charging onto the road, chasing after us . Joy and Rick got past fine, but as I was passing, the black dog ran across the road in front of me and hit my front tire, knocking me over. I went down pretty hard, landing on my elbow and shoulder. My handle bars bent when they hit the pavement, my handlebar wrap tore, and my front brakes also bent. After fixing my bike, yelling at the lady about her stupid dogs, we left again. But as the day went on, my shoulder started hurting more.I don't think that anything is broken and I'm hoping that tomorrow, it'll be feeling well enough to ride. Joy and I have ridden every mile so far, and we don't want to take a sag ride this close to the end.

Later in the day, as we rode through the town of Brantford, we found that many of the stores were closed and boarded up. Brantford has a European feel to it, with narrow streets and buildings right together. In spite many of the buildings empty and boarded up, the town if neat and well maintained.

Our stop for the night is at Redeemer University Collage , which is Canada's version of Dordt or Trinity Collage in the U.S. It's a small Christian Collage with only about 600 students on campus. However, it's very modern and well kept, and the churches here are very proud of it.

Tomorrow we have a short day of only 46 miles, and we've heard that we have 5 church stops to make. I'm afraid that we are going to leave Canada much heavier then when we came.

Doug and Joy

Thursday Day 53, Chatham to London

2008-08-22T17:52:00.001-04:00

Our team was on sweep for the last time of the tour today, we helped serve breakfast, load up the gear truck, and kitchen equipment. We were the last ones to leave Chatham, but decided to go directly to the nearest Tim Horton's for coffee. For the 4th day in a row, we had a headwind so all of us sweepers stayed together and took turns leading the pace line, which really worked out pretty well. Thankfully, we were still in a farming community, with cornfields growing along the roads.

Thanks Tim Horton, but this is where you get off.

The male section of the sweep team had to stand guard for Joy a few times also.

We caught up with a rider already at 40 miles so we had dinner at a local restaurant, which claimed to have the best burgers anywhere. When we sat down a local native Indian, who said he was the chief of his tribe, came and sat with us. He explained everything from the crooked local government to how the schools should be teaching the kids. The burgers were good, but the best anywhere would be stretching it a bit.

We left the restaurant and caught the rider again within an hour, and so we loaded his bike on the sag truck and headed out again.As we rode through one town, we came to 2 very ornate old churches right across the road from one another.

At one point during the afternoon, Joy and I went on ahead, and rode into London alone. It was exactly at rush hour, but we made it to the Christian School with no problems. Again, we were greeted with a large crowd of maybe 200 people from the local churches. They provided the evening meal, and again tables full of deserts and snacks. The support and attention that the Canadian churches are giving this ride is just amazing. They have really rallied behind the tour, much more then the American churches have. I need to try to find out why this is the next few days.

Doug and Joy

Wednesday Day 52

2008-08-22T17:23:00.001-04:00

We were warned last night that we would be getting pushed out of camp early this morning to make the border crossing on time. The cooks forgot that we have an extra 50 or so riders from this week, and they only made one pot of coffee at breakfast. Those up early drank all of it before those late sleepers had any, so many of them were trying to squeeze coffee from a dry pot. The ferry crossing is in Marine City, a town which looks morel like it belongs in Maine. It has some very nicely maintained house along main street.

We were all in Marine City in plenty of time for the crossing, and there was also a nice coffee/ donut shop right across the road. So as is custom in such circumstances, we all hurried up to get there, and then waited.

Finally our ferry came and we started loading. I think that it took about 40 riders at a time, plus several cars, and one semi. It was pretty cramped, but only lasted 10 - 15 minutes.

As we got out on the Canadian side, I took a picture of the gear truck, waiting to load the ferry.

There was a large welcome as we came into Canada. I would guess about (I have to say aboat now) 200 people, and everyone of them baked at least 10 items. I also had my first taste of Tim Horton Coffee which I understand is the best coffee in the world, and only available in Canada. Once we grazed the tables for an hour, we finally got back on our bikes and road the rest of the way to Chatham. Again, there was a large welcome party as we drove in, more food, mostly watermelons and other fresh veggies. The local C.R.C. churches provided us with a evening meal and again, at least 100 different deserts. We could not have been more welcomed by the Churches in Canada and so far we are really enjoying our stay here. The area where we are staying is a farm community, and really looks exactly like Michigan. They grow the same crops, and dairy farms look much the same as Michigan.

Doug and Joy

Tuesday Morning- Day 51, Aug. 19

2008-08-19T19:36:00.001-04:00

This morning we headed out of Laingsburg State Park into a strong head wind. Where ever it was blowing yesterday, it decided to come bake today. Generally, we try to team up with several other riders so we can take turns up front of a line of riders. However we left camp early and were not able to hook up with anyone else. We had 95 miles to ride today, so we just tried to keep a easy pace and stick with it. However soon after leaving the camp site, I started having shifting problems, which continued throughout the day.

Nice wind, just the wrong direction for us today. Rick went ahead this morning to met up with one of his recumbent racing buddies, This guy takes his recumbent riding pretty serious, because he ordered his from Poland, one of only 36 in the States, and at a cost of about $10,000.

We rode passed a neat train depot on Dryden which is in the process of being remodeled.

We actually made really good time in spite of the headwind and arrived in Richmond at about 2:15, well ahead of most of the other riders. I went immediately to the local bike shop to see about my shifting problems. It turned out that the cable was fraying inside of the shifter. Once replaced, it worked fine. But that's not the end of the story. As the mechanic was taking the bike off the rack, he noticed some movement in the seat post. As it was turned out, the post was almost cracked of. One other rider's seat post broke off while he was riding and he took a nasty fall which he is still healing from. I thanked this guy many times for being so observant and noticing the broken post.

Tomorrow we cross into Canada which is a huge deal for over 200 people, supply trucks and staff. We've been warned several times about no screwing around or carrying firearms while crossing. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the 12 gage shotgun that I generally carry on my bike.

Doug and Joy

August 18 - Sunday

2008-08-19T17:57:00.001-04:00

Joy and I so thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Ramanda Inn that we decided to stay for two nights. No setting up a tent at all this weekend. Sleeping in a bed made of real foam rubber with sheets and pillows was a nice treat. But what made the weekend so special was that we spent almost the whole weekend with our children and grandchildren, who came to the hotel. The grandchildren where mostly interested in the pool, so Joy and I had to spend much of our time in the water with them. We also were blessed with Mom Post stopping in and many brothers and sisters. Bob & Pat Stuitje also left us encouragement by showing up on Saturday evening. It is humbling to us and really cannot come up with the words on how much we appreciate the encouragement and the prayers from our family and friends.

Sunday was the day we said goodbye to our cyclist (approximately 15) who are not continuing to New Jersey and we welcome aboard approximately 50 new riders. Our tour will continue with approximately 200 riders going to New Jersey.

In the afternoon we went to the celebration at fifth third ball park. We had heard that they were expecting up to 5,000 people coming to the park, but I doubt there were anywhere near that many. Hopefully those of you that attended the worship were blessed with the words from Shane Clayborn. God gave us a beautiful day to gather with friends and family. We were excited to see again many friends and family who supported this tour.

Our first day leaving Grand Rapids, was a bit of a spoiler, because for only the 3 time on this trip, we had a wonderful tailwind, pushing us toward Jersey City. Everyone is hoping that this continues until we reach the east coast. We stopped at the McDonalds in Ada, and met a few of my co-workers, Terry, Jerry, Ted, and Scott. Then just as we were leaving, we noticed at Gordon Food Van at the Vitale's, driven by my son's Father-in-law, Sam, so we stopped and talked to him also. It was really good to be able to see so many friends and family members this weekend. It made us realize how blessed we are, and how much we miss everyone.

Doug and Joy

Friday

2008-08-17T07:38:00.002-04:00

This morning, we didn't get off to a very good start. I've been trying to be very organized on this ride. It's very frustrating to not be able to find something, so I try to put everything in it's own spot, so we know where it is when we need it. However, this morning, just as we were ready to leave, I realized that I was missing my safety vest, sunglass's and water bottle. Of course, when 2 people were standing there waiting for me, watching every me run around like the village idiot, notches the level of tension up considerably. Finally I found another pair of sunglasses, borrowed a mirror from Rick, and went without my vest, and took off in a fit. Needless to say, we made really good time for the first 10 miles while I worked out my frustration on the road.
Our first stop for the morning was at Graafscaap Christian Reformed Church. The church is supposed to be the first, C.R.C. in Western Michigan, in fact, they have built a log church to illustrate what the original church looked like.
The members of Graafscaap church had huge amounts of food prepared for us, even though it was only 27 miles from our start, we welcomed the break and food, especially the fresh blueberries. Graafscaap Church also has an entire basement dedicated to the emigration of the Dutch into western Michigan.

Soon we were arrived at the Christian Reformed Conference Grounds, and were met by Joy's mother and friend Herb. The best part of arriving was the fact that for 1st time in over 7 weeks, we would be seeing out children and grand Children again. We have 3 grown, married kids, Rachel and Cam, Josh and Sarah, Jason and Kendra. And are also blessed to have 4 grand children, Austin, Hailey, Raegan, and Madison. It was great to see them again, and spend time on the sandy beach of Lake Michigan.

Our Grandchildren

Jason and Kendra

I'd rather shot this bird with a 12 gage, but he flew over as we were enjoying Lake Michigan.

Joy and I want to thank everyone for the welcome we received as we got close to home. Our friends, Steve and Kathy Jansen who drove out to South Haven and stood by the road and welcomed us into Michigan. My Uncle Fred and Aunt Harriet, who also drove to South Haven to met us. Joy's family, and our friends, Fred and Marcia Hulst, who took us out to Clementines Friday evening in South Haven. Our camp food is good, but any kind of deviation from the routine is a treat. We plan to stay at the Ramada Inn this weekend and enjoy our time with the family.

Doug and Joy

Wednesday

2008-08-14T22:00:00.001-04:00

This morning Trinity Collage had a send off service at 8:00, so we didn't get out of camp as early as normal. We also had a short day, so we decided to go down-town and visit Roslin Mission located in the suburbs of Chicago.
About 1/2 of the group decided to visit the mission, while the other half went to a church for refreshments. At the mission, we were met by Pastor Tony, and Joe who showed us around, and explained how the mission supplies housing for up to 80 single mothers, provides food and housing for men.

There were several of the residents at the mission while we were there, so I asked them if they would let me take their pictures to help me tell their story back home.

I have many more pictures from the mission, which I may use when we get home. The mission is doing an invaluable service in this area of Chicago.

From the mission, we rode about 40 miles through Highland, Indiana, the area where my mother was born and raised, and much of her family still resides. We spent the night at the Indiana Dunes State park, which was right next to Lake Michigan, and a beautiful State park.

Doug and Joy
P.S. Joy and I are looking forward to riding into Grand Rapids on Saturday Morning. See you about 7:00 am at the
CRC conference ground .

Monday

2008-08-12T20:18:00.001-04:00

Monday morning our sweep team was up again, so we helped with the breakfast, loading of the trucks, and staying behind to be the last ones to leave camp. In order to not catch up with any of the other riders, we stopped a restaurant for a 2nd breakfast, named the Winchester. Inside, hanging on the walls were hundreds of original Winchester rifles, all in glass cases on the walls. I would imagine that they would be worth thousands of dollars. We also had a stop in Delavan Wisconsin, Christian Reformed Church, because they had made a meal for all the riders. As we rode up a man asked which one of us was Doug and Joy. We found out that he, Bob, was married Marry (DeVries) who is a cousin to my mother. We had only a short time to get aquatinted at their church, before leaving, so Bob offered to drive out to Woodstock later in the day. That evening, Bob and Mary picked us up at the high school and took us out to eat at a local restaurant. We also spent some time going over the DeVries family history. Thanks Uncle Fred for setting this meeting up. I'm sorry that I didn't get any pictures, but my camera is dead right now.

Tuesday

This morning, as we left woodstock, and rode through the downtown area. Woodstock is a very orderly and neat town, with an opera house, 4 restaurants, a few other stores all making up a large square. There is a park in the center of town, and brick paved streets. After about 4 miles, we came to the Fox river bike path, which we would be on for the next 38 miles. There are a few very nice little coffee shops along the trail.

There were also lots of wild flowers along the trail.

I think bike paths are fine for riding with your kids, or walking, but when your need ot cover 80 miles, these are not my preferred means of travel. After leaving the trail, we were on city streets the remainder of the way to Trinity Collage.

I know that some are wondering about Saturday's route from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids. I know that he route has been changed from what is in the shifting gears book. I asked to have the new route published, but so far, I don't think that it has been.I also know there a several C.R.C. churches that we are going to either stop at, or ride by, so this may determine which roads we take. As soon as I find something out, I'll post it here, or link to it. I think it may also be posted on the seatosea.org, as soon as it's available. Joy and I will most likely plan to leave Grand Haven between 7:00 - 7:30 on Saturday morning. We also have reserved a room at Ramada Inn on 28th street for Saturday afternoon and night. We thought this may be more convenient for the kids and grand kids and friends to visit. Please feel free to stop in there if it works out.

Doug and Joy

Saturday and Sunday

2008-08-10T18:55:00.001-04:00

At 4:00 am on Saturday morning, as we woke up in Fennimore, we heard the rain start beating on the tent. In all the years that we've ridden in the DALMAC bike ride, we've never had to pack up in the rain. We decided to just pack things up wet and let them dry out at camp tonight. We had a short day, comparatively speaking, 72 miles, so we stayed in camp longer then any other morning so far on the ride. As we left camp, and headed east on highway 18, we were on a newly paved road, and the wind was finally at our back, and we could easily ride at speeds above 20 mph. At about 20 miles we came to the small town of Dodgeville, where Rick wanted to take a short detour to see the town where he and his wife spent their honeymoon. The hotel had a church steeple as a honeymoon suite, and also an old airplane that could be used as a rooms.
There was also an old airplane with rooms to rent.

We stopped at all the sags, and for ice cream because we couldn't be at our stop before 2:30. The tour media team wanted us to met at a park, and then ride into a town as one large group. As we neared the park, we saw a sign that read "Press on Doug and Joy". We just as we were riding past the sign, we saw Den and Kris Helmhold, Joy's sister and brother-in-law, who had driven over from Michigan to to surprise us. When Joy saw her sister, she threw her bike down in the road and ran over to her. Both of us had no idea that they were going to drive over. We also had went out on the town with them to eat at Chili's, which again was a real treat. I think that today was the best day of riding that we've had so far.

Sunday

This morning, Den and Kris picked us up and we went out for breakfast before church. Then, Crossroads church had a very nice service which included a large praise band and "Gary and Beth Post Former paster from Grand Haven. I took some pictures of Den and Kris's new car, plus some sand hill cranes feeding by the church, but they were blurry. I think that all of the bouncing and jarring on the back of my bike has taken it's toll on my camera, and wrecked the auto focus on it. I think that my picture taking may be done for the tour, as I don't think that I'll be able to get it fixed before the end.

Doug and Joy

Friday

2008-08-10T07:03:00.001-04:00

This morning we set out on our 3rd, 100+ mile day in a row. Anytime we can start the day with no flat tires, it's a good start. However this morning Joy had a flat tire on her bike, so we had to change that before we left the campground.We'd been warned that the first 20 miles, between New Hampton and Jackson Junction would be rough. We found ourselves on the worst road in the world, with large pot holes and cracks covering every inch of the road. We could not go over 10 mph for the entire 20 miles. After that we were on Highway 18, a busy road with the narrow shoulder, with a rumble strip on one side and the other covered with fresh gravel. This is where one of our riders, Don Brunsting fell and broke his collar bone.

At about 1:00 we came to the bridge crossing the Mississippi River. Our grandson, Austin, asked us to take a picture because he'd never seen the river. However, there was only 1 lane of traffic open, due to construction. Because of this, it was to dangerous to stop and take a picture. We did however get a picture of the sign, and the bridge. Soon after the River, we came to the Wisconsin border, our 8th state to cycle through. We had come down a long ways into the Mississippi River valley and now it was time to climb out again. Wisconsin immediately seemed to be hilly, however, we had to climb back out of the Mississippi River Valley again. We also came across a wind turbine farm. To give and indication on how massive these are, we came to a rest stop that had 8 semi's hauling blades.

If someone had told me that we are going to bike 326 miles in 3 days, I would not have believed them. However, somehow we not only survived, we did quite well.

Doug and Joy

Thursday - Algona to New Hampton

2008-08-07T21:17:00.001-04:00

This morning we got out to an early start again, leaving camp by 6:30, or just after daylight. We have another 113 mile day to complete today, to reach New Hampton. The morning started out great , light winds, sunny and cool. However as normal, soon after the sun started warming things up, the wind came up again, and this time it wasn't a tailwind. The wind has not been our friend so far on this trip, blow from the north or north east more then from the west.
We stopped in the small town of Britt for coffee, but the only thing we could find open was a bar called the "hob Nob". They only served coffee, nothing else and there was a group of local retirees discussing war with China, the upcoming election, and some local goofball, not much liked around these parts.
I've noticed that this part of Iowa is very well kept up, the farms, and homes are all very neat with little junk setting around like parts of the west we saw. Also, I didn't realize that Iowa has huge wind mill farms see link , some with as many as 50 large windmills on one farm.

The day's ride was very hard, with the wind and 113 mile distance. We arrived in camp about 4:30, wiped out, and wondering if we're going to be able to ride another 100 miles tomorrow. After this week, our mileage is going to be considerably less. We are also looking forward to the weekend rest day, and being in Michigan after only one more week.

I'm in the Library in Naw Hampton, which is going to close in 10 Minutes, so I'd better get this published and head back for the camp.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, It still amazes me that anybody reads this.

Doug and Joy

Wednesday

2008-08-07T20:57:00.001-04:00

I have a few items that I'd like to write a little more about. The first is about Dordt Collage and the people who go to the nearby churches. These people were by far the most accommodating, generous and thoughtful so far on the trip. It seemed like every church we went by, they were trying to feed us donuts, or home-made pie and coffee, or something else fattening. The relation that I mentioned we met, are cousins to my mother's side of the family
( Rietsta)
At one park, a local church had donuts and coffee out for us, We asked a man if he knew the mother of our friends, Ron and Mary Jansen, and he said he did. Then a the few minutes later he went to pick her up an bring her to the park so we could met her.

Today we had 113 miles to complete and it started raining almost as we left Dordt collage. We started out with our rain gear, but decided it's not much better then just getting wet because you sweat so much with rain gear on. The one blessing about today is that for only the 2nd time this trip, we had a nice tail wind which really pushed us along. We arrived at the grade school in Algona Iowa about 3:30.

Doug and Joy

Monday and Tuesday

2008-08-06T22:10:00.001-04:00

I'm going to have to combine Monday and Tuesday this time because we stayed in Sergeant Bluff, last night, Just outside of Sioux City. We again had not Internet conection. This morning we cross over the Missouri River on an old steel grate bridge. Within less then a mile of the bridge, we came to the Iowa border and we were into our 7th state of the trip. We had 88 miles total for today, which was fairly flat, but once again, the dreaded headwind. Joy and I missed one of our turns and were 4 miles past it before we realized our mistake. We elected to keep going off route instead of retracing our steps. We took another route for a good share of the afternoon, and ended up with a few extra miles for the day.

Our stop was a steel building which is being used as a church building. It had a large Gymnasium, which we, along with many of the other riders decided to use to sleep in. It sounded great not to have to set up the tent and take it down again in the morning, however it got a little crowded, and it seemed like all of the snorers decided to sleep right next to us. At about midnight, I got up and moved to the coat room, and Joy found another room to sleep in.

Tuesday

We had a short day, traveling from Sgt. Bluff to Sioux Center, was 61 miles. We came into the small town of Craig, and one of the C.R.C. Churches had a refreshments set up for us. There was one table with Root Beer Floats, and another with strawberry slushes. When we arrived at Dordt Collage we were assigned a dorm to sleep in. Just to think that we are going to sleep on a bed made of real wood.... and foam rubber is pretty exciting.
We have friends from Dorr, MI., Ron and Mary Jansen, who's daughter Abby teaches a Dordt. Abby picked us up at the dorm and brought us to the bike shop, and then to her house so we could borrow her washer and dryer for a few hours.

We had pizza and fried chicken, donated by the local Pizza Ranch, and deserts made by the members of the local C.R.C. Church. It's a good thing that we are only in Sioux Center for one day because there was more food there then 140 cyclist could possibly eat. My Uncle Fred DeVries arrange to have some relation to the meet us at Dordt. We were able to spend a short amount of time getting to know them.

I'm sorry about the lack of up dates but our stupid dish is not working again. I walked around the neighborhood until I found a unsecured wifi to borrow for this .

Doug and Joy

Sunday Aug 3

2008-08-03T18:43:00.001-04:00

This morning 40 of the riders took a bus to a small outreach church called Northern lighthouse in Lincoln which is about an hour from Fremont. This small church has a programs which work with the local prisoners, helping them learn how to handle finances, family and spiritual issues as they are nearing their release date.

This is defiantly not your typical C.R.C. church, as we went into the church building, the praise band was playing "we've got to love one another. The band consisted of all prisoners or ex-prisoners, but were very talented musicians.

On the small pulpit, there was a large cattle water tank, which served as baptismal for the church. Two of the members were baptized this morning.

One of the songs that was played was "At Calvary" When the words of the verse came to "my burden soul found liberty, at Calvary, the many of the people raised hands or started clapping. To these people, this is much more then just words out of the song book. To them, this was their last chance. One man told me that he spent 17 years in jail, while his 3 boys grew from babies to young men, he missed the entire process. Northern Lighhouse Church worked with him while in prison, and he is now in the process of buying a house for the first time in his life. I think that this morning will remain one of the hightlights of the trip. Below are a few pictures that I took of a typical member of the church.

The church also put on barbeque for us, even though I know that they have a small budget.

Doug and Joy

Saturday - Aug. 2

2008-08-03T17:59:00.001-04:00

Today we had another 90+ mile day, and the when we woke up, we could hear the wind blowing, As we left York and headed north out of town with a nice tail wind, Soon as we turn east where we had a strong head wind for the 2nd day in a row. The wind is really hard to ride into, and the only way to get relief is to form a pace line, and take turns leading. Once again, the temps are over 100 degrees, with no relief predicted. Besides our backsides having a few extra sores, and our skin becoming leather looking, Joy and I are doing amazingly well. However, we are starting to get more people hopping on the sag because of the weather conditions, and also minor injuries. It is truly a blessing to arrive in camp each day. Tonight we staying at a YMCA in Fremont ,which I understand from the locals, is a privately funded complex with an ice arena, swimming pool, and other outdoor sports complex. Many of the younger people rented skates and sticks and played a game of ice hockey.

The city left the entire ice arena open for us during the night, so Joy and I decided to forgo the 100 degree heat and 80% humidity and sleep in the 50 degree arena. We laid air mattresses on the floor next to the ice, took all our blankets and sleeping bags, put them over us, and it was just like our bedroom at home in Michigan in the winter. We actually slept pretty well, in fact many of those who elected to stay outside, were doused by the underground sprinklers which were not shut off.

Doug and Joy

Friday - Menden to York

2008-08-01T22:11:00.001-04:00

This morning we woke to strong east wind, which is just the opposite of what we are hoping for. We were also on sweep today, which means that we are the last riders to leave camp this morning. Our sweep team consist of 8 people who help serve breakfast, load the gear truck, and make sure that all the riders get to their destination safely.

This is our sweep team loading the gear truck

This is Mark a member of our sweep team. He has a bad case of road rash from a spill he took yesterday.

At one point in the ride, we came to some road construction where the cars were lined up waiting to be escorted through the construction area. I decided to pass out some cards to the drivers as we were waiting. Several of the drivers exclaimed that they had seen us on the news last night in Menden, Nebraska.

On the route today we rode through huge fields of corn and soy beans. The fields are being sprayed for, some pest, by crop dusters, so these pictures are for my brother-in-law Gary Post who is also a pilot and may be interested in this as a new career.

We are staying at a small collage in York NE. which is a small liberal arts collage. It has a very nice shaded lawn area for camping.

Tomorrow, Joy and I will be carrying the GPS sending unit, which allows anyone on a computer to follow the progress for the day. If you'd like to follow this, you can log in using the GPS link on the top right hand hand corner of this page. Also, If you have my cell phone # please give us a call during the day.

Doug and Joy

Thursday - Minden to York

2008-07-31T21:33:00.001-04:00

This morning we left camp at 6:30 and got back on highway 34 for almost the entire 94 miles. Once again, the temps were in the high 90's, so we wanted to get as many miles as possible, in the morning. Our goal, when it's this hot is not to stop and take a lot of pictures or lollygag around during the day. There's not many photo ops in this area so we just tend to keep riding, Today Joy and I rode by ourselves and at the end of our ride we had averaged just over 17 mph.

When we arrived in town, we had a little time to kill, so we went into town and rode around looking. Minden is a beautiful little town that is very well kept up. The buildings are old but very well maintained.

The county courthouse

Joy's favorite sign

Another of the nice old buildings in Minden

Wiped out after a hard day of cycling

Wednesday July 30 - Wray to McCook

2008-07-30T22:04:00.001-04:00

Last night we were told to plan on 100+ temps for today, so we wanted to get out of camp as early as possible. We got up at 4:45 and started packing up our tent, and getting ready to go. We left at 6:20 and it was cool and clear out. At about 10 miles we came to the border and stopped for the obligatory state line tickets. By the looks of the sign Colorado cowboys don't think much of Nebraska's slogan "live the high life" and blast the sign with gun fire on occasion.

Not only did we enter a new state, but also a new time zone again. We are now only one hour ahead of Michigan. We rode 60 miles before stopping the little town of Stratton for coffee.
The idea that the wind blows predominately out of the west has not really lived up to the promise so far. Today, we were hit by a 2:00 cross wind almost all day, which is almost a hard to cycle in as a full head wind. Also if your riding in a pace line, it's hard to find the "sweet spot" out of the wind.

McCook Nebraska is a smallish town, maybe the size of Cutlerville MI. The school sits on a hill on the west side of the town. It seems that most of the residents work large farms of wheat and corn.

Today, we have been on the road for 4 1/2 weeks, the half way mark of the Sea to Sea tour. I think that tomorrow, we will reach the half way mark mileage wise. It's hard to believe that we've travels 1/2 way across the U.S. already. Most of the time we only know how to get to the next night's stay, and have no idea where we are in the state. Suddenly, like this morning we enter an new state.

Doug and Joy

Tuesday July 29

2008-07-29T22:30:00.001-04:00

We had a noisy night at Fort Morgan High School last night, with the freeway traffic, helicopter landing at the hospital across the road, and the coyotes howling at one another. Noise doesn't seem to keep some of the riders awake, but I think that I hear every sound made.

The tour has had a couple of bad days as far a accidents go. On Saturday morning a group of riders were in a pace line when the last rider hit the one in front of him and fell. He landed on his shoulder and broke his collar bone in 2 places. Then on Monday, another pace line, and one of the ladies hit some garbage laying in the road and also fell. She broke her pelvis and is in the hospital in Fort Morgan. Both are out of the ride, and of course they are both devastated at not being able to finish. Of course, we all hate to see someone get hurt, and it's sad to see them have to leave like this. I know how much work Joy and I have put into this and I know how we would feel.

This morning our route was from Fort Morgan to Wray,(pronounced Ray) We started out a little rough, with a flat tire on my bike, then 10 miles down the road, Rick had a flat tire. After that, we made good time and finished our 86 miles by 1:30. We were spoiled some by all the scenery we've been riding through for the past month. This part of Colorado is pretty bland, with large corn and wheat fields and not much else. The shoulders of the roads have thousands of grasshoppers on them, and one pass time we've started to do is see how many of them we can run over.

When we arrived in Wray, we found that the park we are staying at is very nice, with huge shade trees everywhere. There are no showers, but a very nice swimming pool and showers in town, which we used for free.

I should have written more about the Denver stop as it was really quite a milestone in the ride. Fourteen riders completed their portion of the ride, while almost exactly 14 new riders joined. Many of the new riders are really having a hard time with the heat and elevation since they started riding. We forget that we are still above 4,000 ft. and a few had to be picked up during the day due to sickness and over heating. One thing we've learned is to drink water all the time, even at night while just sitting around. The new riders have to quickly learn what we've been learning for the past month.

One last thing, On Saturday, Aug 2 Joy and I will be carrying the GPS tracking device. If you'd like, you can log in and watch our progress through the day. We'll be traveling from York to Fremont NE., 96 miles that day. As we get closer, I'll put a link up on this blog to the GPS address.

Doug and Joy

One last thing,

Saturday

2008-07-28T23:07:00.001-04:00

It's actually Monday evening and I have some catching up to do.

Saturday:

This morning as we left the YMCA camp, I have a few things to be thankful for.

1. It's been one week since my last flat tire.
2. Today we will be climbing over our last pass.
We left Snow Mountain YMCA camp and within 10 miles we hit the pass already. You know it's going to be a hard climb when you can smell the brakes of the cars and trucks coming down. The first 6 miles were not real steep, maybe a 5% grade, but from there to the top, the grade increased as we started getting into switch backs.

I took this picture part way up the pass, the road that you see on the side of the mountain, we were on about 45 minutes earlier. We were thankful for a cloudy and cool morning and the climb actually went pretty well, maybe 1 1/2 hours to reach the summit of 11,400 some odd ft.

Later in the day we rode through the town of Evergreen Co. A head of elk were walking down the street, and the locals and the elk acted like it was a regular event.

After 80 miles we made it to Denver Christian School. As we arrived, the school cheer leaders were out to welcome us, There were gift packets, postcards the rider could fill out and send home free, and even barbers where I received a free haircut. Thank you Denver Christian School!

Sunday:

As we arrive in towns for the weekend, sometime people offer their homes for the riders to stay at. Joy and I decided to take a couple up on their offer and stay with them at their house. Their name is Kert and Marj Youngsma. They have a beautiful home which Kert built himself 40 years ago. They could not have been more gracious and kind to us.
They offered us the use of their entire basement for the week end and took us downtown Denver and showed us around. They were our angles on the road this weekend.

Doug and Joy

We're still Alive!

2008-07-25T19:30:00.001-04:00

We finished our short day today of 34 miles by 10:00 this morning. We're staying at a Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA camp.
When we arrived here, they told us to set up camp in the back of the building, which had just been logged off, so there are no flat campsite areas, branches and 2ft. high weeds everywhere. Joy and I elected to get a room here instead, so we are actually going to sleep in a bed for the first time in 4 weeks. Tomorrow we have to ride about 80 some miles to Denver. We are at about 8,700 some odd ft. elev. now, and tomorrow we will climb to over 11,000 ft. Airplanes are required to carry oxygen when they fly that high. Everyone is ready to go down to an elevation more suitable for biking. I've noticed that I get winded going up even short hills, and many of us are suffering from elevation sickness.
Storm clouds over our tent in Kremming. Not much rain

A view climbing Rabbit ear pass. The road you see, we took out of Steamboat Springs an hour before this picture.

Yesterday (Thursday) we rode through Steamboat Springs Co. and then started climbing up Rabbit ear pass.

The reason it's called rabbit ear pass.

The grade was close to 8% again and it took It took 1 hour, 25 minutes to reach the top, which is the continental divide.
At the Continental Divide

As we started back down, there was a large flat mountain top meadow filled with wild flowers and lodge pole pine trees. The backdrop were huge stone cliffs that rose hundreds of feet above the meadow floor. It was such an amazing sight, it made tears come to my eyes as I thought, "How can I be so blessed to be able to see God's amazing creation this way?" In a car, you can't smell the sage, or pines, or hear the birds, or feel the air temps. change as you climb over hills and glide down into the valleys.

This morning, we left Kremmling Co. and for the first time, our tent and everything outside was covered with a heavy layer of dew. It reminded me of Michigan in the mornings, where everything is wet in the morning. We rode though a large canyon, and then stopped for coffee in Hot Sulphur Springs. We soon over ran the small cafe with 40 or so cyclist crammed into a cafe designed for 20. They had great hot rolls and coffee, and did a great job on getting everyone their food.

I hope to do a more complete job of updating this weekend in Denver. Thanks so much to those of you following us on our blog, and leaving comments. You can't imagine how nice it is to hear from our family members, church members, and other friends back home.

Doug and Joy
PS. you can view many more pictures by clicking on the our pictures link in the upper right hand corner.

Wednesday

2008-07-23T23:07:00.001-04:00

I'm sorry for the lack of updates the past couple of days. Monday afternoon we went on sweep duty, which means as soon as we get in from riding for the day, we have to help the cooks set up for the evening meal. This takes until 6:30 p.m. We then set up our tent, shower and get ready for the next day, so we had no free time on Monday. Tuesday morning we also help serve breakfast, cleanup,and load the trucks. We then have to hang back and stay behind the last riders all day. At the end of the day, the sweep team is responsible to make sure that all the riders make it into camp. So on Tuesday evening we again arrived at camp at about 6:30, by the time we eat, cleaned up and set up the tent, it was 9:30, so again, no free time. Each sweep team has duties every 10 days.

We all knew that this week was going to be the hardest week of the entire tour. On Monday we rode from Jordanelle State park, in Park City Utah, to Duchesne. As I recall, the mileage was about 80 miles, with 6,000 ft. of climbing. The grade at Steven's pass was about 6%, while this was 8%. An 8% grade is about as steep as I can climb, and stay in the seat. The pace is not much faster then a fast walk, maybe 6 or 7 mph. The climb was about 20 miles long, and you can't stop peddling even one cycle or you'll stop moving. I've also discovered that I really don't like 8% docents, because unless you brake, you'll go over 40 mph, which is to fast for me. Also, I'd rather have a 3% grade and go on for several mile farther. Anyway, Monday was a very hard day, but we survived.

Tuesday we rode from Duchesne to Dinosaur Colorado, which was again 90 miles. We rode on highway 40 most of the day, which was a horrible rode for cycling on. The road is used heavily by trucks, speeding along at 65 or 70. Utah seems to be in love with rumble strips on the shoulder, making it useless to cycle on. I knew that it would be just a matter of time, before one of us was squashed by a truck. I'm sure that the only reason no one was killed is because of all the prayers from people back home. We crossed into Colorado about 6:00 in the evening. The first thing that I noticed were prairie dogs standing by their holes, scolding us as we took pictures by the Colorado state line.

Wednesday we biked from Dinosaur to Craig, which is 88 miles. While still on highway 40 all day, it was much better then yesterday. There was little traffic, and a nice shoulder. The only incident was a truck driver pulled into a sag stop and yelled at us for crossing the white shoulder line. Truck driver seems to think that for all intents and purposes, they really are the owners of all the roads. They tolerate cars, because they have to, however bikes don't belong and their roads, and when they come up on a group, they let them know by blasting the air horns starting 1/4 mile behind and lasting at least a 1/4 past. I've found that they also like to make sure everyone knows how much weight their hauling. "I've got 80,000 lbs. on that $%*@> truck."
We also saw our first antelope today, standing right next to the road. Also a few of the early risers, saw a rattle snake on the road this morning.

We have a very hard day again tomorrow with 96 miles and climbing to our highest elevation yet , almost 10,000 ft. I also have some new pictures, but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. Saturday, Joy and I are going to get a hotel in Denver, and sleep in a real bed for the first time in 4 weeks. I know it sounds mundane when you do it every night, but we can't wait!

Doug

Sunday - July 20 Park City UT.

2008-07-20T17:13:00.001-04:00

This morning we were able to sleep in a little because we have a church service tonight at the camp ground pavilion. Sunday is the only free time that we really have so we take the opportunity to get our laundry done, do any service work need on our bikes, and organize our gear. A driver took us into Park City this morning to go to the Laundry. While there we took a walk through town and as I suspected, it is a huge tourist trap. Every person we asked directions from said that they didn't live here, so really didn't know where anything was located.

I'm concerned that from our blog that you may get the impression that we are no longer trying to raise money or awareness for the plight of poverty. The truth is that all the riders carry Sea To Sea cards with them each day, and pass them out when every we meet someone. There has been almost 2 hundred thousand additional dollars raised since the tour began. Some donors give the riders money right on the spot while others take the cards and send in money at a later date. It's thrilling to see peoples reactions as we go into the towns and start handing out cards.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has left comments on the blog. It's very encouraging to know that there are people interested enough to follow along and even take the time to leave a comment.

Doug and Joy

Saturday - Willard to Park City

2008-07-20T16:37:00.004-04:00

Today, we have a big day of biking and everyone wanted to get going early. The Kitchen crew served breakfast half and hour early also. Joy and I got our gear packed, ate breakfast and was ready to go by 6:30, with the exception of pumping the tires up. That's when I discovered that I had a flat tire on my bike. (#12 so far). By the time that was changed it as 7:00. We rode the first 60 miles to Salt Lake City with Rick Gritter, who is very good at riding in the back and telling us which roads to turn on. We did get turned around a few times and at one point there were about 35 of us wandering around looking for a mislabeled street on the map. We rode into Salt lake City at 12:00 and stopped for lunch at a church who was kind enough to provided some snacks and drinks for us. As Joy and I were leaving, a local reporter stopped us to ask a few questions about where we were from, about the ride and so on. He then asked if he could ride in his car in front of us and take some pictures along the route. We agreed, so for a couple of miles he photographed us riding out of Salt Lake City.
Soon after leaving Salt Lake City, we reached emigration canyon , and started climbing for the next 6 or 7 miles. It was at the hottest part of the day, and we traveled only about 7 miles and hour to the top. When we reached the top of the 1st climb, a church has set up a tent with cold drinks and powerbars for us which It was a welcome sight. While we were there a Utah State Road and Parks official came and told them that they had to move the tent because they didn't have a permit. However, after hearing about the Sea to Sea, he changed his mind and said it would be ok this time.
As we left the top of the first climb, we had about 30 miles to go yet. After a fast decent, we got onto interstate 80, and began climbing again. This was by far the hardest climb so far. The Interstate was freshly paved, which made it very smooth, but it was so hot, and steep. At one point, near Lambs Canyon I actually passed a semi, because the grade was so steep and some of the semi's were going that slow to make the grade.

We arrived at Park city State campground at 4:30 and found that there were only about 30 riders in yet. The park is very nice, with a great view which we get to enjoy for a whole day tomorrow. While we were eating dinner, tonight we were surprised and very grateful to receive a call from my Uncle Fred De Vries, from Kalamazoo, MI. He has been one of our great supporters from the beginning of the Sea to Sea tour.

Park City seems to be a tourist town, catering to skiers and snow boarders. From our campground we can see as many as 20 ski runs on the mountains.

Friday, Snowville to Willard UT.

2008-07-18T22:59:00.001-04:00

This morning we woke up by our alarm, and started packing up the tent. We wondered why nobody else was stirring as is normal by 5:00. We started to suspect that something was wrong when the kitchen crew wasn't awake yet. We checked our watches and discovered that it was only 4:00. So there we stood, our tent and sleeping bags packed up, so we just laid on the ground and tried to sleep for another hour.

We left at 6:45 again and Immediately got on I-85 for 20 miles. The first 10 miles were nice because the right lane was being repaved so it was closed to traffic. The new black top was smooth and nice to ride on. But the next 10 miles were 6 ft. away from semi's speeding passed 70 m.p.h. It was nice to get off and back to normal 2 lane roads again. At the exit we could see in a distance what we thought was a small town. As we got closer we realize it was not a town but some kind of fenced in government project. There was a sign that said ATK launching systems. The entire area was fenced in, and I would guess it covered several thousand acres. Around the far end, we came to a display area where we could view some of the missiles that the engines are used in. They make engines for NASA, and the department of defense.

As we arrived in Brigham, UT. we realize that we were pretty early for the sags to be in camp yet. So we went to the local bike shop, but it was closed. The sign said "open weekdays 4:00 - 6:00" . Nice hours.

We are spending the night at Willard State campground tonight. Willard lake is a body of water sitting out in the desert. Just to the east, are large mountains, waiting to test us tomorrow. While the scenery here is very scenic and somewhat greener then we've seen for the past week or so, I'm ready to get somewhere that has shade trees. We are in the sun all day and then come to our camping area and find that there are no trees on the property, is kind of disheartening. It'll be nice to get to a area that has some shade trees. It's amazing how ones needs change when they venture into something like this. A month ago, at home I was concerned about cable TV. Now I'm much more concerned about shade and cold water to drink.

I've inserted a small weather widget on the page so you can see what the weather is like where we are. I can change it each day according to where we are going to. Some towns are small and reading may be from a nearby larger town.

Tomorrow we have the most difficult day we've encountered so far, with 97 miles and over 4000 ft of climbing near the end of the day. Please pray for endurance for the riders. Many are not nervous, including us.

Today's Stat's - 17 total flats
Falls - 8
Doug and Joy - none

Doug and Joy

Thursday - Burley to Snowville

2008-07-17T21:57:00.001-04:00

This morning we again tried to get out of camp early, because we had another 85 mile day. When we left at 6:45, it was a cool 54 degrees. For some reason it's very hazy here and the sun comes up and sets bright red every day. We could barely see the mountains in the distance. At 12 miles we started the first climb for the day. It was about 1000 ft. over a distance of maybe 3 miles. The second climb was not as steep, but went on for miles. Finally we came to a 3 mile decent at 5% grade. Top speed on the way down was 36.9 m.p.h. We most of the time ride with Rick Gritters in his recumbent. On the descents he is very fast and today reached 52 m.p.h.
In the afternoon we hooked onto a paceline of about 10 other riders. and made really good time for the next 20 miles until we arrived at the Utah State line. On he way we came across a dead coyote on the road. I was thinking that a truck passes every 1-1/2 hours, what are the chances of running across the road at the exact time a truck is coming. Talk about bad luck!

For some reason, no matter how long the ride is, it seems that the last 20 miles is always hard. Today was especially difficult, the sun was brutal again and we had a strong head wind. One rider had a thermostat on their bike and it read 113 degrees in the full sun. When we finally got to Snowville we all went to one of the 2 cafes. They had no idea that we were coming and suddenly 100 cyclist come in looking for ice water and snacks. The waitresses had a look of horror on their faces, but did great keeping everyone happy.

My brother Tom asked what's the deal with all the flat tires. There is a thorn in this part of the country called Goat head thorns. They shaped something like a jack that kids play with, so there is always a sharp point sticking up. This the main problem with the flat tires.

Today's stats:
Total Flat tires - 8
Falls - 3

I have some great pictures but have not been able to upload due to the poor connection. Hopefully this weekend in Salt Lake city.

Wednesday - Gooding to Burley

2008-07-16T22:23:00.001-04:00

Last night we decided that we were going to skip a hot breakfast and try to get out of camp early. We get a weather report each evening for the next day, and the report was more of the hot sunny weather.

We decided to be one of the 1st groups out of camp. It wasn't long before the heat of the day hit. We had opportunity today to tour a Dairy Farm. This was incredible how they factory milked from the 1700 cows that they own. Gregg Miller the owner served us Chocolate milk which was a real treat for us. His son Will, gave all the riders a tour of the Milking Parlor which is a huge rotisserie which milks 50 cows at a time.

We also made a stop at Snake River canyon, which is the canyon that Evel Knievel attempted to jump with a motorcycle in 1974. It is 300 - 400 feet deep and runs for several hundred miles through Idaho.

We also had sub sandwiches, chips and ice cream bars served to us at a Reformed Church in Twin Falls. This gave us energy enough to venture off the way a bit and check out Shoshone Falls. We learned that these falls are referred as the Niagara of the west. to Absolutely beautiful, and worth the 1.5 mile climb out on the canyon. We did a lot of stopping and sight seeing today, which makes for a long day especially when the weather heats up. God is the creator and is always good.

We need to keep drinking water, most everyone takes a nap soon after they arrive at camp. Some right on the concrete, if it means shade. Dehydration is a real concern when we have to ride on hot days and the longer distance. We often drink 8 - 10 16 oz. bottles each day.

A few stats for the day:

9 flat tires
1 fall
total mileage for us - 85.1 miles

July 15, Mountain Home to Gooding

2008-07-15T21:07:00.002-04:00

We're getting our morning duties down to a routine now after doing it 16 mornings now. We still get up at 5:00 am. pack up our sleeping gear, tent and get it load on the truck. We then pack our lunch for the day, get our bikes ready to go and have breakfast. We try to get out of camp by 7:00, and if that works, we can generally have 30 - 40 miles in before it get really hot out. Today's route took us along the Snake River for 20 miles. One lady riding in the group with us said she saw something huge jump out of the water, but could not tell what it was. We stopped for coffee a few miles up the road and asked some locals. They said that the river is home to hundreds of huge sturgeons, some reaching 14' to 16' long. One person claimed that he caught one last year that took 4 1/2 hours to land, and was longer then his 14' boat. Irrigation must be a full time job for the farmers in this area. If it's not irrigated, it's brown and the only thing that can survive is sage brush. We also passed huge fields of wheat again today. Joy walked into one for a picture.

The Town of Gooding is similar in size to Byron Center. It's a farming community, many of it's residents are Hispanic, and are illegally in the States. One lady in the Library said that the town has been is survival mode for several years now, and she is concerned that there is now future the young people in the town to make a living. She told us that many of the illegal's come to school only because they know that they will get food there. The School we are staying at has a nice row of pine trees along the east side. Everyone jammed their tents together trying to get under the shade. It's the first time we've had shade since Kenniwick.

Tomorrow we have 81 one miles to get to Burley. This will be our longest ride to date.

Sunday afternoon in Boise Id.

2008-07-14T18:04:00.001-04:00

It's Sunday afternoon and Joy and I are sitting in a laundry in downtown Boise trying to rid our bags of a few smells that were no longer tolerable. There is also a wifi connecting here that is very good, so I was able to upload many of the pictures from this past week. Each rider is assigned to one of ten groups, who take turns helping the kitchen crew prepare and serve the meals, help the drivers load the gear truck, and then are the last to leave in the morning. You must stay behind, or assist the last riders in at the end of the day. This can make for a long day, usually starting at 5:45 in the am, and it's after 9:00 pm by the time you get the tent set up. This is called the sweep team, which we had on Saturday. We had actually had a pretty good time riding the last 10 miles or so with the 2 or 3 last riders. We are staying at Timberline High School on the outskirts of Boise. It's a new building, very nice setting with the mountains in the background, and green plush lawn set against a brown dead everything else that not irrigated

Sunday morning, we all rode our bikes to a park in downtown Boise for a church service/ hamburg fry. Boise is a very nice, modern city. It has a downtown zoo, rose garden and bike path that follows the river for miles.

This area of Idaho is very dry and desert like. In many area's there is nothing but sage brush growing as far as we can see. The only green is in areas that are irrigated or right along the river. However, there are many crops grown here such as mint, which we could smell miles before we reached the fields, sugar beets, corn and onions.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow we will be starting our third week of riding already, and by the end of the week one third of the tour will be finished. At the rate of flat tires, currently 11, I will have had close to 40 flats. (the average for the total group is about 23 per day) I also took my fist spill on Friday coming into the school parking lot. I have a bruised shoulder, elbow, and knee and worst of all, ego.

We are having a new "yellow brick" gps unit delivered sometime this week, so soon you should be able to follow that along again.

Doug and Joy

Thursday Baker to Huntington Or.

2008-07-12T00:11:00.001-04:00

This morning Joy and I actually overslept until 5:30. We're getting the packing up in the morning down to a routine but we need to be up by 5:00 to get everything packed up by breakfast time. The temps. have been getting in the 90's by noon the past few days, so we like to try to get as many miles in as possible in by then. We had a short route for today, and actually had a downhill ride for most of the day. There is very little industry in this area of Oregon, there are several highway projects we past through, and also a large cement mine, where many of the locals work. Large beef cattle and sheep ranches cover most of the valley bottom which we rode through today. We stopped in a small town of Durkee which was about half way to Huntington. The town was by all practical purposes a ghost town, but known for being on the Lewis and Clark trail. Soon after that we had to once again got onto highway 85 for about 11 miles. Due to construction in several spots, this was a bit of nail-biter with one lane traffic going by 70 mph only several feet from us.

Huntington is also a small western town, with 2 bars, one restaurant and a small general store and a post office. The town looks like many of it residents are struggling to make a living. The school where we are staying has 77 students. However, the community has open it arms to the Sea to Sea riders going as far as to put out a welcome sign on the outskirts of town. Many of the schools restrict us to a small part of the the school, bathrooms and showers. However Huntington has open up the entire school for us to use.

Wednesday Afternoon in Baker Oregon.

2008-07-09T19:43:00.001-04:00

It's time for a little catch up on what Joy and and have been doing the past few days. On Monday morning we left Kennewick and rode to Pendleton. The first 35 miles was nice and flat, and followed the Columbia River so we stayed pretty flat however a slight headwind. At 35 miles we turned away from the river and started climbing immediately. The grades are not real tough but then never let up and climbing for 30 - 35 miles is something that Joy and I are just not accustom to in Michigan. We left Pendleton on Tuesday morning and again within 10 miles started climbing again. This is the 1st road where we've had switchbacks to deal with also. The climb was again about 20 - 25 miles long, and the average speed for Joy and I is about 6 - 9 m.p.h. and may last for 4 hours. It still amazes me that each day the scenery is different but still incredibly beautiful. I took 56 pictures going up the mountain yesterday. Each day I hate to go on because I'm afraid that we are going further away from the coast and I keep thinking that it's going to get ugly and boring.But each day brings something new and amazing. Sometimes it seems that biking is to fast and we're missing something. About 4 miles from camp, we were going down a long decent about 35 m.p.h. and I had another blow out on the back tire. I didn't fall and was able to change the tire and get into camp. This is flat # 8 for me, and maybe several hundred for the entire group. We stayed in a city park in La Grande Oregon last night. It was very nice, except for the trains that came through all night, right next to the campground. Today we had and easy day, flat, 50 miles and we got an early start so we were Baker School by noon.

We can be thankful that there has been no serious accidents to any of the riders so far. We're learning a few tips along the way from some of the other riders. One is that we need to consume as many calories as possible each day. The Canadians have a chocolate spread that we put on bread along with peanut butter. and it's really quite good. We eat several of these during the day,along with fruit and most anything else they have for us. As part of the raising awareness to poverty issues, we hand out hundreds of Sea to Sea cards each day. We also stop and talk to the locals every chance we have. Some have pledged money right on the spot. The locals have been very friendly towards all bikers.

We hope to cross another border on Friday and go into Idaho, and look forward to a day of resting on Sunday.

Doug

Sunday afternoon

2008-07-07T08:08:00.001-04:00

The Satellite dish seems to be working now, and I was able to upload some pictures. I'm so far behind on organizing and labeling pictures that I'm not going to sort and describe them all at this time, or I just keep falling further behind. As time permits, I'll work on this.

Saturday we had a short day, and arrived at Colombia park in Kennewick Wa.shortly after noon. We spent a few hours organizing, bathing in the Colombia river. Then we called Chuck and Gwyn Wierman, cousins to my mother, who lives in Kennewick. They were kind enough to come and pick us up, take us to Fred Meyers and do some shopping and make a great meal of grilled steak,sweet corn, and topped it off with home made rasp berry pie and ice cream. When even just having cold water to drink seems a treat, you can imagine how good this tasted. We left and went to rite-aid to look for some
Washington cloth logo's that we can stitch to our vest. We'd like to get one for each state we cross. If anyone knows where to get these, please let us know.

Sunday morning the local Kennewick Reformed church held a church service in the park. Many of the church members helped with the service, and also brought subs and snacks for everyone. They also provided rides into town for riders who need to get some laundry taken care of.

Everyone is appreciating the day off even though the past several days have not been difficult. We have so little free time during the week, it's nice to just sit and relax for a day.

Tomorrow we will be crossing into Oregon and riding through more desert area. According to the local papers, it's suppose to remain hot at least through this week,

Doug and Joy

Kennewick Washington

2008-07-05T21:04:00.003-04:00

It's Saturday afternnon and Joy and I are at a relative who lives here. They were kind enough to pick us up at the campsite, and take us to Best Buy and purchase a usb cable for the camera. We also are doing some laundry, and staying for dinner. We still don't have internet at the campsite, and I'm beginning to think that the satelite dish is worth more as scrap metel then and internet connection device. Week one was wonderful, difficult and an experence we won't forget. The temps. were up to 100 degrees at times. However, thurdays we rode in the rain most of the day which was a nice relieve from the heat.
Please don't think that we're ignoring you if we don't respond to you comments, We would if we could. We enjoy reading your encouragment.

Doug and Joy

Yakima Wa.

2008-07-04T00:31:00.002-04:00

Joy and I are now finished for the day. We had a rather easy day riding for Ellensburg to Yakima, which is only 40 miles and generally follows the Yakima river all the way. We rode on canyon road most of the day, and again, I do not have words to describe how massive mountains and canyons are. I took lots of pictures, but still have not been able to upload them. We have internet connection if we are within 20 ft of the satellite dish. Any thing further then that we have nothing. They keep promising that it is being worked on, but if it's not fixed by tomorrow night, Joy and I will go to McDonalds for a few hours when we get to town.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but we have almost no time for taking care of house keeping items like this. Even on short days like today, by the time we set up the tent, shower, eat, small groups and laundry it's 9:00 at night before we have any free time.

Joy and I are adjusting to the west coast time and able to stay up past 8:00 and sleep in later then 3:00 am.
One rider each day carries the "yellow brick" a gps sending unit. If someone wants to they can follow the ride all day long. Joy and I will have our turn soon. We'll post the day as soon as we know which day it is
Thanks again to everyone who is following our blog, I promise I''ll do a better job of updating when we get better access.

Love Doug and Joy

Washington's Mountians

2008-07-02T08:03:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry that I've not updated the blog since Joy and I have arrived in Seattle. The first couple of days the dish was not working so we had no internet connection. Yesterday they were able to get that working, but Joy and I were on sweep duty, which means that we have camp duties stating at 6:00 am until everyone is finished eating in the evening. We will finish that tonight so we should have more spare time after that. Then I'll go back to the beginning and post some pictures of the tire dipping ceremony on Monday morning.
Yesterday was our first day riding in the mountians. It started out with just some rolling hills which were beautify and actually fun pushing up and over them. Highway 2 follows a river through Steven's pass, so you'd think it would be fairly flat. However at about 16 miles into the ride we started climbing and climbing somemore. Our averge speed was about 6 mph, and finally at 44 miles we reached the top at 4100 feet. The ride down very fast, 35-40 miles mph at time.
The tempitures were brutal yesterday, we heard 102 degrees at one time, and I had a flat tire epidemic setting a new Sea To Sea record of 6 flats in one day. My highschool english can't discribe how beutiful it is here in Washington. The moutians as a background to the Beverian town of Levensworth. If someone were to blindfold you and drop you off here, you would think that you were in the Swiss Alps. (Pictures coming soon)
Today, we have another climb to get us up and over the mountians, which should'nt be as hard as Tuesday's. We're told it will then flatten out some, but could be very hot.
Thank you to everyone who has left comments on the blog, it means so much to know that our friends are praying/thinking about us during this time away. Also to know that someone is actully reading it.

As soon as I get some picture posted on flickr, I'll add a link.

Doug and Joy

All ready and no place to go.

2008-06-19T19:15:00.002-04:00

For the past week, Joy and I have been packing for the Sea To Sea trip. Our bikes needed to be disassembled and packed into boxes. The boxes look huge until you try getting a bicycle inside of it. It took 2 nights to get those boxed up and ready to go. Joy has been busy packing our clothes, and camping gear into duffel bags. We each are allow one large bag, and chair as long as it's under 60 lbs. Again, that sounds like a lot, until you finish packing and find that your almost 20 pounds over the limit. Finally, after agonizing over what we could live without and what we couldn't live without, we made the weight. The Sea to Sea has a semi trailer going to Seattle next week so they were able to haul our bikes and bags on the trailer. Tonight after work, I brought our stuff to the warehouse and dropped off almost everything that is going.
All of the boxed bikes and duffel bags ready to be loaded onto the trailer. The red tape on ours is for easy identification in Seattle.

Each rider gets 2 laundry baskets to place on the shelving and the duffel bags get loaded into the isle. I can see this getting a little congested at night unloading and in the morning loading up again.

The trailer looks great! All of the sponsor's logos are on the trailer along with the sea to sea logo.

Last long training ride

2008-06-15T08:00:00.002-04:00

Saturday morning was a perfect morning for riding so Joy and I decided to ride to my sister's house in Middleville. In order to gain a few more miles, we planned to ride through Bradly, around by Gun lake area, the over to Middleville and her house. On the one of the main roads, we say this little snapping turtle making his way across the road. I don't know how he made it that far without getting run over, but we took a few pictures, and then put him by a pond on the side of the road.

I didn't realize that the Middleville 24 hour challenge was this weekend also. This is a cycling event where rides spend the night in tents at the school, and see how many miles they can ride during a 24 hour period. It may also be a fund raiser, but I'm not sure about this.

Once we arrived in downtown Middleville, we were supposed to take Grand Rapids Street south. However the downtown streets are completely torn up and closed off. We had to follow a detour for a short distance, but it really turned out fine. We arrived at my sister's house at about 10:00 am. While we were there, the west winds came up as they seem to do this summer. It was a stiff head wind on the way home, slowing our pace considerably. We ended up riding almost 80 miles for the day. On Thursday evening our bikes need to be packed up and loaded on a truck heading for Seattle. We may get a few short 25-30 mile rides in before then but no more long training rides before we leave.

Water, water every where

2008-06-13T04:32:00.003-04:00

The west side of Michigan has been hit with many of the storms that have been rolling through the county the past week or so. Living in the country, we see how weather has been effecting the crops these past few years. Last year much of the corn crop was lost because it was so dry in the late summer. This year, much of the corn is under water from the flooding. However we certainly can't complain compared to some of the other states such like Wisconsin and Iowa. It's heart breaking to see families homes being destroyed and flooded and watching them having to leave. The Sea To Sea tour in going to be in Madison Wisconsin on August 9 - 10. We may get a chance to help out some of these folks while there.

The Tent
I'm embarrassed to say that we are now on our third and final tent for the Sea To Sea ride. After spending hours reading reviews and comparing online all of the tent options, I decided that a Cabela's Alaskan Guide series would be the perfect tent. So we drove to the cabelas store in Indiana and picked up our 4 person tent. But after spending several nights sleeping in the backyard, we discovered it wasn't going to work out for these reasons:

It's very heavy. The four person tent weighs 26 lbs, almost half of our allowed weight for one person.
We found that the octagon shape is not the best use of floor space for a smaller tent.
Joy didn't like the color much.

So once again we started shopping for tents. This time we decided on a Big Agnes 4. I think the shape will work out much better. Even though the square footage is about the same, it just feels so much roomier. It even has a garage to park the bikes in at night, and Joy thinks that the color matches the Sea To Sea colors better also. What do you think?

Our friends always ask us if we're ready to go or not. We really don't know how to answer that question because we don't know. We've never climbed mountains before, so we don't know if we're in ready for them or not. I don't know what else we could have done to prepare for this ride. However,I think that I' m ready for the following reasons.

Even at work, if I hear a noise behind me, my eyes automatically look up for the mirror on my glasses.
I sub consciously check every flag while driving and note which way and how strong the wind is blowing.
I give directions like this, " go over 2 hills, you'll come to a large bump in the road....

So many people have been so generous in helping us with our financial commitment, that thank you seems trite. We've gotten donations from people that we don't even know. Thanks to all of you who have donated to the Sea to Sea under our names, we were able to reach and exceed our commitment of $20,000.00. Thank you again. Doug and JOy

The pawn shop experence

2008-03-23T20:19:00.004-04:00

Last week I had about 20 minutes to kill one day, so I stopped at a local pawn shop looking for some tools. Soon after walking in a commotion began behind the counter. One of the employees had heard a noise in the bathroom, so he pounded on the door asking if the person inside was ok. Even after several more attempts there was no response so he opened the door with an extra key and found a girl lying on the floor. Even from across the store, I could hear the tension growing as they called 911, and attempted to revive her. I thought if the police are on the way, this may be a good time to leave, so I headed for the door. As I was walking by the counter I heard someone say that the girl was not breathing and it was obvious that no one really knew any kind of first aid. Thinking maybe I should try to help I told the owner that I'd had some first aid training, and could I help? He almost grabbed me and pulled me into the bathroom. I found a girl maybe about 18 - 20 years old lying on the floor. One man was on the phone talking with the 911 operator and another was attempting CPR on the girl. I asked them if they were sure that she needed CPR. Th guy was more then happy to leave the resuscitation to someone else and jumped up and left the bathroom. I knelt down next to the girl and checked her neck for a pulse. There was a good strong pulse,so I then checked her breathing, which was very labored but study. So the only thing I really needed to do was hold her head back and make sure that she continued breathing. Soon the fire department arrived and took over.
Later I learned that the girl was a drug addict, and had gone in the bathroom, injected some heroin and overdosed. I don't know her name or even if she recovered, or not. I'm struggling to understand how a pretty young girl's life gets so screwed up that she can inject drugs into her self knowing full well that it could kill her.
It reminds me of Mark 10:10 Jesus said "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." The thief was stealing this girls life and may have killed or destroyed it with drugs. She could have had more then she could ever even asked or imagined.

On a brighter note, in spite of the 6" to 8" of new snow that we aren't supposed to be getting this time of year, Joy and I did manage to put on every layer of clothing we could find and go out for a ride Sunday afternoon. The temperature was only about 36, but the sun was out and it really felt good to get a few road miles in.

All bundled up and ready to ride. I think cold weather riding is more difficult because everything feels harder. My seat feels like 21 day cured concrete, headband was making my sunglasses dig into my nose, and the roads are full of potholes and winter junk yet. However, it was beautiful and sunny out and thats better then a trainer in the basement.
Doug and Joy

The Tent

2008-03-03T18:18:00.004-05:00

Joy and I knew that we were going to buy a new tent for the Sea To Sea. We wanted something sturdy enough to withstand windy rainy weather and easy to set up and take down. We've been in the tents that leaked every time it rained out, and the thought of sleeping in a leaky tent for nine weeks just doesn't sound like much fun.
After spending weeks reading tent reviews we decided to get one from Cabelas, for the following reasons;
1. It was the only tent we could find that used clips, not sleeves.
2. Almost all owners give it a 10 rating.
3. We wanted to have a reason to go to the new Cabelas store in Hammond Indiana.

Saturday morning we left for Indiana at 6:30 in 3" of new wet sloppy snow. The roads were a bit slippery, but improved soon after heading south, and the ride went very well. It seems by the end of February, we've all finally learned how to drive on the slippery roads because there were no cars in the ditch all the way there. We arrived at about 8:30, just enough time to take a few pictures before the store opened. I'm the type of shopper who can walk into a store, go directly to and grab the item that I want, pay and walk out within ten minutes. Done! However, Joy is the type who studies every available option, and after driving 2 1/2 hours to get there, she wanted to get the tent which was going to work the best for us. We looked over every tent they had in the store, discussing at great length, whether it would work for us. The gal working in the camping department could not have been more patient or helpful with us. She even offered to let us unpack a tent, and set it up in another area of the store so we could see how big it was. After 2 hours, we did end up buying the one that we originally went there for. Every aspect of shopping at Cabelas was a good experience, from the helpful staff, to the clean and organized store, to the easy off, on exit from I-94. If you are passing through Indiana sometime it's a great place to spend a few hours.

We decided the grandchildren should give the new tent a good once over, so they came over to spend the night. We thought that if the tent can stand up to one night with 3 kids, it'll last for nine weeks with grandpa and grandma. Joy and I move some furniture and set up the tent in the living room. It took a few minutes to figure out how all the poles go, but then set up was very easy and quick. The grandkids thought it was just right, and slept pretty well all night.

On the way home, from Indiana, Joy and I talked about how different life is going to be while riding on the Sea to Sea. While I'm sure that we are going to miss many of the comforts of home, but leaving our children and grandchildren is by far going to be the thing we'll miss the most.

I hope by the next post, we are riding our bikes outside in sunny warm weather.... Ok, maybe just riding outside.

Doug and Joy

"Always winter, but never summer"

2008-01-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

As we move into the middle of January, sometimes Michigan feels like the wicked white witch has put us under the curse of Narnia. The sun never shines, and it always winter, but never summer. Actually, it's been a very mild winter so far with little snow fall and mild temperatures. However, I think I'd prefer cold sunny days to mild overcast days.

As more and more people hear about our involvement the Sea to Sea bicycle ride across America, we are often asked questions and hear the many comments. I thought I'd list some of the most common comments and questions that we are asked.

1. Whata ya have, rocks in your head?
We don't think so. Riding across the U.S. is something that we talked about doing for many years. When the opportunity came for us to do this and support a good cause, we just had to try.

2. You guys must be crazy.
We maybe, but we don't care.

3. Do you have a huge seat on your bike?
This is probably the most common question that we hear "How can your butt tolerate the seat for that long?" Everyone has their own idea of what seat is best for long rides. We've tried them all, and found that large wide seats are the worst for long distance riding. For us, narrow hard seats work the best. Just like the rest of your body, your butt needs to get used to seating in the saddle for long periods of time.

4.Don't you have jobs or work? Are you retired?
No, Joy and I are not retired. We both have full time jobs in construction and mortgage. We are blessed to both work for companies who granted us the nine weeks off for this ride.

5. How many miles per day will you be riding?
While the route is still being planned, it looks like the average distance per day will be about 70 miles. How ever, available lodging will determine the exact mileage. There will be several 100 plus mile days and some days with under 50 miles.

6. Where will you be sleeping at night?
We don't really know where we will be sleeping. Schools, churches or campgrounds. We plan to sleep in a tent every night. We don't have a good tent and are still undecided on what we should purchase. This is the tent that we are thinking about getting, but have not ordered it yet.

7. What are you doing now to get in shape?
We have been riding our bikes on trainers, and lifting weights almost every day. While it's very difficult to get any mileage in on trainers, it will help us a great deal when we are able to get back on the road.

8. How long have you been biking?
That is a difficult question to answer because while we've been "biking" for maybe 20 years, most of those years were short trips, pulling the kids around in the Burley. It's only been within the past 5 years that we started riding longer distances.

9. How are you doing on fund raising?
we are not able to get a good handle on our fund raising progress t this time. We think that we are getting close to collecting about half of our $20,000. So many people have been wonderfully helpful with the fund raising. We are hoping to have our full amount collected by the beginning of June.

10. How can we help?
I suppose the obvious answer is to donate to the Sea to Sea ride under our names. We still need to collect a lot of money. But also, we need your prayers for our health and safety as we train for, and ride the Sea to Sea this summer. We also need prayers for the Sea to Sea in general.
If this is simply a group of cyclist riding across the U.S., then that's really all it is. It's been done hundreds of times in the past, and will be done many times again. But if this ride is held up in prayer, it has the potential to change thousands of lives, for years to come. That's what we're praying for.

Doug and Joy Lutke

Winter Training and Fund Raising

2007-11-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

As winter sets in around Michigan, we've had to resign ourselves to the fact that our outdoor riding is pretty much finished until next spring. Both of Joy and I had some sore muscles in our shoulders and necks after riding in the DALMAC this past summer, so we decided to spend much of the winter working on strengthening core muscles. It happened that a Certified Personal Trainer came to Joy's work for a loan, and he agreed to some personal training at a very discounted price. We've been working with Matt Haviland from Endurance Fitness for about a month now. He's been very helpful in putting together several workouts, which take about 45 minutes, and we can do in our home. Most of the exercises center around lifting light weights, stretching, rubber stretch bands and fitness ball. He's also giving us a lot of help on diet and eating the proper foods. This is a huge change for me, because I dislike most fruit and vegetables, and my diet relied heavily on donuts, chocolate and coffee. It was actually long over due, and the Sea to Sea is good incentive to change to a healthier diet.

We did purchased a Troy Jacobson DVD, to help take some of the boredom out of riding on the trainers. Troy takes you on a 50 minute ride through the country sides of Maryland. The video tells you what gears to use and what your cadence should be, and you keep up with him. It's pretty tough ride and a good work out, and if we can keep at it through the winter, it will be much easier getting going in the spring again.

Fund Raising Progress
Several months ago, we had 1000 cards printed up from Vista business cards online. We've been handing those out to anyone who is willing to take one. They have the Sea to Sea web address, our blog address and our contact information on them. We can't really say how our fund raising is going because we have no way of knowing if someone has donated money towards our ride or not, or what the balance in our account is.
Our home church in Byron Center, has been wonderfully supportive and offered to put us on the list for next weeks Thanksgiving offering. Thank you!
We've also mailed letters to some businesses and the local Christian Reformed churches explaining our involvement in the ride, asking for sponsorship, for their prayers and giving them information on how they can in involved or keep updated on this trip. I expect that after the first of the year we are going to start getting out and pushing the fund raising a little harder.
Thanks to all who have shown interest in this tour. Blessing to all during the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays.

The perfect fit.

2007-10-17T20:52:00.000-04:00

After cycling 380 miles on the DALMAC this year, Joy and I both had some shoulder and neck pain. We decided to see if the reason for this could be because we've never had our bikes properly fitted to us. We did have the 10 minute fit when we bought our bikes, but other then that, it's been our own trial and error adjusting on the road.

We were referred to biocorrect, located in Kentwood, MI. by a friend of mine. We made the appointment about a week ago, and went in today to have the fitting done. We met "A.D." Adriano Rosa, who would be working with us. We were surprised that the actual bike adjustments was the last thing that AD does when he works with someone. He said that he starts with the feet and works up from there. After a very through evaluation of Joy's feet, legs knees, hips and finally her back, we discovered she's pretty much out of whack from the ground up. AD then made some orthotics for her shoes, adjusted the clips and finally started working on the bike. He made some major adjustment to the handle bars, and seat while constantly checking leg angles, arms, back angle and what not. After and hour of tweaking, he was finish. The same process was then repeated on me, however my bike was not as far off as Joy's was.
AD then spent about 1/2 and hour give us a list of strengthening exercises for us to work on. He said this would also help with the back and neck pain. I'm anxious to get out on the road and try the bikes out.
AD is a cyclist also, so he quickly grasp most problems that we tried to describe, and knows what it takes to correct them. He also could not have been more patient with us. I can highly recommend biocorrect if you need a bike fitting done.

DALMAC

2007-09-15T07:17:00.000-04:00

The DALMAC bike ride from Lansing Michigan to Detour Village, is behind us again for another year. The route was 80 miles further this year because of a new option of traveling into the U.P.

I'd forgotten how hilly it becomes once you leave the shore line and get into the interior of Northern Michigan. I'm sure that it still doesn't compare to the mountains we'll climb next summer, but Michigan has some very long and steep hills.
The 1st two days, from Lansing to Lake City are basically flat. But upon leaving Lake City, the hills start with in the first 5 miles and continues throughout the rest of the day to Central Lake. Leaving Central lake the next morning, the hill start again within a mile and continue through the day. The longest and steepest hill is just outside of East Jordan. As you leave town, you start a gradual 3 mile climb. As you near the top, it continues to get steeper, until your standing in you pedals, pumping as hard as you can and only going about 3 miles per hour. While very hilly this is also the most scenic day on the route. I love Michigan, because it has such a verity of scenery, from rivers to lakes, forest, farmland and of course the great lakes.
The 380 mile trip ending on Sunday, by riding across the Mackinaw bridge in the morning, and finishing 60 mile further in Detour Village. We made great time, with a 15 M.P.H. tailwind pushing us along at an average speed of 17.8 for the day. We are going to miss this ride next year, due to the Sea To Sea, but I'm sure that we'll be back again.

The Card

2007-08-22T21:10:00.001-04:00

About a month ago, we along with all members of the Christian Reformed Church, received a card in the mail with the question "Are you ready for the ride of your life?" It was the official announcement that for the second time, the C.R.C. was planning a cross country bike tour. Last time it was across Canada, and this ride will be crossing the United States.
Joy and I joked about going, but ending up tossing the card in the trash along with the rest of that days junk mail. However, the next morning, before leaving for work, I took it out and hung it on the refrigerator next to the grand kids pictures and drawings, Over the next couple of days we would remark how this time next year, we'll be cycling through Denver, but neither of us really gave much thought to actually going. However, and I don't know exactly when, we started thinking more serious about it and decided to "test the waters" with our employers. Much to our surprise, we both were granted the time off if we decided to go. ( Maybe they don't need us as much as we think they do)
The next step was to ask our church council if they would consider endorsing us. At the August council meeting, our wonderful and wise elders and deacons decided that they would endorse us and support us should we decide to go.
On August 15, we mailed in our applications along with the deposit. Barring some unexpected problems , next year, we will be cycling from Seattle to Jersey City, 3,700 miles for nine weeks.

There is really much more to this trip then just biking across the United States. Each rider is requested to raise $10,000 in donations which will be used for raising awareness and funds to help those in the cycle of poverty. For many years, the Christian Reformed church has been active in helping, and educating poor in the U.S, Canada and other parts of the world. The funds raised from this ride will be dispersed by three organizations with in the Christian Reformed Church;

The Sea to Sea organization hope to recruit enough cooperate sponsors to cover the actual cost of the ride, so 100% of the donations will be used for helping those who need it.
If you feel inclined to make a tax deductible donation to helping people caught up in the cycle of poverty, please consider going to the Sea to Sea website, and make a donation under either Doug or Joy Lutke.

Thanks Doug and Joy