Supportive, friendly people.
High: On the last ride into Wolfville, we were met by Gary and Jenny Bustin at the eastern end of Highway 14 through the Rawdon Hills. They had packed a wonderful breakfast and set it up at roadside; a folding table with chairs were set up and waiting as we pulled up! And they had coffee! Gary then joined us for the last ride and Jenny packed up and returned with their car to Wolfville. Thanks!
Highs: In BC at the start of our trek, Brydone and Torill, and Gary and Cheryl, who hosted us in their homes during the first days of our journey. Those acts of kindness became a pattern throughout our trip.
Highs: On the last day, our family members joined us in Hantsport (my wife, Jan) and in Avonport (Tug’s son, Steven with Jill’s friend, Adam). Then came the reception in Wolfville, which was quite overwhelming. Thanks for being there; it has had quite an impact on us and meant a lot.
High: Bike shop people across Canada who dropped what they were doing and helped us. To the guys and ladies at Straight Line Bicycles in Fernie, BC, Gord’s Bike Shop in Winnipeg, MB, and Velorution in Sault Ste Marie ON. And of course there are our own guys at VSC here in Wolfville. Thanks!
High: all the complete strangers who were so interested in what we were doing, why, where we were from and who wished us good luck.
High: Exchanging contact information with so many people
High: All the other bikers out there doing their own challenge
High: People’s interest and reaction to our blog
High: June 28! Imagine waking up to find it raining on your tent, and mosquitoes glued in large numbers to the mesh of your tent. I get wet and thoroughly bitten while packing up a wet tent; there are no restaurants nearby; breakfast is peanut butter and jam on a bun, with no coffee and no chances to eat for 75 to 90 k. We start off in dense fog and rain, and then have a livestock truck deliberately drive by fast and very close - to intimidate and soak us – alongside an empty highway. It gets worse. I have two flats, Tug has one and we are out of tubes after the first two punctures, so I have to patch a tube. The sun emerges finally at noon, but we still have 100k to go. The events of the morning have slowed us down so much that it seems we will never get the remaining distance done and there is no prospect of food: I am very aware of the need to eat to fuel our biking. We ride another 25k, round a turn and there is a 2 by 8 feet wide message in the gravel, obviously scratched recently by someone’s shoe, “Morris -->” and on the mailbox, a smaller paper sign – “Morris Tugwell, turn here”. We immediately knew what this was about because Tug had tried to contact a woman that we did not know except through her sister, Barb, of Wolfville, who told Maurice he should contact her sister and brother-in-law when we passed through the area south of Superior Provincial Park in northern ON. Two days earlier, Tug had left a message for Ruth but due to poor cell phone coverage, we had not heard a reply and had basically given up on the idea that someone was home. We pulled into the driveway and rolled up to the house to be greeted by Ruth Fletcher, the sign maker. She gave us a warm welcome and invited us to stay. A bad day quickly became a gem. The low point was forgotten just like that. But it got even better. Ruth showed us around her home and told us to look around. Our day became an idyllic quiet sunny time on their gorgeous rocky shore of Lake Superior. We scrambled around in the sunshine, taking pictures of it all and then enjoyed a great home cooked meal, lots of engaging conversation about lifestyles, careers, retirement, home building, families, Lake Superior Park, outdoor activities, etc. Next morning Ruth and Ward saw us off after coffee and breakfast and I will never forget them, their welcome, their home which was so suited to them, and its magnificent setting!
Highs: Complete strangers who were simply wonderful: Sherry, Janice and Jody of Village Coffee Tyme in Swift Current. Thanks for serving us our coffee and a cinnamon roll and then saying “our treat”. Katie at Roosevelt Rustic Diner, (Minnesota), who served us a really good home cooked meal at lunch and also paid for our meal. Julie and Dale who allowed us to camp at their farm in southern MB, and then gave us coffee and fed us before we set the out next day. Jim and Barbara who invited us to a home cooked meal and wine at their campsite in Reston MB. Bruno and Marcel, both cyclists, who stopped to asked if they could help us when we were lost crossing Montreal and Quebec City, respectively. Both of them rode a long way guiding us along paths that got us across their cities. Without that help we would have been a long time finding our way and probably on roads that were not safe.
Highs: The hundreds of people who beeped and waved their approval/greetings as they passed.
High: Susanna who owns and operates the Silver Dollar Restaurant in Stoughton SK. We had supper at her place and asked about places to eat next morning. Upon finding out what we are doing, she agreed to open at 6:00am to give us breakfast the next day; she normally does not open until 7:00. And the breakfast was wonderful.
Highs: Truckers are great professionals. We really appreciated the way they gave us a wide berth; out west in particular, whenever they could get over a full lane, they did. Also many of them - except in Ontario - tended to slow down when they were forced by traffic to pass close to us. And to the few of them who came close to us by chance and had to pass at speed, but who drove carefully so as to avoid fishtailing their trailers, thanks!
Low: The MB and ON livestock trucks drivers who drove deliberately close to us even when there was not a car in sight. Their behaviour was so obviously different from other truckers; they clearly meant to intimidate us. One of them will hurt somebody someday.
Low: “Yellow liners” : drivers who think that yellow central line is a wall that they cannot cross under any circumstances so they sometimes beep at us to get us to move off the road(!) or come far too close to us in order to avoid pulling out into an empty lane.
Weather
High: Having a wind at our backs and going 37 kph along flat smooth roads near the St Lawrence River.
Huge Lows: The head winds for 2 desperate days in MB
Low: Forecast of more rain tomorrow after days of it
High: Forecasts of sunny weather after 8 days of rain showers everyday
Highs: We were lucky: there was only one really hard rain, mostly we were in isolated showers that were not very intense or started and stopped quickly - although we got rained on repeatedly over one 8 day period in ON, we were never really soaked for a whole day and we did not see the hail, snow etc that we heard happened around or behind us.
High: The campground where we were river-side on a sunny evening alongside the St Lawrence seaway watching the ships and dining on pizza delivered to our campsite, with help from the campsite owner.
The Biggest High: My Family
Huge Highs: Visiting my family members along the away. My children – and grandchildren - are spread out across Canada and I don’t get to see them often enough or for long periods. It was wonderful to spend even the brief times we had together. Riding with Susie and Chris over the Crowsnest, visiting with Jeff and meeting Max (his new puppy), staying with Brad, Christie and my granddaughters, Alta, Adele and Ellie; the girls gave up their beds for us! And Brad willingly drove to Collingwood to arrange to get our bikes tuned for those last days.
Huge High: Talks with my wife every evening. Obviously, I called Jan every evening to give her the updates for the blog, and we also talked about our days. This connection to her and home was important beyond measure.
Huge High: The support of my family when things were tough. There are times in every significant effort when motivation ebbs. For example in a race on the track, it is very common for the third lap of a 4 lap race to slow down due to accumulating fatigue and an inability to put in the mental effort to stay the course, maintain the pace and reach the personal goal. That happened to me in the “third lap” of our trek and I will confess that my motivation wavered a bit, and I began to understand how someone could have those thoughts. At that time, my family sent me a very clear message – “don’t even think about quitting; I will come and ride with you if that will help.” I was never close to quitting, but when Jan told me that, I cannot emphasize how much that buoyed my spirits and stayed with me for the rest of the trek.
Completing this trip is - in large measure - due to my family. Thanks, guys!
Part 3 and my last blog tomorrow.
Gary
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