Sea to Sea Riders Arrive in Canada

We arrived too late to see the first Sea to Sea riders come across on the ferry, but not too late to cheer on the later groups crossing at Sombra, ON. We had a vicious thunderstorm earlier that morning, and yes, the riders had a bit of a wet ride, but by the time they started crossing on the ferry, the sun broke through and it ended up being a glorious summer day!

Here are the girls with Karel. A rider from our very own church!

It was neat to see all the riders and all the bikes everywhere. Everyone was refueling with cookies, coffee, and watermelon, (Notice Karel's Timmie's cup?) and visiting with people they knew -- or didn't know for that matter.

The older girls were especially fascinated by the big truck as it is the kitchen. We got to see inside and learn how they provide food for up to 160 (I think) hungry bikers at a time. It was really neat to see. There is a second transport, but it had already left for the evening destination as it holds all the bikers' gear for living on the road for up to nine weeks -- or shorter for those who are doing sections of the tour.

This truck is especially designed to continue to be in use after the tour as a mobile kitchen for disaster relief.  I may be wrong, but I seem to recall one of the kitchen staff volunteers saying that a retired truck driver designed the whole thing and it's been done very well! They are loving it. I especially wanted the steamer oven!

Once the refueling and visiting was completed, they were off again to their evening destination. (Yes, I shot this while driving, but I was driving very slow as I didn't think it would be a good idea to move over lanes in an S curve to go around the riders.)

We didn't get to attend the evening social as we'd originally planned. Work and volunteer time at the girls school were the priorities that evening. :o(

If you think of it, lift up a prayer for the riders -- for continued strength and safety! Oh, and if you're interested, you might want to have a peek at these two blogs: From the Seat of a Bicycle and Clarence Vandervies. They are from our sister churches in our city.

Someday the Engineer would like to do this on a tandem. There are several tandems on this tour.