Wow, its been a week since we dipped our tires!! What an amazing day that was, the day was surely exciting as we completed our goal of biking across the continent! Sitting here at school and thinking about it sometimes still boggles my mind. haha. That day was also pretty tough, it meant saying goodbye to some really great people who we had developed our C2C family with. It's a good thing for facebook... haha...
The Sea to Sea tour was an experience I will never forget, I feel as though my walk with God has grown a lot closer over these last couple of months. I found this during the time I had on my bike to reflect on my life and also to discover what I want and can do after the tour and school. But, I know that the community we developed in the tour was a huge part in this too. Other than in elementary school and church, I had not been surrounded by so many enthusiastic Christians. What a great feeling!
Looking at the reason behind the tour: the cycle of poverty; I feel like we only saw a glimps of what poverty really is. We heard stories from people along the way of their hardships and it really made me value the little things in life that I have taken for granted in the past. Also, biking though South Chicago and also the way into New Jersey really made it real to me that some people live completely different lives than me, and I am just happy that we could raise this money to help some families gain some stability.
I guess this is where I say goodbye to my blog... although it was never up to date, I hope you enjoyed hearing some of the stories of the tour. Thank you to everyone who made this tour a possibility! As my family likes to say sometimes about good boating conditions... It was one of those "One in a Million" times.
Take Care and God Bless
Kaitlyn
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Working towards being up to date...
July 21... Today I biked with Jody, Theo, Kevin and Peter. We started in Jordanelle State Park and ended the day in Duschene. There was a lot of hype about the day as we were not given an elevation map for the day. We had a lot of unexpected turns and climbs... I found this to make the day a lot more interesting!! We climbed at 8 to 10% grades for a majority of our climb to the summit at 9485 ft. The downhill afterwards was amazing... but a little chilly as there was snow only a short distance up the mountain! The climb was definately pretty tough and very tiring! I think I averaged about 9 km/h on the way up.
July 22... Today I biked from Duschene to Dinosaur. I woke up pretty late and ended up biking with Justin. We made a lot of stops today... It seemed to take forever to get into camp. There was a little cafe in Dinosaur called the Bedrock cafe.. so we felt it was necessary to stop in for a drink :)
July 23... We biked from Dinosaur to Craig today. I started out the day with Jon E, Heidi and Denise. Jon and I caught onto the draft of Bill and Rita's Tandem bike after a little while and we ended up drafting them for about 30 km. That sure was nice!! It felt like we had done absolutely no work. At the first SAG wagon we met up with Julia, Jenna, Annette and some others and we stuck with them for the rest of the day. Right before Walter's stop there was a pretty big climb, the downhill from it was awesome... I hit 69.5 km/h. We stopped in a little town called Maybell on our way to Craig... I went to get a gatorade and came back to find lawrence fixing a flat tire on my bike.. haha... what a suprise! When we got to Craig; Julia, Annette, Jenna and I decided to check out the downtown and had some fun finding unique little stores!
July 24... We biked from Craig to Kremmling today. I biked with Julia, Jenna, Annette, Jon and some others today. The beginning of the ride was really good, there were some fun rollers! Once we hit about 90km there was a huge climb still ahead of us. The sights were beautiful!! At the top of one of the climbs (the false summit, I think it was called) Aaron's parents had some freezes waiting for us! That was pretty awesome! The top of the pass we climbed was called "Rabbit Ears" and it was also the continental divide. The ride down was really fun! I think I hit around 71 km/h. It's fun hitting those speeds.. I guess the led foot carried over to my bike... o no! haha. Kremmling was kind of a neat place.. It seemed like a little old western town from the movies.. It even had a saloon. Great!
July 25... Today I biked from Kremmling to Snow Mountain. Today a bunch of us decided to sleep in and go out for breakfast at "Our Little Family Restaurant" in town. The ride was really short today with lots of little climbs. Nice change!! We all stopped in Hot Sulphur Springs to hang out, some decided to eat, but most of us were too full from breaky. Today was basically what we considered a "girls day", I biked with Julia, Jenna, Annette, Jody, Katrina, and Hilena. The place we were staying was really nice... However, the tenting area was not completely optimal considering it was sloped and full of thistles... haha... good thing I fell asleep on the leather couches inside the lobby of the hotel then I guess! There was everything at this place, laundry, pool, sauna! It was great! Tonight at Peleton we said goodbye to some riders that we are really going to miss! We also did communion tonight at Peleton, which was nice as it was our first time the whole tour.
July 26... Today I was on Final Sweep.... I biked with Theo, Julia, Johnny, Marty, Jeff and Doug. We made quite a few stops along the way today as we wanted to give everyone a good chance to get a head start on the climb today. The climb today was really long switchbacks... I really enjoyed it! When we were about 3/4 of the way up my tire blew out and I had to call Betsy to bring me a new tube/tire. We hung out at the top of the Pass with Cory for a while (approx. 11200 ft). When we got to Walter's stop we helped him clean up his area and then we all took off together. The downhill we had today was amazing!! We dropped so much through winding valleys of the mountains!! So beautiful and hardly any work!! Perfect! We finally made it into the camp at 7:20pm. Dinner was already packed up so we went out to a little dinner down the street with everyone for some grubb. When we got back the sprinklers had went off in our tenting area and some tents had puddles of water in them... Lucky for me, mine was pointed the opposite direction!!
July 27... Today we were still in Denver, I woke up at 8am and headed over to the celebration rally shortly after breakfast. We had to ride our bikes around a track as our enterance to the the rally... this was a kind of neat opening! We were all boiling throughout the service though, we were sitting on bleachers in the hot sun!! We did communion again during the service which was the 2nd time in one week.. I guess it was catch up time? After the service we went to a bike store and I got new shoes!!! I was soooooo excited!!! Finally no more cramped up feet!!! Wahoooo. Theo and I took a train from where we were to downtown Denver.. pretty sweet!! The streets were so neat! There were loads of little shops that I think would have taken me a couple days to get through.. probably a good thing I only had a short amount of time for brousing. haha! We decided that the best place to get a smoothie is from Jamba Juice... seriously everone should try it!
Well its about time to go get my laundry... I think about all of you who donated to make this possible for me all the time! and THANK YOU again!
Kaitlyn :)
July 22... Today I biked from Duschene to Dinosaur. I woke up pretty late and ended up biking with Justin. We made a lot of stops today... It seemed to take forever to get into camp. There was a little cafe in Dinosaur called the Bedrock cafe.. so we felt it was necessary to stop in for a drink :)
July 23... We biked from Dinosaur to Craig today. I started out the day with Jon E, Heidi and Denise. Jon and I caught onto the draft of Bill and Rita's Tandem bike after a little while and we ended up drafting them for about 30 km. That sure was nice!! It felt like we had done absolutely no work. At the first SAG wagon we met up with Julia, Jenna, Annette and some others and we stuck with them for the rest of the day. Right before Walter's stop there was a pretty big climb, the downhill from it was awesome... I hit 69.5 km/h. We stopped in a little town called Maybell on our way to Craig... I went to get a gatorade and came back to find lawrence fixing a flat tire on my bike.. haha... what a suprise! When we got to Craig; Julia, Annette, Jenna and I decided to check out the downtown and had some fun finding unique little stores!
July 24... We biked from Craig to Kremmling today. I biked with Julia, Jenna, Annette, Jon and some others today. The beginning of the ride was really good, there were some fun rollers! Once we hit about 90km there was a huge climb still ahead of us. The sights were beautiful!! At the top of one of the climbs (the false summit, I think it was called) Aaron's parents had some freezes waiting for us! That was pretty awesome! The top of the pass we climbed was called "Rabbit Ears" and it was also the continental divide. The ride down was really fun! I think I hit around 71 km/h. It's fun hitting those speeds.. I guess the led foot carried over to my bike... o no! haha. Kremmling was kind of a neat place.. It seemed like a little old western town from the movies.. It even had a saloon. Great!
July 25... Today I biked from Kremmling to Snow Mountain. Today a bunch of us decided to sleep in and go out for breakfast at "Our Little Family Restaurant" in town. The ride was really short today with lots of little climbs. Nice change!! We all stopped in Hot Sulphur Springs to hang out, some decided to eat, but most of us were too full from breaky. Today was basically what we considered a "girls day", I biked with Julia, Jenna, Annette, Jody, Katrina, and Hilena. The place we were staying was really nice... However, the tenting area was not completely optimal considering it was sloped and full of thistles... haha... good thing I fell asleep on the leather couches inside the lobby of the hotel then I guess! There was everything at this place, laundry, pool, sauna! It was great! Tonight at Peleton we said goodbye to some riders that we are really going to miss! We also did communion tonight at Peleton, which was nice as it was our first time the whole tour.
July 26... Today I was on Final Sweep.... I biked with Theo, Julia, Johnny, Marty, Jeff and Doug. We made quite a few stops along the way today as we wanted to give everyone a good chance to get a head start on the climb today. The climb today was really long switchbacks... I really enjoyed it! When we were about 3/4 of the way up my tire blew out and I had to call Betsy to bring me a new tube/tire. We hung out at the top of the Pass with Cory for a while (approx. 11200 ft). When we got to Walter's stop we helped him clean up his area and then we all took off together. The downhill we had today was amazing!! We dropped so much through winding valleys of the mountains!! So beautiful and hardly any work!! Perfect! We finally made it into the camp at 7:20pm. Dinner was already packed up so we went out to a little dinner down the street with everyone for some grubb. When we got back the sprinklers had went off in our tenting area and some tents had puddles of water in them... Lucky for me, mine was pointed the opposite direction!!
July 27... Today we were still in Denver, I woke up at 8am and headed over to the celebration rally shortly after breakfast. We had to ride our bikes around a track as our enterance to the the rally... this was a kind of neat opening! We were all boiling throughout the service though, we were sitting on bleachers in the hot sun!! We did communion again during the service which was the 2nd time in one week.. I guess it was catch up time? After the service we went to a bike store and I got new shoes!!! I was soooooo excited!!! Finally no more cramped up feet!!! Wahoooo. Theo and I took a train from where we were to downtown Denver.. pretty sweet!! The streets were so neat! There were loads of little shops that I think would have taken me a couple days to get through.. probably a good thing I only had a short amount of time for brousing. haha! We decided that the best place to get a smoothie is from Jamba Juice... seriously everone should try it!
Well its about time to go get my laundry... I think about all of you who donated to make this possible for me all the time! and THANK YOU again!
Kaitlyn :)
Sunday, August 10, 2008
And so I named my bike FERRARI
July 14... we left Boise today and headed off to Mountain Home. I biked with Jenna, Annette, Lawrence, John E, Doug, Stretch and Reuben. We had a pretty good pace all day and we found some excitement along the way... For some reason there was a house with a pirate ship in the front yard... so random we thought, so obviously we had to jump on it and pose... haha... pretty convincing pirates in spandex and all... We amused ourselves during the last 10-15 km of the ride by doing the macarena (sp?) and other funny dances on our bikes... we do have videos to show for it... haha... We had a fun idea for Peleton that night and the group of us put training wheels on Pastor Len's bike... good thing he takes things pretty lightly... but really we were just concerned for his safety.
July 15... Today I rode with Annette, Jenna, John E, and Stretch. We took a wrong turn today and ended up making a much larger climb than we were supposed too! Luckily we didnt end up doing too many extra km's... The scenery was so beautiful though.. we biked right along this huge canyon and let me tell you the best part was decending down it!
July 16... Today I was in Gooding and we travelled to Burley. My team was on sweep today and we had to wake up by 5:45am to serve breakfast. Johnny, John, Theo, Julia, Jeff, Marty and I decided to be the final sweep team today and we took advantage of the extra time we had. First of all we found a coffee shop in downtown Gooding... much needed with such an early start... We took a tour through the Ted Miller Dairy Farm and we got complete tour... so cool! I mean the cows werent too exciting really, but the process of how the milk was extracted and stored was pretty neat to learn about!! We then stopped at a scenic stop to see the Blue Lakes from the lookout over the canyon... we were told they were spring fed and it is where the water for the irrigation for the local fields comes from. We then passed over the Snake River Bridge which was pretty scary.. every vehicle that passed over it made the concrete bridge bounce. The view was beautiful of the snake river and we saw a golf course down in the canyon too... so neat... mom and dad would have loved to play it i'm sure!! O ya, something the daredevil would love... Evil Kinevil even tried to jump this canyon with a rocket... such a crazy idea...
We made it to lunch at the Twin Falls Reformed Church which they gave us SUBWAY.... what a treat!! We got some extra directions to check out the Shoshone Falls which were a little off track... as we were in no rush to catch up to people on the road.. we figured why not check it out... well, what a sight, im glad i didnt miss out on that.. They are the niagara falls of the west... they really were quite beautiful. We ended up only having to sweep in Gayle and Justin for the last 10 km of the day. We got in pretty late today and ended up skipping peleton and the prayer service just cause we had to set up our tents and clean up ourselves after such a long and GREAT day!
July 17... Today was a really long day on the road.. we biked from Burley to Snowville... I bikes with Jenna for a majority of it which was nice! There was a pretty big climb today at the beginning of the day... but nothing we couldnt handle! The downhill was GLORIOUS though! After the 2nd uphill section we ran into a 5% grade downhill (SO MUCH FUN WITH NO BRAKES... HAHA). We stopped in a little town called Malta at a grocery store and met 3 of the 5 the owners children who were soooo cute and very talkative! (all were under the age of 6 i think, the little girls name was Kaitlyn!). Jenna and I were both feeling fatigued from the long day and mentally drained as all we seemed to be seeing was flat land with loads and loads of sage brush... not so entertaining... We ran through some irrigation sprinklers to cool off and beautiful man made shower... it consisted of large tarps and a garden hose... haha... Well at least it was fairly private!
July 18... Today we biked from Snowville to Willard... The landscape was pretty well the same as the last couple of days... Lots of dry, hot, dessert. However there were more foothills around today. We stopped in at the ATK (NASA) rocket display area. It was pretty neat to see the actual sizez of the rockets and we even climbed up on them for a pic (annette, jenna, kinsco and I). Annette and I joined a paceline with some guys for a bit, we were averaging around 40km/h (that didnt last too long that day.. .haha). Annette and I sped ahead for the last 15km and we found a little lemonade stand that 2 little boys set up... I always find it neat to stop in at these little things!
July 19... Today started out with a pretty big group... John, Johnny, Theo, Jenna, Annette, Katrina and Me. We biked from Willard Bay to Jordanelle State Park which is just outside of Park City. We biked to Salt Lake City after 100km. This is where we all split off into little groups. Theo and I went to see the Mormon Temple: which was really neat, we took some pictures of us with our bikes in front. There must have been 10 weddings that day... We saw couple after couple getting their pictures done in the same spots on the grounds... we joked that we should have jumped up there in our spandex and asked the photographer to snap one of us... haha... We then left Salt Lake and the climb started... I biked with Andy H for a majority of the climb and most of the rest of the ride until Walter's SAG stop where I finished the day with Matt Z and Stretch (last 20km). The campsite was approximately 15 min walk from everything else, kind of a pain but really nice area which made up for it. I was SOOO TIRED today!!! O ya, how could I forget, I stopped in at the Salt Lake City Ferrari dealership today and saw so many sweet cars! Don't worry dad, I only bought a small red one...
July 20... Today we were still at Jordanelle State Park. I went to town, did laundry, bike store and visited the market that had closed down the main street... I love this stuff!! The Celebration service was quite short tonight... but the speakers were really neat! One thing that I love about the weekends is that we always get to have Pancakes, Bacon and Strawberries at least one of the days!!!
Well I really wish I had more time to update this further, I will definately get up to date really soon!!! I hope everyone is well back home and thank you all for your great responses to my posts so far!! Hearing from all of you is so encouraging to me!
God Bless :)
July 15... Today I rode with Annette, Jenna, John E, and Stretch. We took a wrong turn today and ended up making a much larger climb than we were supposed too! Luckily we didnt end up doing too many extra km's... The scenery was so beautiful though.. we biked right along this huge canyon and let me tell you the best part was decending down it!
July 16... Today I was in Gooding and we travelled to Burley. My team was on sweep today and we had to wake up by 5:45am to serve breakfast. Johnny, John, Theo, Julia, Jeff, Marty and I decided to be the final sweep team today and we took advantage of the extra time we had. First of all we found a coffee shop in downtown Gooding... much needed with such an early start... We took a tour through the Ted Miller Dairy Farm and we got complete tour... so cool! I mean the cows werent too exciting really, but the process of how the milk was extracted and stored was pretty neat to learn about!! We then stopped at a scenic stop to see the Blue Lakes from the lookout over the canyon... we were told they were spring fed and it is where the water for the irrigation for the local fields comes from. We then passed over the Snake River Bridge which was pretty scary.. every vehicle that passed over it made the concrete bridge bounce. The view was beautiful of the snake river and we saw a golf course down in the canyon too... so neat... mom and dad would have loved to play it i'm sure!! O ya, something the daredevil would love... Evil Kinevil even tried to jump this canyon with a rocket... such a crazy idea...
We made it to lunch at the Twin Falls Reformed Church which they gave us SUBWAY.... what a treat!! We got some extra directions to check out the Shoshone Falls which were a little off track... as we were in no rush to catch up to people on the road.. we figured why not check it out... well, what a sight, im glad i didnt miss out on that.. They are the niagara falls of the west... they really were quite beautiful. We ended up only having to sweep in Gayle and Justin for the last 10 km of the day. We got in pretty late today and ended up skipping peleton and the prayer service just cause we had to set up our tents and clean up ourselves after such a long and GREAT day!
July 17... Today was a really long day on the road.. we biked from Burley to Snowville... I bikes with Jenna for a majority of it which was nice! There was a pretty big climb today at the beginning of the day... but nothing we couldnt handle! The downhill was GLORIOUS though! After the 2nd uphill section we ran into a 5% grade downhill (SO MUCH FUN WITH NO BRAKES... HAHA). We stopped in a little town called Malta at a grocery store and met 3 of the 5 the owners children who were soooo cute and very talkative! (all were under the age of 6 i think, the little girls name was Kaitlyn!). Jenna and I were both feeling fatigued from the long day and mentally drained as all we seemed to be seeing was flat land with loads and loads of sage brush... not so entertaining... We ran through some irrigation sprinklers to cool off and beautiful man made shower... it consisted of large tarps and a garden hose... haha... Well at least it was fairly private!
July 18... Today we biked from Snowville to Willard... The landscape was pretty well the same as the last couple of days... Lots of dry, hot, dessert. However there were more foothills around today. We stopped in at the ATK (NASA) rocket display area. It was pretty neat to see the actual sizez of the rockets and we even climbed up on them for a pic (annette, jenna, kinsco and I). Annette and I joined a paceline with some guys for a bit, we were averaging around 40km/h (that didnt last too long that day.. .haha). Annette and I sped ahead for the last 15km and we found a little lemonade stand that 2 little boys set up... I always find it neat to stop in at these little things!
July 19... Today started out with a pretty big group... John, Johnny, Theo, Jenna, Annette, Katrina and Me. We biked from Willard Bay to Jordanelle State Park which is just outside of Park City. We biked to Salt Lake City after 100km. This is where we all split off into little groups. Theo and I went to see the Mormon Temple: which was really neat, we took some pictures of us with our bikes in front. There must have been 10 weddings that day... We saw couple after couple getting their pictures done in the same spots on the grounds... we joked that we should have jumped up there in our spandex and asked the photographer to snap one of us... haha... We then left Salt Lake and the climb started... I biked with Andy H for a majority of the climb and most of the rest of the ride until Walter's SAG stop where I finished the day with Matt Z and Stretch (last 20km). The campsite was approximately 15 min walk from everything else, kind of a pain but really nice area which made up for it. I was SOOO TIRED today!!! O ya, how could I forget, I stopped in at the Salt Lake City Ferrari dealership today and saw so many sweet cars! Don't worry dad, I only bought a small red one...
July 20... Today we were still at Jordanelle State Park. I went to town, did laundry, bike store and visited the market that had closed down the main street... I love this stuff!! The Celebration service was quite short tonight... but the speakers were really neat! One thing that I love about the weekends is that we always get to have Pancakes, Bacon and Strawberries at least one of the days!!!
Well I really wish I had more time to update this further, I will definately get up to date really soon!!! I hope everyone is well back home and thank you all for your great responses to my posts so far!! Hearing from all of you is so encouraging to me!
God Bless :)
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Carbon Crack... Wahooooo (not)
Friday July 11... We travelled from Huntington to Ontario today. It was pretty weird explaining to people you were actually from Canada and not just down the street when explaining where I was from. We met some people at a little coffee shop we found downtown after our ride and shared our story. The responses we get from people are great! Well really, most just can't believe what we are doing. Later that night, I ended up having an irritation in my eye... I figure it was from some dust from the day. Eventually it affected all of my sinus' so with help from friends I went to the nurse and then had an early night.
Saturday, July 12... Today was pretty eventful to say the least! I biked with John, Doug, Johnny and Mark for a majority of the day and then we met up with Peter, Jody, Kevin, Eric and Theo at Walter's SAG stop. We decided to take our time getting into the city from there so we could enjoy the scenery. Right before Walter's SAG stop, Doug and I met this couple and we explained to them what we were doing... They were very interesting and loved to share their story with us too! A majority of the people we were biking with today are Canadian... Well did we not cross a street sign called CAN-ADA... Excellent! After a couple pictures we started travelling down the road. At about 10km away from Boise, disaster occurred! For those who know me, I get distracted pretty easily... So saying this here is the story of how I cracked my carbon fiber frame... The bike path and walking path coming into the city had a concrete ledge between them. I was unclipped from my peddles, biking, and looking off to the side of the road... Then suddenly my front tire started rubbing on the curb... Well in no time flat I had jumped/been thrown off my bike. My poor bike feel to the ground and the seat stay of my bike cracked. Well with that sort of luck, when I arrived in Boise, all the Giant dealers were closed for the day. The day turned around shortly after this... First of all... We saw a couple little kids with a lemonade stand... so we stopped in to help them out... THEN...Jody invited me, Theo, Kevin, Peter, and Eric to her friend Emily's for a rib dinner!! SOOOO GOOOOOD! Emily took us out to the river so we could go for a swim... it had a really strong current so we had fun floating around! When we got back to her house we ate dinner and did laundry (awesome)! After dinner, thinking we should just call it a night, Emily surprised us with a Boise evening event. We went Ice Blocking... now you probably have no idea what this is... Basically we bought some blocks of ice from a store and climbed to the top of a grass hill. From there we sat on old towels on the ice blocks and cruised down the hill. It was sooooo fun!!! We were out there for a couple hours and it didn't get old at all... the path changed with every run... ha ha... so fun! Even after all Emily had done for us, she offered us to spend the night... I forgot how great it feels to sleep in a real bed after camping so many nights!
Sunday, July 13... So we all woke up at Emily's house and slept in pretty late (9am).. ha ha... people who know me would probably think I'm crazy by saying this is late... We woke up to bacon, eggs, and fresh zuccini and banana bread. We then got a ride to the celebration rally... It had really good speakers and I remember really enjoying the message (Although I don't remember it right now). After the rally, with Theo's help, we tracked down the largest Giant dealer in the city, and found the store locations to bring my bike in. When I got back to camp, I got into a "Turbo" gear as some here like to call it.. John E decided to come with me to find a bike shop to repair or find a solution to my biking disaster. We saw 3 different bike stores and well as you can guess we got 3 different answers. From this all we could do was decide based on our gut feeling of what to do, and this brought a great deal of frustration to my day (to say the least). One person even said to me that I shouldn't be riding it at all... as you can imagine this made me feel flustered and well just plain worried about what this meant for me continuing on this trip. After thinking about all the answers we received, it seemed that the most structurally sound option was to use a fiberglass cloth and coat it with a resin. However, this became a problem as the only place with the material was closed until 10am the next day. With a heavy heart I returned back to the camp with nothing resolved and a great deal of emotions weighing down on me. About this time, Brian F came over to see the what the problem was... well little did I know that he was my hero for the day... He had the exact material that I needed to fix my bike... Seriously now... what is the chances that no bike stores have it and a guy on our own tour just happened to throw it in his bag??? AMAZING!!! God sure does work in miraculous ways! So between Brian, John and Rick my bike was fixed and ready for the following days ride. What a relief! So filled with joy I arrived at peleton that night. Pastor Len announced that my bike had been fixed and then he called me to the front of the meeting... Everyone had signed a card for me, knowing how hard a day I had. It really overwhelmed me as to how great of a community we have built here in such a short time! And its just so great to be involved in an event such as this with so many amazing and loving people!
Saturday, July 12... Today was pretty eventful to say the least! I biked with John, Doug, Johnny and Mark for a majority of the day and then we met up with Peter, Jody, Kevin, Eric and Theo at Walter's SAG stop. We decided to take our time getting into the city from there so we could enjoy the scenery. Right before Walter's SAG stop, Doug and I met this couple and we explained to them what we were doing... They were very interesting and loved to share their story with us too! A majority of the people we were biking with today are Canadian... Well did we not cross a street sign called CAN-ADA... Excellent! After a couple pictures we started travelling down the road. At about 10km away from Boise, disaster occurred! For those who know me, I get distracted pretty easily... So saying this here is the story of how I cracked my carbon fiber frame... The bike path and walking path coming into the city had a concrete ledge between them. I was unclipped from my peddles, biking, and looking off to the side of the road... Then suddenly my front tire started rubbing on the curb... Well in no time flat I had jumped/been thrown off my bike. My poor bike feel to the ground and the seat stay of my bike cracked. Well with that sort of luck, when I arrived in Boise, all the Giant dealers were closed for the day. The day turned around shortly after this... First of all... We saw a couple little kids with a lemonade stand... so we stopped in to help them out... THEN...Jody invited me, Theo, Kevin, Peter, and Eric to her friend Emily's for a rib dinner!! SOOOO GOOOOOD! Emily took us out to the river so we could go for a swim... it had a really strong current so we had fun floating around! When we got back to her house we ate dinner and did laundry (awesome)! After dinner, thinking we should just call it a night, Emily surprised us with a Boise evening event. We went Ice Blocking... now you probably have no idea what this is... Basically we bought some blocks of ice from a store and climbed to the top of a grass hill. From there we sat on old towels on the ice blocks and cruised down the hill. It was sooooo fun!!! We were out there for a couple hours and it didn't get old at all... the path changed with every run... ha ha... so fun! Even after all Emily had done for us, she offered us to spend the night... I forgot how great it feels to sleep in a real bed after camping so many nights!
Sunday, July 13... So we all woke up at Emily's house and slept in pretty late (9am).. ha ha... people who know me would probably think I'm crazy by saying this is late... We woke up to bacon, eggs, and fresh zuccini and banana bread. We then got a ride to the celebration rally... It had really good speakers and I remember really enjoying the message (Although I don't remember it right now). After the rally, with Theo's help, we tracked down the largest Giant dealer in the city, and found the store locations to bring my bike in. When I got back to camp, I got into a "Turbo" gear as some here like to call it.. John E decided to come with me to find a bike shop to repair or find a solution to my biking disaster. We saw 3 different bike stores and well as you can guess we got 3 different answers. From this all we could do was decide based on our gut feeling of what to do, and this brought a great deal of frustration to my day (to say the least). One person even said to me that I shouldn't be riding it at all... as you can imagine this made me feel flustered and well just plain worried about what this meant for me continuing on this trip. After thinking about all the answers we received, it seemed that the most structurally sound option was to use a fiberglass cloth and coat it with a resin. However, this became a problem as the only place with the material was closed until 10am the next day. With a heavy heart I returned back to the camp with nothing resolved and a great deal of emotions weighing down on me. About this time, Brian F came over to see the what the problem was... well little did I know that he was my hero for the day... He had the exact material that I needed to fix my bike... Seriously now... what is the chances that no bike stores have it and a guy on our own tour just happened to throw it in his bag??? AMAZING!!! God sure does work in miraculous ways! So between Brian, John and Rick my bike was fixed and ready for the following days ride. What a relief! So filled with joy I arrived at peleton that night. Pastor Len announced that my bike had been fixed and then he called me to the front of the meeting... Everyone had signed a card for me, knowing how hard a day I had. It really overwhelmed me as to how great of a community we have built here in such a short time! And its just so great to be involved in an event such as this with so many amazing and loving people!
Friday, July 25, 2008
From Big City to Small Town to Smaller Town
It's been such a busy week... and finally I find some time to fill you in with the rest of my stories...
So Sunday, July 6... It's the start of a new week and its also the first day we had off on the tour. We were in Kennewick and we had our first celebration rally. The speaker was really good and they had us all walk across the stage to the song "I want to ride my Bicycle" by Queen. Pretty cool I must say. It was really neat to talk to the different members of the community... We found out that the church in Kennewick designated a specific cyclist to every member of their church to pray for; I find this so neat, I never would have imagined so much support!
A local family brought their boat out for the day and the people who wanted to got a chance to wakeboard, water ski and tube... I went wakeboarding, it was my first time, and I am proud to say that I got up at least 3 times! Did I ever feel it for the next couple days thought... haha, well worth it!
Moday, July 7, Today felt like a really long ride, it just seemed to take forever with the headwinds. I started out with a bunch of people and ended the day with Julia W. I was pretty exhausted when I got into camp today...
Tues, July 8. Today we went through "Dead Man's Pass". The road had lots of switchbacks which are nice to see your progress but also really really annoying... Sometimes I was tempted to just throw by bike over my shoulder and climb the hill straight up.. haha... but obviously I didnt.
We stayed at a little park with an indoor pool that we all had fun swimming in.
Wed, July 9. We biked to Baker City today. As the ride was not as difficult as other days we decided to take our time getting in. We stopped in at a little coffee shop called Aggies.. such a cute place! Later that day we stopped on the side of the road to tell locals about the tour and it turned out we were talking to the mayor of the town... she told us about her town and we had a great time! It was really hot today, about 32 degrees. When we got to camp we set up and quickly went down to a little creek and jumped in.. there was a rope, so we all had fun swinging off of that!
Thurs, July 10. We arrived in Huntington today. It is such a small town!! There are about 5 different stores I noticed and 2 of them were Christian Book Stores. Annette R. and I had some awesome blueberry pie at the one store. A lot of the people on the tour, young and old decided to visit the Christian Book Store later that night... We had a good time, there was a jukebox and we played some really good oldies..
Well I know I didnt finish expaining this week, but I have to get sleep for the upcoming rides... I will get more up here this weekend for you to follow!
Take Care, Kaitlyn
So Sunday, July 6... It's the start of a new week and its also the first day we had off on the tour. We were in Kennewick and we had our first celebration rally. The speaker was really good and they had us all walk across the stage to the song "I want to ride my Bicycle" by Queen. Pretty cool I must say. It was really neat to talk to the different members of the community... We found out that the church in Kennewick designated a specific cyclist to every member of their church to pray for; I find this so neat, I never would have imagined so much support!
A local family brought their boat out for the day and the people who wanted to got a chance to wakeboard, water ski and tube... I went wakeboarding, it was my first time, and I am proud to say that I got up at least 3 times! Did I ever feel it for the next couple days thought... haha, well worth it!
Moday, July 7, Today felt like a really long ride, it just seemed to take forever with the headwinds. I started out with a bunch of people and ended the day with Julia W. I was pretty exhausted when I got into camp today...
Tues, July 8. Today we went through "Dead Man's Pass". The road had lots of switchbacks which are nice to see your progress but also really really annoying... Sometimes I was tempted to just throw by bike over my shoulder and climb the hill straight up.. haha... but obviously I didnt.
We stayed at a little park with an indoor pool that we all had fun swimming in.
Wed, July 9. We biked to Baker City today. As the ride was not as difficult as other days we decided to take our time getting in. We stopped in at a little coffee shop called Aggies.. such a cute place! Later that day we stopped on the side of the road to tell locals about the tour and it turned out we were talking to the mayor of the town... she told us about her town and we had a great time! It was really hot today, about 32 degrees. When we got to camp we set up and quickly went down to a little creek and jumped in.. there was a rope, so we all had fun swinging off of that!
Thurs, July 10. We arrived in Huntington today. It is such a small town!! There are about 5 different stores I noticed and 2 of them were Christian Book Stores. Annette R. and I had some awesome blueberry pie at the one store. A lot of the people on the tour, young and old decided to visit the Christian Book Store later that night... We had a good time, there was a jukebox and we played some really good oldies..
Well I know I didnt finish expaining this week, but I have to get sleep for the upcoming rides... I will get more up here this weekend for you to follow!
Take Care, Kaitlyn
Friday, July 18, 2008
Catch-Up Anyone?
I guess it is about time that I get this blog up post up!
The last couple of weeks have been unbelievable! I never imagined that this trip would be filled with so many amazing people and beautiful sights!
So I guess to start from the beginning... The first weekend basically consisted of me meeting lots of people and forgetting just about all of their names! I think that studying the pictures on the sea to sea website would have been a great idea! haha
On Monday June 30th, we began the tour at the Golden Garden Beach in Seattle. It was such a cool feeling to be standing there on that beach with so many enthusiastic cyclists and fans cheering us off! We took off from the beach with our safety groups from the previous day and as we left the parking lot of that beach you could really feel all the support behind us, both from those there and thinking of all the people that helped to make it possible to be there at that moment! Thank you all so much for your donations!
Later that day we arrived in Sultan, after the ride a majority of us were still full of energy and found a glacier fed river down the road... man o man it was cold; but it sure didn't stop me from jumping in and following the current around the bend a couple times.
CANADA DAY came the following day and also the climb that none of us can forget! Steven's Pass has an elevation of 4061 ft and well to say the least, we felt every last foot of it! It was such a beautiful ride up the mountain though, it was hard to be frustrated with the slow progress I was making! The springs that fed the little falls along the way were so neat and refreshing! I don't know if I have ever looked forward to achieving a goal more in my life that day... haha (well I guess I can laugh about it now) The way down was just amazing!! Looking off to the side, the winding rivers and beautiful mountain scenery was just the thing I needed to remind me just how great God really is! We arrived in a little German town that night called Leavenworth. It was one of the neatest towns I have ever seen! It gave you such a cool feeling, like you stepped out of the states and entered a little European town! A couple of us "younger" cyclist decided that we couldn't have a Canada Day without celebrating, so we took a little trip out to the town to find the "Christian Book Store" (aka. the nearest pub). We suprisingly learnt this code from the "older" cyclists on the tour who clearly had more experience in finding these areas.
The next day was a pretty big climb as well, we reached an altitude of approx. 4102 ft, this was called the Blewitt Pass. We all had a chuckle about the name. On the way up the pass, we started trying to find some things to pass the time... this included counting 93 trucks honking at us throughout the day. Of course we did initiate most of these! Today's temperatures hit around 40 C or approx 100 F, SO HOT!! We had our first Wednesday Night Prayer Service that was held by Hans Doef. It was such a nice service, we read some really neat bible passages and we sang and meditated around a candle lit cross in the middle of our circle.
On Thursday we went through a really cool canyon, a majority of the day was downhill... man did that feel nice!! We went swimming in a pond that evening that a local told us about, however on our way back to the camp we all kind of wondered why there was no one else swimming there.... well... apparently that is the pond a lot of geese spend time in... gross! O well... I guess it didn't hurt us.
July 4th finally came around... and oops, I forgot Dad's birthday... so I guess this can be my way of making up for that... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
Now back to the stories... we biked around 60km today, a pretty short day! We biked to Sunnyside today and stayed at the Christian School there! On the way there we stopped in at a little Church in Zilah that had refreshments and fresh cherries there for us to enjoy! And did we ever! On the way into Sunnyside we had some fun taking pictures along the way, we actually found a big red wagon that we strategically attached to Lawrence's Bike and we all climbed in for the ride! I will have to post that picture on here soon! As Independence Day is pretty big here in the state, haha, the Sunnyside CRC treated us to some root beer floats and also directed us to the fireworks show. To tell you the truth, I did not expect much of a show considering the size of the town, but the fireworks were so great!! It seemed like they would never end!
On Saturday July the 5th we biked into Kennewick. This was the end of our first week of biking... we've been up and we've been down and we made it... what a relief!! Along the way we took our time to enjoy everything that we saw from the views of far off mountains, the rock cliffs some climbed, the rivers that some swam, and the desert (which we thought impossible). The terrain was very much desert-like today, not my favourite that is for sure! But I enjoyed every minute of it and am so thankful to be able to be on this trip! A large group of us cyclist, both young and old decided to go down to a "Christian Book Store" this night, we had a great time, singing kareoke and just enjoying each others company getting to know each other! A highlight was definitely when we all broke out into Amazing Grace! We belted it out!
Well its getting pretty late, I am going to have to end this post on only 1 full week of the tour... I will continue the rest as soon as I get another chance!
God Bless, Kaitlyn
The last couple of weeks have been unbelievable! I never imagined that this trip would be filled with so many amazing people and beautiful sights!
So I guess to start from the beginning... The first weekend basically consisted of me meeting lots of people and forgetting just about all of their names! I think that studying the pictures on the sea to sea website would have been a great idea! haha
On Monday June 30th, we began the tour at the Golden Garden Beach in Seattle. It was such a cool feeling to be standing there on that beach with so many enthusiastic cyclists and fans cheering us off! We took off from the beach with our safety groups from the previous day and as we left the parking lot of that beach you could really feel all the support behind us, both from those there and thinking of all the people that helped to make it possible to be there at that moment! Thank you all so much for your donations!
Later that day we arrived in Sultan, after the ride a majority of us were still full of energy and found a glacier fed river down the road... man o man it was cold; but it sure didn't stop me from jumping in and following the current around the bend a couple times.
CANADA DAY came the following day and also the climb that none of us can forget! Steven's Pass has an elevation of 4061 ft and well to say the least, we felt every last foot of it! It was such a beautiful ride up the mountain though, it was hard to be frustrated with the slow progress I was making! The springs that fed the little falls along the way were so neat and refreshing! I don't know if I have ever looked forward to achieving a goal more in my life that day... haha (well I guess I can laugh about it now) The way down was just amazing!! Looking off to the side, the winding rivers and beautiful mountain scenery was just the thing I needed to remind me just how great God really is! We arrived in a little German town that night called Leavenworth. It was one of the neatest towns I have ever seen! It gave you such a cool feeling, like you stepped out of the states and entered a little European town! A couple of us "younger" cyclist decided that we couldn't have a Canada Day without celebrating, so we took a little trip out to the town to find the "Christian Book Store" (aka. the nearest pub). We suprisingly learnt this code from the "older" cyclists on the tour who clearly had more experience in finding these areas.
The next day was a pretty big climb as well, we reached an altitude of approx. 4102 ft, this was called the Blewitt Pass. We all had a chuckle about the name. On the way up the pass, we started trying to find some things to pass the time... this included counting 93 trucks honking at us throughout the day. Of course we did initiate most of these! Today's temperatures hit around 40 C or approx 100 F, SO HOT!! We had our first Wednesday Night Prayer Service that was held by Hans Doef. It was such a nice service, we read some really neat bible passages and we sang and meditated around a candle lit cross in the middle of our circle.
On Thursday we went through a really cool canyon, a majority of the day was downhill... man did that feel nice!! We went swimming in a pond that evening that a local told us about, however on our way back to the camp we all kind of wondered why there was no one else swimming there.... well... apparently that is the pond a lot of geese spend time in... gross! O well... I guess it didn't hurt us.
July 4th finally came around... and oops, I forgot Dad's birthday... so I guess this can be my way of making up for that... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!
Now back to the stories... we biked around 60km today, a pretty short day! We biked to Sunnyside today and stayed at the Christian School there! On the way there we stopped in at a little Church in Zilah that had refreshments and fresh cherries there for us to enjoy! And did we ever! On the way into Sunnyside we had some fun taking pictures along the way, we actually found a big red wagon that we strategically attached to Lawrence's Bike and we all climbed in for the ride! I will have to post that picture on here soon! As Independence Day is pretty big here in the state, haha, the Sunnyside CRC treated us to some root beer floats and also directed us to the fireworks show. To tell you the truth, I did not expect much of a show considering the size of the town, but the fireworks were so great!! It seemed like they would never end!
On Saturday July the 5th we biked into Kennewick. This was the end of our first week of biking... we've been up and we've been down and we made it... what a relief!! Along the way we took our time to enjoy everything that we saw from the views of far off mountains, the rock cliffs some climbed, the rivers that some swam, and the desert (which we thought impossible). The terrain was very much desert-like today, not my favourite that is for sure! But I enjoyed every minute of it and am so thankful to be able to be on this trip! A large group of us cyclist, both young and old decided to go down to a "Christian Book Store" this night, we had a great time, singing kareoke and just enjoying each others company getting to know each other! A highlight was definitely when we all broke out into Amazing Grace! We belted it out!
Well its getting pretty late, I am going to have to end this post on only 1 full week of the tour... I will continue the rest as soon as I get another chance!
God Bless, Kaitlyn
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