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July 19, 2003 Kevin rode down the 52 km to John's house in Burlington, We both rode the final 6 km to Spencer Smith Park by Lake Ontario in Burlington. We were greeted by family and friends at the park and it was great to see everyone and reminisced about the trip with them. n our final day we did some more media coverage for the CNIB as The Burlington Post, CH TV and the Hamilton Spectator were at the park to do some interviews. Well, after planning this trip for one and half years it is finally completed. It's difficult to put into words to describe the whole experience. We definitely have a lot of people to thank, for without the help of others the trip would not have been such a success. First we would like to thank Lynn and Willa and our children for supporting us in such an adventure ...it was a very long time to be away from our families.Our appreciation goes out to our employers and fellow employees for taking an active role in fund raising towards our charity the CNIB. A big thank you goes out to Jim Weatherby of the Rockwood Lion's Club who coordinated the Lion's Clubs along our route. The generous hospitality of all the Lion's Clubs and relatives and friends who we stayed with was much appreciated. Thank you to Erica and Debbie Sperling for updating the website and keeping our families and friends informed with our progress on the trip. We would like to acknowledge all the CNIB staff who helped coordinate media attention for our cause along our route. We received assistance from dedicated CNIB employees in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Toronto. Our total fund raising will be over $22,000 but much more importantly we promoted the CNIB programme "That All May Read" throughout Canada. We talked to six television stations, twenty-two newspapers and two radio stations, so we are pleased that we promoted the CNIB library and their need for funding so as to modernize it.. The trip was an unforgettable experience and has given us both memorable thoughts that will last a life time. "Some thoughts and reflections! The best scenery: The B.C. mountains. The friendliest people: Saskatchewan The worst roads: Ontario Honourable mention: Manitoba. The best roads: British Columbia Honourable mention: Alberta The windiest place: Saskatchewan The best bakery: muffin - Hedley B.C. _____________pie - Echo Bay, Ont. Flat tires on John's hybrid tires: 4 Flat tires on Kevin's skinny road tires: 0 ( It's still hard to believe! ) Best cycling store: Cranbrook B.C. Thanks again to everyone who was involved in making the trip such a memorable experience. Best Regards, John & Kevin Wed. July, 16th, 2003 Kevin picked John up at 5:15 AM this morning and we went into Toronto to the City TV studio. We did an interview with Liza at 8:45 on the Breakfast Television Show which is watched by a very large audience, so we hope it will be another awareness promotion for the CNIB. We then were interviewed and photographed by the Toronto Star, which ran in the paper on Thurs. July 17th. After the welcoming home party at Spencer Smith Park on Sun July 20th, we will write up a final diary message to summarize this memorable experience. Tues. July 15th, 2003 We packed up the tent for the last time this morning. Headed down Highway #6 towards Guelph. We arrrived at the Speedy River Bike Shop in Guelph by 2:00 where John had his two broken spokes replaced. We said our goodbyes to each other as Kevin lives in Guelph and John continued on down Guelph Line to Burlington where he arrived by 7:00 covering 150 kilms. for the day. We both agreed it was great to be home in our home cities with our families. Monday, July 14th, 2003 As we had camped so close to the ferry dock we were woken at 6:00 by cars lining up for the first ferry at 7:00 We decided to get an early start and headed down the very hilly, no shoulder road to Wiarton where we had lunch and said goodbye to Antoine as he was going to Sauble Beach. We rode to Owen Sound to get my spoke fixed but the bike shop was closed that day, so we continued on to Durham. Before reaching Durham John broke another spoke so he was riding on two broken spokes. We camped at the Conservation campgrounds in Durham. We travelled 160 kilms today and home seems so close now. Sunday, July 13th, 2003 We were on the road by 7:45 this morning with clear skies. Had our usual muffins at 30 kilms at Spanish and shortly after John had his first broken spoke on his new wheel from Winnipeg. We arrived in Esponal by 12:30 to see our two cycling friends Martin and Antoine. These young guys are not gaining any ground on us even though they ride late into the night. Martin was headed for Sudbury and Antoine continued on with us towards the South Bay Mouth ferry The road down to Little Current and to the ferry was one of the worst piece of roads we have rode on. The road was very hilly with no shoulder and we had a head wind all day. As the weather was very hot we stopped at a lake for a very refreshing swim. Despite the poor conditions we arrived at South Bay Mouth by 8:00 to catch the 10:00 ferry ride to Tobamory. We arrived at 11:45 and set up our tent as soon as we found a piece of grass. This day turned out to be our record day for kilms. as we rode 214 km from Blind River to South Bay Mouth and then took the ferry ride. Sat July12th,2003 We set out on the road about 930 this morning from Sault St. Marie. At about 25 kilms our bikes did their usual thing and turned into a bakery at Echo Bay. There is a statue of the Loonie here as the person who designed the loonie is from this town. This bakery was so good and the pies were so fresh that we shared a whole blueberry pie. It was one of the best we had eaten on the whole trip. At about 100 kilms east of the Soo we met John's father Murray and John's sister Kathy and brother in law Keith as they were headed out to Alberta for holidays. We had a short visit by the road side, took some pictures and we all headed out on the road again. We arrived in Blind River by 4:00 just as our cycling friends Martin and Antoine were leaving for Massey. We call them the night riders! We were treated to a fine complmentary dinner at Ollive's Pasta Restaurant, which was owned by Julian, who is a brother of Ann Swanson a friend of Kevin's. Olive's is a great place to eat if you are ever in Blind River.We set up our tent behind the fire station and had a quiet sleep. Friday July 11 Raining again when we woke up. We had a nice breakfast at the Voyageur restaurant and afterwards we just kept peddling in the pouring rain. It rained hard, non stop for hours. This is when we question our dedication to go on.( Not really but riding the bike is the only way we can get home) Everything is totally soaked. We stopped at McCauley's restaurant and had the best muffin since Hedley B.C. They were big and tasty and John got a free re-fill on his hot chocolate!! We rolled into Sault Ste Marie and met with Lions Andy and Penny who we will dine with tonight. We also met CNIB members Alison Vance, who hosted us for the night and Pat Bowles who we met briefly. We owe her the story of our trip( We left before we got to tell her what our trip was like) We did a newspaper interview/photo with the Sault Star so we have more coverage for the program. Alison says it will be sunny tomorrow so since she is so smart we are sure it will be hot and sunny. Thursday July 10 On the road early this morning. We met one cyclist going form Nova Scotia to BC. We stopped at the Agwa Petroglyphs where we had lunch and viewed the paintings. We continued on and once again the rain came down on us. We rolled into Pancake Bay totally soaked again. This bay is a 4km sandy beach which was neat, but not in the rain. Had a great supper and early to bed. Not much else for today. Rode 122 kms today. Wednesday July 09 We had a good sleep which helped a lot with Johns cough. Now we were Wawa bound. Again the road had lots of hills to climb which was good as we enjoy the climbs. During the ride we met a lady and her 15 year old son from Wainfleet Ontario which is where Kevins wife is from. They were on route to Edmonton. Big time hats off to them for taking on an adventure of a lifetime. We rolled into Wawa and bought groceries and had lunch. We then started south and arrived at Rabbit Blanket campsite where we stayed for the night. We met Martin and Anton again who had a late start and were on route to Montreal River, about 80kms away. Today we rode 130kms. Tuesday July 08 Another cool wet day. We stayed in Marathon until 1015 hrs when we did a CBC Radio Toronto interview. We then hit the road hard to make up time. We arrived in White River in a cold hard rain. We were both soaked to the bone. We talked with two fellow cyclists who were doing the same ride as us only they are going right to Newfoundland. They are Martin 19, and Anton, 24 years old. They decided to ride on but us old guys grabbed a cheap motel room. Johns cough was back and we were both chilled to the bone so it was worth the bucks. Today we rode 99km Monday July 07 We awoke this morning to our first day of rain. We were lucky going this long without rain, so it had to happen some time. The whole day was cool, rainy with lots of fog and a head wind. At times the fog was pretty thick for drivers to see us but we managed. We rolled into Marathon and went to the Lions campsite there. We met Lions Brian, Dave and John who we spent an hour talking with. They also gave us a donation from their club. Thanks a lot for that. They have a great campsite there as well. Today was a shorter day with 87 tough kms done. Sunday July 06 We were up at 0630 and went right to the Husky truck stop to have breakfast. After breakfast it was on to Rossport where we had lunch in the little waterside park. The beach here is sandy and it goes out for a couple of hundred feet and is only a foot deep. Really nice but typical- Lake Superior cool. It was then on to Screiber where Kevin had a great piece of Blueberry pie and ice cream and John had his coke so all was OK with the world. We then rode on to Terrace Bay and met Forrest Notwell of the Lions club. They set us up with a nice campsite and dinner and Forrest made a generous donation as well. Thanks so much. Today we rode 119 kms. The roads are getting more hilly. Saturday July 05 Yesterday afternoon we did a ThunderBay Televison interview where, as always we promoted the CNIB 'That all may read' program. We ended up making the 6 o' clock news which was really cool. We spent last night in the church basement again which was great. Another sincere Thankyou to Henk and Susan for their generosity. This morning we rode to the Terry Fox memorial where we met some more folks who donated some funds to the library program. We then sailed to Nipigon on what could be some of the poorest Trans Canada Highway in the country- zero shoulders, the road is broken away on the sides, holes everywhere. Just downright dangerous. We obviously made it in one piece to Nipigon. We met up with Lions club members, Luella Sumner, Todd Benson, Gladys and her daughter Helen. They spoiled us with a nice dinner and free campsite. As well they each made a personal donation to the fund. Helen gave us a great rour of Red Rock. It is a pulp mill town that looks very friendly. They have a nice waterfront thanks to Helens husband who did a lot of the work with the Lions clubs to get it started. Thanks so much. We found out that our media coverage is working. While getting our campsite a fellow camper asked if we were the cyclists talked about on the radio. We said we were and he handed us a $20.00 bill. We also met Gunther and Krista who are from Germany and are touring Canada. This day we rode 114 kms. Friday July 04 We are at the CNIB office again getting ready to do a media interview. We did the CBC radio show this morning which will air from Sudbury to the Manitoba border. Now thats coverage! We are not sure who will show from the media this afternoon. Last night we were hosted by Henk and Susan Willems. Susan works for the CNIB and Henk is a minister. We slept in the church basement which was very comfortable. We will be there again tonight. We are very thankful to them for their generosity and the donation as well. We spent the morning wandering around Thunderbay's downtown. Quite interesting. We forgot to tell you that on July 02 just before our break at the Wildberry Cafe, Kevin wiped out. He was drafting John and got too close. His wheel touched John's saddle bag and the next thing he knew he was airborne at 25kmh. No serious injuries, just some nice road rash. What really hurt was the motorist who had to have seen the whole thing and only honked as he drove by. He honked his horn three times. We think it was a rating system, so we figure it was a three out of ten. Kevin says it felt more like a six out of ten. It was just a good thing that Kevins goof did not bring John down or cause any serious bike damage. A few minutes of work and Kevins bike was back on the road, albeit a bit more cautiously now. That's all we have for now. We hope we can update you soon. Thursday July 03 We did not eat breakfast this morning at our campsite because we just wanted to get the ...out of there. Some of the 'Skitters' were like Cessna planes. We got on the bikes and rode for our lives. One bite would have caused us a blood shortage. We mean it - "They Were Big" Anyways, we rode 20km to a cafe and had the classic bacon and egg breakfast which really hit the spot. We then rode the last 50 kms into Thunder Bay. We are now sitting at the CNIB office using their internet to do our update. We are sorry that our updates are so infrequent but there is not a hookup at every corner up here. There was one just outside our campsite last night but we could not decide who was going to donate the blood to do the update so we left it. We will take a rest day and then start the challenging part of our trip over the top of Lake Superior. We hope the heat will not be too intense as we know what that is like from our riding in the BC mountains. We are getting the feeling now that we are on our way home. See everyone soon. < br> Wednesday July 02 We really slept in today not getting on the road until 0915hrs. We think we really got physically zapped yesterday due to the very hot temperatures. We stopped at the Wildberry Cafe and had a great homemade banana muffin. We then continued on and rode later than normal due to our late start. We lunched at the Quetico Park visitor centre which was interesting. We ended our ride in the town of Shebandowan, putting our tent in the most bug infested place in Canada. We cooked and ate our food and were in the tent by 8pm, just to get away from the bugs. We did have a quick swim in the lake to clean up first. Total kms 131. Canada Day July 01. This was a tough day for us. It was very hot and being away from family on a holiday bothered both of us. We were both sluggish on the bikes. We stopped at the Seine River for lunch and went swimming to cool off. That was the best part of the day, but it made it harder to get back on the bike and ride the last 60 kms to Atikokan. We camped at the local campsite and Steve Geddes of the Lions club bought us dinner. Thanks Steve. That night we were blasted with a thunder storm with hail that was about the size of marbles. We stayed dry and comfortable. Total kms this day-155 kms. Monday June 30 This was a hot day for us. We rode 90 kms to Fort Frances where Kevin used to work in 1979 and 1980. Dick Bird of the Lions club put us up at the Super 8 motel which was great. Thanks to the Lions club. They also bought us a fine dinner which we ate with the two nurses of the CNIB Eye Van. This is a mobile clinic which serves northern Ontario. They were in town for two weeks. We then met a friend of Kevins from 1979 who made a nice donation to the ride. Thanks Dan for that. Sunday June 29 We slept in a bit and finally got on the road at 0815 hrs. We made it to the border and ended up stopping in a town in Minnesota named Warroads. They had a good Smorg lunch for $10 Canadian so we pigged out and ate our fill. We then headed east travelling to the south of Lake of the Woods and entered back into Canada, and Ontario, at Rainy River. We camped at Rainy River at a free camp site right at the river. It was excellent. We met Fred and Bunny from Lombardi near Perth, Ontario. We swam in the river and watched the sun go down. It was another great day. We rode 129kms. Saturday June 28 We had a cereal breakfast with Geoff and left his house around 0830 hrs. A special thanks to Geoff who is a great host and a fine cook as well. The steaks were delicious!! We went to the bike shop where John got his wheel to do a few minor tweaks to the gears and brakes. We finally hit the road at 1030 hrs. We rode east on the TCH and then went south to Steinbach where we stopped for lunch. We went into a mall bought our food and ate it in the sitting area of the store. When we went to leave it was pouring rain, so we wandered around the mall for an hour. When the rain slacked off we started south again. We saw a bear sitting on the side of the road eyeing up John as he rode by and we were chased by three dogs as well. We made it to Piney, Manitoba after riding through a major thunder storm, getting very wet. We put up our tent under the old concession stand at the ball park. There was no water around so John went to a nearby house to get water and came back with water and four bottles of beer!! We are still chuckling over that one. We rode 154 kms this day. Friday June 27 John and Kevin rode from Regina to Winnipeg in 4 days. They are resting today at the home of John's cousin in Winnipeg. Saturday morning they leave for Ontario! Tuedsay June 24. Out of Whitewood at 0700 hrs and off we went with a bit of a tail wind. John broke another spoke which we repaired ourselves using the loaned tools and workshop from Mannley's Sports in Moosomin. Thanks to Laurie for the tools. Also we did an interview for the Moosomin World Spectator newspaper. After we got the spoke fixed we hit the Manitoba border and took our pictures in front of the big Manitoba sign. We then carried on to Virden where, once again, we need to fix another of Johns broken spokes. We are now thinking of just buying a new back wheel for his bike. There is no where to fix the wheel so it will have to wait until we get to Brandon. Thats it for now. Monday June 23. We had an early breakfast with Uncle George and headed out of Regina. We took our first rest at Indian Head where there was a great bakery. Our bikes seem to steer towards at least one bakery per day. We hit Grenfell by lunch with 130 kms done. It was a very fast morning of riding. We continued on and ended up in Whitewood for the night with 180 kms done for the day. We met Neil and Sylvia from Napanee, Ontario who invited us into their RV for a great chicken stir fry dinner. It was great. Thanks to both of them. We then met our other neighbours, Kathy and George who were mortorcycling from Vancouver to Nova Scotia. They were very interested in our trip and made a nice donation. Sunday June 22. A rest day. We went for a nice drive with Uncle George to his old farmstead north of Regina. It was neat to see the beautiful Saskatchewan countryside. It is not flat in this area. While out for the drive we had a great meal at a home cooking style restaurant in Southy. It was good. We hit the sack around 10 pm. Saturday June 21 We had a great breakfast at Art and Shirley's home and bid them adieu. We then headed out the short 75kms to Regina arriving around lunch time. We developed our photographs, had a coffee, cleaned our bikes and then spent some time at Wascana Park. Johns Uncle was not going to be home until 7 pm so we had some time to burn. We met up with Uncle George at his apartment and got settled in. We then head over to the Casino and met up with an old workmate of Kevin's. A couple of hours were spent getting re-acquainted. It was a pretty easy day. Wednesday June 18 We left the Commercial Hotel around 0730 hrs after having a great bacon and egg breakfast in the old dining hall. Now the wind was really blowing against us. It seems to have been building for three days now. We averaged only 15 kmh for the day. It was also sunny and hot, close to 30C. About 25 km out of Swift Current John got heat exhaustion and had to be taken to the hospital in Swift for some attention. Some great Saskatchewan hospitality from some folks from Kyle got John looked right after at the hospital. Nothing too serious, he just needs to eat some salty potatoe chips. John will no longer bug Kevin on why he has a bag of salty chips after eating a big meal. Once John got out of the hospital we met Larry and Ron from the Swift Current Lions club. They put us up in the Comfort suites and took us out for a good home cooked style meal. We are now sitting at Larry's computer updating our diary. Kelly- we found Dinsmore on the Saskatchewan map but it is a huge distance out of way, so we will not be riding through it to corner you on your $100 challenge. Jim Weatherby of our Rockwood Ontario Lions club has done a tremendous job organizing the Lions clubs across Canada. We know we are not done yet but everything is going awesome. Jim is a big part of that "AWESOME" See everyone soon. Tuesday June 17 We had a continental breakfast at the Super 8 motel and and waited a few extra minutes to see if Monty was going to come for a ride. He is a rider and was interested in coming but was unsure if he could swing it with work. Monty did not show so obviously the work part won. Thanks so much Monty and the Medicine Hat Lions club for being great hosts. We headed out to Maple Creek and immediately were confronted with a pretty strong head wind. After a bit we stopped at the Smithers cafe and spoke with a couple of great ladies there. When they learned what we were doing they just handed over $25 dollars to us. People are so generous, it is overwhelming. We carried on and were soon at the Saskatchewan border where we met the Isaacs who were from Yarrow.B.C. They liked our cause and will check out our website. We headed east to Maple Creek and met Sam Boychuck, who is the Lions club president there. We stayed one night in his very old 1910 hotel called the 'Commercial Hotel'. This hotel is a piece of history. Again we were off to bed around 10pm. Today was another day of head winds and in all we cycled a total of 93 tiring kms. Monday, June 16 We headed out from Brooks and had a head wind all the way to Medicine Hat. It was a 110 kms ride which was slower than most of our rides due to the wind. We rolled into 'the Hat' at 2pm and went to a bike shop to get Johns broken spoke repaired. We then went to the bank and put in some donation money and then went off to the library to do this update. We are meeting a Lions club member here tonight. Again the Lions clubs have really looked after us with a room at a local motel and supper on the town. We will update the next library we get to. The rest of of Monday we met up with Monty Kunz of the Medicine Hat Lions club. He bought us a hotel room at the Super 8 Hotel and a fish and chips dinner. We then headed off to our room and went quickly to bed. Again we are noticing that we are going to bed pretty early due to fatigue. Sunday June 15 We were up early and with a great breakfast of bacon and eggs cooked by Maggie, we headed down the road. We made 82 kms by lunch when the generosity of Terry and Maggie was there again when they made lunch for us. We said our final Good-byes to them and headed off toward Brooks. At this point we want to express our heartfelt gratitiude at Terry and Maggie's generosity; not only did they house us and feed us for three days but they also left us with a generous donation. Great people. We cannot say enough. So we ended up making Brooks which made the ride for that day a total of 177 kms. We were tired. We showered at a truck stop near our campsite and had supper. It was lights- out early for us. Saturday June 14. We had a bit of a sleep in and then headed into the city to do our media interviews. The Herald and the Sun came as well as Shaw TV. It was a good session. We made both newspapers the next day. Kevin spent his day with Ed McDonald, an old friend from Edmonton whom he met in Whitehorse. They had a good day together. Ed made a very generous donation to the CNIB. John met Tom Wells from Dresser Flow Solutions in Calgary at the Press conference. Tom has a fund raising campaign in progress in the Calgary office. Johns friends, Cal and Janet Jensen, from Edmonton came down and they spent the afternoon together. John had a great day with these old friends talking old times. In the evening John and Kevin were back at the campsite with Terry and Maggie when Johns old friends, Bruce, Brenda, Dennis, and Michelle and Natalie came by. It was a great evening of visiting. Dennis helped out with our routing through Alberta. Friday June 13 We were up early and hit the road to Calgary. It was another day of great tailwinds. In all we rode 144 kms to a campsite south of Calgary. Terry and Maggie tagged along in the beginning and ended up meeting us for lunch. Sly Maggie picked up the tab when John and Kevin were not looking. John is now scheming on how to get her back for that one. We spent the night in their motorhome and enjoyed their company. Meanwhile the CNIB (Shawna Miller) was making arrangements for us to be interviewed by the Calgary Sun and Calgary Herald for Saturday. John had a friend drop by the campsite that evening. Thursday June 12 After we did the internet update in Fort Macleod we met Terry and Maggie Nelson. They are good friends of Johns. We went to a local campsite and spent a great night getting caught up on old times(for John). We were up at 0600 hrs and met Ron and Norm at the local A&W where we had a good breakfast. We said our good-byes and headed off to ride the 140 kms to Fort Macleod. We rode in the mountains for the first 20 kms and then we hit the foothills and finally the priaries. Were we ever moving!!! We think it was the combination of, our legs are in great shape, it was now flatish terrain, the shoulders are 6 feet wide and smooth pavement, we had a slight tail wind and generally were heading down out of the mountains. At one point we did five kms drafting with each other at 40 to 45 kms!!!! That was loaded with 30 lbs of gear. It was the best riding either of us has ever done. In all we did about 100kms of very fast riding. We rolled into Fort MacLeod at 3pm. We are now sitting in the Library in Fort writing this up. We will soon meet Johns friends and tomorrow we head off to Calgary. The CNIB rep there has been in contact with us and we have some media events planned. Wednesday, June 11 After our rest day in Cranbrook we were both keen to go. We were out of bed and on the road around 0630hrs. We had a couple of egg Mcmuffins and headed out to ride the 125 kms to Sparwood. This was a very fast ride along some great scenery. Along the way we saw some deer and two wild turkeys, and three Elk as well. We rolled into Fernie at lunch time after just completing 100 kms. We even lost a few minutes while John repaired his flat tire, the first flat tire of the trip for either of us. We looked around Fernie for a bit and then headed off to Sparwood arriving there at 3pm. What a reception. We met Norm, a Lions club member and Ron a zone President. They toured us around Sparwood which is a great community. It has the largest truck in the world and we took pictures which will make it to our website soon. We had a great dinner at the Golf Club and then said Goodnight. WE also met Iren Brewer of the Fernie Lions club when she joined us for dinner. We slept in the local campsite gratis of the Lions. Ron and Norm insisted on buying us breakfast in the morning. We had a good sleep. Tuesday June 10. We are taking a rest day in Cranbrook. We figure we deserve it after peddling 950 kms in 9 days in 32 degree heat. It has been a great ride thus far. Yesterday as we were about 30 kms out of Cranbrook we hit our first real rain storm. It was a very cold rain so we sought refuge under a few trees. It was short lived and off we went. The Lions club in Cranbrook provided us with a hotel room and dinner, the same as the Creston club; a guy could get used to this great treatment. Kevin is getting his bike worked on here as he has worn the gears out. John's bike is going fine. Tomorrow we are off to Sparwood which will be a 125 km ride. The day after that we will be entering Alberta; one province down and 4 to go. Cranbrook is a nice town and a good spot for a rest day. Sunday, June 8th We left Nelson at 7:00 a.m. and cycled to Balfour where we caught a ferry to cross the Kootenay Lake. We met lots of people on the ferry ride and received $15 in donations. We then travelled along the Kootenay Lake down to Creston. We dodged thunder storms all day and some how avoided getting wet. We visited a house made of glass bottles which was fascinating. It was finally cooler today and it even rained on us at Nelson last night. We travelled 115 kilometres today along rolling hills for most of the way. The scenery was just breath taking at times with the Lake and the surrounding mountains. We arrived at Creston at 5:00 and are staying at a Lion's Club members motel His name is Henry Schoof and he owns the Downtowner Motel which is very nice. It will be great to sleep in a bed for a change. Henry also arranged for the Creston Lion's Club to pick up our dinner tab at Munro's Restaurant. We had an awesome meal there. We have covered 844 kilometres since leaving Vancouver eight days ago. Also want to mention the T-shirt that Melony from Dresser made for us. People notice them when we wear them after our day of cycling. We are leaving tomorrow for Cranbrook which is another 115 kilometres. Bikes are rolling along fine but Kevin says his gears are getting worn out. May have to get them replaced in Calgary. Friday June 6 We left Ian's place and rode into Grand Forks. Where we are now using the internet at the library. The last 15 Kms coming into Grand Forks was all down a big hill. It is the fastest we have ever covered 15 kms. The rest of today we are riding to Christina lake where we will spend the night. Thursday June 5 We left Osoyoos and started up Anarchist Mountain. It is 25 kms of up hill with switchbacks at the start. We made it, but again it was super hot, around 32 again. We then cruised to Midway and stayed at Ian Williams house. What a great spot he has. It is a ranch by the river. We also met Don and Tanya who live not far from Ian. Don is an RCMP member and they gave us lots of advise about the roads in the area and a nice donation for the CNIB. Met Therron in the Kettle Valley Bakery. Nice location and great cinnamon buns for anyone going by. Wednesday June 4 When we left Princeton we had great riding for 40 kms. Very flat. We had one big hill going into Osoyoos. We were braking and still hitting 50-60 kms. What a rush. It was also 32 degrees Celius. We stayed at Bob Vaisvila's house in Osoyoos. He and his daughter Kelly were great hosts. We liked the hammock and the home made wine which was very good. Lovely place. We rode 114 kms that day. June 4/03 We stayed at Kevin's friends Rick and Jackie in Hope on Monday night. They were as always the most gracious hosts. We had wonderful BBQ'd salmon which Rick caught himself. Really, Really good. John ended up having salmon sandwiches today for lunch which he really liked. We also saw Ray and Karen Slanzi who Kevin knew from years ago when he was posted in Boston Bar, BC. Ray was 'Dissing' Kevin pretty good in fun and everyone had a good laugh. No changes there. We left Hope at 0730 hrs and what a day. We did four major hills and any one who knows the Hope-Princeton Highway knows the hills; Sunday Summit and Allison Pass. Both 15 km climbs at 7 and 8 % grades. The other two were smaller but felt just as big. There is still snow on the side of the summits so that tells you how high we were. The weather was a sunny and hot 27degrees. The mountain tops were beautiful. We rolled into Princeton at 7pm on the dot, happy to have possibly the hardest day of the whole trip over with. We did a total of 138kms today. The Lions club member who we tried to contact to use his backyard was not available. So we did the next best thing and camped out in the back yard of the Princeton RCMP office. The Members let us use the showers and the internet for this message. We met Murray and his wife at a local restaurant. They are cyclists and have cycled all over Europe. Very nice people. Wanted to know our website for a donation. Tomorrow we are going to be hitting Osoyoos. We are told it is a much easier ride than we had today. That's all folks for now. Hi Everyone, Monday June 2nd Well we are sitting here in Hope B.C. looking out at the magnificent mountains at Rick and Jackie Otto's house. They are Kevin's friends from when he lived out here. We have had an incredible time so far. The Delta Hotel treated us like Kings with rooms looking over the Fraser River. On Sat afternoon we did CTV and Shaw television interviews. The CTV one ran that night and a man stopped us on the road today to make a donation from seeing the news. We said goodbye to Kevin's wife Lynn who returned to Ontario and on Sun June 1st we rode to Chilliwack which was 125 kilometres. We had a cloudy day with no rain and a slight tail wind. It was fairly flat with some rolling hills. We stayed at Kevin's friends the Degroot family who were such great hosts. They own a dairy farm so John got up at 5 AM. to help milk the cows with Tony and Craig. Yes Kevin was still sleeping! Through Kevin's friends in Chilliwack and Rosedale we raised $250.for the CNIB. People were so friendly and interested in our trip. Just before leaving the Degroot family John left his bike by the corral and one of the cows ate his watch band. We had a great laugh over that. Kevin broke a spoke the first day and the bike shop in Chilliwack fixed it for free due to the charity bike ride. Today Mon June 2nd we rode 54 kilometres to Hope which was a good ride with sunny skies. We rode in the foothills and crossed the Fraser River twice... it's one big river. We are staying at Kevin's friends Rick and Jackie in Hope. It's just beautiful here surrounded by the mountains. Tomorrow we have one of out toughest days as we are trying to go 125 km to Princeton. So far we have been pampered so the hard work will begin tomorrow. So far the bikes are working pretty good and it's been an incredible experience already. We will try to e-mail whenever we get a chance. John & Kevin |