August 29 Friday: Lackawana State Park, PN to Sussex, NJ

Hi from Larry. We had a great bike ride today. Overcast and occassional morning misty rains. Some steep hills - I hear an early climb in the day was about 14% grade and that one was hard on me, all I can do is try to keep the pedals turning and huff and puff rapidly. Other ones went well, some even fast. The rolling terrain and I get along fine and speedy sometimes. Supposedly we climbed and rolled down about 7000 vertical feet over 86 miles. This helped us remember our mountain climbing out west. We needed a little more climbing after the last peak so we went up 400 more feet to the monument in High Point State Park, also climbing about 270 steps in the tower. It got hot toward the top and the views were only out small closed windows (the patio area at ground level was better). This is the highes point in NJ at about El 1600 feet I think. At High Point you can see NJ, NY, and PN. We had great sag stops from our sag teams and a CRC church greeted us at the top of the last mountain at High Point with much needed drinks, cookies, oranges and watermelon. Nice to see Ruth Herringa and grand kids there, as they waited for daughter/mom to bike in. So we had energy for the last few climbs Mark and I ate at a Milford Diner on the east side of town (gyro and a BLT). NJ's afternoon weather gave us a bit of sunshine and humidity (we started with 50 F, ended at about 88 F, reminding us of the warm to hot days out west and in the midwest. A highlight was Clove Brook Market and Bakery as we entered Sussex 1.8 miles before the school. First we had a couple scones, then a summer smash pie (thank you for that!) that we shared with about 8 including Eric, Heidi and Denise, and we tried two danishes and an almond roll. Wow was this all good! The Sussex and Goshen CRC churches hosted us tonight for dinner - burgers and hot dogs plus 100 +/- salad/casseroles and baked goods. Meals on the road in camp and by host are GREAT. Thanks to every church hosting us - that is one of the highlights of the tour we will always remember - God bless you as you have blessed us. We played "Cycle bingo" as part of our last peloton - we were not winners. In that game we learned who wore the same bike clothes for 3 days (without washing it), who had no flats, who had more that five flats, who did a volunteer activity, etc. Parting thanks were spoken to all support staff, sags, nurses, chaplian and others (even Johnny who alwas with a loud voice reminded us "lets do something beautiful". Tomorrow we do out last 60 miles to reach Liberty Island State Park for the Atlantic tire dip and conclusion of the tour. Bitter sweet, good byes to many new friends, now about to rejoin family, bikes that may not get ridden frequently, soggy gear from dew and what we exhale (it is raining tonight). Hope to post more pictures of these great things soon. God is good, all the time! We are so thankful we could participate in this bike tour and support ending the cycle of poverty.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Today we rode 76 miles form Romulus to Binghampton through some of the most beautiful New York country ever – finger lakes, hills, rivers, and forests. Gotta come back to New York someday to enjoy these forests and waterways. The ride was absolutely beautifully gorgeous. We left camp at 7:30 am and arrived at 2:30 pm. The day was another cool air, warm, sunshiny day. At the end of the day Valley CRC surprised us with donuts, chips, and water right across from the school that we were staying at. I played with Ed’s 2 little kids for an hour in camp this afternoon throwing tennis balls around on the tennis courts. Oh the joys of being a kid. Tonight we are having a special New York menu – speedies (marinated chicken and pork sandwiches), some other stuff, and ice cream. In fact it is happening right now. Time to chow down.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Today we rode 76 miles from Byron to Southwoods RV Park. It was quite a hilly day. We must be getting to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Upstate New York is a beautiful place to ride with not so busy roads, smooth roads, and wide shoulders and beautiful scenery with rivers, finger lakes, and lots of trees. A local CRC brought out lunch to us at a farm along the route. We had sloppy joes, ice cream bars, fruit, and lots of other homemade goodies. We spent 2 hours at this lunch stop just eating, napping, and socializing. The air was cool but the sunshine was warm, perfect weather for riding. We arrived in camp at 4:30 pm and played on the sweet playground equipment at Sampson State Park. The park is on one of the finger lakes of New York. The lake is the view from the door of our tents, so beautiful. I ate dinner sitting right on the edge of the water. Tonight we reflected on the significance of the tour for us in our small groups. The things that stand out to me are the people, the scenery, and the day to day lifestyle, sometimes pedal to pedal lifestyle. Some big questions are – What has this trip meant to you? What was your motivation for going on the tour? What has been tugging and pulling at your heart? God knows. This questions will take some thought and reflection especially when the tour all of a sudden ends. I am so grateful for this experience. I never thought I would get to know so many people on this tour, especially so many Canadian college students. It has been lots of fun.
Last night at Southwoods RV park a group of campers came out and played some music for us on their cello, violin, and keyboard. We got some good old swing dancing going and ate lots of s’mores.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Today we biked 76 miles from St. Catherines, Ontario to Byron, New York at an RV park with a swimming pool. So guess what we did when we got into camp. We went swimming in the pool. It felt so good even though it was such a beautiful, bright, sun-shiny cooler day that we thank God for. Breakfast was a half hour early this morning because we had to cross the border from Canada into the U.S. today across Rainbow Bridge. Rainbow bridge is right near Niagara Falls and has a beautiful view of the falls as we crossed the bridge. The border crossing was completely smooth. We cycled through just like we were crossing a normal bridge because the border patrol was surprised at how organized that we were. Upstate New York is beautiful country to cycle through with forests, cabbage fields, and corn fields. We stopped at a small restaurant/driving range for lunch. We took quite a few swings at some golf balls. It was only $3.50 for a small bucket of about 30-40 balls. So much fun and such a good break. We actually had no snack stops today. We missed them very much but when you don’t have to stop the biking day really flies by because your free to just keep riding. We arrived in camp at 4 pm and had spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and fruit for dinner after we went swimming in the pool. We are not having small groups after peleton tonight and are instead having a campfire. The campground brought over a bunch of wood to us with a tractor so we could have a fire. We are even having s’mores. Yes! We are starting to thinking about the end. There is a lunch stop on a farm tomorrow by a local CRC. In peleton tonight Chaplain Len called forward all those who are going back to school to pray for them. Thanks Len. I don’t really want to think about the end and I don’t know if it will really hit me until we get back home. There will be a lot of reflection to do if things don’t turn around too quickly. I just want to thank God for pouring out His blessings on this awesome experience.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The churches in St. Catherine's served a phenomenal breakfast this morning! The meal consisted of tons of mixed fruit, granola and yogurt, and quiche (however you spell it). Quiche is a dutch dish of scrambled eggs with meat and vegetables in like a pie crust - very good. So after breakfast, I, Mark, needed to burn some time before the church service held at Maranatha Christian Reformed Church. Thankfully Art Smit challenged me to a duel in chess with a tile floor as the board and about 2 foot tall pieces. I was black, he was white. The battle started slow, Art taking only a few of my pawns, but then it became fierce, our pieces flying left and right. Sad to say, we had to finish our match without a winner because it was time for church, but I think Art would've won.
The official Sea to Sea rally started at 2pm in Queenston. There we had a "meet and greet" from 2-4pm. However, it was raining, quite hard at sometimes, so we all huddled together under trees and park shelters. Just as worship was about to start at 4pm, the rain immediately stopped. What an amazing act. You could really tell that God was at work. It had been overcast and rainy all day. David Raakman led worship with Brian Walsh speaking about the "fruits of the spirit" for our message. I don't know how many people attended, but it was a lot. All the rain umbrellas made it hard to count.
For supper they fed us hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and pasta salad in the park. It was great, especially since we were all hungry after having only a light lunch this afternoon at the school.
We rode buses back to the school. Just when we arrived, Dale Mowry challenged me to a chess game. So, having to prove myself, I accepted. The match was back and forth, but eventually I gained an upper hand. However, peleton was starting so we had to end early. I guess it's just not meant for me to finish a chess game. At peleton we received instructions about tomorrow's border crossing into New York on the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls. Hopefully it goes smooth. If anything, at least we'll get to look at the falls once again.
Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try and get some extra sleep for tonight before our last week. It's just amazing how fast time has gone by. Seems like only yesterday we all were arriving with our bags at the University of Washington.
Eric rode on the Maid of the Mist, a boat ride that takes you into the mist at
Niagara Falls, on Sunday morning with a local family and then joined the rest of camp at the celebration service.

St. Catherine's

The churches in St. Catherine's served a phenomenal breakfast this morning! The meal consisted of tons of mixed fruit, granola and yogurt, and quiche (however you spell it). Quiche is a dutch dish of scrambled eggs with meat and vegetables in like a pie crust - very good. So after breakfast, I, Mark, needed to burn some time before the church service held at Maranatha Christian Reformed Church. Thankfully Art Smit challenged me to a duel in chess with a tile floor as the board and about 2 foot tall pieces. I was black, he was white. The battle started slow, Art taking only a few of my pawns, but then it became fierce, our pieces flying left and right. Sad to say, we had to finish our match without a winner because it was time for church, but I think Art would've won.
The official Sea to Sea rally started at 2pm in Queenston. There we had a "meet and greet" from 2-4pm. However, it was raining, quite hard at sometimes, so we all huddled together under trees and park shelters. Just as worship was about to start at 4pm, the rain immediately stopped. What an amazing act. You could really tell that God was at work. It had been overcast and rainy all day. David Raakman led worship with Brian Walsh speaking about the "fruits of the spirit" for our message. I don't know how many people attended, but it was a lot. All the rain umbrellas made it hard to count.
For supper they fed us hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and pasta salad in the park. It was great, especially since we were all hungry after having only a light lunch this afternoon at the school.
We rode buses back to the school. Just when we arrived, Dale Mowry challenged me to a chess game. So, having to prove myself, I accepted. The match was back and forth, but eventually I gained an upper hand. However, peleton was starting so we had to end early. I guess it's just not meant for me to finish a chess game. At peleton we received instructions about tomorrow's border crossing into New York on the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls. Hopefully it goes smooth. If anything, at least we'll get to look at the falls once again.
Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try and get some extra sleep for tonight before our last week. It's just amazing how fast time has gone by. Seems like only yesterday we all were arriving with our bags at the University of Washington.

St. Catherines

The churches in St. Catherine's served a phenomenal breakfast this morning! The meal consisted of tons of mixed fruit, granola and yogurt, and quiche (however you spell it). Quiche is a dutch dish of scrambled eggs with meat and vegetables in like a pie crust - very good. So after breakfast, I, Mark, needed to burn some time before the church service held at Maranatha Christian Reformed Church. Thankfully Art Smit challenged me to a duel in chess with a tile floor as the board and about 2 foot tall pieces. I was black, he was white. The battle started slow, Art taking only a few of my pawns, but then it became fierce, our pieces flying left and right. Sad to say, we had to finish our match without a winner because it was time for church, but I think Art would've won.
The official Sea to Sea rally started at 2pm in Queenston. There we had a "meet and greet" from 2-4pm. However, it was raining, quite hard at sometimes, so we all huddled together under trees and park shelters. Just as worship was about to start at 4pm, the rain immediately stopped. What an amazing act. You could really tell that God was at work. It had been overcast and rainy all day. David Raakman led worship with Brian Walsh speaking about the "fruits of the spirit" for our message. I don't know how many people attended, but it was a lot. All the rain umbrellas made it hard to count.
For supper they fed us hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, and pasta salad in the park. It was great, especially since we were all hungry after having only a light lunch this afternoon at the school.
We rode buses back to the school. Just when we arrived, Dale Mowry challenged me to a chess game. So, having to prove myself, I accepted. The match was back and forth, but eventually I gained an upper hand. However, peleton was starting so we had to end early. I guess it's just not meant for me to finish a chess game. At peleton we received instructions about tomorrow's border crossing into New York on the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls. Hopefully it goes smooth. If anything, at least we'll get to look at the falls once again.
Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try and get some extra sleep for tonight before our last week. It's just amazing how fast time has gone by. Seems like only yesterday we all were arriving with our bags at the University of Washington.