A WEE POLL

Just to let you know, there's a poll about whether you might be interested in another bike ride sometime at the bottom of this page. I'd really appreciate it if you would take a moment to respond.

BRIEF REFLECTION ON THE RIDE

It's over, and what started out as a conversation between Bryan Blomker and I a couple of years ago has come and gone, in the process giving a number of people the experience of a lifetime, raising awareness of YFC work across a swathe of North America, and raising quite a few thousands for some YFC good causes.

For me, one of the most amazing things has been the way these eleven cyclists who rode the whole distance simply turned up at the start in Anacortes, Washington on June 17th, rode 4100+ miles across 15 states (14 in USA and Ontario in Canada), dipped their front wheels in the Atlantic at Bar Harbor, Maine on August 15th and went home - job done, no big drama. According to Tom Phillips, one of the riders, who had a sophisticated bike computer, they also climbed 133,231 feet, or an average climb of 2612' per day. For those of you in Northern Ireland, that's only 300' less than Slieve Donard, every day. What makes it all the more amazing is that, before the trip, only three of the riders had been serious cyclists.

Several things made the Ride as undramatic as it was. One undoubtedly was Bryan Blomker's tremendous organisational skills. As we arrived in Anacortes we were given a small, five-page handout detailing all the overnight stops - the name of the town, the name of the host church or YFC centre and its phone number - and that's how it happened throughout the whole 60 days. It all looked simple, but getting that list of hosts was an incredibly hard job, involving all manner of phonecalls, research, calling on contacts. It was an immense task, especially in some of the very sparsely-populated areas that we went through in states like Montana and North Dakota, but it all worked like clockwork.

The second thing that helped enormously was the presence on the Ride of a great bike mechanic in the person of Paul Luedtke. Paul, one of our staff from Switzerland, had done this kind of work whilst at college, and his knowledge and skill were invaluable. All kinds of things went wrong with the bikes, and had it not been for Paul, we would have suffered endless delays, trips to bike shops, huge expenditures, people having to get driven across parts of the route to avoid delaying the whole Ride, and so on.

The third essential element was the excellent back-up team driving the two vehicles, one containing all the riders' personal clothing and spares, the other keeping them supplied with food, water and information. With the first vehicle we had first of all Lee & Elaine, then David & Darlene, then Les, and finally Lloyd & Marie, and in the second vehicle, the SAG wagon, Emma for the whole time, plus Becky for most of it, and Melissa. Together they did a tremendous job in linking the riders on the road and liaising with the hosts at each stop. They worked extremely hard, yet didn't have the joy of all that riding and climbing as their reward!!?

The first photo shows the heroic eleven riders who did the whole distance posing on the beach in Bar Harbor, Maine at the end of the Ride. They are, from left to right, Bryan Blomker, Tom Phillips, Dan Chapin, Zack Chapin, Paul Bayfield, Arek Karagoezian, Stuart Rowell, Paul Luedtke, Mike Scott, Jonny Young, Fiona Young.



The second photo shows all the gang at the end, including Becky, Emma, Lloyd & Marie and me. One other rider who should get an honourable mention is my nephew Tim O'Hare from Charlotte, North Carolina, who rode the first week with us and was greatly missed thereafter.


Finally, we give all thanks and glory to God for preserving the lives of everyone involved. Our number 1 concern from the start was to return everyone safely to their families, and that's what happened, in spite of a few incidents of thoughtless bad driving, a couple of deliberate near-misses and a few minor fallings-off. Many people were praying for us, for which we are grateful, and many people all over the world sponsored us, which was brilliant. We will publish the financial results as soon as we have worked out the final costs.

FRIDAY 15 AUGUST - Day 60 for the Eclectic Eleven and the last day!

"This is the way the world ends - not with a bang but a whimper."
Well, like a lot of epic journeys (if you will forgive me calling this one epic) our Sea to See Bike Ride finished up in a bit of a rush and with a somewhat less-than-epic celebratory meal, but it was ok in the end. First off, the day itself was absolutely beautiful. Had we been given the opportunity to order the weather we wanted from a menu, it couldn’t have been better – mild, not too warm, just enough breeze to cool us, wind mostly at our backs, and to cap it all, stunning scenery. We left Camden early, as we still had about 85 miles to go to Bar Harbor, and the first part of the route along R52 turned out to be both hilly and very badly-surfaced. Dan wrecked his derailleur gear-change mechanism, which broke a spoke, but fortunately he wasn’t far from Belfast, which had a good bike shop which got him going again, for $50. Dan has had so many problems with his bike, which is about 15 years old, that when we were talking about how we would end the ride by dipping our front tyres in the Atlantic, Stuart came out with one of the best lines of the trip. “Instead of just dipping the wheel in the water,” he said, “why don’t you just pick it up and throw the whole bike in?”

84.4 miles later and after climbing 4280’, we arrived at the outskirts of Bar Harbor (pronounced by the locals as Baa-Haa-Ba). Bryan had organised one last surprise for us – a police escort into town. Our triumphal entry, however, was delayed by 90 minutes while Jonny dealt with not one, not two but three punctures in the last ten miles. He arrived at the rendezvous point hopping mad, not least because, after having ridden some 4200 miles to get to this point, someone had suggested he throw his bike in the van and get sagged in. As if….

After the euphoria and general rush of the police escort into town, seeing families cheering and waving, (and a load of innocent bystanders joining in) and after one last quick nostalgic fall as Mike demonstrated how his wider tyres would work ok on the beach... there was a rush to get everyone off to their host homes with the Baptist church for a shower and change before our last celebratory meal together. This being one of the last holiday weekends, and Bar Harbor being a popular holiday destination (for NI folks, think Helen's Bay/Crawfordsburn with a marina) the restaurants were booked solid. After a lot of great work on Marie's part, as everywhere was so busy, we had found a lobster place (lobsters are Maine's theme song) about 12 miles away that would give us a good deal and a private room. It turned out the good deal was because the lobsters were the size of crickets and the only other things on the plate were an ear of corn, a small tub of coleslaw and a bread roll. The room was an open-air terrace above the dining-room, alive with mosquitoes until the sun went down, then freezing and wet as the sea-mist rolled in, right beside the take-off path for the Hancock County Airport, and so close to the highway that you could scarcely hear yourself shouting. A few people had pre-ordered chicken instead of lobster, but on the night some of our guests took the chicken, they didn't have any more, and poor Jonny & Fiona, not into seafood, were finally given one small, miserable hotdog each with a few potato crisps.

However, the craic was great. Bryan's wife Jill performed a version of Home on the Range tailored to us, Emma made awards to everyone for something, and I closed the evening and the event with a presentation to Bryan and a word from the Word. Jill, Bryan's creative wife, had a framed picture for everyone which everyone signed and wrote on, and so it was over.

Almost the final incident of the night was a conversation with a lady and her 69-year-old mother who had watched us signing each other's pictures and were intrigued with why we had done this. They wanted our cards, and were going home to look on the website.

Back to the house where Paul B, Emma, Zack and I were staying, the home of Ed & Anne Damm, two erstwhile hippies who have a musical-instrument shop in Bar Harbor specialising in celtic instruments. Nice folks, pleasantly laid-back.

May reflect more on the trip later, but for now I'm just glad it's over and everyone safe. To God be all the praise.Thank you for your true partnership in it, not only by giving but also by praying. I believe God fully answered.In His love and grace.

THURSDAY 14 AUGUST - penultimate day!

Well, this was a very good day - we reached the Atlantic Ocean! It was quite a hard one, with 101 miles of road and over 5000' of climbing, but it was also beautiful - good weather, about 25C, a light headwind. We arrived at the sea at the picturesque wee town of Rockford, and Tom, Paul B and I (who I think were first in today) went down to the marina and sat for a while and took photos. These guys deservedly have a sense of achievement. What they have done is amazing. No-one pulled out, no-one stopped permanently communicating with anyone, and there were no serious injuries. While Tom went off to try and get some wheels mailed home, Paul and I treated ourselves to a celebratory ice-cream.

Tonight we are being hosted by Chestnutt Baptist Church in Camden, which is also on the coast and at first sight seems like the acme of chic and cool. The bay has hundreds of boats, the streets are crowded with beautiful people and cars, and there are terrific shops and restaurants. However, Dan, Stuart and I are staying in a house owned by the boyfriend of Katrina and his business partner, and she says Maine feels like "about the end of the earth" when you are brought up here. Long winters, sea mists, storms - I guess it could get tedious. The church gave us a very good pot-luck supper, and quite a few people turned out to hear the why and the wherefore of the Ride. This distinguished-looking lady was at our table.

Lobsters are the big thing here - every restaurant seems to be a seafood one, and apparently you daren't come here without trying one. Since I only had my first lobster ever about three weeks ago in Dundrum, and wasn't overly impressed, I have a fresh experience to compare it with. Used to get great lobster soup at the old Highwayman restaurant in Comber, but that's the closest I've got until now.

Did a really dumb thing today - left my wallet and bible at the pastor's house in Oxford where we stayed last night. They are kindly doing an overnight mail to me in Bar Harbor.

Wish I could describe Maine to you. The scenery is quietly and understatedly impressive. Nothing too grand in the way of mountains, but long wooded hills, lots of lakes, wooded all around of course. Looks a bit like County Fermanagh in places. The roads are OK, although where they are narrow the shoulders tend to be sinking into the ditches, making riding on them very difficult. Also, a lot of trucks, some of which feel the need to pass you at the same moment as something coming the other way. One truck carrying an extra-heavy, wide load of portable stone-crusher scared me to death this morning when he hung on his air-horn cord and gave me a good blast when he was a couple of hundred yards back and before I'd even heard his engine.

Must go to bed now - shattered again, as today was far harder than we thought it was going to be, plus the accumulated effects of not enough sleep and 5.30am alarms. Finishing tomorrow with about another 100-miler, so not over yet. Keep praying that we will all finish well and safely, and that I'll give a good word from the Lord as we have the closing dinner.In his love and grace.John D

WEDNESDAY 13 AUGUST

Today it began to feel a wee bit like we were on holiday. For one thing, the weather was beautiful. They have been setting all kinds of rainfall records in New England - e.g. rain on 17 of the last 18 days - and Pres Bush has declared some parts of New Hampshire as official disaster zones. But today was beautiful.
The second thing that lifted everyone was conquering our last big pass. Kancamagus in the White Mountains was just over 2850' and 13 miles up, and it was tough enough. We climbed a total of about 4300' today, including one 300 metre hill which was 20% in one part. From here there's nothing much over 1000'.The third thing was entering our last state. Just before lunch we crossed into Maine. It's the home straight. As a part-timer I can't really enter into the full emotions of the rest of the guys, but I know that most of them are now ready to be done. We only did about 83 miles today, but that brings them up to around 4000 miles, so you can imagine that Friday evening will be a welcome time.

The couple on the bikes are Bob & Wendy from Toronto. We met them at the top of the Pass and they were very interested in what we were doing. They didn't say anything about having a faith of their own, but before they left they gave us a donation towards our good cause. Lots of nice people about!

Just a couple of incidents today. Firstly, some of the Confirmation class at St Joseph's Church promised they would turn up at 7.00am to see us off, and true to their word, Marissa and Amy did. They hadn't realized until today that it was daylight at 7.00!

Bryan got forced off the road by a small truck, who didn't move over an inch as he went past Bryan. Paul B was sick and threw up, so was unusually slow, and Jonny left his camera behind at the lunch-stop and was 10 miles away when he discovered it. I got a puncture at about 70 miles, then a full-on blow-out maybe 5 or 6 miles later. Stuart and Paul L made an interesting detour and arrived at the church from the opposite direction to everyone else.

On the way to Oxford we drove through Norway, which means that even on the relatively short time I've been on the trip I have been in Egypt, Mexico, Texas and now Norway. Some of the other interesting towns in the area are on the sign, including Belfast.

At the lunch-stop in Lovell there was a great war-memorial, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this flat memorial stone. The whole monument was surrounded by about three dozen of these stones, most of them pretty moving, but I guess this guy felt he could commemorate his father (whom he doesn't mention by name) and do a wee bit of business as well.

Tonight our hosts are Oxford Adventist Church of Christ, which has as one of its distinctives that they believe in "soul sleep" after death. We are just about to have dinner, so better go.

That was a good dinner - lasagne & salad - and a presentation after to the youth group, led by a lady called Jan Olsen (with the red hair) – with us still in our smelly clothes. Now Tom and I are being hosted by the pastor, Frank Jewett, and his wife Judy. Just had a v interesting discussion on what distinctives mark the Advent Christian denomination, which neither Tom (from California) nor I had ever heard of.Seems that the new book by NT Wright (whom someone told me from the picture in the book looks surprisingly like me - which he does, but it's definitely not a pen-name!) "Surprised by Joy" is the best summing-up of their doctrine. It does sound very biblical, and Frank seems like a great guy. Must read the book asap.Time for sleep now. Big day ahead tomorrow - 102 miles, incl one peak of 1000', which shouldn't scare these hard-core heroes one bit. Sure sounds big to me though!

Blessings on you, and keep praying for the last two days to be safe, and for the wind to be behind us.

TUESDAY 12 AUGUST

Dear Folks:
After today, only 3 to go - amazing that these 11 heroes have been riding six days out of every seven for the last seven weeks, and have clocked up nearly 4000 miles.
Today we did 96.6, from Rochester, Vermont to Lincoln, New Hampshire. It was a fast day for Arek and me, as he had people to meet in Lincoln. At one point I hit my highest-ever speed on a bike - 51.9 mph. It was a very good, smooth road surface with no seams or expansion joints, so it felt safe enough (but maybe you shouldn't mention it to Maisie!) There were other, steeper hills, but oftentimes the surface was so poor that you couldn't risk letting yourself go.

An interesting encounter today at a rest stop just after Arek and I had pulled out - a truck driver had a rant about riders riding on the car-lane side of the hard-shoulder line to some of our guys, ending by telling them that whilst he didn't hope for them to be killed on the road, he hoped they would all become paraplegics. I wonder how he will end up? Right after lunch, rain again, so once again, we were riding whilst soaked. Hard climbing again - 5446' in total, after yesterday's 5943'. Hosted tonight by St Joseph's Catholic Church in Lincoln, and had a good chat with some of the Confirmation class: Nat, Joe, Amy and Merissa. Serious talk with Amy about her own faith.

A much better encounter was along the road with Candace (Kandis?) from Seattle, who was doing the same route as us, but unsupported. She had been with a girlfriend, who had had to go home when a close friend died. Now she was travelling with an older couple from Montana, and making very good progress. We invited her for a sag with us to refresh her water-bottles, and in fact they caught up with us at the lunch stop.


Staying tonight + Tom & Dan with Robert & Monika Haley and their daughter Britta, who at 17 drives her own red Mustang. Ron and Monika are both ex-New York cops, with accents to match. Very hospitable and kind - and Monika is LOUD! She was a sergeant, so I guess she has plenty of practice.

A couple of minor accidents today, at the same place. Arek came off about 200 metres before the end when he got caught in train lines crossing the street at an angle. An hour later Bryan did the same, and Paul L, right behind him, had to abandon ship to avoid Bryan. Arek is the sorest - knee and wrist.Apologies, but better quit now. Coming towards 11, and am shattered. A huge hill tomorrow, after which nothing too scary.

A final "lesson for life" from the Ride: it doesn't matter how fast you're going if you're going in the wrong direction. Sooner or late you will realise it and will have to come back.Goodnight and God bless. John D

SUNDAY AND MONDAY 10 & 11 AUGUST

Dear folks: Just a v quick one tonight as I'm shattered! This was a hard day after a v pleasant weekend in Newcomb, New York.

We had a great weekend of rest with the Newcomb United Methodist folks. Pastor Carol Ames (front, with the dog) and her team did a magnificent job of hosting us, and we had the opportunity to take part in their two services. One intriguing character for me was the wonderful organist, Herbert Chatsky, who is Jewish, but who plays for the Meths every Sunday after attending synagogue on Saturdays. I asked if I could get a photo of his moustache after I had photographed the congregation, and he was quite pleased.

In the evening we were entertained to a great pot-luck supper in the Long Lake church, and I had a great conversation with a retired logging-truck driver called Bob, who had had a most interesting life.

Today was a tough one. First off, it rained almost the whole day, and secondly, there were a LOT of hills. We rode in the morning from Newcomb to Ticonderoga, crossed Lake Champlain by ferry into Vermont, then on to Rochester, Vermont, over the Brandon Gap - only about 2100', but long and in places incredibly steep. One bike computer put the slope in one place at 20%. In places the hill was so steep that some of us resorted to criss-crossing the road when no-one was coming, like we did when we were kids, and I’m not ashamed to say that there were two sections where I simply got off and walked for about 100 metres each time. I thought my responsibilities as a husband and a dad were more important than being able to say I rode every metre of part of the way across America, which sounds pretty lame anyway. My mileage for the day was 94.3, which compared to Saturday's 123 may not sound like much, but it was tougher terrain, and there was a lot of traffic in places. We had to change route to a more southerly one, as the heavy rains of the last few weeks have washed away a bridge and some roads.

I didn’t do anything for my testimony today, as at one point I almost lost it. I heard furious hooting and shouting as we were just leaving Brandon and looked round to see this car hassling Arek – driving right up close behind him, refusing to pass even though there was room, and the driver calling him all kinds of names. Then, I think because there were other drivers behind him getting really annoyed with him, he pulled past Arek and made to pass me. I rode into the middle of the road to get a good look at his number-plate, and as he drew alongside me he began to give me what-for as well. He was a large gentleman with a long ginger beard, and with a very embarrassed-looking guy in the passenger-seat who may have been his grandson. I’m afraid my response was to say: “What’s your problem, you old git?” which I’m absolutely sure was not WJWHD.
Our hosts for tonight (Paul Bayfield's and mine) told us it has rained here for 57 consecutive days. Sigi & Jolande Labejsza are Polish, but living and working here. Very nice folks. Thanks as always. It's Monday, but Friday's coming!