Our day started with a great breakfast at the Sears Malborough store at 6:00 am. A quick good-buy and we are shuttling to Parkbec to start our day’s ride. Today’s dedication included my uncle Joe who just passed away. The funeral is today, I feel that I should be there, but it’s not possible.
Our first stop is the Sears Store in Moose Jaw. The whole team works together to keep the tandem moving as fast and efficiently as possible.
The terrain is flat, and with a slight tail wind we make good time by averaging over 30 km / hr. The store manager and the staff have a great lunch prepared and send us off with cold water for later in the day.
Back on the road and now headed to Regina with perfect riding conditions…sunny, warm, and a slight tail wind. We hit up to 40 km / hr, and not working overly hard. We arrive at the Regina distribution centre 15 minutes early; Rich, our crew chief, is ecstatic, we are usually running late.
The Sears Regina staff was great as usual. They have a fantastic home made dinner for us.
A quick shower and we’re ready to shuttle to our next destination
.
The day starts at parking lot of the Lake Louise Inn at 6:15 with our Rich, our crew chief, getting the riders up, I am beginning to think that he enjoys being the bad guy.
The support crew has been up since 5:30 getting breakfast ready. They work hard to make sure that the riders are looked after and can have a good day riding.
After a quick ride to Lake Louise for some pictures we got back on our bikes for the ride to Banff. We start the ride with the temperature on the low side, its 0 Celsius, but not a cloud in the sky.
Before the first 1 km of riding the tandem has some mechanical problems and has to come off the road. Josh is disappointed but understands.
The rest of the ride to Banff is great, mainly downhill, and I love downhills. By the time we get to Banff the temperature has gone up to 14.
Getting to our lunch stop hosted by the local Home Town Canmore Dealer store was easy with Kathy leading the way. Kathy lives in Canmore, so she made sure that we did not take the long way to Lunch.
Dinner is at the Sears Malborough store in Calgary. We heard from the store manager, the deputy mayor who lost his brother to cancer , and a young girl who was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of nine.
Day 2
An early start to the day, 6:15 and everybody is up getting ready.
The Sears Kamloops staff prepared a great breakfast, a necessity for a good cycling day, we use up a lot of calories.
The dedication was once again emotional, it’s a remainder of how insignificant your problems really are.
Once again it’s a perfect day for cycling. Not a cloud in the sky, and the bonus of being surrounded by the Rockies. This scenery is just not available in Toronto.
Our hosts in Sorento were wonderful, they made us feel really welcome, and I learned a little Spanish.
A quick ride to Salmon Arm, and our riding day is over.
Another successful day, average speed 27 kph.
Team 1 is working better as a team, better communication, better signals, and real teamwork with the stronger riders helping the not so strong.
And it’s only going to get better.
A very emotional start to the day at White Rock. The dedication touched everybody, I don’t think that there was a dry eye in the place.
We all dipped the back wheel of the bikes in the Pacific ocean which officially started the journey toward Halifax.
Our first stop was at the Langley Sears store, we picked up several community riders and headed to Sears Abbotsford. A few of us got to our destination a little late, but we had a great time chatting with our host riders. But we did miss the square dancing.
The fire department was nice enough to escort us out of Abbostsford, so that we wouldn’t get lost due to some major construction in town.
On to Chillawack and finished riding in Hope.
A hurried dinner, a quick shower and we’re shuttling to Kamloops.
Day 1 is over and it’s a success, the riders are all safe, we accomplished our riding goal, had no personality issues or conflict…a good day.
