Last night while I was blogging I was sitting by Art Mulder—he blogged that he was sitting by me—trading barbs with Barb. You need to know I didn’t trade art with Art—I can only doodle.

At peloton it was announced that Lynn Verros, from Knoxville, IA, left for home. She had a hard time biking after her accident—all the fun goes when you’re in pain. Lynn, please know we’re keeping you in prayer and I understand what it took to leave the tour.

We had a special guest at peloton last night, Marcia Van’t Hof—in February her 46 yr old husband Mark died unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was a pastor and a real supporter of the tour—Mark Dekkinga rode his bike from Denver to Grand Rapids. Marcia has been given the grace to stand in front of us and encourage us to continue on to help any way we can to fight poverty. She explained how her in-laws stayed around their area of MI during white-flight.

My phone went off at 1:03 this morning—I usually have it off but I forgot. It was my son singing me a Happy Birthday song. I was in my sleeping bag at 9:00 & in a deep sleep—hard to get mad at a son who remembers your birthday and is watching the clock when it flips to the right day—only he forgot about the time change…I didn’t tell any one in camp—more about this later…

This morning I was on sweep duty—help out at breakfast. Extra people in camp added extra people to the sweep team. I swapped with Larry Meyer the other night so I didn’t serve in the evening dinner line. I missed seeing who was added to our sweep team—that’s always a good way to meet the people on the tour. The breakfast line was closed down early so everyone would get out on time and into Marine City for the ferry crossing.

It was so cold when we left this morning. I had just as much clothing on this morning as I did when we left Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado. I left with Christeena today and picked up John Klyn & Chris Mulder on our way out of camp. We were doing 20 mph when a line of 5 riders came on right in front of us. They slowed down to 18 mph—what’s up with that? Christeena told me to drop them because we can… We didn’t because if they wanted to do all the work with the wind I was going to let them!

We took the ferry in shifts after checking in with Jen Van Beek. We all had to meet with passport in hand 20 miles down the road in Marine City, take the ferry to cross into Sombra, Canada. Kids in a candy store…most of the Canadians couldn’t wait to “go home” they were so excited. I don’t know if it was to the mother land or the first Tim Hortons.

You can’t believe how smoothly the crossing went at the boarder. It was a prayer issue for all of us when we consider everything that could hold us up. Give your passport—say your name—walk on. It was that way for all of us as riders & Support.

I was on the last ferry across the St. Claire River—I think it took 3 or 4 trips to get us all across, gear truck & all. When I got off Cynthia was there waiting with a big hug. It was so good to see her. So many people were there to cheers us into Canada I couldn’t believe it—very welcoming. They served Tim Horton coffee, timbits (donut holes) cupcakes, candy and fruit. (I was able to meet family members of the people I’ve been riding with.) A very nice entry through customs & into Sombra—I didn’t get this kind of welcome the other times I visited…

I finally got to meet Irene—John VS wife and I hope to get to know her better this week. I also met Heidi Oshcner’s brother wearing a Dordt shirt while I was eating a timbit—I love it.

We left Sombra with our usual group but without John VS & Louis (they were talking with many friends.) We had Cynthia & Mike VH with us. Cynthia told us the speed she was good with, the guys were in front for headwind control & I brought up the rear to keep everyone off our line. Shortly out of Sombra we had 3 guys hop on our line. I asked them to give us the needed space Cynthia needed for reaction time & they backed off. We did chat for a bit first and he introduced himself as John De Pooter (this is as close as I can get right now.) He was the organizer of the welcome into Sombra & they were riding for the day. I thanked him because it was so well organized, he dropped back & explained to his friends who we were with Cynthia ahead of me. Maybe 100’ behind us now & I hear a loud SNAP! I looked in my mirror & saw a guy go down—it was John DP. His buddies didn’t know it was him & I’m watching them approach as I’m yelling biker down. We slowed our line and as John’s friends got closer I had to yell at them that it was John who went down. I saw John go to the side of the road & other bikers coming up from the back. We didn’t turn around—experience after Cynthia went down—too many people around can be another accident waiting to happen. His buddies went there, other bikers came up & a SAG was behind shortly. I must admit that just that quickly I was mentally back on the interstate to Fort Morgan watching Cynthia in my mirror again—I got an instant adrenaline rush and a case of the shakes. We found out later that John suffered a broken nose, split lip to the gum & facial road rash. He’s thankful for his helmet.

Cynthia did great today! We kept the stops to a minimum to avoid crowding and b/c it takes so much out of her to click in & out—so we skipped all the SAG’s. She can’t stop for a half hour at a time—she needs to keep going or it hurts her ‘sit bones.’ She told me that in the evenings she gets tired & them a limp is more pronounced. She plans to ride one day at a time—it’s REALLY flat here so it’s easier for her—climbing puts too much pressure on the pelvic region. The guys were good about yelling out the cracks and bumps—that’s huge for her.

When we got to Chatham (chat-um) she did humor me & stop by the sign for a photo. I’m not going to try to pronounce any of the names here because many are French influenced—and they’re laughing at ‘my accent’. When we went past a sign that read ‘Pain Court’ I asked her who holds court for pain? She told me it’s pronounced Pan Cor—I give up. And, it’s not hockey unless you say it with that lugee/horking ( hacking throat action)—I just can’t say it correctly for them—my family will tell you that I can’t hack a lugee.

I met new faces when we arrived at the community center like Nancy Schoon—she’s a blog reader. Andy’s sister in-law, Anne, sent me some ‘colored money.’ Very cute Anne—thanks! It will take me a bit to get used to the monopoly-like money. I’ll just get them to buy the coffee…

Tonight we are guests at Cynthia and Ralph’s home. She served a great meal, with help from her family—way to go Janessa, Jolene & Andrew. They opened up their home to many of us & we are so appreciative. The bed I’m sleeping in is so far off the floor I have to be mindful not to roll—falling off my tent mattress is nothing—falling out of this bed could break my pelvis.

We left after dinner for peloton & Len R, our head Chaplin, announced that they had a special surprise for someone—me! They had me come up & he told everyone it was my birthday & that they were serving cake courtesy of Dordt College. The card reads, “Happy Birthday from the crew at work.” Before I left I joked that I was getting out of serving treats because I was going to be on the ride—paybacks—I understand them. They had 3 cakes & sang to me so I’m celebrating with 200 & some of my new best biking friends. Very embarrassed but very blessed to be remembered—thank you all very much.

Thanks for reading… And just so you know, the snow plow didn’t meet me at the border to escort me to my igloo likeJeff Schoon told me it would.

Nancy Krygsman, (my Canadian counterpart in the office)…do you want me to bring you anything back from Canada when I cross in a few days? Remember my packing weight limit though… Pastor Herm? Now’s the time to get your order in. Oh yeah…how about some ketchup chips?