Slow Transition Back to Reality......

It's now 11 days since we stopped biking.... some of us are still blogging.....and reading each other's blogs.....life should have taken on a semblance of normality by now but for me it's not there yet. But then, what do we consider normal? For those of you who went back to school or work, normal came very quickly - those of us who are retired or didn't have a job to go back to, normal will take some time to become reality. Connecting with family and friends will take priority to spending time on the bike. This too is important - they were such a big part of my prayer support.

This past Sunday was probably the first time that most of us were able to worship with our home church family - for me that was the case and it was wonderful to be back with them. It was exciting to relate back to them the highlights of the tour. Their prayer and financial support was overwhelming for both Hilena and myself. Thank you so much members of Bethel CRC!
Pastor Jim's message was based on texts from 1 Corinthians 12 where it talks about how we are one body, with many parts in our church family.....I related this to the bike tour where we could say we were one group with many different cyclists - each of us brought something unique and special to the group - the young people mixed so well with us older ones. I was so impressed by the sincerity of the younger ones when I heard them talking to strangers about the reason for the bike tour. These are our future leaders in the church and we can be very proud of them. I miss the people who I had contact with for 5 weeks - none of us were alone in this endeavour - we were part of a very caring group of people - we looked out for each other, we encouraged each other, we cared for each other, we shared joys and struggles with each other, we cried together, we laughed together. Pictures and memories are what we now have of each other until we meet again and some of us will meet each other somewhere, sometime. Today I met Eritia at her workplace - she is missing people too - she was going to bike home after work and bike back to work tomorrow - she still loves biking.

Last week my 5 year old grandson, Nicholas, asked me to go biking with him - this was just two days after getting home from doing nothing else than biking for five weeks and I had to say to him very guiltily that I didn't have time that day - it felt awful to have to say this to him. The next day I did go biking with him - we cycled along a trail close to home - there was a corn field right beside the trail - nostalgia took over - thinking back to those corn fields in Iowa and Nebraska......only this time I did not have the need/urge to find the 3rd row on the left for my potty break - so used to seeing that sign at Walter's SAG - ladies go 3 rows to the left, men go 2 rows to the right.... I have put 40 km on my bike since coming home. My odometre reads 5600 km now - double what I had on when I started in Denver....I plan to put on lots more yet before the snow flies.

I also think back to all those little cards we handed out along the way.....will curiousity make people look us up on the web site to find out more about why we were cycling or will they be discarded? We can only pray that people want to know more about the cause and help to do something about poverty. We were confronted by poverty in some of the areas we cycled through and each of us knows of poverty in the areas we live in - it won't go away by itself - we all need to do something to improve the lives of those living with/in poverty. None of us can leave the tour saying we were not effected by what we were cycling for. Each of us has been challenged to make a difference somewhere/somehow. This too is part of reality. Joe and I have signed up with DRS to spend 3 weeks in the Lake Charles area of Lousiana in early November - this will give us a chance to live in community again with others - a little like what we did this summer. We hope to make a difference in someone's life there DV. Who knows, we may meet up with some of you other cyclists there.

Reality tells me right now that it's bed time....

Reality has begun.....

Well it's Monday night already - we've been home now for over 24 hours and it's wonderful to be back in our own home after 2 months. John and Anne Span, missionaries with CRWM have used our home this summer since we were going to be away for 6 weeks.

We left Jersey City just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday and were home in Waterdown at 5:00 p.m. - 9 hours on the road with a few stops along the way. What took us 9 hours in a vehicle took us 7 days of cycling - we live close to Redeemer College and we left there on a Saturday and then did one more full week of cycling to Jersey City - amazing when you think of it....

Walter, one of our SAG drivers had trouble keeping Rita and myself apart so just called us "Margarita" - he promised us each a "Margarita" before the trip was over and he delivered. They were delicious - thanks so much Walter and Geri! Walter treated everyone to pieces of watermelon at his stop - one per person - he was the favoured stop.

Now thinking back to Saturday and all that happened seems so long ago already. I did cycle - went along with Teresa Hoekstra and Sharon Davis-Payton to a drop off point to avoid the many hills at the beginning of the route. We first stopped for coffee and then had a leisurely ride to the staging area and waited for the rest of the cyclists to all arrive. Excitement was building as more and more cyclists arrived and eventually everyone was there. The time had been set at 1:15 for a photo shoot of all the cyclists - took forever to get all lined up and ready for this as the last few cyclists were struggling in. It was a morning of many flats - 35 in all - the roads had lots of debris alongside them...the police were ready and waiting....Billy D's Harley was ready and so were we - it took a bit for all of us to get into position and we were off just after 1:30. At the last minute the final route was changed because the heavy rain on Friday night covered one of the underpass spots with 6 inches of water and it was not safe for us cyclists to travel through this as the road also had many potholes...wise choice.

It got even more exciting as we started at a good pace - the police cars stopped traffic as we kept on cycling - going from one intersection to the next with sirens blaring stopping the traffic at each intersection. We felt like royalty - waving to the crowds that were forming along the streets - it was so impressive to see all the jerseys up ahead as we crossed bridges and went around corners. This went on for 16 kms until we got to Liberty State Park where we travelled on a bicycle/walking path to the end. I recognized many people who had come to see friends and relatives arrive at the end of the tour. All of a sudden I saw my daughter, her husband and their 3 children - couldn't believe my eyes - what a surprise! Good thing I was riding near the end of the pack because I just stopped my bike and rushed over to hug them - overcome by emotion - never expected this at all - even Joe was not aware that they were coming. After spending a few minutes with them I continued on to the water front. By now most of the cyclists were there and it was time to get into position for some closing words and to dip our tires into the water. Joe and the rest of the support staff were all driven to the same spot and were there to meet the cyclists. After reciting the Lord's Prayer together we made our way down to the water - taking turns to do the dipping since it was so crowded. What an awesome finish to the tour - the weather once again was perfect - clear blue skies and perfect temperature.

Hilena, also from Waterdown, and I posed for a photo to submit to our local newspaper who did an article about us before the tour started. Good job Hilena - you went the whole way!

From here our bikes were loaded onto tractor trailers and transported to a church and we were herded onto school buses for a 45 minute ride to the same church. Nice clean showers awaited us here and we got ready for supper and the celebration service at another church 3 kms away. Once again we were treated to a delicious meal - 700 people in total were fed in a very short time since the evening programme was starting at 7:30 p.m. The church filled up quickly and we started off with some wonderful singing. Four cyclists were asked to share their thoughts about the trip - each one reflecting from their personal lives as to how God was with them before and during the trip.

Then it was time for good byes.....tears flowed - hugs happened - who knows when and if we would see each other again. Memories are what we live on now along with the many pictures that were taken along the way. Each of us will go from here to our own homes - some of us will get back to reality slowly, others will go back to school or work tomorrow or shortly. What will we take away from this time together - the cycling part is over - awareness of why we were doing the tour continues - where will the Lord lead us as we put into practice what we have heard from the speakers at the services we attended?

For 6 weeks I was out of touch with what was happening in the world - I lived one day at a time out of two laundry hampers that held everything I needed - the only decision I had to make each day was what cycling clothes to wear and how much depending on temperature. No blow dryer or curling iron for 6 weeks - how simple life can be lived if we let it. The tour was about people - they became a very important part of my life as we lived in community with each other. We needed each other for encouragement and support. The tour also gave me a renewed appreciation of the CRC - it was wonderful to see how the churches treated us along the way in whatever way they could to make us feel welcomed and with providing meals and snacks. Being a part of the total community on the tour was an awesome experience, the young people and the older ones mixed well - we helped each other out in many different ways - there was unity in the body.

Life becomes much more complex for each of us now - decisions need to be made - supper won't be waiting for us at 6:00 p.m. unless we have already prepared it ourselves. We won't have orange arrows on the road pointing us to the direction we need to go next - we won't have daily maps showing us where we will be camping/sleeping and the list could go on.

We won't have to "Purell" our hands before touching anything on the food tables, we won't have to stand in line anymore whether it be the food line, shower line, bathroom line and this list could go on and on. We hopefully won't be using tall corn stalks, trees, bushes for our bathroom breaks. The "porta potty" won't be just up the road aways. Speaking of the porta potty - Joe was to pull it to the end of the tour and had the hitch all fastened to our van when Ed came running back to tell him it wasn't necessary anymore as he had sold it on the spot to someone in Sussex. A relief for Ed - now it did not have to go back to Grand Rapids. At shower time on Saturday night, one of the ladies made a comment, "this is the last time that we will be doing community showers" - all modesty disappeared weeks ago. All of us are sporting different tan lines, even those who covered themselves with sun screen. We could work on getting rid of those lines but I think there is not enough summer left to get even tans anymore - snow has been flying in some parts of Alberta already so those from there will get a rude awakening upon arrival. Here in Ontario we are enjoying summer yet - I will stop to smell the roses today.