The Tour Is Now A Reality

Holly at Mile 0 in Victoria. Just down over the hill from where the Terry Fox statue is.
Having dinner at the Chinese restaurant after arriving in Victoria
Terry and I with John and John outside the hostel. The John on the far left is John McMillan. As it turns out he is 2 years younger than Holly and grew up two streets from where she did in Fredericton, New Brunswick. They knew some of the same people. The other John is John Lowe the fellow who lead us beautifully from and to UBC.
Holly and Terri and Terry Fox at Mile 0 in Victoria. This is where Terry Fox would have ended if he had completed the run. Countless others have done their run from here on Terry Fox day.
Peter Freeman (Tour du Canada 2008) and his wife Mary rode with us from Mile 0 to the ferry. They wished us well on our journey.


Wow!! What an amazing three days we've just come through. Thursday morning was cloudy so we all were dressed for a rainy ride but the sky cleared and we experienced a great ride through Vancouver to the George MasseyTunnel shuttle then rode to the ferry which took us over to Vancouver Island. Beautiful scenery along the shoreline as we crossed. Great ride along bike paths along, the roads and trails to our overnight stay at a hostel in downtown Victoria. One of the riders is from Vancouver and cycles over to Victoria two or three times a year so we designated him to be our guide. After our chinese supper, a few of us wandered downtown to see the Parliament Building, the Empress Hotel and just to view the centre of the city. Friday morning, breakfast and then off to Mile 0. Lots of pictures were taken. What a feeling we had to realize that so many months ago, we had decided to do this trip, then all winter and spring we were training and today the day is actually here!!! Peter Freeman and his wife, Mary, met us at Mile 0 to wish us well on the tour. Peter did the tour in 2008. He is a very interesting Australian fellow with lots of stories of his tour and also other trips he has done over the years. They road with us from there to the ferry. We all dipped our bikes in the Pacific Ocean at Mile 0, then began our journey back to Vancouver with our guide and fellow tour member leading us once again along a scenic route back to the ferry and then on to the university. From Victoria to the U of B.C. was actually 97k. We had a beautiful, sunny day. And today, June 27th, was a full day of orientation. Bryan de Bruyn, my nephew, met us and we went White Rock where he lives with is wife, Daniela and their son, Lucas and we had a nice visit with them. Back to the university and get ready for our first real ride of the tour tomorrow. Awesome experience so far. Till next time remember, LIFE IS GOOD!!! Terri (Theresa)

Greetings from Vancouver

Stanley Park Totem Poles
One of our heros, Rob (The Bike Guy) from Home Hardware in Kincardine.
You met Patty and Doug on a previous posting.
You can almost understand the reluctance of the airlines to take
all of this on the plane. The fellow in this shot is our friend Bill
from Tiverton. As of tonight, Tuesday, he is likely wishing there were some
men to bike with.
We are at the London airport. The other lady in this photo is Juanita
from London. She saw Bill with Tour du Canada papers in his hand
and immediately qualified to be in our photo. She rode with us around
Vancouver today.

I am giving the thumbs up for Mike's benefit as he watches from the window.
It was my way of saying "it is on the plane!"


Terri can hardly hold her excitement.


This was one of two vans that brought us from the airport. Terri and I in this.
Bill and Juanita shared the other.

Having our morning brew before we headed out on our ride around the city
Tuesday morning.
Where my and Mike's recumbents were built.
The athletes village for the 2010 games.


Terri and I can hardly believe we are here but as the riders arrive a few at a time it is really sinking in what a task we have set out for ourselves. At least we now know what other crazy people look like. The truck that will be with us for the summer has arrived. When we meet a new rider, it doesn't take long to feel like we have known them longer than just a few minutes. Sharing training stories, strategies, nutrition tips and finding out who has the hairdryer are major topics of discussions. I feel like a kid on an exciting new adventure.

Our day yesterday, getting here that is, was long and somewhat stressful. It was a bit more expensive to bring the bikes than our agent lead us to believe and who knew they would want to open the bike boxes we had so carefully packed and taped (and taped, and taped) to see what dangerous materials we were transporting with us. Little did they know how restricted we were. Why would we waste space on explosives when all we wanted was a couple extra changes of underwear???

As you saw from the pictures we had quite the cargo with us. It was questionable as to whether they would even ship my bike. After multiple reassurances that we had contacted West Jet, it was confirmed when I was going through the gate that it did get on. Our taxi driver in Vancouver was very gracious and it did not stress him one bit that he had to fit "all that in there".

By mid evening we had our bikes roadworthy and were all quite thrilled and relieved as to how well the day had gone. There were tears at the airport in London for sure and Terri and I will miss Mike and Don a lot but we also know this will be a great summer.

Today(Tuesday) we headed out to what turned out to be a glorious day of riding along the busy Vancouver streets and through Stanley Park. Vancouver is a very bike friendly city and we found a great stretch of bike/outdoor stores. I even got to visit Cambie Cycles, the store that built my and Mike's recumbents. While we only did 54km today we saw a great deal we would not have seen in a vehicle. The housing is dens (and later forget)e all along the water(but tasteful) and lots of rooftop gardens. The city is clean, people are friendly and the food is great.

We will be assembling in a couple of days to head to Vancouver Island. This is a little side trip offered by Tour du Canada. We head over on Thursday, stay overnight in a hostel, dip our bikes in the Pacific and then come back on Friday. Saturday is a full orientation day where we find out all we need to know (only to later forget) about our life on the road this summer.

We want to say thank you for all your support and well wishes for this trip. A special thank you to Mike and Don for supporting "the summer the women went" and for Rob, Patty and Doug for getting our bikes ready for the road.

Holly

Times running out!!

Our trip to Southampton was a wet one but we stayed dry and toasty. That was after Holly bought a new rain coat. You know you want one of our hats!!!!
One has to have at least one trip to the Holyrood Store for one of their huge ice cream cones. Except for a few residences, the store is the only thing there, and it has everything you could be looking for.
We couldn't resist checking out what was under this piper's kilt. This is at the Ripley Lion's Park where there are statues carved out of trees.


Well, our training is winding down!! We experienced a rainy day ride to Southampton on June 8th but since the forecast was indicating an 80% chance of rain, we packed our raingear and 30k into the ride, we had to put it on. That ride was a 108k trip. Of course shopping was fitted into our ride at Thorncrest Outfitters in Southampton and Marten's Cycle and Tim Horton stops for coffee or tea and bagels. Two great stores. Anyways, the rides since then have been shorter with the last one this coming Thursday. Then we concentrate on packing our bikes, camping gear and clothes and head to London for overnight Sunday and catch our flight Monday morning at 1000 to Vancouver. The last two weeks have really flown by quickly! So, till you hear from us, remember, "Life is Good" Terri ( Theresa)