A continuation of the story ...

A continuation of the story I began with “the beginning “ :

Unfortunately after that first touring trip, work and life took over and the bike got sold and that was it, a forgotten dream. I still regret selling the bike, I hadn’t ridden it for years but I was going to live in Ireland and I needed every penny I could muster for the trip, so I sold it to old Phil the night watchman at the farm.

Then in the early 1990’s a second Canadian Tire bike was bought , this time a mountain bike, a heavy brute of a machine, and I started dabbling in biking again with my friend Bobby , nothing serious just some fun riding in the Conservation area at the end of Huntington Rd. in Kleinburg. A couple of years latter my friend Bob got me hooked on mountain biking, early mornings in the Durham Forest, trips up to Hardwood Hills, Ravenshoe, etc. I bought my first light bike $$$$ouch!!! , I became part of the “No Control Team” , started doing 8 hour events for charity, which progressed to the 24 hour races, every chance I had I would put the bike on the car and head out to a trail to bike, and boy did we have some fun !!!! Bob, Mark, Mary and Deb what a great group of biking buddies!!!
And Bob, well what can I say, Bob is a real motivator he speaks a whole different English then we mere mortal bikers do, it always amazed me how he could use the word “easy” do describe just about any situation on the trail no mater how hellish it was, I owe him a lot, he sure made a better biker out of me !!!

Somewhere during all that pedaling the dream of riding across Canada reappeared, Bob and I saying that when we retired we would do it. You know, one of those things you say but that has no real achievability, because the goal is so far away, but still the dream was there again, faint but there. Then, back in 2003 my amazing wife gave me a road bike for Christmas, a wonderful blue Trek 2200 and slowly the road became my passion. I joined the Cyclissimo Cycling Club four years ago, met a lot of great people and learned about group riding. Two years ago I got real serious about road riding and participated in some Club Road Races, had fun with some rather disappointing results. And I also did Time Trials for the first time ever, boy they were painful!!!, but very satisfying. I learned a lot about cycling and I learned a lot about myself. I put down a lot of km, and somewhere along that summer of 2008 I set a goal of 4000 km for the year which I managed to finally accomplish on the 19th of October, just before the first snow arrived. As I was getting closer to that goal I found that my dream became an inescapable necessity, something I just had to do while I still could do it. The dream stopped being a far off hope, it became something tangible something real that I could taste, and as I was riding along one day through the Marsh returning from one of my long rides I just made the decision no more waiting for retirement, I was going to do it now!!!! .

I set a date of 2012 that I thought would give me enough time to prepare physically and financially and let everyone get use to the idea. I talked to Evelyn, I don’t think she believed me at first but I’m a lucky guy and she loves me and understands me, I talked to my bosses and asked for a leave of absence for 2012, they said ok as long as the farm was looked after, and that was it, done, come hell or high water I would be on the road crossing this country !!!!! finally living my dream !!!!
Then one day over dinner my wife together with my bosses ganged up on me , why wait they said, things on the farm were quiet , my arthritis was behaving, better to go sooner then later they said, and it all made sense, so with out to much objections on my part 2010 became the new target.

And just maybe I’ll leave the 2012 date open for the Artic Tour ride !!!!

(To be continued )

This was in 2001 or 2002 I think over at Pleasure Valley . It was a 8 hour relay ride for Down Syndrome . It was the first time I rode with the “No Controls” Myself , Mary, Mark, Deb and Bob.

24 Hours Of Adrenalin 2003 at Hardwood Hills. This was my first 24 hour race , Bob put together the team originally we were going to be a five man team but Mark was not well and could not do it so we ended up being four. Rick brought his camper and it was very civilized. We placed 12th out of 30 , not bad !!!! I did 4 laps altogether including the killer first lap were I ended up running for about a km ( mostly uphill ) to get to the bike. It was a long course if I remember right about 22km , it was a great experience and I had lots of fun swearing never to do it again !! ( of course the next year I did it again !!) In the picture Bob, Dave, Rick and Myself. Support team: Mary and Evelyn. Mascots: Hanna and Huston

Here we are after finishing the 2005 “Ride for Heart” Evelyn, myself, Mark, Deb, Bob, Mary and Jake in front.

Bob and I doing the 24 hours Hot Summer Nights at Albion Hills, with our amazing support crew Evelyn and Mark