August 8, 2008

Word

Filed under: Uncategorized — MVanderherberg @ 1:35 pm

Word has started of a possible trip for next year.  Contact us at rideforafricycle [at] gmail [dot] com if you’d like us to pass through your town.  We want to include the same groups that supported us this year around Lake Ontario and maybe add to it a bit.  We’ll keep on raising funds for Africyle as long as we are able. 

This year’s amount was made possible by various Rotarians who I would like to mention here who rode with us for one day of our nine day trip:
 
Rick Storey - Peterborough Rotary Club
Linda Hunter and Paul Appleman - Northumberland Sunrise Rotary Club
Mark Walas and friends - Brighton Rotary Club
Fred Farnham - Welland Rotary Club
Rhonda Vanderlinde and Allan Stolaryk - Oshawa
 
Thank you guys.  We had a really good time riding with each of you.  Rider of the trip goes to Fred Farnham; 81 years old and still leading our pack from Queenston to St. Catharines!
 
Various other clubs donated money directly to Africycle such as Tom Sears from the Campbellford Rotary Club and John Mayhew of the Napanee Rotary Club.  Those who could not send a rider but were very welcoming included the likes of Peggy deWitt with David and Sally from the Picton Rotary Club who took a group photo of us and donated money to our cause.  Interest was raised in other clubs around Lake Ontario saying that if we did it again, that they might be able to drum up some riders.

 So again, if this peaks your interest, be in touch and we’ll try to include you in our efforts.  Two tires are better than one.  And group riding with Rotarians was great.

August 6, 2008

Total $ Raised.

Filed under: Uncategorized — MVanderherberg @ 8:23 pm

Our running total about ten days after returning home is now over $8000 for Africyle.  We’re feeling pretty good about this amount.  Some of us swear we will never ride so far again.  Some of us are talking about a longer trip for next year including more Rotarians and shooting for a higher amount to raise.  I find a lot of joy in hearing that some Rotary clubs are hoping to take on Africycle as an annual project.  This makes our trip a great success as that awareness for them is paramount.  Thanks for reading.

 Michael

July 30, 2008

Ride for Africycle 2.0 in the News

Filed under: Ride 2.0 — MVanderherberg @ 1:42 am

Here is a quick example of our ride in the news around the lake.ONE   TWO   THREE   FOUR   FIVE   SIX   SEVEN   EIGHT      NINE … more to be found on the google machine.Enjoy.

July 27, 2008

Back Home

Filed under: Ride 2.0 — DBreukelaar @ 7:29 pm

After 9 days, and a little over 1000km’s, we rode our bicycles into Peterborough late yesterday afternoon, around 5:30 PM. Our final day consisted once again of lots of rain, shelter from the thunder storms, blueberry pie, coffee, and two additional riders, a Rotarian, and Ted Webb, founder of Africycle.

Arrival in Port Hope

To complete our trip around Lake Ontario, we stopped for lunch in Port Hope at the park that we set out from a little over a week ago. I must admit, the reality of what we had just accomplished didn’t really hit me there. I was more focussed on getting food, and fueling up for the climb back to Peterborough that we still had to accomplish. After lunch we set out on the long climb home, enduring yet another thunderstorm along the way. The sun eventually came out, as it always does, and provided a warm welcome back home.

All told, the only luggage that we never had to unpack from the van was the first aid kit. We had a few close calls along the way, a bunch of flats (17?), some minor bike repairs, but nothing more than a scrape or bruise. Thanks for your prayers for safety.

It was an awesome trip that I’m sure we all would do again in a heartbeat. It felt weird to wake up this morning in my own bed and not suit up in spandex and go riding down unfamiliar roads. I look forward to the next adventure.

Sodus Point SunsetSodus Point Sunset - 2SkidsRochester

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July 26, 2008

New Video

Filed under: Ride 2.0 — DBreukelaar @ 1:57 am

There’s a new video. The original file is 165MB, so we had to degrade the video quality to upload it. It still gives a pretty good idea of a typical ride. It’s of the first part of our Day 4 ride, from Selkirk Shores to Sodus Point. I eventually had to put the camera away due to rain.

July 25, 2008

Alive and Well in the Hammer

Filed under: Ride 2.0 — MVanderherberg @ 1:09 am

Thursday evening, July 24th. We, the Ride for Africycle crew are all tired but well fed. This has been an incredible trip so far defined by so many awesome things.

Day one: Rotarians. We met up with local Rotarians, the mayors of Peterborough and Port Hope, the support crew and we spun off to Wesley Acres, just outside of Bloomfield. Money was raised by those Rotarians (Peterborough, Northumberland Sunrise and Brighton) and all of it will go to Africycle. We will post the final amount raised shortly after the end of our ride on the 26th. It was a great ride, down Archer Road off of Highway 2 after Cobourg, along the lake, with a few flat tires, clipped-in falls, fast bursts and slow hills, we arrived into Wesley Acres feeling like a 100 bucks. Rick, Linda, Mark, Roger and Phil… thank you. Rotarians.

Day two: Speed. We polished off 75 km (our shortest day) in less than 3 hours. We hit an excess of 40 km/h a few times and rewarded ourselves to a pint in Kingston. Staying at Rustle Church was like a dream within a dream and Al seemed to be able to slip an obscure book into the van. Speed.

Day three: Rain. Oh my goodness. To wake up to the sound of rain normally makes me smile warm in my bed in Peterborough, but not in Kingston with 124 km ahead of me. We hit the friendly border, stayed as far as we could away from ‘Hogan’ the outhouse, and took the ferry across. Cape Vincent, the border town on the American side of Wolfe Island, was beautiful. Jozina was shaking from the cold so we stopped in for a coffee and had a hard time leaving. We made it to Selkirk Shores at around 5 PM and enjoyed about 10 minutes of sun at the gate. Other than that, rain.

Day four: Hills. Harvey Botzman, writer of ‘Round Lake Ontario, the plotter of Great Lake routes, said it was going to be hilly that day. And Harvey is never wrong. It was one hill after another all day long. We stopped for a newspaper interview at the Palladium Times in Oswego and hit the hills again all the way to Sodus Point. Hills.

Day five: Length. This was the mother of all days. 169 km, bumped up from our estimated 154 km just so we could get into the ‘century’ club (100 miles in a day). From Sodus Point, through Rochester for some site-seeing with Harvey, and onto Golden Hill State Park. The highlight of the day for some of us was the Lake Ontario State Parkway bridge construction. It was closed and forced the car traffic off. We started following the detour, stopped, went back to the bridge, ran up the grass on the other side of the bridge, and had the parkway to ourselves for about 10 km. It was apocalyptic. That said because it felt like all the cars had gone away and bicyclists had taken over the world. We arrived, had showers, ate, and fell asleep. We were dead to the world but we’re all now in the club. Length.

Day six: Falls. Just that; we crossed the border, wasted some time looking at the water and made our way to Shalamar park. And Marijke, the daughter of our support crew, beat David, Mike and Michael at Settler’s of Catan. Unprecedented. Our pride fell. Falls.

Day seven: Shelter. My goodness, what a day. I’ll elaborate a bit as this day is freshest in my memory. We left Shalamar with Fred Farnham of the Welland Rotary Club. This man is 81 years old and definitely the best 81 year old to join us on a day like we just had. It started raining as soon as we left. And it started raining pretty hard only 5 km into the ride. Mike Vyn, prone to getting flat tires, popped again. “Flat!”, we all yelled and pulled over into a farmer’s empty roadside stand. Fred and I sheltered ourselves beneath the stand while the rest of the group began working on Mike’s tire under a tree. I noticed movement in the adjacent house and a shirtless man appeared in the window. Moments later the garage door opened and it began to pour. Think of ‘pouring’ in this case being God above us with a jug of water pouring over the road, the driveway, everywhere. ‘Joe’, the owner of the house, called us in. And we gladly accepted. As we continued to work on Mike’s tire, or at least looking on, the wind picked up and drove with such a force that it would have easily forced Fred and I off the road into the ditch. He said he had just instructed his wife to put on the coffee and that we had to come inside. Hospitality when cold and shaking suddenly took on a new meaning. Joe and Rita, soft fruit farmers outside of Virgil, took us in with arms wide open. The power went out, we laughed and went upstairs where there was more light. And the coffee had just happened to finish before the power left so only our laughter filled the kitchen. They had five children who had all grown up and moved out and they mentioned a few times that it was as if all the kids were home. Then Fred, our Rotarian friend, started making balloon animals for their grandson, Ethan (who could operate a backhoe even though he was only 6). Parrots, monkeys, samurais… all kinds of creations came out of Fred. The whole situation seemed surreal and we laughed and loved it, the hospitality, the hot coffee, the 81 year old man who laughed with us and made balloon animals, and Joe and Rita, God bless them. Leaving once the rain had died down was like leaving a little piece of heaven behind. And another 80 km brought us into the Hammer. When we arrived here, tired and weary, the rain began to fall just after we stepped through the door. David Blondel’s mom rolled in a little while later with about 200 pounds of food for us. Tired and hungry we were. Dry we remained and satisfied we became. Shelter.

More in a few days. Click ‘To Donate’ and give a bunch of money.

-Michael

July 20, 2008

Ride For Africycle Stops in Picton

Filed under: Ride 2.0 — davidmblondel @ 2:29 am

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July 17, 2008

Bike Collection Update And A Sweet Video.

Filed under: Africycle — davidmblondel @ 6:53 pm

We really appreciate the local community response to the bicycle collection that took place last Saturday, it was certainly beyond our expectations! Unfortunately, we are not able to collect bicycles throughout the year, as we do not have any storage space available to us. We are sorry to say, but we cannot take anymore bikes - but urge you, if you have a bike you are looking to get rid of, contact the Peterborough Community Bike Shop - located in the basement of The Third Space, Wednesdays or Saturdays.

Aside from that, Ride for Africycler, David Bruuks, made a nice DIY camera mount for his bike last night and filmed this.

Around the Block from Ride For Africycle on Vimeo.

July 15, 2008

More News…

Filed under: Ride 2.0, Africycle — davidmblondel @ 4:52 pm

We had a very nice write up in the Peterborough Examiner yesterday.  Take a look at the online print version here and the online video version here.

More Bicycle Collection Snaps.

Filed under: Africycle — davidmblondel @ 4:35 pm

These were taken by David Breukelaar

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