Aug 25/26 - closing up and catching up !

It's going to take a while.

Jerry and I spent the last day of the ride in Oshawa.  I'd dozed in the control room then went downstairs at 6am to await Ken Bonner's arrival.  Eventually Mike Sturgil came in and then later, Ken.  Mike had left Napanee about 2 hours before Ken and passed Ken who was lost off the course somewhere. 

I saw Ken in and then went to Mass.  Before I'd turned my phone off, Nuala called to say that Liz Overduin had a broken spoke 40 km past Napanee.  I talked to her and then arranged that Dick would go.  Dick didn't get my later message that it was the front wheel; I was unaware that he was only carrying a rear. 

While at Mass with phone turned off, Dick got to Liz and found that he couldn't true the wheel, since it only had 20 spokes, and arranged that Guy would bring her a new wheel.  She rolled along, bump, bump, bump, bump and met him in Colborne and then she was good.

I recount this as an example of the service that we provided along the route -- whether mechanical (this was the only issue), good and hydration, the riders were well supported and really, really appreciated it.

Riders continued to roll in all day long up to 9:30 p.m.  Everyone who rolled out of Napanee had completed.  We had 4 DNF's out of 45 starters, which is pretty good for a ride like this.

Some quotes -- Mike Sturgill - "that was hard!"  (Mike was an early finisher, a very strong rider); Ken Bonner - "I don't want any more hills" (Ken's prowess is legendary so for him to say this and actually sleep at our Controls was amazing). 

At 6pm we organized the food -- oh yes, I'd traipsed around picking up stuff at Costco and Dollarama with Nuala, then later at the caterer and Dollarama again with Michele -- Stephen and Andrea picked up the beer.  Jerry manned the barbecue and we setup dinner.  Earlier on the riders hung around as they arrived, drank beer, snacked and the dinner went on until about 10:30.   I said a few things, thanked everyone, handed out the CanAm medals to people who had completed a 1200 in both Canada and the U.S. this year.  There will be more -- Last Chance and Taste of Carolina have yet to be run this year -- and I'll mail those out.

Yesterday I got up at 6am and headed north.   I'd already packed the trailer the night before.  I stopped at David's to pick up packing material that we'd left in his garage from transporting the washer, dryer and chipper.  I stopped at Stef's to pick up the water softener that I'm going to install here.  I got home around noon.

I spent the afternoon mostly on the computer; should have been sleeping.  Jason's cousin Bob arrived next door and we had a beer / glass of wine with the group there.

Dinner --  back to somewhat normal -- sausages and potatoes on the barbie; beans.  Beans ?  No, broccoli.
Today -- more catchup on emails; more assembling of expenses from the GA as emails come in.  I don't know for sure where we'll end up.

I hope to go for a bike ride.  It's been a long time !

Onward !