Day 62/August 30 – Sussex to Jersey City – 98km

The last ride – wow I cannot even believe it – it was here, and it is gone. We had to meet at a staging area 15km outside Jersey City. We got police escorted into Jersey because it was too busy to drive in. Seeing the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty – it was all so surreal.

As we were riding into Liberty State park there were tons of people there cheering – it was so cool to see all the support. Yet again, I couldn’t believe that I had just biked across an entire continent, seen some of the most spectacular scenery, and met many upon many amazing people. It’ll take awhile to “soak” in all of this goodness.

Day 61/August 29 – Dalton to Sussex – 132km

We climbed a bit today, actually a lot, actually to the highest point in New Jersey – wow we made it to New Jersey. Today I biked with my dear friend Eric Stehouwer. Now, I’ve given him a very good nickname – Donkey, but not a donkey as in you would call him the bad three letter word for it, but say it with an English accent like Shrek. Donkey from Shrek, not quite as annoying, but just talks all the time – about nonsense, oh man so funny. We’ll be going up a hill (which we did a lot today) and he’d be talking a mile a minute, which most of the time I had no idea what he was saying. But I found out later that’s his strategery for getting uphill – worked for him, made me laugh – it was all good.

We had a couple cool stops today. We went up an extra climb (I was sad about it at the time) to go to a monument that marked the highest point in New Jersey. From there you could see New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey all at once – it was high. Before all of this Eric and I stopped at “Susie’s Sweet Shop.” There was so much chocolate – the lady gave us free bailey filled truffles – mm mm good!

The goodies just didn’t stop – a local bakery in Sussex gave us free coffee and the baked goods were incredible, oh so goet zoe!

Mom: guess what? We stopped for coffee today and they had fudge just like what you and I get. The signs were even the same! Can we go for some when I come home?

Day 60/August 28 – Binghamton to Dalton – 93km

I think I laughed all day today. Not even kidding a little bit. Starting at breakfast – Theresa and I wore John and Alex’s pink hats – their so sweet, and their pink – therefore I must wear it.

Amidst laughing the entire day, I think we biked downhill almost all day. It was pretty sweet. Then we came into a city that had a bridge called the viaduct. It was beautiful, looks like an aqueduct, but its not. Shortly afterwards, Hans (who I had been riding with all day) decided to switch bikes with Clare Koositra. Now the thing about this is that Clare has a trike – super hard uphill, we all admire him a lot. Funny thing is, we went downhill all day – then when they switched we hit a bunch of hills, big hills – grades that we haven’t seen for weeks. Haha, Lucky for Clare, not for Hansle. But he made it, good job Doefus.

Day 59/August 27 – Romulus to Binghamton – 122km

So, I switched sweep days with Matt Zantingh but because I like my sweep team way too much I decided that I’d do final sweep for one last time. We had a great day – stopped at a winery – which sold fudge and gave out free coffee. Mmm mmm, so good. We also visited Cornell University in Ithaca. Cornell is an Ivy League school – it was so beautiful, old brick buildings, the campus was incredible, all sorts of plants and yep wouldn’t you know it – there was ivy.

Final sweep was awesome guys – Nick, Brad, Ryan, I’ll miss it. We had some sweet times and sweet convos – thanx for all of it.

Day 58/August 26 – Byron to Romulus – 122km

For the majority of the day I biked on my own. I dunno why, but for some reason I had a fire under my bum so I (in the words of Reuben Vyn) “make fast.” But this is Annette’s “make fast” not “Reuben Vyn” make fast. Reuben is a semi-pro bike racer – so he’s a significant amount faster than I am.

We had a church stop today where they made us lunch and it was so incredibley good. We ate so very much that we had to nap – terrible life hey?

We stayed at another state park tonight – I had another nap by the water, in the sun – wow life is really, really tough.

The view was beautiful, as was the sunset – God continues to wow and bless us.

Day 57/August 25 – St. Catharines to Byron – 124km

So today we left this beautiful country, my home – and I’m sad about it. But luckily on the other side into New York the roads were nicely paved, and the shoulders were huge. I must say, biking in New York has probably been the kindest for my poor little tires.

We were able to bike over the rainbow bridge today too – for those that don’t know, that rainbow bridge is the bridge that goes over the Niagara falls – so sweet.

So we bycled, stopped for ho cho (aka hot chocolate) and a peach - sorry, but the peaches are better in Canada. Oh we also stopped at this driving range that also had ice cream – yep went for the ice cream, I hate golf. I did hit one ball went about 75 yards – yeah, at least I hit it. Dumb golf.

The ride was just so beautiful, I still cant figure out what it is about biking that’s so awesome. I wish I could describe it – I told Theresa that if I had JRR Tolkein on my side it would be no problem – she said “read his books, and you’d be able to do it.” Now if I did do that – this blog wouldn’t be completed, probably ever SO I’m not gonna – sorry friends. Just take my advice – its beautiful and I love it.

We stayed at a state park tonight where there happened to be a band consisting of string bass, guitar, and violin who were camping there. It was really neat – they played for us while we had smores. It was sooooo (I’m going to butcher this because I don’t know the correct dutch spelling) ghazeligh – feel free to correct. Whatever the spelling – it was sweet.

Day 56/August 24 – Sabbath in St. Catharines

Again, another relaxing morning – didn’t have the celebration service until early afternoon – so I walked down to a Laundromat, sat there did my laundry and had a great little chat with my good friend Alex. Its been so awesome getting to know people on this tour – so far building new relationships has been just as awesome, if not better than the biking.

So when we got to the celebration service we first had a meet and greet – good thing, it was pouring. We sat underneath a shelter and ate millons of peaches! I guess right now is Ontario’s peach festival – uh, so goet zoe!

And amazingly enough, the sun came out when it was actually time for the service. The service was wonderful. Some of the things said I remember most is one, by the speaker. He challenged us and said, “perhaps in order to alleviate poverty, we need to alleviate affluence.” Imagine a world like that? Could it happen? I feel sometimes overwhelmed to think that such huge changes need to take place. Then one of the cyclists came up and spoke – Aleida. She said that we should envision ourselves as little waves. Everything is a little wave and as God works as the wind – it’ll great a Tsunami effect. It was great to have that visual image. Gave me hope, and the feeling of wind has been ever present on this tour as well – so the visual was even more real.

Mom: Guess what!? I saw Mr. Bandstra today! He gave me a hug from home and said he would say hi to you. Wow, one more week and I’m gonna be on my way home.

Can’t wait to see ya momma!