Heather Jager

Lower Sackville, NS to Halifax, NS - day 12

There was rain through the night and everything was wet when we woke up, but it had turned to a fine mist that was barely heavy enough to fall by the time we were out of bed. Many were up bright and early to consume breakfast and continue the clean-up work. Our bunk trucks had to be completely unloaded and all of our luggage packed into a single RV per team. They were already starting the process of dismantling the bunks as we prepared to roll out at 10:00am. Under police escort, our reunited National Rider group made its way towards Halifax. We sure are a more organized group of riders than we were in Vancouver! It was less than 30km to our first stop at a Sears store. Everyone was in a celebratory mood as we enjoyed music, more speeches, and each other’s company. The stop was longer than we were used to and was the first hint of a change in pace that the entire National Team will have readapt to. No more go, go, go. After about an hour, we mounted up again and headed over to the IWK, the main childrens health centre in the maritime provinces. It is a beautiful facility. Finally it was time for the final push to Black Rock Beach in Point Pleasant Park. I remember being a little surprised to find myself teary-eyed when we rode in to Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver. I felt calm as we rode through the streets of Halifax but when we hit the flat parking lot before the wall and path to the beach the emotions struck again. Even Egbert was a little misty-eyed. I jumped off my bike at the wall while most of the riders rolled on through and down the gravel path. There was a whole school full of kids sitting on a stone wall a few feet back from path. They were holding out their hands so I ran down the grass and high-fived them as I went by. I had to laugh when one young guy called out “Will you marry me?” At the beach we had a champagne toast (and shower thanks to Jenn!) then took off our shoes and took our bikes down to the water’s edge to dip our front wheels into the Atlantic. There was a lot of hugging and hooting and hollering going on. The cameras were kept busy. It was an amazing feeling. Finally we got back on our bikes for a quick spin up to the Atlantica hotel. We loaded our bikes into the bunk truck for security until they could be dismantled and boxed, and made our way up to our rooms. I found myself sitting in my room showered and alone at 3pm. Egbert was off cleaning RVs and helping with some tear-down. It was a very strange feeling. I blogged for a while, then was just starting to nod off when the alarm went off at 4:30pm. There was a reception and wind-up this evening. Many riders had friends and family join them. It was a loud and happy crowd. After supper each team and each of the two ride along crews were asked to make a presentation on their ride experience. The presentations were supposed to be 5-10 minutes each, but turned out to be much longer. I don’t think anyone complained. Everyone wanted to share. Some people injected great humour into their presentations. Others stayed more on the sober side but it was obvious no one was unaffected by the experience. There was a healthy mixture of laughter and tears. It is now July 27th and I have been struggling with how to end this blog. It seems like I should have something profound to say, but I don’t. I feel melancholy about leaving my new cycling family behind. It is always hard to say goodbye to such a geographically diverse group because the chance that we will ever get back together again is pretty slim. I have been giving a lot of thought as to whether I would do the Ride again. I am sure I will, though for practical reasons maybe not next year. I had so much fun I would have turned around and started back across the country this year if they would have let me. And our work is certainly not done. I would ride again for Philip, a seven-year-old with a 10-foot-long string of bravery beads; for Aurora, a 13-year-old whose story inspired me throughout my training; for Josh, who has just relearned walking and asked us to keep cycling until he can cycle with us; for Melodina, who lost her battle in January three weeks before her 18th birthday and her father James who bravely came to speak to us and thank us; for Chris, an MLA who came to us as a father who just lost his son and wants to know what he can do to make cancer go away. I would ride again for the approximately 1700 children who will be diagnosed with cancer before the next Sears National Kids Cancer Ride even begins. The 2009 Sears National Kids Cancer Ride is over, but the journey is just begun.

The Ballad of Team #1

As part of our wind-up celebration, each team was asked to create a presentation that summed up their experience on the 2009 Sears National Kids Cancer Ride.  On the way from Charlottetown, PEI to Lower Sackville, NS last night, Team #1 came up with the following poem as part of our presentation:

Each journey began long ago.
to cross our great land by bike.
One on a team,
a common dream,
a cure for kids cancer we’d like.

“Were you dropped on your head?”
“You want to bike how far?”
two-fifty K,
average per day.
“I can’t do that in a car!”

Seven long months of hard training,
oh would spring ever come?
Cadence and speed,
eat, drink! You need!
The seat became one with our bum.

And then of course the fundraising,
25 grand was a lot.
Though funds are tight,
the cause is right,
kids cancer just has to be fought

Finally June has arrived,
Vancouver bound and unite.
Jeff Rushton guides,
group practice rides,
June 12th a short sleepless night.

7:45 sharp on our bikes,
was our timing ever that specific?
Toast of champagne
No hint of rain
We dipped wheels in the Pacific.

The ride has officially begun,
34 National Riders embark.
A spastic crew,
a downtown zoo,
somehow we escape without mark.

The mountains fly by in a blur,
‘til BANG, BANG, we awake in dismay.
RV has a flat,
Al can’t fix that.
Who needs sleep? Today’s just three-o-five K!

Headwinds push back on the prairies,
where the deer and the antelope roam.
Thank you to Dene,
the man, the machine,
way past dark when he pulled us home.

We were gelling well as a team,
finally up to some speed.
Signal miscues,
chaos ensues.
Call 911, an ambulance we need.

Four riders down, four bikes to repair,
We forge on a quieter team.
Learn to relax,
staying on track,
Janna and Laurie okay, it would seem.

Ambassador kids are inspiring,
strength, courage, wisdom we borrow.
Smiles in with tears,
hope conquers fears,
never give up on dreams for tomorrow.

As a group our tan lines demark us,
long distance cyclists gone nuts.
Skin shorts built in,
grown as we spin,
from the spandex stretched over our butts.

Power Bars fuse with their wrappers,
food on the road is a chore.
Patience is thin,
to get them in,
but to ride on we must always eat more.

By day three our best friend is butt butter,
need more cream where the sun doesn’t shine.
Love in a jar,
helps us go far,
bet yours isn’t as sore as mine.

At times we rode with great speed,
but we may have been overambitious.
Ride 401,
must not be done,
toss bikes over fences and ditches.

Directions are a bit of a problem,
Wilma’s not always our friend.
Do a u-turn,
Linda’s tires burn,
but we made Halifax in the end.

No small thanks to our great volunteers,
driving, laundry, and hours take a toll.
Best support crew,
getting us through,
they are crucial to achieving our goal.

Special thanks to our team leader Michael,
for keeping all our ducks in a row.
Hugs and high fives,
he owned our lives,
And not once did stress fractures show.

It’s hard to believe it’s all over,
Seven months of our lives at an end.
Newly forged team,
continued dream,
as a family our message we’ll send.

Coast to Coast brought us together,
united we travelled the distance.
Across the lands,
It’s in your hands,
go forward and make a difference.

Moncton, NB to Charlottetown, PEI - day 11

It was absolutely pouring rain when we woke up in Moncton, NB this morning. Not exactly what cyclists look forward to, but it wasn’t cold. Sure beat my last rainy ride in Alberta when the temperature was only 4 degrees celcius. The Sears store put on a fabulous breakfast for us. We were inspired by the words of the local MLA who spoke to us about a son who recently lost his battle to cancer. Then, in a moment of levity, we had a couple of clowns to lead us out on our bikes. The rain had turned to light mist by the time we actually got underway and it reamained like that for the first part of our ride. I can’t say that it was bad though. The misty air added to the maritime atmosphere for me. The communities and rural areas that we rode through were very charming. We made our way to Cap Pele first, where we were very warmly welcomed at the Sears dealer location. They had a feast waiting for us, including hot oatmeal (a cyclist’s treat on a cool morning), hot chocolate, toast, bagels, fresh fruit and vegetables, and cookies. They presented each of us with an Acadian flag and straw hat (which looks a bit like a dude cowboy hat to me). From Cap Pele we struck out again for the Nova Scotia end of the Confederation Bridge. Our pace was not that great due to fatigue from the previous day’s headwind. We were also fighting a bit of a headwind for a good part of our winding route. Oddly enough, our route included a 3 or 4 kilometer stretch of packed sand road (a detour around some major construction on the regular highway. Some riders were apprehensive about riding their bikes off the pavement, but we were all able to navigate it without incident at a slower pace. Unfortunately, bicycles are not allowed to cross the Confederation Bridge, so we had to load the bikes on the RVs and support van and be shuttled across. It is a very impressive sight, and Tim Whitten pointed out that crossing in the RV was better then crossing in a car because you can see much better from the vantage point of the RV. This is the first year that the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride has visited PEI (and we are the only team to do so) and the reception was fabulous. There is quite a large Sears location in Charlottetown and many of the associates lined the route in front of the store to cheer us in as we arrived. There were also some members of the armed forces there with vehicles to show the public. Again we were treated to a small feast. It would have been wonderful to have had more time to cycle around the island, but unfortunately we were on a tight schedule so we had to load the bikes once again and head back across the bridge for our evening shuttle to Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. Lower Sackville is just outside of Halifax and it is the marshalling point for all three teams to meet for our final ride into Halifax. We arrived at our destination by 8:30pm. Team #3 had already arrived and were in the process of eating supper. The music was blaring and the beer and wine had been cracked open. (Tomorrow’s ride is only about 30km so everyone is a in celebratory mood.) Somehow, through showers, supper, catching up with Team #3 and Team #2 (when they arrived at 10:30pm) the process of dismantling the circus began. The semi rigs, RVs, and support vans were washed and cleaned inside and out. The cube vans were unloaded, sorted, and repacked for the trip back to Toronto. The last of the laundry (dirty and clean) was laid out in bins for everyone to claim what was theirs. The party was shut down at around 12:15am, or so I heard. Most of us had crashed before then.

Quebec City, PQ to St. Alexandre, PQ - day 10

Today we woke up in our bunk truck in front of the Laurier Mall in Quebec City.  It created a bit of consternation when we started waking up at 6:30 local time and found the mall still locked up.  It is one thing to have a bathroom break on the side of the highway in the middle of the night, but there isn’t much cover in a downtown mall parking lot in daylight!

Luckily, one of the mall security people saw us wandering around and took care of the situation.  For the record, the public washrooms at the Laurier mall are as lavish as any five star hotel facilities I’ve ever been in.

The Sears store in the mall fed us breakfast.  Normally we try to reach out to the local crowd at our stops but this morning was a bit of a Mexican stand-off as unfortunately none of the members of Team #1 speaks enough french to strike up a conversation.  The Sears employees were not very forth-coming either so we basically just sat and looked at each other awkwardly through most of breakfast.  Hopefully Team #2 was to make a better impression when they pull in there this evening.

We departed from the mall at about 8:40am and took a quick spin to the childrens hospital, where we were greeted by numerous staff and a wise young cancer patient named Marie.  Marie read a speech for us in french, with translation from Stephanie Spath from the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation.  Marie’s main focus was on the value of teamwork, a very pertinent concept for her as a cancer patient, and for us as cyclists.  It was moving to hear such mature words from a 12-year-old.  We presented her with a 2009 National Rider jersey that had been signed by every National Rider this year.  It looked great on her and we feel honoured to have her on our team.

Then we all took a big breath and struck off for St. Alexandre.  Did I mention the HEADWIND?  It was gross.  It was strong, gusty, and relentless.  It was even scary as we took a three lane bridge from downtown Quebec to the south side of the St. Lawrence River.  On the bridge the wind was a crosswind and because of the bridge structure it was very inconsistent.  I was having trouble keeping my wheels rolling in a straight line and on the ground and I am Just shy of 5’10”.  One of our teammates, Sharron Poole, is a petite lady and I still don’t know how she managed.

At times as we made our way to our second mall stop at 20km we were crawling along at less than 20kmph.  With 200+km to go, it was looking to be a very long day.

Fortunately, at our second mall stop we met Jerry.  Jerry is a friend of teammate Laurie Vanderhaeghe.  He lives in Quebec City and is quite an athlete.

Jerry is a very animated fellow and was a definite upgrade to our team as he joined us for about 60km to our lunch stop at Montmagny.  He took us on a scenic bicycle path that follows the river.  It was beautiful, with a view of downtown and the Chateau Frontenac on the opposite bank of the river.  He enlightened us with tidbits of local history and treated us to cheese curds at a fromagerie (cheesemaker) along the route.  He kept us entertained with his steady banter and kept threatening to break into bad jokes. 

I don’t think there was anyone who would disagree that Jerry brightened up the morning when we were all feeling a little depressed about the long haul ahead. It certainly didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings that he took a few turns pulling either.  Thanks so much Jerry, you were a wonderful host!  And thanks to Laurie too, for inviting him to join us today.  It is amazing the impact that one person’s energy can have on a group.  I think we were all flattered when he commented several times on what great shape we were in.  That means something coming from a man who has completed seven double ironman events!

After lunch we still had 110km to go, and the wind was still going strong.  Resentment having turned to resignation we ploughed through.  The wind subsided in about the last hour of our ride, and we finally reached our destination and a pizza dinner at around 7:30.  What a day!

Despite the wind, it was an enjoyable day of riding. If nothing else, all the headwinds I trained with this spring have taught me that there is no point in dwelling on the wind (not to be confused with complaining about the wind!) and I have gotten better at turning up my patience and just getting on with the ride. 

I kept having to remind myself that I was still in Canada.  The countryside, weather, and architecture was so reminiscent of the riding that Egbert and I have done in Europe.  Even the frequent dairy smells and the scent of hay mowing and silage making in progress brought back vivid memories of previous travels, especially in Holland.  I think the french signage also had me subconciously thinking of a foreign land.

Now we are once again in the RV.  Tonight we are on the way to Moncton, New Brunswick.  Our ETA is about 4:30am, which means we won’t get much sleep in the bunk truck since wake-up is at 6am.  Guess I better hurry up and get what sleep I can.

Tomorrow is our last full day of riding.  It is almost incomprehensible to me that the following day the most dedicated seven months of my life will be over.  It is going to be a huge adjustment, not to mention a great cause for reflection, appreciation, and celebration. 

Kingston, ON to Ottawa, ON - day 9

This is such a surreal time in my life.  Every morning we wake up in a different town, often in a different time zone.  We are treated like rock stars wherever we land: given food and beverages and thanked for what we are doing.  We make friends and share stories at every stop.  We laugh and we cry.  We give and receive standing ovations.  And we ride, and ride, and ride.  At the end of our days we are treated to another feast and then it’s shower and into the RVs to move to our next destination.  In the middle of the night we stumble to our bunks and the next morning we do the same thing in another town.

I haven’t had to worry about a meal, laundry, or money for forever it seems.  Every little thing I need is taken care of by someone else as soon as I mention it (except the chamois butter).  I thought the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride dominated my life when I was training.  It is my life now.

I remember one stop in Carlyle, SK when I was showing off the bunk truck to a group of peewee baseball players.  “We will be in Winnipeg tomorrow,” I said.  It struck me as funny because I remember as a kid when the Shrine circus would roll into town with their big trucks.  It all seemed so exotic and exciting.  Now we are the circus!

Today we woke up in Kingston.  My sister Suzanne and her children (nephew Liam, 5, and niece Kim, 2) were there to greet us when the circus arrived.  They charmed the entire team, especially our mechanic Al when they presented him with a cowboy hat that my dad sent out from Alberta.  They enjoyed checking out the bunk truck, and Liam thought Ben, the Sears mascot, was pretty cool.  Kim was gung ho too, until Ben turned to face her, then we couldn’t coax her anywhere near him.

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast then Suzanne loaded the kids up in the bike trailer and set out after us on the ride along.  Unfortunately, though the turn out for the ride along was terrific they were a pretty serious road riding bunch so Suzanne and the kids only stayed on for a couple of kilometers of the 10km route, though I did learn from Suzanne later that they finished the 10km, it just took an hour.  Good on you, sister!

From Kingston most of the ride along riders stayed with us to Gananoque, a distance of about 60km, though one intrepid soul, John, actually made it all the way to Ottawa.  Watch for him on next year’s National Rider list.

From Gananoque we rode to Brockville.  Well, okay, not exactly straight there.  We took a little accidental detour onto the 401, which for those of you not familiar with one of Canada’s busiest highways, would be roughly the equivalent of riding a bicycle onto Deerfoot Trail. 

I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw the high sound barrier walls closing in around us after the off ramp. The 25 foot shoulders and the immediate honking from passing motorists were other signs that we were where we shouldn’t be.

Thankfully the sound barrier ended after a couple of hundred meters and we were able to hop over a post and cable barrier and a page wire fence.  Across the ditch was the quiet country road we were supposed to be on.  The support vehicle had entered the 401 behind us but they zipped ahead and were able to meet us at the next exit.

At Brockville the looming clouds that had kept the temperature moderated finally started to lift and separate and it became considerably warmer.  No rain today. 

Brockville Sears treated us to a great lunch.  They had a great community event that was very child-oriented.  There was face painting, and even a fire truck for the kids to check out.

After Brockville, we continued our scenic and mostly flat day riding towards Merrickville.  That is a town that I would really love to visit again some day.  There were some ruins peaking up beside the highway and an interpretive centre sign that definitely piqued my interest.  Sadly, I’ve discovered that the Sears National Kids Cancer Ride is not a great way to see the country.  Our schedule is just way too hectic, but it certainly has inspired me to want to see more.  It is really just a teaser.

From Merrickville we headed to Manotick, racking up the kilometers.  We came across one small stretch of road under construction and after a brief debate most of us decided to try riding over it, with a few bikes being loaded on the support vehicle to be ferried over.  Ironically, despite potholes the size and depth of various kitchen pots and pans, the hard-packed gravel was a better riding surface than certain stretches of the Trans Canada highway east of Winnipeg.  We rode a little slower than usual, but I did look down at my speedometer once to note that I was traveling 25.5kmph.  Not bad.

Our day ended in Ottawa at another Sears store where Suzanne and the kids were again waiting.  Sears treated us to a delicious catered supper including salads, pasta, and a beef and potato stew.  Yummy!  There was even a strawberry (and rhubarb?) dessert.  I had to have two helpings of everything, but I caught Captain Al having a third helping of dessert, so I know I wasn’t the only hungry one.  It certainly was delicious.

The best part of that stop though was hearing a speech from a young lady who thanked us for riding.  She was a childhood cancer survivor, though she was so attractive and charming you would never guess that she had endured a sick day in her life.  She told us that at one point she had been told that she had a 5% chance of survival.  Wow!

From the Sears store we sped over to the University of Ottawa, where we had showers.  26 people in and out in about half an hour.  We are efficient.

Now we are on 5 hour RV ride on our way to la belle province, Quebec.  I am excited to visit french-speaking Canada again, despite a high level of anxiety about not being able to speak french as well as I should. 

The riding has been so beautiful here. The landscape is green and lush and the routes we are taking are very laid-back and rural.  I am anticipating more of the same tomorrow.  It is such a treat, especially to share it with my teammates. 

We are becoming such a circus family.  As much as we appreciate the community riders there is always a sense of relaxation and comfortable companionship when we say goodbye and ride on with just our group.  We are all in this together.