Monday morning came early this morning as we moved out of beds with sheets for the last time for two months loaded the gear truck at the university of Washington for the first time and cycled the 24 kilometers out to the beach where we were to begin the adventure. It was a blue sky day but it’s beauty was overshadowed by the big smiles on the faces of the 144 cyclists to dip their tyres this morning. I would prove that to you but I’m using a computer that won’t read my memory stick and download the pictures or video. I’ll probably shuffle computers tomorrow or the next day and remedy the situation. You’ll just have to be patient.

We lined up on the beach at 9 am following breakfast put on by the local CRC churches and began the tour with the Lord’s prayer. Our end of the line wrapped things up in time to hear the other end of the line get to the “trespasses” part so we had a good laugh. The tyres were dipped in the salt water and we headed off for Jersey city.

Riding with the sweep duties (following up at the tail end of the group) meant that the pace today was on the slower end of the spectrum. That’s going to be an approximately bi-weekly occurrence as those duties roll through a cycle over all the riders. I did enjoy a couple rocketing downhills as well as discussions en-route. Upon arrival at camp there seemed to be a greater sense of calm that there was this morning. With one day behind us the daunting aspects of riding are greatly diminished. About 30 people headed down to the river at then end of the day and went for a swim, as you might guess it was really really cold and standing on the shore telling people to get over it and jump in by far took more time than the swimming itself. The non-cycling aspects have been great thus far the range of people here is fantastic and I love it.

I’ve heard that the live broadcast was unsuccessful this morning sorry if I baited you with the prospect that didn’t live up to the promise. The communications vehicle (well the people in it I guess…) suggested that they’ll compile some video of the event and post it to the internet soon. I’ll give the link when I hear about it.

Who knows when the next time the internet works here is… hit and miss unfortunately… I’ll let you know what a typical day looks like once I know what a typial day is actually like, our first one is tomorrow.

I arrived safely in Seattle on Saturday afternoon after a bit of re-routing. Everything turned out great and I got to pay a bonus visit to Vancouver as a result, all my bags are here and my bike which was taking a ride on top of a fellow cyclist’s car has arrived in working order. I’m ready to get riding!

Meeting cyclists has been the project of the last couple days. I think I’ve met close to 100 of the ~150 that are here and think my retention rate is about 50% which is great. 150 people, it looks way bigger in real life than it does on paper. The contingent of tall blonde dutch-herrtiage males is hilarious. We had a worship service this morning, apparently the tradition of claiming the pews in the back of the auditorium first isn’t unique to River Park Church.

A couple things to remember in prayer right now:

• There are still bikes missing in transit, pray that the airlines and couriers can sort out the details before tomorrow morning!
• It’s hot, it’s a common source of discussion and even though it’s only going to get hotter as we enter the desert towards the end of the week pray that cyclists deal well with it.
• Pray for unity, the first few days of meeting and greeting and forming friendships is really going to form the community for the next nine weeks. Thus far it’s been great and diverse interaction between demographics, countries etc etc.

That’s it for now, the first celebration service is tonight and we’re dipping tyres in the pacific tomorrow at 9am PST. If you’re interested there is a rumour that this will be broadcast online (live). I assume you’ll be able to find the link from the official website. I appreciate the comments and emails… keep them up it’s great to know there is a fan base out there!

The tour organizers will be putting out a weekly newsletter. I’ll be posting links to those as they come in my direction this summer. Here is the first one.

I packaged my bike up in some press-n-seal cling film on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning it was loaded atop a car and left Calgary bound for Seattle with Kathryn Matzigkeit another of the SeatoSea cyclists from Calgary Alberta (representing Emmanuel CRC).

That means I’m only riding my fixed gear for the next days as I do a bit of run-around and get everything ready to leave town. The next you’ll hear from me will probably be from somewhere in Washington State this weekend or early next week.

Oh, and in other news, I was the highlight of a recent photoshoot with a local pro-photographer. Check it out!

I headed out for the final training ride prior to SeatoSea departure on Monday. I picked a route that I had planned on cycling all spring long but never got around to actually doing until the last possible chance. It’s not like that really tied things up though, I still have a list of other rides I would have liked to do prior to leaving but they’ll have to wait for another summer. I headed out south of Bragg Creek and took the “back-entrance” to the Millarville area and then returned north back to bragg creek via the “front-entrance” and home. The route is approximately Like This

It was rolling hills but not much elevation was really gained. It also rained on and off but I never really got wet. It was windy but I never had a bad head wind for a long stretch. It was on the longer end of rides this year (152 kms) and I managed without trouble. I arrived back at home quite pleased with the ride and ready to package up my bike to be shipped off.

Video Log #8

Followed approximately 2 hours later by Video Log #9

I surpassed the $10000 mark in fundraising today. It’s been more than a year since I started considering joining up with this crazy bike ride and it’s been more than 11 months since I really caught hold of what a crazy idea it was to go out and seek support for something I was going to try and do to the tune of $10k.

Wrapping my head around the idea of that sum took a solid 2 months, I kept thinking I need to find 20 crazy people who each have $500 or I need to find 200 people who each have $50 and convince them that this bike ride is a worthy cause for them to jump onboard with. Well, I wasn’t about to make either situation happen, neither was really feasible. My mindset shifted early in the fall of 2007, I was going to get as many people to understand the reason that this was happening as I possibly could. I was going to make sure I wouldn’t close the doors on any demographic, not the ones who could cut a $20 cheque and most certainly not the ones who could cut a $1000 cheque. It was then out of my hands how things tallied up and I’d have to keep talking, keep checking my email,keep smiling and keep trusting that this ludicrous idea was going to turn out for the good.

Well, there have certainly been more than 45 conversations had about SeatoSea over the course of the past year. There have definitely been more than 450 conversations, easily triple or quadruple that… but to date there have been 45 individuals who have decided to get on board and take a stand against the perpetuating cycles of poverty in our world. Each donation counts, while my own $10000 target isn’t really a measure of the kind of commitment it takes to alter the patterns we see around us the means by which I got there does give insight into the solution. I sorted the donations from large to small and added them up, click on the thumbnail to see what that looks like.

While 6 chunks of money got me half way, it was also really due to many of the smaller donations that things didn’t stop halfway. The smaller bits add up and do make the difference. When considering the magnitude of the challenges of poverty out there, some really sweeping political or economic reforms can make a huge difference. The “Sea-to-Sea Bike-Tour” sized contributions towards changing the world also make a difference, and it’s also the small steps that we make in our own lives, in our cities and communities that make a difference.

While the end of cycling preparation occurs at some point this week for me and I begin biking the physical aspect of this challenge takes a bit of a turn. The optional aspect if riding my bike (how far, in what weather etc. etc.) shifts to a bit more of an exam. I don’t dictate very many options anymore, and that’s intimidating, I’m waking up a riding a bike regardless of whether or not my body thinks that is a first choice for the morning. The shift from choice to not-choice isn’t mirrored in the other “world” of the trip. Throwing my weight into the fundraising aspect of the ride for the past year has been a non-option. Now as things get underway on the bike the effort level as it relates to the purpose of the bike ride is in some sense more optional.

As part of the commissioning at River Park Church this morning Pastor Mike requested me to declare my intent … “to trust God to protect and use you” … and my response was positive. The tour’s purpose includes raising awareness across the nation of poverty related issues alongside the fundraising. Making those conversations happen in highway rest-stops, coffee shops, campgrounds, community centers and probably more than one ice cream shop is just as crucial now as the push to $10000 has been for the past 11 months.

So, when I don’t particularly feel like getting on a bike on any particular morning I guess I just need to remind myself that I do still have an option and a choice for the day. I’m biking whether I like it or not, but I can each day choose to make the positive action towards awareness and change.

Sea to Sea cyclists gave a presentation at Synod about the bike tour this summer. If you’d like to watch it (it’s really encouraging!) here’s how:

• Go to: www.crcna.org/pages/synod_webcast.cfm
• Find Thursday Session #2
• Scroll ahead to minute 22:15

If you’re just going to read here and not watch, then don’t miss this quote from Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson. He’s the “Secretary of something” for the Reformed Church in America (RCA) which split with the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in the 1850s. (The 150th anniversary we’re celebrating oddly enough) Anyhow, as the RCA is partnering with the CRC in this summer’s SeatoSea Bike tour, the RCA secretary got to speak at the CRC Synod. Coming together on common ground to do something exciting together is fantastic. As some 22 year old who couldn’t really even describe the reasons the RCA/CRC split occurred back 150 years ago it seems right that as the anniversary we’re celebrating was born out of negative relationship that we do get to celebrate it with a positive one. So… that quote I was going to get to: “There’s an African proverb that goes, ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ I believe that’s true for cyclists, and I believe that’s true for denominations.” Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson

There is probably more than one person who will read this that doesn’t exactly know what Synod is and fair enough, why should you, my description that follows is pretty lousy itself and I’m a member! Synod is the most geographically broad and therefore the uppermost level of governance for the church. Synod so far as I understand the word is a hybrid of the words conference and assembly. I mean by that, it’s both an event and the group of people who are there. Delegates from all over the place “go to synod”, hence conference. Also though, “synod says stuff” after discussion on different matters of church policy and that kind of stuff, hence the assembly part of the word. It happens every year.

Four locations along the tour route have been designated to receive mail for the cyclists and support crew on tour.
Please note the date by which packages must be received in order for on time delivery; send your mail early (there is no guarantee that packages will be forwarded to another location further down the route).

1. Boise, Idaho
   
   Tour arrives Saturday, July 12
   
   Mail to: Joshua Krabbe / Sea to Sea Bike Tour
   
   Valley Life Community Church
   
   6325 N. Locust Grove Rd.
   
   Meridian, ID 83646
2. Denver, Colorado
   
   Tour arrives Saturday, July 26
   
   Mail to: Joshua Krabbe / Sea to Sea Bike Tour
   
   Third Christian Reformed Church
   
   2400 S. Ash St.
   
   Denver, CO 80222
3. Madison, Wisconsin
   
   Tour arrives Saturday, August 9
   
   Mail to: Joshua Krabbe / Sea to Sea Bike Tour
   
   Crossroads Church
   
   3815 S. Dutch Mill Road
   
   Madison, WI 53718
4. St. Catharines, Ontario
   
   Tour arrives Saturday, August 23
   
   (note: mail must arrive by Fri., Aug. 22, as there is no Saturday mail delivery)
   
   Mail to: Joshua Krabbe / Sea to Sea Bike Tour
   
   c/o 4 Nickerson Ave.
   
   St. Catharines, ON L2N 3M1

The weather around here is amazing! Sunny skies, not terribly windy, plenty warm but not hot enough to worry about heatstroke. It is a good week to be making final preparations for the bike trip, a couple trips out to Cochrane to test out the legs and lungs on the big hill… etc etc.

Unfortunately I’ve been parked and my bike has been racked for the whole extent of the beautiful weather thus far due to a little wound on my foot

I was out go-karting with friends at Dave’s bachelor party on the weekend and had a little run-in with a big fat pile of tyres. A little love-tap from behind sent me sideways into the edge of the track and when the go-kart stopped I didn’t and my foot from the gas pedal swung over and connected with a protruding bolt on the steering column. It’s not terribly deep and really it’s mostly just skin that’s missing, but I am once again learning patience because I can’t have the wound re-splitting open by getting on a bike too quickly.

Those wheels are supposed to arrive before the end of the day so I doubt I’ll be able to stay inside tomorrow, they’ll need a little trial run for sure!

In two weeks I’ll be heading off to bed in Seattle Washington knowing that the very next morning I’m going to get on a bike for the first day of the cross continental adventure. I was out at a campfire celebrating the final week of the bachelorhood of my friend Dave late on Friday night (early Saturday morning really) and the bike ride was a topic of conversation for a bit, as it always seems to be. That’s when it really dawned on me that this whole deal is coming up really really quick. I had been busy working at Pioneer Ranch Camp teaching outdoor ed and not paying a whole lot of attention to the calendar for the past two weeks. What was very recently a whole month away is now close enough to start counting sleeps.

The question I think I’ve answered more times than any other is “how’s the training going?”. The answer I’ve been giving comes in two parts. First: I have no idea I’ve never done this before, and secondly: I think I’ve been ready since the May-Long weekend. I am quite sure that I’m ready to tackle the summer but I’m also grateful that the first weeks are a bit tamer in terms of daily mileage than the average for the summer, I anticipate easing into it rather than jumping right in.

The $10000 goal is also getting nearer on almost a daily basis. I surpassed the $8000 mark today, and the final stretch even though it is a serious portion seems hopeful. Thank you so much to all of you who have helped to get this far. If you’re planning on making a donation but haven’t yet this week would be a fantastic time to do so!