I’d like to dedicate August first to my family in Peru. I posted a picture with my shirt from Peru while standing on the border of Canada (my family knows what I mean by this)

I thank my fellow co workers and company at Simplex Grinnell for supporting me and making this ride a successful trip. Also a special thanks to Inn Gear cycle and fitness for providing the new matching outfits we wore the last day of the trip and all the supplies and parts we needed for our bikes. This ride has changed my life forever and Ken and his family are a true meaning of Inspiring Hope in peoples lives.

New Pictures have been uploaded

August 12th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Brian's Posts . Author: Ken . Comments: No Comments

We are home! We drove 9 1/2 hours on Thursday and stopped Oneonta, NY for four hours of sleep in a KMart parking lot then got going again. By 5 am we were in Binghampton saying good bye to Brian as he headed south into PA and we continued west through NY. We were given the gift of cool afternoons both on Thursday and Friday and arrived home by 6 pm on Friday. When we pulled in some friends were dropping off groceries. They said that we weren’t supposed to be here yet and that the groceries were to be a surprise - thank you! We unloaded the RV and set up the trampoline. The kids are so happy to be home! Today, Saturday, at noon there is to be a welcome home to Cedarville down at the Main Street Station. Ken is out riding this morning. It is beautiful out. Thank you to all who sponsored this ride. Thank you to all who prayed for us all along the journey. Ken will do a wrap up note sometime soon and Brian will be sending pictures.

August 11th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: No Comments

ALL FINISHED!

We made it to the Atlantic Ocean! We are now on our way home!

More to come…once we get back to Ohio!

Pictures will be coming soon!

Read this article

August 9th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 6 Comments

It was predicted to be quite hot today in Albany, NY and we were less than 30 miles from our next state - Vermont, so the guys left early. Drew went to the shower and we headed out. Ten miles down the road I got a phone call. “Hi, this is Lake Lauderdale campground”. I said,”Uh oh, what did I leave?” He said, “your son”. I thought he was in Brian’s truck! I turned around and picked him up. He got some ice cream for a peace offering.

This ended up being a huge day! We were supposed to go to Brattleboro but wanted to go a little further so we went on to Dublin, NH. Ken ended up riding 106 miles! It was climb after climb, after climb. We have good friends at Mt. View Bible Church and Dublin Christian Academy so we stayed there. I had noticed a rattle in the wheels so as we checked it out we realized that two lug nuts had completely sheared off! Thankfully again, the people, tools, and supplies were all nearby.

They found a pair of flip flops, some weather stripping, and one bungee.

August 8th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 4 Comments

The guys pedaled out from the Crystal Grove Diamond Mine campground this morning. Instead of going back down that steep hill we chose to go out on route 29. It was a pretty ride and it went through pretty little towns. Once we got to route 22 we headed slightly south and went to Lake Lauderdale Campground. We were able to get caught up on laundry. They didn’t find anything spectacular. Just a nerf basketball, three NY license plates, and one bungee.

August 8th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 1 Comment

Since we are following a route intended for cyclists that we did not necessarily plot out ourselves, finding good churches has been more challenging than I anticipated. With two Baptist directories in my hand and the trusty atlas, I searched for over an hour for one either for the am or for the pm. This was after walking through the Walmart asking passers-by if they knew of a good church in the area for Sunday morning. They all said, “no”. It was so sad. We ended up doing RV church and it was so neat. The kids picked favorite songs, we listened to a sermon cd, and prayed for missionaries and churches. When we arrived in St. Johnsville, NY at the Crystal Grove campground (the only campground listed for miles near Little Falls, NY) I again asked the receptionist, “do you know of any good churches in the area?” She gave me a funny look and said, “no”. I pressed for more information. She unwillingly got out the phone book and scanned the pages and couldn’t come up with one to recommend. Amazing. The ride today was quite hilly compared to the last week or so. It was a four mile climb just to the campground. We’re in the Adirondacks now! They found a license plate and Brian had a nasty blowout on his back tire while going pretty fast down a hill. Thankfully the blowout didn’t result in a wreck!

August 5th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 1 Comment

Some good friends from Shickshinny, PA, with whom we had stayed during a deputation meeting, checked out the projected itinerary and saw that Syracuse, NY was only a couple of hours away and decided to take the weekend and try to meet up with us. We left the campground and headed for Syracuse. Our lunch stop was along Lake Onondaga. It was just perfect weather. There were alot of people out on their boats, there was something going on at the skateboard park, and something else had alot of bikers coming and going. This area is the home of the Salt Museum but it didn’t open until 1pm and we wanted to keep moving. I know that we will regret having missed it. We enjoyed our visit with Mike, Nicky, and Karleigh and headed for our spot in the Walmart campground. Ken and Brian caught up on some RV projects that needed done and we got a good night’s rest.

August 5th, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 3 Comments

Ken is still riding along Lake Ontario today. It is beautiful. Lots of apple and peach orchards. He had to ride through part of Rochester, NY and the construction and traffic was challenging. He got a flat tire right in the middle of it. Our ride took us to Wolcott, NY. It is a sweet little town. They found one bungee and Ken bought a huge bag of cucumbers at a road-side stand. He is quite content after eating almost all of them sliced and soaked in vinegar.

August 3rd, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 2 Comments

We chose a route that goes right along Lake Ontario. It is supposed to reach record high temperatures today and it is slightly cooler if you stay along the water. Ken says the riding is great. Our campground for tonight, at Hamlin Beach State Park, has a guarded beach so when we arrived that’s where we headed. They found some funky sunglasses, a scraping tool, and one of those sticky things that looks like a baseball has been thrown through a window. We ate tuna sandwiches for lunch at a different park and the ranger said that her 70 year old husband rides his bike to Ohio for the G.O.B.A. ride. That made for interesting conversation.

August 3rd, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: 1 Comment

Brantsford to Niagra Falls
Today our goal was getting back in the USA! Before we headed over the bridge I searched for a store that had a special candy bar that my dad would get for us in Canada, Big Turk. It is raspberry gel covered in chocolate. Yum. It is quite hot again. Ken rode all the way to the bridge and again helped us through customs. We are so thankful that everything went smoothly for both vehicles getting through. We camped right on Lake Ontario again tonight and the kids enjoyed skipping rocks in the water. Apparently New York doesn’t allow swimming without a guard so we just enjoyed looking at the water. But in the evening we headed back down to Niagara and saw the falls with the lights lit and watched the fireworks display over the gorge. They picked up a huge chrome semi smoke stack, we are attempting to send a picture of it strapped to the bicycle.

August 3rd, 2007
Categories: Uncategorized, Trip by Day . Author: Ken . Comments: No Comments