WE MADE IT!!!!!!
Well - the weather won today and it rained hard ALL day - nothing to complain about though as we were pretty fortunate all week and the possibility of it actually snowing on us was very possible so a little rain didn't hurt. But just to let you all know - it never stopped all day and it was really cold!
We had an amazing breakfast put on by the Integris Credit Union and visited an elementary school before we headed out for our last leg of tour. The kids were once again FANTASTIC! and they asked lots of great questions and sat on our bikes. Hopefully the message of healthy living and getting plenty of exercise that we brought to all the schools we visited is an inspiration to all the kids we spoke to!
Even though the heavy rain is not the nicest to ride in and we were all feeling the sore and tired muscles this morning, we were in high spirits as we knew the finish line was near. We had one more minor single cyclist wipeout with no injuries which makes Tour total to 3 'small' wipeouts and no real 'crashes' which is excellent and worthy to note as good communication and dedication to training made that possible. We were so fortunate to have Quesnel traffic section help control traffic all the way to Williams Lake for us - in the inclement weather, it enabled us to ride in a group and leave lots of space between bikers for everyone's safety. And we weren't the only one that got completely soaked that day as one of the members was riding on the police motorcycle along side us all day!
We slogged along and tried to keep the smiles on our faces for the duration of the rainy day - lots of jokes, singing and poking going on but all in good fun! Another incredible roadside lunch at McLeese Lake that consisted of hot Timmy's coffee and soup which was as popular to hold in your hands as it was to eat! As we approached the crest of our last hill before descending into Williams Lake a couple of police vehicles showed up to escort us in - and than 2 more - and than 2 more - and than 1 or 2 more! What an impressive light show bringing us into town - oncoming motorists probably initial thought was a funeral procession for some very important person but once they saw us they were honking and cheering and waving out their windows! It sure gave us the 'get up and go' to do that last cold downhill stretch where the rain kinda felt like small hail on the face!
We pushed through our rest breaks and arrived in town ahead of schedule which allowed us to get out of the wet clothes and into something dry before attending the Welcome ceremony at Boitanio Park. We were 'piped in' by some local pipers and had a nice turnout from the public for the finale to our day and our week. The fun wasn't done as we had a dinner at TRU and another fabulous community turnout for dinner!
An amazing trip with a great group of people - nice to accomplish an 800+ km trip (I think it was 807.5!) and know that you 'gelled' really well as a group and even though most of us had never met before, we were there for a common goal and that brought us together to form a strong team - the goal to make life a little bit better for a child going through cancer.
Nice job guys and thanks for the incredible support from every community in the North that helped make this Tour a success!
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