Day 8 Kathyrn to Linden to Lousana

Adam, John, accompanied by Anne and Linda D, headed north from Kathyrn (not Kathryn) to Linden, and then to Lousana. Here a group of us caught up them as they approached Linden today, for what was a wonderful noon hour of hotdogs, Kim Thiessen's CD music, Cal's wonderful world of weird and wacky cycles (total fun), Kris Peters entertaining the kids, bookended on a town block by two firetrucks, the presence of two policemen, and 260 people... a really cool stop for Cycle for Life today.

Vulcan, AB

No riding today. It's good to have a bit of a rest and some time to get organized for our last four days of cycling, and of course the upcoming MCC Summerfest at Sherwood Park (check it out at www.mccreliefsale.com)

A long (short) day

Very happy to be riding with Jeff and Byron today and had a wonderful send off from the folks at Lethbridge Mennonite, but the 35 km/h head/crosswind made today feel like a very long 87 km. The rain missed us at least. No pictures, sorry but here's a video.

Day 7 Update

Hey, Byron and Adam... great day ... good work you guys. Thanks for biking. For AIDs. For MCC. For MCC Partners who work with prevention/education, with medication provision, and with orphan care. A woman donated 5,000 today, designated to Mengo Hospital in Uganda, where they built an entire wing, a few years ago, for working with Patients who have AIDS. And then Global Fund and others started to reduce their funding and so Mengo, and other major partners are pressed to be able to provide the kind of essential services that, for the past few years, they have been able to provide.

I am so glad we are doing this Cycle for Life... for AIDS, and for Peace work. With the 5,000 today, we have reached, in pledges and sponsorship totals, 229,000. Our goal had been 200,000. MCC has not been able to raise all the money we commit to the numerous partners in about 27 countries, and so, if we can go well past 200,000, we still may not reach the commitments that MCC has made. This is urgent; thanks John, Adam, Byron ... for cycling. People have been responding generously.

Photos from Day 7

Thank you so much to the sponsors of Cycle for Life:

Tekton Construction

Clarity Glass

Birchwood Furniture Galleries

Kesho Construction

Mennonite Mutual Insurance

Genetics International

P2 Energy Economics

Green Acres Landscaping

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Happy Trails Campground

Different Bikes

Great Western Bikes

Day 7 - 942km and counting!

Moving Pictures

A very pleasant day today. My dad has joined the ride as a support driver for the next two days assisted by John, who is resting his injured knee. My Uncle Byron, who was a rider in the Kenyan portion of Cycle For Life is riding for the next two days, so it was great to bike with him. We had good weather (27 degrees! and not too windy, which is a bit unusual for Lethbridge) and reasonably flat roads. We were planning to stop once we hit Vulcan (around 100 km) but ended up going right to Mossleigh for a total distance of 134 km. All in all a good day. I also finally got to see the big USS Enterprise in Vulcan, which excited my not-so-inner Star Trek nerd.

Tomorrow the forecast is for a 35 kph cross wind which could be not so fun. As I'm writing this John is watching a recap of the Tour de France, and the speeds, efforts and fitness of those riders makes a small crosswind seem pretty trivial.

John tried his hand at doing some video while in the car- you will hopefully see the fruits of his labour in this post, and in a couple more posts over the next couple days.