ONE WEEK!

Can you believe it! After waiting well over a year for this day to come it is nearly here.
Only ONE MORE WEEK till we are beginning the ride of our lives! Probably by now we have already dipped our back tire in at Golden Garden Beach in Seattle and our now on our way down the road! Having already started meeting new people and beginning the journey of getting to know eachother!
I am soooo excited and can not wait!!
Please though in this last week, keep everyone in your prayers. I don't know about others but besides my huge excitement there are definant nerves beginning to arise.
Well, I am off tomorrow for Vancouver. Leaving from Toronto at noon! Crazy....it's all coming so fast now!
Thanks for all your love and support over the last number of months and I look forward to hearing from you all along the way.
Love
Stephanie :)

Coast to Coast

Well I will admit, I did not expect to end up in a paper this close to the start of the tour. It was kind of cool how it all happened actually. A women from my Pilates class works for United Way in Woodstock and they had a big photo shoot the week previous. Somehow she got on the topic of my summer and of Sea to Sea. The photography she was talking too was really interested in doing an interview with me and asked her to tell me to get in touch with him (as she didn't have info on how to connect with me).

So I was off to any other Pilates class this past Tuesday (or so I think) and Kelsey tells me her story. So as soon as I got back to work I gave the photographer from the Sentinel Review (Woodstock's daily, but small newspaper). We set up a time for the following day and that's pretty much how it went. I ended up using my old mtn bike helmet and my coworkers commuter bike for the picture.

The story ended up in Friday's paper and to my surprise ended up on the front page with a gigantic picture of me! Yikes, lol. I was expecting a small article with an equally small gray scale pic on the inside somewhere. lol.

Anyhow I have attached the text from the article for you to read (the only disappointment was he forgot to add the website so people could check it for more info, but incase they call my office - as it did mention where I worked - they can pass on all the info).

Coast to coast
Posted By Elliot Ferguson, Staff Photographer

On June 30, Stephanie Webb will put the rear wheel of her bicycle in the Pacific Ocean.
If all goes to plan, nine weeks later she will dip the front wheel in the Atlantic.
Webb, 26, is gearing up to be one of close to 220 cyclists taking part in a 6,200-kilometre ride across North America to fight global poverty. It's a cause Webb said she has always wanted to become involved in.
"You don't always know how you can make an impact," said Webb, who works as a graphic designer at Oxford Media Group.
"When I heard about this, combined with biking, I thought (it was) perfect."
The Sea to Sea tour is organized by the Christian Reformed Church. It raises money to help fund programs that fight global poverty and help communities in developing countries.
Webb first heard about the ride in 2005, when it crossed Canada. She regretted not taking part in that ride, and when she heard about this year's tour she was among the first to sign up.
Each rider has a fundraising goal of $10,000, and Webb is close to $2,000 past that amount.
Webb has competed in mountain biking for about five years and started riding on the road seriously two years ago.
She'll need the training those years have provided.
This year's tour includes 54 days of riding, including six "century" days, where riders will cover more than 100 miles (160 km).
"It can be somewhat overwhelming when you think about it, but you'll get there," she said.
The Sea to Sea tour is scheduled to roll through Woodstock Aug. 22, during the London to Hamilton stage.

An Old Forgotten Friend

Well with my road bike now in Grand Rapids waiting to be taken tomorrow on the gear truck to Seattle, I decided to grab my mountain bike from my parents garage where "Sugar" (it's a Gary Fisher Sugar 29er) has waited 8 months for me to remember her.

I couldn't believe it had been that long but it was obvious when I hoped on for a ride monday night and everything felt so wrong. I felt like I was so compact on this bike that my elbows were by my side, that my back felt nearly straight up in the air and I felt like I was 2 miles of the ground!

I couldn't believe how the bike that I had been riding for, I think 3 or 4 years was completely unfamiliar too me. I have to admit I was somewhat devestated. I wondered how things would go after the summer as I had it in mind to sign up for the Squeezer Bike Race again this year (figured with my summer trainging ;) I might have a chance at first place this year) but now I wondered how well that might go. I guess though I do have a month before the race after I come home to get use to riding on my mtn bike and riding through the trails.

Anyhow so I decided rather than riding all road I would follow along the grand river trails, since I never do them on my road bike as there is too much gravel.

It was a really nice ride (though the bugs were out). I headed towards Paris and came out at Oakpark Road and was going to keep going when I saw the big grey clouds. I stopped for a minute to see which way they were actually going and realized they were heading right for my area so I decided to turn around just incase.

I was about 16km into my ride when all of a sudden BAM, my tube blew! Absolute dread filled me as I had no tools or a tube for that matter on me to fix a flat, seeing as all my tools were taped to the side of my bike box in Grand Rapids :P I had taken my cell phone along and took it out to try and call a friend...of course to no avail as I was down low in a valley. I started walking and everynow and then held up my cell to see if I had service yet...that's when the rain started, lol. Found a tree to tuck myself under and was surprised to find I sort of had service in this area, phew. I got a hold of my friend Amanda and asked if she could come pick me up...unfortunatly, the instructions to find me were not the easiest as I had to try calling her about 3 times as I kept loosing my signal.

Thankfully a very nice couple out walking their dog offered to give me a lift to a main road and the use of their cellphone that seemed to work much better than mine so I could make sure Amanda new exactly where to meet me. I found out later that Amanda had been called by another friend a half hour before to go out but thankfully God's plan was for Amanda to be home for when my call came in :) (Thanks girlie)

So, anyhow so much for trying to get on the bike some more this week. Tuesday night the weather was bad and just went to the gym instead and the rest of the week is too busy with getting things together so I guess that's about it for my training now.

Can't believe that this friday is my last day of work and in less then a week now I'll be visiting with my friend Julia in Vancouver!

The countdown is really on now...only 12 more days till we start to ride!!!! I'm getting sooo excited for it but am also starting to get a wee bit nervous with anticipation. Definitely ready to get going :) Soon.... Yeahhhh!

Packing it up

My bike that is :(

After talking with Helena last Friday, I decided to send my bike along with my pastor to Synod in Grand Rapids to get it on the Gear Truck that will be leaving next week for Seattle. This way I won't have to worry about my bike on the other end once I am in Vancouver visiting my friend Julia and family just before the tour. It's been a bit of a stressful few days and though I am sad that I won't have my bike to ride over the next 2 weeks, I am glad to have it all taken care of now.

Here are a few pictures of Mari and Dave and I packing up my bike. (A big THANKS send out to you guys again!)

Putting the "Peddle" IN the Metal :)

It's been such a busy week this week! I'm packing up my bike tonight (with the help of my wonderful friends Mari and Dave again - what would I do without them I don't know) and with that I have been trying to cram the rides in for the past 4 days.

Went out Saturday morning about 8:45am. Trying to beat some of the humidity heat that would boil down on us later in the afternoon. I had already stopped once at my usual place for a warm up stretch and was about 22km into my ride. I was going to pull over again for another quick stretch when all of a sudden these 4 guys came flying by. Something told me to hop onto their draft and ride with them for a bit. Well would you believe that one of the guys ended up being Mark DeVries from Sea to Sea 2005!! That was really cool. I couldn't help but think here I was about to stop again and all of a sudden found myself riding at about 32 km/hr! It was nice getting to ride with them for a bit and to chat it up with Mark. They also really encouraged me and I was quite impressed with myself that I was able to stay side by side with them even on the steeper hills. Though I'll admit I am thankful that I only did about 10-15km with them (I couldn't have handled that speed the whole ride that's for sure) but it was definitely a nice break to ride with a group again.

We hit Hwy 52 and they continued on into Ancaster/Hamilton where they had come from and I turned around to continue my route and head back towards Brantford.

At about 50km I thought I would stop in at my friends house...sadly they were not there (also sad cause I really needed to use their washroom, lol). I decided that I would slow my pace down and ride into downtown Brantford as there was suppose to be a street festival going on and as well I thought I would stop by the "Why Not City Missions" Centre where I volunteer at. They usually have women's breakfast and worship sat mornings. It was so nice to see a few familiar faces that I hadn't seen in awhile (and I also apparently planned it right as they still were eating so I filled up on food too :).

All in all it was a great ride. I rode about 6okm (nearly double my longest ride to date before). In total I rode for about 2 1/2 hours but was gone for 3 1/2 hours (due to my long visit at "Why Not").

That evening my friend Paula was having the first official summer patio party but to my surprise they ended up combining it with a surprise goodbye party for me. I was so blown away. OH and this is where the title comes in. They were trying to decide what to put on my cake, didn't think "Go Steph Go" was enough or "It's okay to Fail" and "Don't Die" (my loving friends :) ) were a little harsh, so they decided on "Put the Pedal to the Metal" however the lady who wrote up the cake kind of had some issues, lol, and wrote "Put the Peddle IN the Metal". Made for a great story. They also got me a big bouquet of flower. So sweet. Thanks guys. Sure going to miss you over the summer.

On Sunday, Hilena, Nick and I got together for another later afternoon ride, starting in bright sunny super hot weather (32 degrees feeling like 40) and ended in a great big storm! We rode around Ancaster and then down the escarpment into Dundas to the Buskerfestival. However, we were about an hour late :P oops. We stopped in at Freewheel Cycle for a bit to arrange our bike box pickups later in the week and the first Thunderstorm came through. Good timing. We then stopped at Thirsty Cactus for a bit as we were starving and storm #2 came through! Wow great timing again! We rode back up Wilson Street up the escarpment and then decided we had better head home as it was starting to get late out and we could see another stormy cloud coming in. It wasn't long before there was lightening all around us.

We got back to my parents house like 2 min before the big drops of rain came. Nick decided he could make it home down the escarpment and took off. Well all of a sudden a major tidal wave of rain hit and Hilena and I ran for my parents garage. It kept getting worse and we hoped Nick would turn around and come back. I ran out into the rain to see if I could still see him and yell for him to come back but there he was coming around the corner (phew). He came riding up the driveway soaked. He said all of a sudden he couldn't see anything, not even a truck that turned right in front of him! It was crazy. Though we were laughing so hard standing in the garage watching the storm that came in in a matter of seconds, couldn't believe how soaked we got in a matter of seconds. My mom came to the door with towels for all of us :) The storm lasted maybe 30-40min. It was great to watch though...from inside :)

God sure was watching out for us that day that's for sure! It's funny I've had a few people comment just over the last few days what do you do if you run into a lightening storm and I said, "Pray and trust that God will get us through safe and sound!" He sure did that day!

Also managed to get out for 2 more rides on Monday and Tuesday evening. In total over the 4 days I rode about 170km. Not too bad :)

Flying High!

What a great day!
It first started with my mom calling me at work to tell me that from the bunch of letters I sent a few weeks ago to various companies I had recieved 3 RESPONSES all today! and along with them amazing support and contribution to the cause to fight poverty. In total from those 3 letters there were $800 in donations! Absolutely amazing! Praise God! Mom said when whe opened the mail all she saw at first was junkmail and she just sent a quick prayer up asking for something positive and low and behold were those 3 letters tucked in with it! So cool.

After work, I grabbed my bike and headed out for another ride. Missed riding last night due to weather but hit the gym instead. Today the weather was still blah, very foggy, misty, but warm at least so out I went anyhow. Thankfully the wind was blowing in the right direction so I could do my favourite route the right way with hitting the strong winds on my way out and having them at my back on the way home. Even though it was a slow ride out it still felt great and when I turned around I was flying! Riding and my spirit! It just felt so right and so great and I'm just so thankful that I was able to have that experience again. Thank you Lord for watching over me and guiding me through. Only through you.

I can also start to tell that my strength is slowly starting to come back. Yeah :) I was in such good spirits despite the gloomy weather overhead that when I got home and was doing my stretches listening to my IPod, I was also doing a little boogying outside! lol I'm sure I might have made a few neighbours smile, lol. Ah well, it's all good.

What a great day :)

Friends vs. IPods

So Hilena and I got to go riding Sunday afternoon and it was sooo great!

We rode 32 km in an hour and 20 min (with about 15 minutes of stretching throughout for me, though the one time was way longer because we got to gabbing :) ).

And that's where the title comes in. You may have noticed in the picture of me in the previous blog that I have headphones on (don't worry I keep my music soft enough that I can hear a beat but also hear the sounds around me). I didn't get the IPod till last September and I do have to admit it really does make a lonely ride much more enjoyable and gives me more power in my ride.

BUT I will still take riding with people over my IPod any day. Hilena and I had so much fun and she was so considerate of my need to stop for stretching. I look forward to getting to ride more together during this summer...we realized we only have one more weekend before she leaves for Vancouver and then I leave the following week for Vancouver first too.

She was telling me how she was sitting in church yesterday morning and all of a sudden it hit her that in 2 weeks at that time she would be sitting on a plan and then I realized that I'd be gone in 23 more days as well!! It is just coming sooo fast now. I can't begin to describe how exciting I am starting to get...but I still feel I have a few things to take care of before I am ready...including moving back home! Thank goodness for a great mom who spent the day in my house packing for me :) I'm so spoiled :)

Got out for another quick ride today as well. I increased my km amount just a bit and did 22km today in an hour. Just another nice leisurely ride. I realized I had accidently forgotten my inserts for my shoes but it was okay. Perfect weather out. Sunny warm 23 degrees :) Love it! Hoping to get out everday but thursday this week so hopefully the weather cooperates. We had some amazing lightening (and thunder) storms this past weekend. Drove home through one. Had to remind myself to keep an eye on the road instead of the sky :P God sure knows how to do fireworks right!