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 :)
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