Day 2 NL

Hi, Day 2 is complete. The pic of Eric & I holding the sign is from the start point this am. It was at the beginnings of what is called the barons. What does that mean? The land is bare, well almost. Very short grass and a very low Juniper bush. The park sign pic, us by the van, and Eric & I are also from that area as well. I am not exactly sure where the pic of Eric is from.

If yesterday was the day of hills than today was the day of wind. The weather man was calling for a west wind, we were heading west, of up to 30 KM/Hr. Well they were right on the wind part. It was very strong and got stronger as the day progressed. Let me explain. If we want to go 25 KM/HR and the wind is against us 50 km/hr then we have to push as hard if we were going 50. When we got t othe tops of the hills the wind was even stronger.

At the end of 50 KM we had just completed a very large hill. It might even be called a mountain in some places. On the way up I had shifted down to #1. That is OK. We were out of the wind. 3/4 the way up the hill it levels out for a bit but we were not sheltered any more. The wind was so strong I could not shift to a higher gear. When we got to the top we decided we should consider driving to the end & cycling with the wind. As we drove the road changed directions and we discovered our time driving might be a wast of time. So we went back to St. Peter's. the top of the 2 KM long hill to be exact, and started back to where we came.

What a change. WE now had the wind helping us instead of hindering us. We traveled the next 40 KMin 1 1/2 hours. At one point I was going 55 KM/HR on a straight stretch with a small incline. We even had to break going down a hill because we would have been going too fast on a windy hill with not so smooth road. However, I did take the opportunity on a small but steep hill to set a new personal speed record of 77.1 KM/HR.

So, there are 2 sets of stats below because we changed directions. Had we not, we might still be there. ON the way home I checked the weather for one of the communities we went through and the west wind was 44 KM/HR with gusts of over 50.

Tomorrow is the last day of 80 KM. The cycling will be done but the donations are still needed! I could aslo use a sponsor to help with the expenses of holding Cycle for Campers.

Thank you for your prayers & support!
Gary

PS - Hi to my family at home!