13th
Day 7 – Thunder Run in Thunder Bay (Drew Nelson)
I’ll start this blog with…. Josh Nelson did the full ride today and ended Strong As A Horse. Mark could really feel him pushing up the hills. They had some of the riders come over to help up one of the hills and Josh said no, that he’d like to do it with just Mark…so they did. They dug in and did it. This is what they’ve trained for all year.
Today we left Atikokan in the sunshine with a slight wind, and shuttled forward to our starting point. The roads were smooth, with some nice rollers on them…not too bad. We picked up a rider along the way, his name is Harry and he was a national rider from last year. He led us through the hills and in to Thunder Bay.
Sears at the Inter City Mall has hosted our evening stop today. The riders pulled in to a wonderful reception where the BBQ’s were hot and the Sears Staff were even hotter. J thanks Sears for filling our bellies with warmth and love and great food.
The team today has jelled really well together. We had some new riders join in, and very quickly they started to form their lines and look like a well oiled machine, working together. Hand signals are seen for great communication and safety on the roads. No one wants to be at the back of the pack with a stick or large stone in the way and not know about it. (Great job working together guys)
I was taking a picture of a totem pole at our afternoon rest stop at a very remote gas station/store. When I turned to go back to the group, a very old rusted out pickup truck pulled in to the parking lot. Driving this vehicle was an older man with a very grey beard that hit him mid chest. It was quite matted up and his hair was the same. Probably hadn’t seen a shower for the better part of a week. He didn’t have any teeth, and his clothes hadn’t been washed for…well a very long time. He stopped right beside me with his hands in the air. I thought ok, here we go…he’s going to give us a hard time about taking over part of the parking lot….but was I wrong. He asked what was happening, so I told him about the team riding across Canada to raise money for kids cancer. He stared at me for a second, then dug in to his pocket and produced a donation for the cause. He smiled from ear to ear and said…this is for the kids, where do I put it. I gladly accepted the donation and told him to come on over and meet the rest of the team, which he did. Even the looks on the faces of some of the team members was that of “oh my” so I announced that this gentleman was donating…and the faces changed to smiles. Much like yesterday when I mentioned to give those kids that you see in the mall that have no hair, a quick smile…you can do that to anyone as they might just surprise you. I learned a lesson today that most of us have heard before. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.
Tomorrow Rina is back with me and will be blogging for the remainder of the journey. I did the first half so she’ll do the second. (might have to fight her for it as I’m actually having a good time doing this)
A shout out to my kids at home, Kyle and AJ. They’ve helped out in so many ways. Ways that a brother should never have to. Even though they might argue, I can see the love they have for each other, and that they are proud of what Josh is doing.. I miss and love you guys very much.
Thanks for taking the time to read. Drew
