Journal for Ontario

June 7 - Well it rained all night but stopped before we packed up to leave - the tent is sopping wet. 20 km before Dryden, the road was under construction so we rode through mud and gravel, single file, slowing up the already slow traffic. We called Mike's relatives from Dryden and talked to Connie Maggrah to tell her we were almost there. Then we did a phone interview with Roxanne at the local radio station. We arrived in Wabigoon at about 3:30 at the home of Gordon and Ursula Maggrah and their daughter Linda. Sheila Engel was also there and they were very welcoming and warm as family always is. We had a great meal and set the tent up to dry while we were there. We left about 5:30 and biked til 8pm and camped at a picnic area 30 km west of Ignace. Sadly, again, there are no showers. Sadly, also, there was no-one here with a satelite dish and TV so we could watch the final game. Even with the delays today, we made 136 km in 6 hours of biking time.

June 8 - We arrived in Ignace to finally have some cell phone coverage and called our worried families. After loading up with water and food we put our heads down and rode. A productive uneventful day of 152 km in 5 hrs and 16 min of riding got us to the other side of Upsala. STILL no showers, however, we are camped by the side of a lake. If we are to sleep in the same tent again we have no choice so we jumped in the lake and wow, was it cold!! At least we are fresh again.

June 9 - We had another nice ride today arriving at Thunder Bay in good time. We are staying with Mike's family again at the home of Sharon and Al Niemi. They are only 2 kms from the highway so we'll have a good start in the morning. We rode 120 kms today without any mishaps. Starting tomorrow, we have alot of long days to put in as we are expected in Gravenhurst next Thursday which is still about 1500 km away. We can hardly wait to get there as we are in for some awesome R&R, but we'll tell you about that once we get there! Keep reading...........

June 10 - We have had a wonderful stay with Sharon and Al. Sharon made us a huge supper and made us breakfast too. She drove us around Thunder Bay being a tour guide and we had a great time. When we were getting ready to go in the morning she loaded us up with food and supplies then suprised us with a donation for $100.00. Thank you so much, Sharon and Al. We had an incredible day of riding today, our longest yet. We did 180 km in about 7 hours of riding time in the sunshine. We have been riding around Lake Superior and the only bad thing is the plaque of black flies that don't leave us alone if we're standing still. Thats probably why we got so far today. The terrain is interesting and there is some incredible scenery. There are alot more hills but nothing beats the Rockies. Among the 6 or 7 groups of folks we have met riding across Canada, we met some today that left Vancouver on May 5th and are riding to Quebec. We are in Pays Plat tonight, an Indian Reservation close to Rossport. There has been alot of support from the wildlife in Ontario as they must have been keeping up with the website. So far, 7 moose have waved us by. Mike's mom told us she got an email today from a Canadian from Winnipeg who read about us on the Winnepeg Sun online newspaper. She is in Helsinki, Finland and is sending a donation. We had no idea this would be so far reaching. Thanks for your thought and emails - keep 'em coming.

June 11 - Just a straight day of riding today. No problems, just beautiful scenery and a great ride. The hills are getting more and more challenging. Those black flies are quite problematic. It's okay while we are riding, but setting up camp and making supper is challenging. Our legs are covered with them in no time and the bug spray doesn't seem to deter them too much. We made 171 km today in 8 hours and 40 min of riding and are 30 km west of White River. We're in a campground - with showers - so all is well.

June 12 - Those #@!%$&^* black flies and mosquitos. We are not enjoying their company as much as they are enjoying ours. But we need to stay positive and try and find the bright side, so I guess that would be that they have encouraged us to keep moving! Mike broke a couple of spokes today which is not good news but we'll see if we can find parts in Sault Ste Marie tomorrow. We are in Lake Superior Provincial Park about 20 km past Wawa. We had incredible head and side winds today that sometimes made riding in a straight line difficult. We still managed to put in 163 km but it took 8 hours and 29 minutes. We have never slept so well. Thanks for all the email messages - we love hearing from everyone.

June 13 - Hi all - We had a great day of riding today. Agawa Bay is beautiful and definitely needs more time to explore. We hit our top speed of 75km/hr today - yes, the hills are steep. Mike's rear rim has the spokes going through so we will be making a stop in Saulte Ste Marie tomorrow to get that sorted out. Ryan and Erik's rim's are also looking like they should be new ones too. We are in the Blueberry Hill campground tonight 30 km west of Saulte Ste Marie and made 170 kms in 7.5 hours.

June 14 - Today was a long day. We arrived in Saulte Ste. Marie and found the bike shop. Neither Mike or they guy working had ever laced a rim before (put the spokes through) but not wanting to give up, they went ahead and did it anyway. Then the guys dad showed up - he owns the bike shop - shook his head, took it all apart and did it the right way. All in all we were there for 6 hours. They were very generous and didn't charge us nearly what they could have. While we were there, we managed to dry out our gear and get it all packed up again. It was great riding weather today, until we left the bike shop that is. We left Saulte Ste Marie through a torrential downpour and puddles that were a foot deep - honest! It's dry tonight though as we are setting up camp and making supper, but it's late as we tried to make up for lost time. We are in Blind River and despite all the delays, managed to ride 156.5 km in 6 hours of riding. The black flies are gone, but the skeeters linger on..........

June 15 - We arrived at our friend Mark's house mid afternoon. We met Mark at Kingston during the Cuts for Cancer fundraising campaign. Mark was a fourth year Queen's student and himself a cancer survivor. We stayed at his house, and enjoyed the hot tub and the real beds. His Grandmother cooked us a fantastic, amazing, homemade, real Italian supper. We've never had anything so incredible. We had lots of company over the evening - family and friends of Mark's, one who is currently battling cancer right now. Everyone was very generous with their comments and their donations. We were very moved by the whole gathering. Today we biked 170 km in 6.5 hrs.

June 16 - Hot day today with a strong head wind. Pretty good terrain though. We had one flat tire to deal with but it didn't hold us up for too long. We are at HorseShoe Lake campground tonight and started setting up in the rain. The owner saw us setting up and 'gave' us a cabin for the night - fully furnished, 2 bedrooms, satellite TV. Thank you so much to Horseshoe Lake Campgrounds - we are living large tonight. We put in a huge day of 180 kms in 8 hours of biking. We are only 40 kms from Gravenhurst and we will arrive tomorrow for a night of pampering and R & R - but more about that tomorrow - stay tuned.

June 17 - We arrived at Lake Miscoka at about 11:00 am. Ryan and Erik have been here before and could hardly wait to take Mike. Mike called home to tell his parents that he was just about to jump off a 47 foot rock cliff into the lake. He described his first jump as a terrifying nightmare when you are falling forever. After that we could not get enough and we cliff dived all afternoon. From there we went to the Taboo Village Resort and they checked us into a condo for the night. This place is awesome, it has three bedrooms with walk in closets, a jacuzzi in the main bedroom, full kitchen and dinning room. This place is overwhelming with its about a hundred condos, hotel, golf course,convention center and many restaurants, one which treated us to a fantastic supper. You have to check out the link on our home page. Back in the real world we biked only 75km today. Ryan's rim on his bike is just about hadder, we think that we can make it to Barrie tomorrow. Some of our friends came to see us so the party at our place tonite !

June 19 - Today is Saturday, and a little busier than the last two days. We went to Bike Land to get the two new rims for Ryan and Erik's bikes. Many thanks to Morgan at the shop for the discount and free labour. We spent most of the day going over our bikes and gear and fine tuning everything, The evening was phenomenal. Ryan and Erik's extended family came over and we went to the Beefeater Arms pub in Barrie. Tony and the folks that own the pub and organized this event are over-the-top incredible. There are so many people to thank, and we'll get them all on here eventually. There was a raffle for 2 Taboo resort merchandise packages and 1 golf package worth $500. This along with other donations raised $2300 tonight ! CKVR TV - The new VR - in Barrie, came at about 9:00 and did an interview at the pub. We went outside to as our names were on the marquee, and they also downloaded some pictures off the website. When the 11:00 news came on, we were able to see ourselves on the air which was pretty awesome. The tons of support has been so overwhelming. We really had no idea that this little trip of ours would affect so many people the way it has. We cannot give enough thanks to those who have supported us tonight and along the way. Those who have had the fight with cancer are the true heros.

June 20 - To date we have logged 4619 km. We are getting ready to go in to Toronto tomorrow. Sauvelm and Adam came from Kingston today to visit and we had a great time playing guitar and working on our bikes. While we were outside, we were approached by a photographer from the Toronto Sun. They run pictures of a Sunshine girl or Sunshine boy and they picked Sauvelm to be there Sunshine boy for this photo op. He had a great time being photographed and is looking forward to seeing it in the paper! The Barrie Examiner came for an interview and pictures of the Tour Boys and it will run early next week. We are leaving mid morning tomorrow for Toronto and heading for a hotel as we have a couple of events to be at early Tuesday morning. Ryan and Erik's dad, Brian, has organized most of this publicity and the awareness it has raised has been invaluable.

June 22 - We were up early as we had to be at the RBC Insurance building for some fundraising and media coverage. Unfortunately, due to the weather and early hour we didn't have the turnout we expected but did raise $200.00. We had an appointment to keep at St. Vincent de Pauls elementary school and for that information, here is a letter written to Mike's mom that says it all and then some - We were very overwhelmed with the response of the little people that go to school there and their caring and phenomenal teachers............

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Maggrah:
I finally had the privilege of meeting your son. He is a wonderful boy, you must be very proud of him. I feel like I have known him forever. The boys arrived at St. V's at 11:00 on Tuesday. The morning kindergartens were absolutely thrilled when I let the three bikers into my class with their bikes. The media didn't show up and the boys were very disappointed,
but I and two other teachers took them out to lunch at the Polish restaurant Cafe Polonez. When I told the owner what the boys were doing she gave them a free lunch and $20.00. It really won her over when I told her Erik and Ryan had polish blood. One of the teacher was Nancy Young, she has offered
the boys a nights stay in her other house in Cape Breton, she will be there for the whole summer. After lunch the boys returned to my class where they entertained my 12 afternoon kindergartens who absolutely loved them. Mike and Ryan helped them build a Lego city. At 3:00 they rode into the gym to talk to the 210 students. The kids loved them and asked many questions. Brian was there and took lots of pictures. My husband John also came and showed them the way back to our house but before that the boys had to sign autographs. We collected $600.00 in total.
When at our house the boys went for a swim in our pool and then sat down to a huge dinner of steaks and chicken, Barb and Brian ended up showing up for dinner as well. My daughter Vanessa and Nicholas were thrilled to see the boys again and to meet your son. Later that night Vanessa invited alot of her friends who are all finished first year like the boys, they partied till 1:00 a.m.. I went to bed at 12:00. The boys friend
Charlie ended coming over as well so everyone had a great time. The pool was 90 degrees.
This morning I left at 8:30, John was making the boys breakfast, but your son was still sleeping, luckily he said bye to me the night before. They were planning to leave around 9:30, but I don't know what ended up happening. That's all the news I have for you now. Once again Mike is a great kid! so are Erik and Ryan but I already knew that.
Sincerely yours, Ewa
Wiktorczyk (Ciocia Ewa)

June 23 - We left Ciocia Ewa and John's house this morning and headed out for some serious riding to make up for all the time off we've had - not that we didn't appreciate and need it, however. We met up with a fourth year Queen's University Photojournalism student that had contacted us previously and he rode with us for the day. He is doing an article on us and took some pictures and info to put his story together and will forward us a completed copy. We arrived at Ryan and Erik's grandparents house in Bowmanville/Newcastle after 100km and enjoyed a relaxing evening.

June 25 - Awesome riding weather today. Mike broke a spoke but we managed to fix it. Then Ryan broke a spoke and we couldn't get it out so we had to get to Ottawa to find a bike store. We were stopped on the highway by a gentleman who was a bike rider himself. He was very helpful by giving us directions into Ottawa bypassing highway 7. We took this awesome trail with incredible scenery for about 30 km. We got Ryan's spoke fixed and then went to the Country Inn Suites Hotel where we had a free room for the night thanks to a friend of Ryan and Erik's dad - Thank you, we really appreciate it as camping downtown Ottawa is frowned upon - especially during an election! We made 157 km today in 6 hrs and 20 mins of riding.

June 26 - After our bike repairs, we left through Ottawa to find the worst roads we have traveled yet. They were bumpy and rough going. We were stopped by a guy telling us they have just made a medical breakthrough in Cancer research to help patients undergoing treatment. He says there has been a nobel prize given out for this discovery and we were some of the first Canadians to hear about it. Sorry we don't have more details for you. We popped in to a grocery store for our evening vittles and it started to pour, so we had lunch in the store deli and napped at th tables for about an hour waiting for the rain to stop. Ryan broke another back spoke and we fixed it as best as we could on the road. We came across a bike shop in the middle of nowhere but the owner had closed already. We asked at a house not far from the store who said he'd be back in the morning so we stayed at the Cedar Shake campsite for the night. We are near Alfred, Ontario and biked 110 km today.