Talking with the guys who've done it

Or.... the "Four old goats" learn from the two young bucks

Almost two months from today, we dip our rear tires in the Pacific Ocean and start to ride!  Can you help us raise $50,000 for one of the three charities that we are riding for?  (See the right-hand panel of our Blog).  Right now, it seems like an impossible target, but with your help, we can help others to "Turn it around".  We start on May 24th in White Rock, BC and need to finish 30 days later in Kitchener, Ontario.


This past weekend, the "Turn it Around Tour" team met with two of the "Epic Riders" who raised funds for a great charity last year (Ratanak).  They rode across Canada covering the 10 provinces.  Ben Looby and Evan Redka told us the good, bad, and ugly of their ride.  They answered all our questions... and then some.  (I guess you could say that they took us to school.)  They brought some of the challenges of the ride into better focus for us...

- Advice on "how to get along" (more about this later)
- The most difficult portion of their ride (from Hope, BC to Merritt, BC)
- Eat a good breakfast, lots of snacks (grapes, granola bars...), don't get dehydrated, and,
- Take the time to enjoy the beauty of what you will see.

I can see how the last one is going to be a challenge for us... well for me anyway.

I am task-oriented...  I like to get from "A" to "B" as quickly as possible...  Smell the roses?  See the sights?  Take time to talk to people?  No!  That takes time and it's not getting us any closer to our destination.  We need to average 150 kms per day if we are going to be back to Kitchener for June 22nd!

And that brings us back to the first challenge - how are we, the 4 old goats, going to get along?  I don't know what your visual image is of an "old goat", but does stubborn, set in their ways, bull-headed cross your mind?  And then we've got 4 of them...

We are all different.  We've all had 60 years (plus) to get set in our ways.  (We like to think that we've learned what we've learned to act the way we act, to survive - yes and maybe even thrive.).  We all have a little different outlook on this trip.  What is our destination, anyway?  Why are we really doing this trip?  Will our answer to these questions be any different 20 days into our tour?  This is where "the young bucks" had some good advice...

Work at keeping the peace.  Communicate to stay on the same page.   Tell the other guys early in the day if you are not feeling 100%. Don't sweat the small stuff.  Don't over-react (especially to the small things - like how the name of some small village that you are passing through is pronounced).  (Sorry Ben and Evan.)  Be willing to self-sacrifice - even if you are "right".  Have a daily devotional/communication time and start it at the beginning of the tour (so that when thinks get tough... and they will get tough, and when things get strained... and they will get strained, we can still "hang together").  Remind ourselves regularly why we are doing this.  All kinda sounds like marriage doesn't it?

Anyway, enough of that "soft" stuff.  We are going to ride right?  Do we ride as a pack in single file?  Do we ride at our own pace and get to the meeting place "in our own sweet time"?  Again, the Epic Riders were able to bring some insights.  Their plan was to ride in single file and change the lead rider every 5 kilometres.  This worked well across the prairies when they were not climbing mountains or across northern Ontario.

Their plan was to start riding at 8:00 AM after a hearty breakfast.  Often, their start time turned into 10:00 AM after a hearty breakfast and chit-chat with a host... and well, since it was getting on, why not have a quick lunch first.  Can't ride on an empty stomach!  (That takes us back to the questions - What is our destination, anyway?  Why are we really doing this trip?)

Probably a good place to leave this blog for today...  Bookmark our blog for more to come from our talk with the young bucks...  We will also be posting more of the technical aspects of our preparation.  Finally, make sure that you visit the links to our charities and choose one of them to support.

Photo of Stan "in training mode"... hopefully we don't see this type of scene during our tour!