Ray’s Ride, The Grand Finale

He did it! Ray has completed his Great Lakes Cycle.

Day 10 – Mississauga to Pickering (70 kms)

The first section of this ride, from Mississauga to The Beaches in Toronto, was a pleasant surprise – much more scenic than Ray had expected – but that was followed by the worst stretch of the trip so far, east of Toronto, past the Scarborough bluffs, with heavy traffic along Kingston Road.

Ray stayed in Pickering that night at the home of Sheldon and Angela, friends of Rick and Josée. Rick joined Ray there and cycled to Cobourg with him the following day.

Day 11 – Pickering to Cobourg (97 kms)

In Cobourg, Ray stayed with (very) long-time friends Ric and Susan.

Day 12 – Cobourg to Brighton (39 kms)

The next morning, Ric joined Ray for part of the cycle to Brighton and then Derek, a friend from Brighton, joined Ray for the last part.

Day 13 – Brighton to Kingston (114 kms)

I could not have written a better final day than we had. The weather was ideal, the route was scenic and the company was awesome. Nick and Ray were the only two to do the entire 114 km route to Kingston, but 11 others joined the ride at various points, seven of whom drove in from Ottawa that morning.

At our third rest stop, Fairfield Historical Park, we met up with the rest of the Ottawa crew – Heather, Murray, Jen & Gary – and cycled together from there.

A few kilometres from the end of the route, Karen (who’d driven from Mississauga that morning) was standing alongside the cycle path, holding a big banner. Nick thought it was a protestor who’d chosen an inconvenient place to stand. Then she started high-fiving everyone and he thought, “Oh great…”. He was a few feet away by the time he realized it was his aunt.

Around 4:00 pm, ten cyclists pulled into the front of the cancer centre at Kingston General Hospital, where almost six years ago Nick received his lymphoma diagnosis.

A special thank you to our support team: ‘shuttle’ drivers Karen and Sue, safety-vehicle driver Rick, and Juno-sitter Louise. We couldn’t have done it without you!

And then it was time to celebrate with mimosas (not – to some people’s disappointment – samosas, as I originally announced).

This event succeeded beyond anything we’d imagined, not only in terms of the money raised for blood cancer research, but in the way it brought people together. It was a life-affirming experience for us.

Ray’s final tally for his ride was 949 kilometres, 51 short of his advertised 1,000 km ride. Karen offered to leave him in Kingston and let him cycle 51 kms back towards Brighton, but he turned down the offer. Some donors, who shall remain nameless, went so far as to suggest they wanted their money back if he didn’t complete his promised distance. Knowing Ray, it’s safe to say that he’ll cycle another 51 kms over the next week or so.

As you know, we held a contest to guess how much weight Ray would lose (or gain) on his ride. We had 22 guesses and two people guessed correctly. Ray weighed exactly the same this morning as he did the morning he left on his ride. Ray was hoping there’d be a tie as he’d already worked out how the winner would be chosen (he had a lot of time to think in the last couple of weeks).

One of the potential winners was Val, a friend from England, and the other was Arliss, my cousin from Winnipeg. Dog treats were placed by each ‘entry’ and Juno was placed at an equal distance from each and had to choose the winner.

Congratulations Arliss! Your prize will be forthcoming. [Appeals should be addressed to Ray.]

On Wednesday it will be 12 years since my mom passed away from leukemia, so this has also been a way for me to honour her memory. We’ve raised $14,500 at last count. Thank you all for the support.

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