Dear Fam,
We finished our Bike tour this evening. We will spend tonight on the barge, and then after breakfast we are on our own.
It was loads of fun, many memerorable sights, decent weather(no serious rain) many new friends (our barge mates), a couple of sore butt days, but no injuries. Pat struggled with congestion, took a day off the bike to rest, but was a trooper with a couple of windy days. Today Denny and Wendy had a flat tire of their tandem about 7 or 8 kilometers before the finish. The guide really didn't know how to change a tire, and the rest of the group was eager to get back to the boat, so Denny Wendy, Wade and I stayed and started to work on it with the minimal tools and supplies he had while he took the rest of the group back to the boat. He said he would be back 30 minutes. The tube he had was the wrong size, so we found patches in the kit and patched the tube. Then we found a tear in the tire so we patched that too. Amazingly we got it back together and everything worked. It had an internal gear system which we had to partially disassemble just to get the wheel off. Anyway we got it fixed and he still hadn't returned, so we decided to try to find our way. I flagged down a gentleman on a bike and asked if he could help us. After describing our destination he readily agreed to guide us, so off we went and with his help found our way back. Mean time the guide had gone back after us and took a different route so missed us, oh well alls well that ends well!
Weather was mostly cool, often windy, and some overcast with drizzle, but we had several blue sky days. It reminded me of March or April in VA.
Historic churches, castles, beautiful pastoral farm sights, many ferry rides, and more than half of the riding on separate bike ways. The pace was about 9 or 10 kph, the bikes were relatively heavy hybrid style bike that once you got them going seemed to be easier than light weight bike to maintain forward motion. We usually departed about 9:00 AM, and finished the day by 3:00 to 4:00 PM. But there were many stops to let people group up(sometimes the group would get separated by pace, intersection stop light, etc) hear history, have coffee, lunch. The guide was a Dutch man that really made it interesting.
Anyway, we'll have pictures and much more to tell when we return.
What's next: Well we will have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday together before all but me will return. I must say I have mixed feeling about staying here, especially in light of Matt's accident. I have mulled over the possibility of changing my ticket to return early but think I will proceed with my plan, especially now that I have a phone and can keep in frequent contact.
Hallo from Pat,
Some of my perspectives: I made it, and feel like I accomplished a huge endeavor. I was not always enjoying it, especially the wind factor.....we all understand the windmills now. I also got a bit asthmatic and breathing was not necessarily easy so I took two of the days off. Anyway, now that it is behind me I can honestly say it was wonderful. Great people, scenery, and history. I had no idea how very many canals in Holland......everywhere and we rode along them all day; thru farmlands, towns, cities. Jan our guide was great also. We sang, danced and teased a lot. First thing one morning Eunice, Jan and I were singing ""oh what a beautiful morning"" as we were riding thru a town and Wade ran into my back tire and took a fall. So much for the singing! We would comment on what a beautiful day and Jan would comment "do not sell your fur before you kill the bear" and Jay told him our saying is "don’t count your chickens before they are hatched". Anyway we exchanged many cultural euphemisms and other bantering. Enough for now.
See you soon and hope all is well
Hugs
dad and mom
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