| 12 Days and Counting! |
 Time is closing and last minutes preparations are underway. I am pictured here with our shelter house dog “Fipper” who had 90% of her face burnt off do to a chemical burn that was done on purpose. She lives at the shelter and sleeps in a bed nicer than my own. She is about 7 years old this fall and loves to great customers as they arrive to visit the shelter. I hope some of you have had the time to come down to see her or other residents that are awaiting new homes.My bike went into Bikes and Beyond for its final tune up this week. Thanks Lou for getting it ready for me. He knows I am not the best bike mechanic and he has helped through many adjustments. New fenders were installed to help keep me dry and I finished the day with a 35km bike ride with an average speed of 29km per hour. I did get the bike speed up to 49km/h to pass some slow moving cars. The looks on their faces when I passed them was funny. Although my bike is not built for speed, I like to see what I can do with it on a straight away.  Decals for the pilot vehicle (Signmeister) will be installed next week, so if you see an orange Honda Element passing you, please consider making a donation. I have had a couple of meetings with Dan, my co-pilot driving the pilot vehicle back behind me on the trip, making sure we have everything covered as far as nutrition, communication, record keeping and accommodations ready to go and he is the one who will be making sure these blogs and pictures are updated daily. I will be in communication with the shelter almost daily letting them know where I am each night and they will also mark the large map we have hanging in the shelter to let people know where I am.My staff have been bugging me over the past few weeks making plans to let loose when I am away for this trip but deep down I know they will all miss me. They will have no one to pick on while I am away. Brenda (shelter manager) will be there to see the 150 residents are taken care of and Tara Start will be on hand to answer any questions about the bike tour by e-mail which will be posted soon. I will try to keep the lines of communication open as best as I can so we can all be updated if things change. I hope some of you can make it to our bike tour kick off on Wednesday May 27, we will have cake and star bucks coffee as well as media through out the day. If you want to see an awesome bike, I will have my touring bike here for you to view through out the day. Take care and will talk to you next week. D’Arcy |