Wellspring Cancer Support Ride to PEI

5 Teams of 6 Riders Started their 3200 km Ride at 9am from Wellspring Birmingham Geligan House on 6th Line on 15 August with the target arrival in Charlottetown PEI on 22 August

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https://give.wellspring.ca/event/wellspringride/

Support Wellspring    

  Wellspring Main Website for Cancer Support

Read About the Wellspring Bike Run in the Guardian Newspaper of PEI

Saturday, 15 August

 This morning, 5 teams of bicyclists set out from Oakville, to relay-ride to Charlottetown. We joined them (and many other supporters) for breakfast and their send-off from Wellspring Gilgan House. We are very proud to support our daughter and son-in-law, Laura & D’Arcy McDonald, who are part of Dream Team 2. They are riding to raise funds for the wonderful cancer-support programs of Wellspring. It’s her first time, but D’Arcy has ridden for Wellspring several times before. Please send your warm thoughts, hopes and prayers for their safety. We will see them again when they arrive in Charlottetown in a week. Meanwhile, we’ll begin our own journey tomorrow. Our route is shorter and we’ll travel by car, so it’ll be a very different 

Photo Album of the Start to PEI

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Our riders are Laura and D'Arcy McDonald  

Sunday, 16 August

The day began, of course, with church. It was the Men’s Breakfast Group service, so Larry had a big role in preparing it, and a smaller role in the actual service. I was “on sound”, managing the microphones. It all went pretty well. Then we were back home for a bit, finishing loading the car and getting ready to leave. On the road at last, the GPS informed us that 401 had delays and directed us to 407, which we took to the far side of Toronto, before rejoining 401, which was still very busy. We stopped at an ON ROUTE for lunch – my goodness – they should rename it THE ZOO! Long wait for our food and crowds everywhere. Eventually we got to our hotel – the lovely Hilton Doubletree in Kingston. They had no record of the pre-paid reservation that we had made through Expedia. However, they gave us a room at no cost and a breakfast voucher, so all good. Once we got to our very comfortable room, we decided that was enough for one day, with the exception of some wine, beer, TV and dinner at the in-house restaurant. We had hoped to have the energy to go to Chez Piggy, a favourite restaurant, for dinner, but we just didn’t. Sigh.

Contribute to the Wellspring Ride to PEI

Our riders are Laura and D'Arcy McDonald 

Monday, 17 August

We took our time over a very nice breakfast at the Doubletree, then hit the local WalMart for a couple of forgotten items. Within a couple hours we were across the border into Quebec, and a while later I had the joy of driving through Montreal. Between city traffic and construction it really wasn’t much fun, but we made it onto the Trans-Canada highway toward Quebec City. We pulled off at St-Hyacinthe for a late lunch at Tim Hortons [what a contrast to the Zoo at the On Route yesterday]- this one was the smallest and quietest TH ever]. We could see heavy clouds to the east and hoped the bikers weren’t getting rained on. Larry drove the last couple of hours to Levis, and we quickly found the lovely L’Oie des neiges (Snow goose) hotel.

We’ll be here 2 nights, and plan to visit Quebec City for the day tomorrow.

D’Arcy Reported on Facebook today: “Heading into day 3, on a one week, charity bike ride from Oakville to PEI in support of Wellspring Cancer Support GTA cancer support centers. The riding has been amazing, starting to head towards our night shifts, should end in Quebec city this evening. I'm fortunate to be with an amazing group of dedicated riders and friends.”

 D'Arcy and Laura on the road:

Riders Ahead:maybe L & D; the colours are right

Contribute to the Wellspring Ride to PEI

Our riders are Laura and D'Arcy McDonald 

 

Click Photo for Riders' Location at 4:20AM Tuesday 18 August

On the Road with the biking team (D'Arcy McDonald Photos)

Tuesday, 18 August

 Our day in Quebec City was quite wonderful, even though not as planned. On the advice of the hotel staff, we drove to the Lévis ferry terminal, left the car there and took the ferry to Quebec City. We were right in the old town, and enjoyed wandering through Place Royal and around old streets. We sat in front of a huge mural that depicts many historic figures as well as modern activities.

It’s amazing. Then we visited a store in what we thought was a familiar restaurant. More about that later. 

After riding the funicular to the upper town, we strolled the Dufferin Terrace, where I have many memories from the times I was here with my parents. We walked back to the lower town and decided it was lunch time.  We sat on the terrace of Le Pub des Borgia,

the place next door to the store we visited earlier. We had a great meal and interesting chat with the server. I went inside to the washroom and OMG!!!!!! This was the place where Larry proposed almost exactly 46 years ago!!! No doubt at all, even though it’s no longer the Louis XIV. The server was there as I danced about taking pictures, so I told him. When I got back to our table and told Larry, the server appeared with free celebratory drinks for us – maple-flavoured whiskey. Nice!! Great way to celebrate the best 46 years of our lives. 

We walked around a bit more, then returned to the ferry terminal. On the ferry we met a lady from Nova Scotia who’s spending a month here editing a book and enjoying frequent ferry rides on the river. She told us about aid fireworks display tonight on the river. 

The Wellspring automatic tracking map is not working right. Tuesday at 6pm L&D were at Ste Anne des Monts and then at midnight they were in Grande Valee all PQ.

Click for Stills from D'Arcy's Facebook Video near Quebec City on Monday   D'Arcy posted this as a video on Facebook/Instagram

Quebec City Photos of the Day

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Wednesday, 19 August

Unfortunately, we missed the fireworks last night. Seemed we fell asleep early and didn’t awaken until morning. We had a leisurely departure from Levis, knowing it was a relatively short driving day. 

Our stop at St.-Jean-Port-Joli was disappointing,  to say the least. What used to be a quaint village, focused on amazing wood-carvers, is now a very ordinary small town with some junky souvenir stores. We couldn’t even find the big restaurant with the beautiful carved murals. The one thing interesting is the carving park where I wandered for a bit. 

    We grabbed some Ice Caps and hit the road. It’s a really great part of the country drive through, beginning with the part running beside the St. Lawrence. 

    After turning south at Rivière du Loup, we saw rock walls and hills, interspersed with farmland. Our “Grand Falls” motel is small and out in the middle of nowhere, but we were definitely ready for some downtime by the time we got here in mid-afternoon. 

    We are a bit surprised that it had the Wyndham Travelodge name – we thought that implied higher standards. In fact, we actually stayed here once before, when it was called Hotel Leo, and said “never again”. There’s some humour there, I guess. I will say that there have been some upgrades. Just not enough, in our opinion, to warrant the Wyndham branding. 

    One positive – the car is right beside the door to our room, so moving things back and forth is a breeze just like the old days. And we did get to sit outside enjoying our afternoon cocktails.

Photos of the Day

The automatic map from Wellspring is suspected to be in error and the real time version will not be posted again until it lines up with the plan.   According to the plan the Riders were leaving the town of Gaspe at 0600 this morning, arriving in Chandler at noon.  These towns are visible on the map below.

Contribute to the Wellspring Ride to PEI

Our riders are Laura and D'Arcy McDonald 

Thursday, 20 August

 

We were just outside Grand Falls, so we drove into town to see the falls. So glad we did. They’re spectacular!

Then we set the GPS for our next stop, Shediac NB, and could see that we would arrive ridiculously early. Once on our way, we realized it was another of those “never again” things that we’d experienced several years ago – a couple of hundred kms of something that hardly qualifies as a tertiary road right across the centre of New Brunswick. But we stuck it out, because it ends around Miramichi. 

Four of my aunts and uncles are buried near there. We looked for the cemetery last time and didn’t find it, so tried another strategy this time. Another failure. Sigh. 

While we ate lunch in Miramichi Larry checked on the location of the cyclists and discovered they were very nearby. So we set off in search and saw them pass while we were at a stop street. We followed and kept them in sight for a while, but then traffic was stopped up and we guessed wrong about which way they went. So we just asked Google to take us to our lodging for the night, L’Auberge Shores. It’s right in Shediac, and is a very nice hotel. We even have a balcony. We tried to figure out if the bikers would pass here, but decided it’s very unlikely. So we won’t watch for them. In fact they passed Shediac on the highway just about a mile from  the motel.

Hurray, the Wellspring live camera is back on-line so there they are at 8:40pm as we are posting this and are at our Shediac motel.

Photos of the Day

Contribute to the Wellspring Ride to PEI

Our riders are Laura and D'Arcy McDonald 

Friday, 21August

Our hotel restaurant was closed, but they recommended Chez Linda for breakfast, and it was a great way to start the day. Then we were on our way. We told our GPS to take us to the ferry – further from where we were than the bridge. Gemini warned us that we might need a reservation. We continued, though we wondered if we’d be stranded at the dock. At a tourist info place, we were reassured that we’d be OK without a reservation and would travel for free. Huh? But that’s how it worked.

While I waited in the car for Larry to register, I saw Sydney and Chloe coming along the street and waved. It was great to see them, but we decided to go our separate ways for the evening and see each other for the bikers’ arrival tomorrow. We parked underground, found our lovely room and settled in. We have a great view over the city to the harbour. We enjoyed drinks and dinner at the hotel, then relaxed in our room. From the website, we see that the riders are on PEI and we look forward to seeing them arrive here tomorrow.

This morning the Team of Heros were on the Ferry, halfway across to PEI at a quarter to 8.  

Their plan is to overnight at Summerside and then ride into a park near the Charlottetown hotel to great fanfare at about 1:30pm.

Contribute to the Wellspring Ride to PEI

Saturday, 22 August

THE BIG DAY!!!!!

Everyone is on the island. The bikers are waking up in Summerside; they needed to make a loop over Charlottetown to extend their mileage and time.  We will meet them finishing the fantastic ride about 1:30 today at a local park near the hotel. We had a lovely breakfast at a nearby café that was also an art gallery. I may have really been taken by some of the art – just sayin’. 

A walk along the main street revealed an Anne of Green Gables shop (again, I may have been tempted), and the Confederation Playhouse, which is undergoing a major reno. Soon it was time to gather at Peakes Quay, first to visit with Sydney and Chloe and second to make some signs to welcome the bikers. 

Larry stood watch when we knew the bikers were nearing us and got great video. The welcome party went on in the park for a while, with picture-taking and loading of gear into vans. 

Then we all moved to a nearby venue for a lunch and beer party. 

The rest of the afternoon was rest time for everyone, before the evening finale – a lobster dinner for riders, volunteers and supporters. And what a great dinner and celebration it was! What a terrific way to finish off this year’s ride for Wellspring. 

We felt honoured to be part of it all.

PS: The Wellspring Charity Bikers ended their 3200km ride for cancer patients and families at 1:30 Maritime Daylight Time.

Photos of Arrival Day, Celebration Dinner and Party

Click tto play the arrival video in Charlottetown

Sunday, 23 August

 It was a rainy day, so we discarded the idea of some beach time. After a relaxed breakfast with Laura and D’Arcy, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Green Gables. It’s changed a lot over the years – not the house itself, of course, but its surroundings. There’s now a huge visitors’ centre, with amazing displays and the story of L.M. Montgomery’s  life. Plus, of course, a coffee shop and gift shop. 

All the displays in the visitors’ centre are so engaging that we spent quite a bit of time enjoying them. Finally, we carried on across the Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick, and made our way back to Shediac. A different motel this time. Very comfortable, if not as luxurious as our Charlottetown hotel. 

We decided to explore a bit and find a meal, so we drove to the end of a wharf and enjoyed a terrific burger at the Sandbar. Then it was all about relaxing.

Ok, so we watched a string of Friends episodes on the dated TV.

All the Photos of the day - mostly Anne of Green Gables visit

Monday, 24 August

 Today was all about driving, so after breakfasting again Chez Linda, we stuck to the Trans Canada. It’s a smooth, divided highway with just enough traffic to reassure you that you’re still living on an inhabited planet. The fact that it’s construction season makes that fact undeniable. New Brunswick is very hilly and often the road runs between rock walls. 

The sky was huge and blue, between varying heavy cloud formations. Over each hill we were presented with a new vista – hills and valleys, forests and fields in a thousand shades of green and gold. Occasionally a river or lake or marshy area. Even more rarely, a small settlement of houses. Approaching the Québec border, it was more-populated and the closer we got to the St. Lawrence River, the more communities we saw. 

In Riviere-du-Loup, the GPS took us easily to our night’s location, but then it got more difficult. We’d received a few emails with attachments we couldn’t open, and it turned out they contained codes we needed to get in. Larry phoned an emergency number, and we were sent them in an open email, so then it was OK. Very different type of accommodation – small, but clean and comfortable, with everything we need. It may be longer-term residence for some.

Photos of the day - New Brunswick Highway Views