Day 8 – Sept 13

 We are now at the half way point of our journey. We woke up in Thunder Bay to -1C…brrr. I wish I'd packed my Canada Goose Camp Down Hoody!

 It was a day of emotional and physical challenges.

We left the Sears parking lot at 7 am under police escort as we headed to the Terry Fox memorial just outside of Thunder Bay. It was an emotional morning as we reflected on our private thoughts for those children who we may personallly know affected by cancer and for all the others we have heard about on our journey. There were plenty of tears and hugs all around.

Josh Nelson (17 yrs old) is an eight year cancer survivor riding with us on a tandem bike. This was a particulalry moving day for him and his family. Josh is such an inspiration. Two years ago he spoke at one of the rest stops and he ended his speech with the following sentence "Ride for me until I can ride for myself". I'm sure he had no idea the impact those few words would have on his life. Last year he rode the Ontario portion of the ride and this year he has been with us all the way doing a fantastic job.

Our team was riding from Thunder Bay to Nipigon today. We had all types of weather from warm sunshine, cold rain, hail, snow and of course, a wicked cross and head wind. I had the worst sleep of the trip in Thunder Bay as the strongs winds had the the doors to our bunk trunk banging open and shut all night. I figured I would be at the back of the pelaton all day but somehow I found myself first out of the parking lot and led the group out and was at the front most of the day. The winds made it a challenging ride as we got blown around a busy single lane highway with lots of truck traffic. Our team of riders is working together really well and after 8 days of riding together we are a well oiled machine. Well, ok there's a few squeeks here and there as new relay riders come and go but cycling brings out the best in teamwork.

We made un unscheduled stop in White River to visit Winne The Pooh park. A great way to boost the morale and energy in our RV as we shuttled to Wawa for the night.

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