Spectacular Downpours and BIG trucks!

The idea of this ride is that we don't stop. We cover every kilometer from Toronto to New Orleans. People can't take a break from fighting cancer...and neither will we on our ride.

We have had a couple of tough cycling days. Our third shift was from 6am to noon on Tuesday. Ideally, we start in the darkness of the night, and watch the sunrise as we make our way through the planned route. Well...the sun never came out. It was 6 hours of this:

The rain was relentless. It kept coming down. Everything was went....everything. The support from our follow vehicle drivers and motorhome was fantastic to help our team through the shift. Nancy and Steve brought us a very much appreciated breakfast for our first break and Beth, Roger, and Charles ensure the cars on the road knew that there was a cycling group ahead in such conditions.  Team 1 surprised us with coffee and hot chocolate at our last rest break before we finished 115kms near Greeneville, Tennessee.

Take a look at the amount of water on beside us on the road...it was as high as the curb...

Still smiling despite the rain....

The rain did stop....after our ride...and one of our highlights for the day (aside from the opportunity to bike in torrential downpours) was the opportunity to stop into Knoxville for some lunch and a bit of sightseeing:

Our ride on this rainy day was dedicated to Miller, who is Will's wife's cousin living in Vancouver. He's been fighting cancer since April of this year.

The next shift for our team was from noon to 6pm.  Typically, this is the full daytime ride where we get to actually see things along the way.  We started just west of Attalla, Alabama and rode 127kms finishing in the town of Jasper.

Here's was we saw most of the way...lots and lots of traffic....and BIG trucks....

Our follow vehicle is pulled over to the side in the photo above. It's because we need to stop once in a while to let traffic pass to minimize backing everyone up behind us...or drivers doing stupid or dangerous passing. Unfortunately, it meant that we stopped about a billion times over the course of our 6 hours.

The big trucks constantly passing by was also a bit stressful:

We did have a few highlights for the day...we had an opportunity to meet and speak about Wellspring to some nice folks at the Lakewood Senior Living Centre in Jasper. They graciously provided their parking lot for our team transition and wanted to hear more about what we were doing.  Will and myself were voted in to be the spokespeople:

Another highlight was a fantastic local meal at Warehouse 3Nineteen in Jasper:

I have to give kudos to our team mate Eric, who is a driving machine....after the long day and dinner, he drove almost 4 hours to Hattiesburg, Mississippi so that we could be close to our next transition. We arrived around 1am in the morning:

For this past ride....we had a couple of dedications:

To Melanie, who works at Eric's office. Eric was informed that she was diagnosed with cancer a few days ago while on the ride.  She has a tough battle ahead, and we were thinking about her during this day.

To Tony and Sandy, a family friend of Gail and I. Sadly, Tony passed away a few days ago while I was on the ride, and his funeral was today while I was riding our shift.  I was not able to be there...and had them in our thoughts as well.  :(

So far...I have personally cycled 595kms since Saturday at the launch...and our entire team has covered close to 2500kms so far.  Almost to the finish line...

My fundraising is currently just over $17,000....wow!  Thank you to everyone for your support. There's still time to donate if you haven't already:  www.wellspring.ca/billyc

-billy