Day 3 Tuesday April 28th Carberry MB - Brandon MB

Soooo today was Day 3 of our Grand Bike ride and we only had a short ride today to do from Carberry to Brandon Manitoba which is nice because yesterday we were feeling the wear and tear on our knees and at points couldn't walk properly :S Despite all this we got to enjoy a lovely breakfast of overeasy eggs with avocado and cherry tomatoes and even a nice protein shake that Henry (the Rev.) made for us! Once we finished off breakfast and did some dishes, Henry made a few calls and found us a place to stay in Brandon for tonight! We are sooo soo soo thankful for all the help Henry gave us. He really was a blessing. Henry even saw us off down the road on our way back to the highway. Which we have to admit was pretty discouraging as our aches and pains from the day before seemed to be heightened but after we had biked a few kilometers we started to get into a good rhythm and were feeling much better.

The 20 or so kilometers just getting out of Carberry were actually really nice! There was some coverage from the trees around so the wind wasn't too bad and we started to figure out some good ways to minimize the pain. We also discovered that once we had gotten over our fear of the huge semi's that passed us that they actually provide a wonderful momentary tail wind ... or at least a momentary break from the head wind! We also have discovered over the past few days that there are a bunch of bike lovers travelling the number 1 highway! We have gotten several friendly honks and waves from passersby and even have passed a few cyclists heading the other direction (which we secretly wanted to shake our fists at because they had the tail wind). Anyway ... we finally made it to the Brandon exit after only 3 hours of biking (as opposed to our 7.5 hour trip the day before) only to encounter the only hills in Manitoba which unlike other provinces (like BC) only go UP! There is no down grrr! They did NOT feel good on the knees ... but after a short stop at a gas station and some lovely coffee we finally got the courage to start up our biking again to find the Rev Jim's house. Unfortunately we got a little bit lost and managed to go past one of the turns we had to make by about 8 blocks ... not fun ... but in the end found the house anyway. Upon arrival we figured out that no one was home! So we decided to go on a walking mission to find some knee braces and Traumeel. Sooooo we went on a 2 hour long walking adventure around Brandon and finally found our knee braces and Traumeel which ended up being only a few blocks from where we were staying! LOL ... oh well. The walk seemed to do some good for our knees as we have found that we haven't been able to do much for excercise besides our incessant biking.

Part way back to the house Jim pulled up beside us in his car and had a large vegetarian pizza and a large hawaiian pizza in the car for us! So very exciting! So we have really enjoyed our night so far here in Brandon getting to know Jim, his lovely wife Jackie and their daughter Christie. And are really looking forward to tomorrow where we are supposedly going to have a 20km TAILWIND! Which is going to be very handy for our 140km trek tomorrow. Anyway it is past our bedtimes and we hope to update you soon! Thanks so much for all your support and prayer! Please please please pray for our knees and for the tail wind!

Sachi and Melanie

ps. if you would like to track us you can visit our sweet awesome GPS tracking site at this link

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=1Xbl6cX2RxnWS4yS0HrYQIgOJTFaJcFaD
the password is : campcolumbia

Day 2: Monday, April 27 Elie MB - Carberry MB

Hello from Carberry, home of the famous Carberry Desert! Betcha didn't know that Manitoba is the proud home of a bona fide sandy paradise. Well, now you do.

Carberry has been an absolute delight. We were a bit tired upon arrival, but were graciously welcomed by members of the Anglican Church, in whose rectory we are spending the night. The donations and pledges we received here are greatly appreciated, as was the spectacular sushi buffet!

If you feel led to support us and the ministry of Camp Columbia financially, here is how you can do it:

One suggestion is: a donation from 1cent/km ($24) to 10 cents/km ($240) or even $1/km ($2400) !

You can send your donation to Camp Columbia Box 9-5Thetis Island, BCV0R 2Y0Canada All donations $24 + will receive a tax receipt. Mark your donation "Grand Bike Ride"

Any and all support is gratefully appreciated.

We believe deeply in the work and mission of Camp Columbia. We strongly feel that the vision of the Anglican Church in nurturing a relationship with Jesus Christ through camping ministry is something that we feel called to proclaim with all of our hearts. It is what has motivated us to undertake this bike ride, and it is something that is always on our minds and in our hearts as we pedal onward.

Please pray that we would "run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1)"

Peace out!

Melanie and Sachi

Day 1: Sunday, April 26 2009 Winnipeg MB, Elie MB

Well, we did it! Day 1 completed. We successfully left Winnipeg and made it to the municipality of Portage La Prairie, just outside the little town of Elie. For all of our British Columbia supporters, Portage La Prairie is a beautiful little Manitoba town (okay, city!) on the banks of the Assiniboine River.

While it felt great to finally get out there and start out journey, we did have the occasional glitch: lack of air in Sachi's tire (somewhat essential) and Melanie's bike bag falling off, but nothing that we weren't prepared to handle!

We camped just outside Elie (or so we think) in the yard of a kind gentleman by the man of Derek, and met his trusty sidekick, Nikka the puppy.

Dinner was in the form of delicious lime chicken. Thank you Jesus!!

The Adventure Begins!

Soooooooo .... Yesterday was the first travelling day ... I say travelling day ... not biking day. I (Sachi) finally arrived in Winnipeg at 9:48pm last night! Because I really like to leave things to the last minute yesterday was actually a continuation of the day before ... (got maaaybe 2/3 hours of sleep as did Melanie so I hear) and that day was basically a continuation of the day before that! So anyway I got my 1:45pm flight yesterday from the Victoria International Airport into Calgary where I got to chill out for at around 2 hours awaiting my connecting flight to Winnipeg. Just so you know ... the Calgary airport is pretty lame not gonna lie. My flight to Winnipeg went really well! I spent almost the entire flight starring outside of the window checking out the endless prairies and the gorgeous sunsetting sky. When I finally arrived in Winnipeg I was sooooo excited! This trip is for real guys! Coming down the stairs I saw Melanie and we both started basically running towards each other like in one of those corny romantic movies and literally started yelling and squelling with delight and jumping up and down with joy! It was awesome. I think the best part was that the rest of the airport was completely silent. No one was talking ... No one ... even though two flights just came in. Definitely got some strange looks our way. Once we left the airport we made our way to Melanie's sister's Kristin's house. We were all pretty thouroughly exhausted and had difficulty doing the most simple of things ... like cooking instant noodle soup but we had no trouble reminiscing over our endless camp adventures. Very very entertaining. When we finally made it home it was pretty late but we really wanted to show off each of our biking stuff to one another so we spent the better part of the night packing and re packing, minimizing and waterproofing stuff and such. It was awesome buuut we unfortunately ended up not getting to bed until probably 4 am. :S No good.