Reasons 5099 - 5266

Multiple times a day since we’ve left we get asked why we’re doing this tour. People see us with our loaded bikes and they know that we’re not from town and that we must be travelling a long way. We’re easy to pick out from the local cyclists.

Having been asked hundreds of times, Collin and I have developed a bit of a routine of how to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing. If the person asking only seems casually interested we might say we’re touring simply for adventure. It’s true that’s part of it for us.

If we encounter someone on the inquisitive side that asks lots of questions and then comes out with ‘Why?’ we’ll share the perspective I’ve shared with many of you at home and along the way: Both Collin and I feel called to love the people around us, because of the relationships we have with Jesus Christ. Another way to put it would be to say we both feel the need to love our neighbours. We’re convinced that one of the best ways to love your neighbour is to ask them for help. When you ask someone for help you are likely to get the best they have to offer, because most of us unwittingly do what we’re best at. It has been our privilege to ask for and receive help from others throughout our journey. It has also been our honour to point out the good in people when they’ve helped us. I don’t think most of us receive enough praise for the really good things in us. I believe Collin and I have done a great job at offering what everybody needs, encouragement.

At times it’s become a bit wearisome being asked why so often. It’s become a running joke that the reason we give should be more dramatic, like Collin is dying and this tour is his last wish. We’ve actually told a handful of people that, waited for their reaction and then told them the truth. The dying wish story definitely is a lot more dramatic, but people tend to like the truth a lot more.

Collin and I talked through our reasons for wanting to go before we left. There have been moments for both of us where we may have lost sight of some of those objectives momentarily, but we’ve never strayed too far.

For Collin, the tour has been about different kinds of adventure. He has a desire to challenge the norm in many ways. The tour has been one expression of his desire to do something different. Another theme that Collin has had in mind since the beginning was his desire to meet new and varying kinds of people. We’ve certainly been able to experience encounters with people from all across all sorts of spectrums. A constant adventure that Collin has not taken for granted is all the vast types of terrain and scenery we’ve been able to take in. Cycling forces you to absorb your surroundings in small, intellectually and spiritually digestible chunks. You can only see as much as you’re willing to ride in one day. That fact has been to our benefit, and it’s one that Collin is particularly grateful for.

In order for me to explain my more personally significant reasons for the tour I have to reach into the past. Nearly ten years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with this crazy idea of a bicycle tour across Canada. I started training and planning for the tour. Soon after, I pursued a girl I probably shouldn’t have and ended up working at a summer camp instead of cycling. Over the years, I always kind of regretted not having gone, but the timing never seemed right for me to try again as I had other priorities.

A couple years ago, the idea of the tour started coming up when I would talk to God. After all those years of regret it was nearly miraculous for me to believe in myself enough to revisit the dream. It took a whole lot to overcome the fear to take this tour on. And, with time, the dream even grew into a tour of North America.

I believe that part of the role of any father is to help shape the character of his children by acknowledging their growth and accomplishment. Whether or not one senses it, I believe that everyone experiences a need for this acknowledgment. My relationship with my father has been strained my whole life. I’ve missed out on a lot of that kind of useful acknowledgment. I’ve had to figure out what kind of man I am mostly on my own. I’ve hoped that if I could accomplish something truly fantastic and grand on the scale of human achievement that I could confidently claim it as my own apart from the missing acknowledgment of my father. I’ve wanted to be able to have proof that I can accomplish something great. I’m confident I have that proof now.

A number of years ago, I went through a few years of clinical depression. Most of you that have met me since then might have a hard time believing I could be as down as I was. It was easily the worst time of my life. I went to therapy and was on some strong medication. One of the side effects of the medication was weight gain. In a couple years I gained nearly one hundred pounds. As such, one of my reasons for this tour has been to lose some of that extra weight. I don’t typically get overly critical of my own physical appearance. I’m comfortable with who I am and how I look, but I know my extra weight isn’t healthy. I think for me to lose a significant amount of the weight I gained during that awful period of depression is a way for me to claim my own victory over it. I’m not depressed anymore. I rarely struggle with the tendency. And, now, I’m proud to say that I’ve lost thirty pounds and am well on my way to putting that period fully behind me.

A lot of the time I try to think of myself as a generally kind and thoughtful person. I know I definitely have my own moments of being an asshole like most people, but I sure try to honour others around me. Over the years, something that God has brought up is the idea that the best things that he is able to accomplish in me for others are things that I have no idea about. Essentially, what he means is this: I might have moments of giving thoughtful words or kind actions, but what he uses in my life are the things that I don’t even associate with anyone else. When I just try hard to live my life well with purpose it does something to those around me. It motivates them to do the same. Being aware of this definitely shaped the tour for me. It’s a big part of why I’ve been so motivated to keep up with this blog. I’ve wanted others to participate in the tour in whatever way they can that they might be inspired to live their own dreams. I definitely hope this to have happened in your life, another reader, or anyone we’ve met along the way.

Collin and I set our sights pretty high in claiming Twenty Thousand Reasons. We wanted the whole, huge loop. There are so many amazing things to see and people to meet. I’m quite convinced that travelling by bicycle is one of the best ways to get around, and possibly the easiest way to meet new people. You get to see so much more by bike. It’s ridiculous.

Cycle-touring is a tough business to carry on for long. In all the reading I did of others’ blogs and books before we left the one thing that was consistent was the idea that long-distance cycle-touring is about mind over matter. You have to be able to will yourself to get on your bike and just keep going for miles and miles. At points I’ve compared it to a full-time job. Imagine cycling all day, everyday, forty hours a week.

More than it being a job, it’s a lifestyle. We’re nomads. We’re homeless. We’re wanderers. We end up at the same hangouts as hitchhikers and vagrants. And, we have met some of the most interesting, vibrant, inspirational, generous and lovely people of my whole life. People that have taken us in and shared from their hearts, minds and passions in addition to their pantries. I’m thankful far beyond words, and can honestly say that there are little pieces of so many of you that I want to adopt as part of my own character.

While we’ve met some truly awe-inspiring folks and have been given amazing opportunities to live well, Collin and I have decided to cut our tour short and go home. We realize that this might be a huge disappointment to those of you that have been wholeheartedly rooting for us. We’re disappointed too. There was a whole lot more to see and do. So many more good people to meet and be inspired by. But, we are completely satisfied with having accomplished our original goals.

Allow me to expand on why we’re cutting things short. Before we left, I did a whole lot of research into the climate of many of the places we were certain we would journey through, but our tentative route was far too long for me to be able to research everything, everywhere.

The Motel 6 parking lot in Kingman, Arizona. Yes, that's snow on the truck behind our bicycles.

Since we left, we’ve developed a routine of planning the specific details of where we’ll go and where we’ll stay as far as two weeks in advance. It would be difficult for us to say precisely where we’ll be and when beyond that amount of time. Our system worked well for us until we left Las Vegas, Nevada. Our planned route was to take us near the Hoover Dam, to Kingman, Arizona. We were to head East to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and then South through Flagstaff to Phoenix. We were hoping to make it to Phoenix for Christmas. Over the past seventy-two hours or so a major storm system made it’s way North into Arizona, New Mexico and most of Western Texas. The Grand Canyon, Flagstaff and more than half of Arizona have received over a foot of snow. Our route through Arizona has been completely kiboshed.

You might be wondering why we don’t just go another way. Well, we could continue on. The towns and cities are spread out wide enough that we would be camping more than half the time from here in Kingman, Arizona all the way to Louisiana. That’s like 1,500 miles. The temperature here is around freezing at night and pretty cold during the day, especially when you’re moving on a bike. I’m reasonably tough. Last Winter, I cycled the whole season at home in temperatures as low as minus forty degrees Celsius. But, that was for a half hour at a time, to and from work. I always had somewhere warm and dry to be at the end of the day. Both, Collin and I are physically capable of continuing on, but the joy of the experience would be completely absent. We would just be suffering in order to reach an end line.

Using the National Weather Service, we’ve researched our entire tentative route from Arizona to Florida. We’ve found that in order to bypass the truly unbearable weather we would have to skip ahead at least as far as the middle of Texas. Unfortunately, this would put us more than a month ahead of schedule and place us in even more awful weather once we headed North along the East coast.

So, now we’re headed home. Today, we went to a local bike shop to get some big, cardboard boxes for packing our bikes. On Tuesday, December 18^th we’ll take a rental car from Kingman to Las Vegas. From there we’ll fly through Vancouver and be home in Edmonton that night.

Collin and I would like to ask all of you for your encouragement and support. We’re extremely grateful for all we’ve experienced and all whom we have met. Considering the disappointment of not being able to fully finish the tour it would do our hearts some much needed good to hear any kind thoughts or prayers you might have for us. We are choosing to put aside this disappointment by celebrating our accomplishment instead.

Thank you for sharing in our story.

Please contact us via email: njkwinter@gmail.com and collin.gelderman@gmail.com

Reasons 4946 - 5099

From Primm we descended down a long stretch of highway to Las Vegas. We rode our bikes from one end of Las Vegas Boulevard to the other, past all the huge, extravagant hotels and casinos on ‘The Strip.’ Years ago, I spent a summer on staff with the Christian missionary organization, Youth With A Mission in Las Vegas. The base director, Richard still remembers me and offered for us to stay at the YWAM base. We’re very thankful to Rich and YWAM Las Vegas for hosting us so generously.

Inside The Venetian hotel.

While in Vegas, Collin’s parents, Dale and Kathy paid us a visit. It was pretty exciting for both of us to get to spend some quality time with people from home. The four of us walked all around The Strip, exploring the hotels. We’ve witnessed the Bellagio fountain shows several times, the Freemont Experience, the Mirage’s volcano, the Flamingo’s flamingos amongst other flashy sights.

We're so badass. Yeah, we bike on the Strip.

The four of us paid a visit to Madame Tussauds Was Museum. We laughed a lot.

Pinching J-Lo's asset.

Kathy hanging onto Daniel Kraig.

Collin taking over for Larry King.

Snoop Dog wasn't all that impressed when I sat on his throne.

Dale is pretty much the new King of Rock and Roll.

Both Collin and I were pretty keen on going to Criss Angel’s show. Criss Angel is an illusionist who currently has a show combined with Cirque du Soleil. Dale and Kathy graciously offered to go to a time-share presentation that offered cheap tickets for the show for those that went through the whole presentation. By the end, Dale and Kathy were able to get some nearly free tickets for another show as well.

Marc Savard and me.

The four of us went to Planet Hollywood to see Marc Savard, the comedic hypnotist. The show was pretty hilarious and dramatic, but more so for me since I actually volunteered to be a part of the show. There were maybe thirty people who originally walked onstage to volunteer, but that number was cut down to around ten of us who experienced a more deep hypnosis. Through the hypnosis, Marc convinced one man that his name was ‘E-I-E-I-O’, just like in the nursery rhyme, Old MacDonald’s Farm. He even had one woman convinced that every time Marc touched her she would have the sensation that someone had pinched her butt. He also used one song that would play periodically. Every time the song played two men would stand up, find each other, fall in love and start dancing. As soon as the music stopped they would come out of their trance, holding each other and not know how they had gotten there. It was all pretty funny.

At one point, to test how deeply we were hypnotized, Marc told us that the temperature was increasing, hotter and hotter until it was well over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Everyone on stage started waving their hands in front of their faces. The woman next to me nearly started peeling her clothes off. But, then Marc told us that the temperature was now getting colder and colder until he told us it was minus forty degrees. By that point I was shivering so hard I nearly fell off my chair. It was so bizarre. Now, for those of you at home, braving the Canadian Winter, jealous of our exploits in the Nevada desert you can ease up a little bit. None of you can say that you experienced minus forty with only a t-shirt and shorts.

Dale and Kathy rented a car and the four of us visited Red Rock Canyon. We took in a geology talk from a volunteer. As well, we went off exploring a bit around the thirteen-mile, scenic drive.

Me, wearing Jeff Probst's hat. Legit.

The Criss Angel show was pretty fantastic. When we arrived we realized that our tickets placed us a the back of the theatre. Shortly before the performance started a friendly usher came and lead us to some open seats in the fifth row. It was super awesome to be able to see everything right up close. There were lots of disappearing-and-then-reappearing-someplace-else types of illusions which never get old as far as I’m concerned. And, the show was hilarious in many instances. I would highly recommend the show.

We had such a quality time with the Geldermans. I’m really thankful they came to visit. It was good to be able to speak face to face about how we’re doing and have a bunch of laughs.

The adventure will continue into the wilderness along parts of the old Route 66, the Grand Canyon and most likely Phoenix for Christmas. If you happen to know anyone in the Phoenix area that might like two friendly, Canadian cyclists to join them for the holiday please let us know!

Reasons 4667 - 4946

Our journey out of the valley of the desert cities of La Quinta and Palm Springs was ridiculously hard work, and it was only the beginning of a week of lengthy climbs. From La Quinta we rolled through the town of Mecca and actually lost elevation, dropping down to 180ft below sea level. We climbed our way through Box Canyon where we stopped for lunch in the shade of one of the cliff faces on either side of the road. We steadily climbed for hours, eventually making our way to the Cottonwood Springs Visitor Centre in Joshua Tree National Park around sunset. Cottonwood Springs is around 3,000ft in elevation, every foot of which we climbed through the day.

Just outside Mecca, before Box Canyon.

Our stay at the Cottonwood Springs campground was fun. We set up camp and quickly ate so that we would could rush to the campground’s amphitheater. Ranger Robb Hanawacker gave a humorous and informative geological talk called Tectonic Shuffle. Both Collin and I earned ‘Be Desert Smart’ stickers for answering questions correctly.

It actually gets pretty chilly at night in the desert.

We continued through Joshua Tree National Park to the Belle Campground, losing hundreds and hundreds of feet of elevation and then regaining them, and some more by the end of the day.

The next day we stopped in Twenty-nine Palms to use the internet at the public library and get groceries before climbing some more desert mountain ranges. We headed East and then North to Sheep Hole Pass. The view was truly incredible as we ripped down miles of descending highway into an expansive valley.

The two of us wild camped just off the highway about eight miles South of the town of Amboy. We had hoped to get some breakfast at Roy’s Motel and Café in Amboy in the morning. When we arrived we found that motel is defunct, the kitchen is closed and there is asbestos in the ceiling. We brought our own food into the diner and sat at the counter to eat. Amboy used to be a bustling, little town that was known for being a classic rest stop on Route 66. But, with the development of the more modern Interstate 40 Amboy has become a ghost town. We asked the owner of Roy’s how many people now lived in Amboy. He replied that there were eight people, but that was seven too many for him.

We continued from Amboy through the long slopes and desert shrubbery towards where the Interstate 40 borders the Mohave National Preserve. After hours of steady climbing we took shelter for lunch in the shade of the interstate overpass. The two of us ate our canned goods and Clif Bars and I started to take a little nap, laying out on the cool pavement of the shoulder. After a time, a couple on motorcycles passed us and turned onto the on-ramp for the interstate. We heard an awful, loud sound. The smaller rider neglected to slow down enough going into the turn, skidded on the gravel and crashed into the heaps of sand in the ditch. The other rider came back to check on the smaller one. Collin called out to me that there was a crash, so I hopped up and the two of us ran over to lend any help we could offer.

When we arrived we found Mike attempting to help up Terri to no avail. Terri had twisted her leg in such a way that she hurt far too much to be able to stand up let alone get back on her motorcycle. Collin and I stayed with the couple as Terri sat and took a moment to just take in what had happened. Mike got a hold of Terri’s motorcycle and pulled it out of the ditch and stood it up. There was only minor, surface damage to the bike.

Over the next hour, we all did our best to comfort Terri, and get her up and sit her up on some hard packed sand. A highway patrol officer drove by and tried to insist on Terri being taken by ambulance. But, Mike, Terri, Collin and I thought it would be best if Collin and I stayed with Terri while Mike went to get their truck and trailer. We were pretty sure that Terri’s injury was fairly minor and did not need her to go to a hospital.

The truck and trailer were over a hundred miles away, parked at a hotel in Las Vegas, so Mike had a long way to go. It was around 2:30pm when Mike left and it took between five and six hours for him to go and come back. The sun sets here around 5pm right now, so that meant Collin, Terri and I were sitting in the dark in the middle of the desert for a few hours.

Terri smiling in spite of her pain.

Terri's motorcycle.

The three of us made the most of our time. Mike left a bottle of wine with us which Terri and Collin finished between the two of them. We didn’t have any cups, so they just passed the bottle back and forth. With so little light pollution, the stars were truly incredible. We all saw some shooting stars. What was particularly special about our time was our conversation. The three of us chatted on, nearly non-stop for several hours about our home lives and families.

Mike and Terri are from Hope, British Columbia and have three, adult children. Terri told us the story of how she and Mike met and some of her favourite things about her husband. Then she continued into telling us about her children’s fantastic exploits as part of the crew of the television show, Survivor. All three kids have worked for the Dream Team that is responsible for designing, building and testing all the challenges on the show. Terri is extremely pleased and proud of her kids with due cause. They all have fantastic work ethic and have been hired on past the typical duration of crew for the show.

Terri shared with us about how she and Mike had the chance to visit their kids near the set of the show in Nicaragua. They were invited to a couple special celebrations for the crew and actually got to meet the host, Jeff Probst. I’ve always wondered at the true character of Jeff while watching the show. He always seems to have insightful comments and perceptive questions for the contestants. Mike and Terri’s impression of Jeff was really great. Jeff freely offered keen observations of Mike and Terri’s kids even though they are part of a crew of a couple hundred people. One night, when it was pouring rain, Mike and Terri were walking back to their hotel and Jeff pulled over in his SUV to offer them a ride. The three of them had a quality interaction that ended in Jeff hugging them both and offering Terri his Survivor cap that he wore on the show. When Terri told us the story, she reached into her backpack and pulled out the same cap and let us see it. Both Collin were super astounded and excited.

Terri, Collin and I shared all sorts of thoughts and stories until Mike finally came back with the truck, trailer and some McDonald’s. We loaded up Terri, her motorcycle and our bikes, and Mike drove us to Kelso where we had originally intended to camp that night. Mike and Terri offered us a very heartfelt thanks and goodbye. Before they left, with watered-up eyes, Terri thanked us again and reached into her back and gave me Jeff Probst’s hat. Then she gave Collin a Survivor buff and crew hat. My mind is still totally blown that she so freely gave us those generous gifts. We are very thankful to have met such incredible, generous, lovely people even though it was through those awful circumstances. We wild camped just outside Kelso. In the morning, we went into town and checked out the Mohave National Preserve Visitor Centre.

We climbed, descended, climbed and descended again on our way to Primm. Primm is right on the California-Nevada border. That night, we rolled our fully loaded bikes through the lobby, casino and onto the elevator of Whiskey Pete’s. We got a lot of funny looks from all the rough Ironworkers chain-smoking and gambling.