My first day of High School is tomorrow! I am nervous and excited.

He said

Well, the only real intention I had about this Labour Day, long weekend was to spend it with people who mattered most to me, and hopefully completing the full run of the Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail off my bucket list before I turned 50 (Tuesday). Other than that, the only design for this weekend was to enjoy and not make a big deal out of the birthday I was approaching as I have never been one who wants a big deal made out of birthdays.

I managed to have a 4-day weekend off, which gave me plenty of time Friday to get a lot of errands done—the most notable were two big appointments to get Emelia high school ready. After I got in a 30km bike ride, I came home, got showered and took Emelia off to appointment number one: her hair colouring and cut. The couple hours that took allowed me pick up some groceries for Mom & Dad and deliver them and have a quick visit. And, by the time that was done she was ready to move on to appointment number two: fitting for contacts. She was ecstatic about the hairdo, and the contact fitting went swimmingly as she walked out in her contacts after 15 minutes.

With all of the errands out of the way, it was time to head home, pack, load the truck for a weekend at the trailer, and wait for Danielle to get home from work. Way back when, Danielle and Emelia were planning for my birthday weekend Emelia only had one request and that was to get as many of the family together as possible as she missed them all terribly. I thought it was the perfect sort of way to celebrate my birthday and so Danielle sent out the feelers, and as luck would have it, almost everyone was available to make it. And while it would be impossible due to accessibility for Mom & Dad to make it, we knew we could have them there virtually via FaceTime.

About the middle of the day on Saturday, family started arriving. First it was Danielle’s sister Chantelle, Todd & Marshall. Then, Testza, Zoe and Abi, and then Matthew & Shawn. And, all the way from Welland, my brother David showed up too. As we spent the afternoon reconnecting I was acutely aware just how I had missed being among my family. Thank you to Emelia for recognizing and needing this, because in the end as much as it was for her, it was for all of us. We had some food, some cake and a wonderful FaceTime visit with Mom & Dad to boot! There was tons of laughter, smiles and well… just being together—something we all hadn’t done in some time.

Sunday morning it was up bright and early for my last stab at completing the full end-to-end version of the G2G Rail trail going from Guelph to Goderich in one day. The weather was lined up in my favour and we managed to get on the road in time to get me to Guelph so I could get the early start on the day. And by 9:15am I was off from the VIA Rail station in Guelph. After having attempted it one time a month ago with Justin & Stephanie, I quickly realized how helpful it was to know what the route looked like. Very quickly with that comfort of knowing where I was going, I realized I was making very good time! Before I knew it I was at the Kissing Bridge, something we had skipped last trip.

As I motored along and texted my whereabouts to our group thread, they also recognized the good time I was making. In fact I had made such good time getting out of Guelph it was ahead of West Montrose (where the Kissing Bridge is) when I realized while I had started my trip in the Ride with GPS app, I had completely forgotten to start the workout on my Apple Watch! So 45 minutes and 20 km into my ride, the Watch Workout got started… Boooo! That SNAFU was remedied by getting to see the only active covered bridge in Ontario (one that cars can actually cross) and then ride across it.

Shortly after that, I was in Elmira for the first rest/food stop of the day. I had reached this point, even with the side trip to the Kissing Bridge a full 30 minutes ahead of the last attempt we made at this run. I had a banana, a Clif bar and plenty of water and then was on my way. The next four towns on the run: Wallenstein, Linwood, Millbank and Milverton seemed to come up in a hurry as I continued to make great time! The toughest part of the ride is the part that gutted us the last time: between Monkton and Walton which is 20 km and through a lot of open field. This section almost got me again this time as I almost stumbled into Walton after fighting a significant headwind from Milverton on. I parked my butt on the bench in Walton and spent a good 30 minutes resting and replenishing.

I found the gumption to push on, and after Walton, Blyth and Auburn were a bit of a blur. By the time that I hit the section of the G2G between Blyth and Auburn that I ride all the time, I found extra energy in knowing that I was in the home stretch—the only thing holding me back now was the river crossing where I’d don my water shoes and cross carrying my bike. On the other side it was a quick phone call to Danielle to let her know I was down to the last 20km to Goderich and I would be there in about 30 minutes for her to meet me. I pushed and pushed as it was getting harder and I was getting more dehydrated.

By the time I reached the Highway overpass that means that you hit the Goderich city limits I probably could have cried if I had the tears. It meant I was so close. Really all that was left was following Maitland River on it’s way out to Lake Huron. I crossed the Menesetung Bridge, rode down the path to find Danielle there waiting for me at the end of my ride. I was exhausted, sweaty and completely dehydrated. So much so, that the Gatorade she got me that I guzzled, my swollen and sore throat caused me to question all my life decisions that day. Back at the campground I took what felt like a 3 hour, hot shower in the outdoor shower and started to feel like I might not die.

I am proud of myself for getting it done. And the biggest thing was making it happen ahead of my 50th birthday tomorrow. And, doing it solo to boot. It ended up being 135.3 km and 6:11 hours of riding time. I burned 3,345 calories on the day. But I am most proud of pushing past the section that did us in the last time, and making it beyond there to see this trough in one run at it, in the same day. I don’t know why it is so important that I do it this way—maybe it’s the completist in me? But I am happy that I can say I did the Full Fondo in one run. That I have another Century Ride under my belt. And, I am happiest to say I don’t need to do it again. Any time soon.

Now, the next milestone, is the big 5-0. And All I have to do, to do that, is just age. That I can do!

She said

This weekend was exactly what we needed and was a perfect way to celebrate John’s 50th birthday. We were where we love to be and we were with the people who mean the most to us.

Emelia has been really struggling lately, really struggling so when we were talking a few weeks ago about what we would do to celebrate her daddy’s birthday all she cared about is that we saw family. She knew how much it would mean to him to be with as much family as we could. She really needed this and it was exactly what John would want too. As a family that is as close as ours is it has been so hard spend so much of the last 18 months apart.

A few weeks ago I put the feelers out to all of our siblings to see if anyone would be able to come spend time together and celebrate John’s birthday. And much to our excitement not only could most of John’s siblings attend my sister and her family were able to come for the entire weekend. We (especially Emelia) were over the moon excited. The week leading into this week was a very busy one, filled each day with getting things ready for Emelia to start high school, full of medical and personal appointments. By the time Friday night came along we were all ready to have a weekend at the trailer and be around the people we love the most.

Saturday was such a perfect day! By early afternoon my sister and her family arrived, shortly after in quick order most of John’s family arrived. The kids were all off and having a great time. Emelia was in her glory, she was with a lot of her cousins and she got to have lots of snuggle time with our youngest niece Abi! It was just what we all wanted and needed. The day flew by and before we knew it the day was behind us and John, Emelia, Charlie, Todd and Marshall were all around the fire having a great end of a perfect day.

The next morning we all got up early, Charlie and I to take John to Guelph to start his epic ride. Since Chantelle and I see each other so little we try and squeeze in as much ‘us’ time as we can. I was so happy she wanted to get up at the crack of dawn to make the trek with me to bring John to start his ride. The ride back we caught up, shared memories and generally got to hang out like sisters need to. The rest of our day was pretty lazy, we followed John on his ride on ‘find friends’. Shortly before 4:00 I was given the update from John that he was close and I could head to pick him up in Goderich. I was able to time to catch a photo of the end of his long ride. I cannot express how incredibly proud of John I am, this is not a small feat, he overcame a lot to get here and has absolutly killed it!!!! You make us proud every day and I could not think of a better way to spend your last weekend in your 40s than doing what you love so much.

Today we sadly said good-bye to Charlie and her family and then made our way home to get on track what will be a big day in Emelia’s life tomorrow. I cannot believe our baby starts high school tomorrow – she is as equally nervous as she is excited. She cannot wait to get back to some sort of normal and be back in school, meet new friends and hopefully experience some sort of high school experience. The last 18 months has been so hard on kids, it has been so hard on Emelia. We cannot wait to hear all about her first day and hope it is everything she hopes it will be.

One last thought before I end this week – Happy Birthday John! You are our rock, our happy place, our inspiration, our first love and our soul. Happy 50th my love, hope this year brings you all the happiness you deserve! Love you always.