From coast to coast. Day 29. The end of the tour

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Trip Start Aug 01, 2010 Previous
Entry Trip End Aug 29, 2010

  Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday, August 29, 2010

Last morning meeting today.  We were joined by Pat Kealey from Harley Davidson and Malcolm Hunter, President of Harley Davidson.  Set out from Vancouver to take the ferry to Victoria where we were met by about 30 bikers.  Great to have such a warm welcome.  Toured around and went to Nanaimo and then regrouped at the Harley dealership to parade into Esquimalt    .  About 75 bikes rode onto the base where we had our final "dog and pony show".  This one was a little different in that it was our last and thanks and appreciation were extended by both Byron and Garry to the assistant Ride Captains Larry, Steve and Smoker and to Darren for his work in preparing the route maps every day.  Byron and Garry also recognized all the people who had ridden the whole way, and recognised the vanguards and national vanguards and acknowledged all of the tour crew.  Finally Byron acknowledged the POTGS and awarded Scott Day the "toughest biker of the Ride for Dad award", pointing out that Scott rides through anything with no windshield; his gloves fly off, and he keeps riding; he wears no chaps on a bike that is smaller than everyone else's.  Scott road from St. John's all the way to Victoria.  Byron ended his speech by saying to Scott "Mr. tough biker, here is your teddy" and awarded him one of our souvenir bears.

The base commander spoke and talked about how much he enjoys being a biker.  He told a story of a ride through Saskatchewan one Sunday when his ungloved hands were so cold, he pulled over at the only store open, a drug store.  He looked around and came out wearing the only hand protection he could find -  a pair of checkered oven mitts with ducks on them.  He wore these home and pointed out that whenever he made the biker wave at approaching bikers, he got some strange looks and felt that he may have nearly caused an accident or two.

Wayne sang his final rendition of "We Ride for Dad and the Militaries Family Fund" (set to the Steppenwolf Born to be Wild tune) and thanked everyone who has worked with and supported him this past month.  Likewise, Garry thanked Wayne for his contributions and his support to us all, along with his bus Bertha.

So they say all good things must come to an end.  We left Signal Hill on August 1 and just as scheduled here we are on August 29, in Victoria B.C.  We have ridden through wind, rain, extreme cold temperatures and  stiffling hot days, smoke from forest fires, fog and thunderstorms; we have ridden over prairies, mountains, taken several ferries, over railway tracks, through construction zones, over gravel roads and many potholes along the way.  Still the National Ride Captain Byron, founder Garry, the crew and the riders have maintained a great sense of humour and made this Tour a huge success. We have organized, set up, attended and taken down over 34 events in many different cities, spreading the word about our causes.  We have met Canadians from coast to coast who have listened to our message, who have told us stories of their own, who have laughed with us and cried to us telling their stories, and have generously reached into their pockets.  We have come to know the people we have travelled with these past 29 days, done favours for each other, listened to each other's concerns, supported each other, and had loads of laughs.  We have formed new friendships and all will come away knowing this has been an experience of a lifetime for each of us personally and hoping that we have made a difference in many people's lives and hopefully saved lives too. It has been a study in human behaviour in terms of how our relationships have evolved within our core group and we have come out of  it still speaking to each other (!) and even better, feeling that we have formed a group of people who have the ability, even though we were some of us strangers, to work well and closely together.  That in itself speaks volumes for the success of this Tour.

Jamie Rosewarne and Kelly Goulet are the glue that have held this together.  They have worked tirelessly at all hours scheduling, rescheduling, communicating, doing everything from setting up stages, to stepping in to help sell souvenirs, to arranging travel for family members joining the tour, arranging get togethers, shopping for party supplies. They have gone above and beyond their jobs and they are to be commended.  Jamie's son A.J. joined us in Trenton and he has been an extension of his Dad, helping everyone in every way possible.

We have worked as a team and pulled it off.  Our riders have been wonderful in terms of getting out there and raising funds at every stop, by helping us too whenever they could and by showing to us they appreciate what we have done and that they have thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

Our National Ride Captain, if he was sitting here as I write this, would be yelling "FOUR MINUTES", to give me the warning of when we have to pack up and leave.  So I am packing up now and heading out to the airport and leaving behind an experience I will never forget.  It has been a good thing, and it does not have to come to an end.. we will all ride on for Ride for Dad in our local rides across the country.

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