Abbotsford, British Columbia

We are home again! We flew home without incident and arrived early in Vancouver. Janine was there to pick us up, and it was a joy to see her really pregnant, 7 months along. The house felt very unlived in, but our own bed felt great, and to have a bathroom 3 steps away from where you sleep was a luxury.

This morning early we are leaving for a week's rest and transition period at Whistler, and are looking forward to seeing old Ontario friends Andrew and Hilda Talsma who will join us there for a couple of days, as well as Diane's sister Chris and her husband Jeff who will meet us there - it's their Whistler home - later this week. Tomorrow Diane and I will celebrate the 36th anniversary of a wedding - our own - which no one there will ever forget, but that's another story. Suffice it to say that 36 years later we love each other more than ever.

It's really convenient, by the way, to have a home computer again. I wrote the last posted blog after walking more than 10 blocks from the school where we were staying through the surrounding neighbourhood, with my lap top open, checking to see where there might be an unsecured wireless system available for me to use. I finally found one, sat down on the curb in front of the house - the Apple family - and finished my blog. Now there will be no more desperate search for an internet connection.

We do feel a little strange, of course. The summer already begins to feel like a dream. Can it really be all over, everything we prepared for and anticipated so long? I'm sure we'll be rereading the blogs and viewing pictures throughout this week - not only our own but also that of others, for which we really had no time during the tour itself.

Thanks again to all of you who joined us via our blog on the Sea to Sea journey. We appreciated the fact that we, together with everyone else, were in your prayers and had your support. God answered your prayers for the safety of support crew and cyclists in often wonderful ways, and we both trust and hope that the sense of God's reality and presence in your life was and always will be as strong as it was in our lives during this whole experience. Let's also continue to pray and work together for the day when everything will be made new, and the cycle of poverty will come to an end at last.

The Lord bless you and keep you, daily make his face shine upon you, and give you peace, now and always....

Sunday's stats (approx):

Distance: 6246 kms.
Average speed: unknown, but in excess of 25 kph
Maximum speed: unknown, but in excess of 75 kph
Time in saddle: 6.30.00