Day 7 - Gander to Grand Falls-Windsor

It’s my favourite day!!! No, not Tuesday...I have no special affinity for Tuesdays (aside from cheap movie night....which come to think of it, at $8.50 is still well above what most people pay for regular price). No, today is my favourite day because it’s a MISTY DAY!!! I’m on the bike again all day and it’s another gorgeous sunny day. I am currently typing this section while riding in Pace (pictures of all these vehicles are coming when I can get phone service again).

We started this morning with an EMT (Extraordinary Mode of Transport) of an airplane (fitting for Gander as you learned yesterday). We sent up a Medal-Bearer pilot along with a member of our Relay staff to snap some pictures.

                                                        Corey about to take that puppy up!

                                                       The Medal several thousand feet in the air!

We just finished a really fun trip through Glenwood....

Okay, so clearly I did not finish this post while on the motor home as it is now midnight on Wednesday as I am finally getting a chance to finish it up.

Now I can’t really remember what happened....even in Glenwood where I apparently had a really fun time. Haha We did have a lovely lunch provided for us down in a park which was very welcomed. It was WINDY I remember that! We had some very cool Medal-Bearers as well. Oh yes, Glenwood....I remember now...we had lots of very excited kids eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Relay. Here's Deena with a few little ones as they look down the road, waiting for us to come around the corner...

                                                 Even better than the Ice Cream Truck!

We had some cool folkls participate in Grand Falls-Windsor as well. The one’s I will focus on are the Chicoine Family. (Who are from Quebec but participated in GF-W)

They are a Mother and Father and 6 kids (4 girls and 2 boys) and they are all traveling together right across Canada and back across the United States and finally returning back to Vancouver in February 2012. The thing that makes them unique is that they are RUNNING across as a family. They are doing it as a relay type format where they switch on and off so that one person is always running. They call it the Marathon of Health and they are doing it to raise awareness for living a healthy lifestyle and to bring attention and information about how to improve your health through fitness and exercise. They are also raising money for KidSport and Right to Play which are organizations who work to get youth involved in organized sport who may otherwise face barriers such as financial constraints. The  whole concept and idea is really cool, but when you think about traveling in those close of quarters with that many people for so long and putting the strains on your body of covering off over 100km a day plus interviews and media stories and special events and all the logistics and planning and injuries that go on, it’s hard to imagine it being too easy of a task. But every one of them had a huge smile on their face and were very excited to talk about their venture and they all seemed genuinely happy and proud and supportive of each other at the half way point of their trip. It’s pretty remarkable that a family that size would not only have the physical ability to pull off such a feat, but also the dedication to pull it off (The kids are all young adults at that point in their lives where they are finding themselves and their interests and typically would be venturing out to do their own thing.) I find it pretty amazing that they all decided they wanted to put their individual lives on hold and share in their father’s dream and participate as a family together. That’s what families are supposed to be all about heart warming to see how passionate all the children are towards helping to achieve that goal. Check out their story at http://marathonofhealth.com/

Goodnight all!

Jonesy