Me being a mere mortal, had to wait at least 24 hours to
catch my breath after the tour.
What a wonderful load of fun again this year. This was my
4th tour - by far the best weather I've seen. Thanks to all
the organizers for arranging that, along with everything
else. I called my brother late Friday to ask him if he'd
mind taking my luggage to Carleton in the morning (so I
could ride the 14 kms to Carleton and ease parking
congestion). His wife stayed on the line and we seemed to
endlessly go over every conceivable option of how the
lugguge could get to Carleton without my Brother's
intervention. Anyhow, the sun had set by this time and I cut
the chatter off by saying I'd call them back if I couldn't
arrange something. I called Carleton and they said they had
a storage room I could leave my luggage in overnight, so off
I went. It was almost 10 PM by this time, and you'd never
guess who was there - Rosemarie Gerber. We chatted for a bit
and she told me she had to get up at 4:30 the next morning
to print the certificates and few other things. I would need
caffeine for blood to do all that, along with all the other
countless "behind the scenes" details she deals with the
average rider never knows about.
Here are some more comments on some other emails I saw:
Greg Goodwin - Extra Sag Wagon
We saw that vehicle too, a blue wagon with roof racks,
female driver. I did not see her do anything erratic but she
must have passed us a half a dozen times. She appeared to be
supporting a group of francaphone riders and when she
stopped she was as far off the road as she could safely get.
No doubt she did not intend to run anyone off the road. I
saw several vehicles generate dust clouds to accommodate
oncoming traffic (usually because of impatient motorists
failing to yield the right-of-way and passing a pack of
cyclists). Some motorists panic when one of their wheels
leaves the road and they over-correct their steering,
causing them to fish-tail. This is a dangerous situation for
cyclists because I saw this happen to one fellow on
Franktown Road about 10 years ago. He over-corrected and
ended up crashing through a farmer's fence on the opposite
side of the road (no injuries).
Brian Martin - 12 Year Old Rider
Foster's book "Effective Cycling" says adults with children
should keep their kids in front of them so that the parent
can see what they are doing and issue verbal instructions as
required. Clearly, if the parent was letting the child
proceed ahead out of both ear and eye shot, this is not a
prudent thing to do.
In closing, I regret to say I have one "complaint", which is
more intended to be a funny story (so I don't incur Paul
Smeulder's wrath):
My only difficulty on the tour was the check in a Queens. My
room key said "BAN" on it. The young lady at the desk said
it's down that way, pointing down the road from which we
came. Luggage in one hand, bike, helmet, gloves, t-shirt,
room key, envelope, cycling shoes in the other, I set off in
the direction of "Ban....ummm...whatever". There's Chown,
there's Adelaide, hmmm...I've seemed to have run out of
buildings. I put all my stuff down and asked a passing
student where "BAN" was. She had no idea....sorry. I said
it's okay because I noticed a directory across the street
and decided to take a look at it. Unfortunately, the area I
needed to see was under glass that was cracked and covered
with sand underneath. I managed to find the words "Ban Righ"
on the building list, so at least I knew the name of the
building. I decided to turn left (only obvious way to go)
and I found it.
Ahh, what a relief. I collected up all my stuff and marched
smartly into the dorm.....hmmmm [puzzled]....this looks more
like a restaurant than a dorm. Hmm...not a sole around. I
put my stuff down again and explored the hallways in both
directions looking for any sign of intelligent life. Alas, I
heard the faint clatter of pots coming from a stairwell
leading down, which I descended into a kitchen. A fellow saw
me in my cycling suit and asked, "you're looking for the
dorms, aren't you" to which I said yes. (For a nanosecond,
being tired, I considered saying something sarcastic like
"Well, I not actually a "Cyclist", but I did stay at the
Holiday Inn last night....") The fellow was very helpful and
escorted me to the door that lead to the dorms. I looked at
it earlier but dismissed it as a dorm door, because of the
locks on it. I was unaware it was a female dorm and needed a
key to open it. I thanked him profusely after collecting up
all my belongings again.
I turned the key and opened the door. It was a large heavy
door, and I found I could not hold it open and wheel my bike
and carry all my stuff in one trip (by this time the fellow
had left). I put my luggage down and wheeled my bike through
the door. I found a spot to lean my bike against in the
stairwell, and the door closed behind me.
Hmm....locked....ah, key!....insert and turn - still
locked....[puzzled]....bike and me inside, luggage locked
outside...[puzzled]...blue button marked "lock"....ah,
press!....pull door - still
locked....[annoyance]....curcuits burning...press button -
insert key - pull door - still locked...blood pressure now
at dangerous levels...insert key - button lights up - press
button - door opens....phew, blood pressure dropping to
normal...melt down narrowly averted (good thing I was with
the "tour group")....got luggage and hauled all belongings
up the stairs to room.
So, I would like to suggest more specific directions on how
to get to the various buildings, other than "its down that
way". I don't know how feasible this is, but if our
registration letters could include our building names, it
will help because we can look it up here:
http://www.queensu.ca/tour/campus.html
before the tour. This might delay the mailing date of the
registration letters, I suppose. Just a thought. Another
option is providing a campus map. They gave us Kingston
maps. Either one will help minimize the number of cylcists
asking for directions, freeing up volunteers to do arrivals.
Anyhow, I had a wonderful time. I met dozens of new people,
many from Toronto, and saw a lot of familiar faces. Thanks
again to everyone for a top-notch tour.
-Rod Plunkett
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