June 25th

June 25^th
I am super bummed that I am not cycling today; however, we used the day to meet up with Chris Oliver, who is a buddy of mine from Sarnia that is going to bike the first day with me. Chris is currently living in Victoria, BC, as he is posted there for the navy. Chris spread the word to as many people as he could and managed to wrangle up $200 to donate to Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope- You’re the man Oliver!!!

After meeting with Chris, Elyse and I walked around downtown Vancouver looking for a bike shop to pick up a few last minute items, scoped out the UBC campus because we are starting there tomorrow, and then we went out for lunch with my friend from university, Adinda!

We drove to the Tupper’s house because we were staying with them the night of the 25^th. Mrs. Tupper works for the Parkinson’s Society in BC, and she was kind enough to invite Elyse and I into her family’s home for the night. They cooked up an incredible stew for dinner and I was off to bed early as I wanted to get a good sleep. I honestly can say I don’t think I have ever had a stew with such tender meat in it…whatever they did to that stew, I give them huge props!!! 

June 23-BC Bound…Vancouver here we come!

We were up a little later today…up by 5:30 and on the road by 6. Elyse and I are getting used to the tent and how to work together to get packed up as efficiently as possible. We drove through rain all day (wouldn`t be BC if we didn`t) and arrived in Vancouver by 630pm. Same beautiful scenery kept a smile on my face all day. I was pumped to get back into Canada to grab some Timmies....the gas station coffee in the states just doesn't cut it!

Liz Charyna is a friend of Steph Purdy and we were fortunate enough to have Liz host us tonight! Liz had a birthday party to attend, so she forwarded her landlord’s number and Stan kindly let us in. Liz had freshly baked cookies waiting for us and a note that said she would be home later.

 I met Liz that night and she was exactly as Steph described her…SO KIND…Liz has a whack load of experience working with Non-profits and is currently recruiting the National Director of The Terry Fox Foundation! Liz made us feel completely at home and hopefully we can meet again down at Purdy’s fishery in Point Edward, ON.  

June 24^th-Visiting Vancouver

Elyse and I spent today checking out a few things that we wanted to see in Vancouver. Liz let Elyse borrow her bike, so we biked along the Sea Wall to Stanley Park, checked out the Capilano Suspension Bridge, and then headed back to Liz`s house. This city is incredibly bike friendly and the landscape is top notch.

Pictures of sea wall Stanley park etc

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be day one of my biking but we actually needed to start the 26^th of June because the first day was from Vancouver to Abbotsford and we were not expected in Abbotsford until the 26^th. So we spent tonight in Vancouver and then got a few things ready to for the ride. 

June 22- Day 3…Aiming to be back in Canada

Up again at 4am to drive through Yellowstone National Park, head up towards Glacier National Park, then eventually cross into Alberta via the Chief Mountain Boarder Crossing. This was by far the most incredible landscape I have ever seen. Yellowstone was incredible, but the entire ride from there to BC was equally as amazing! We saw bison, bears, wolves, elk etc.

Pictures of Yellowstone to Pincher, AB

                                                                                   

We entered Pincher Creek, AB and found a campsite to call home.

June 21-Day 2 of driving

Up at 4am again and on the road by 5…we decided to head to Yellowstone National Park because we thought since we were fairly close, adding a few more km’s to the trip would be worth it. It was very worth it!

We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Badlands in North Dakota, where we met Sue and Marvin. Marvin was the first person in the states to tell us that he has had Parkinson`s for around ten years. We had a little chat about the procedures he had had to try and help him live with PD (he had an implant but it has not had any real positive results yet). 

We stopped in a little town just outside of Yellowstone to ask how much further to Yellowstone and if there was anywhere to buy bear spray. A local overhead us talking and made it very clear that we still had a ways to go and the last thing we should do is try to drive the twists and turns of the path to Yellowstone and then try to setup a soft shelled tent in the dark. So, we took her advice and camped in a little area off the side of the road. The scenery here is just beautiful…really made up for the last gazillion hours of driving through East Montana and I won’t have to sacrifice feeding Elyse to a grizzly yet.

Today was my mom’s birthday and I managed to touch base with her from a Skype call. Happy birthday mom.

June 20th-Day of Departure

We did a quick swoop of the house, I said by to my chocolate lab, and then Elyse and I hopped into the van. We wanted to get as far west as we could, so we were up at 4am and on the road by 5. We drove through the USA to bypass the great lakes but man oh man are those toll roads annoying…I would probably buy an IPASS next time rather than sitting in line every ten minutes.

We had wonderful driving weather until the last hour or so where we were forced to pull over and wait out a ridiculous amount of rain in Minnesota.  We were getting tired so we searched for the first campground we could find and called a KOA home for the night.

Today is my dad’s birthday, so I tried calling him from Skype because my cellphone would have taken a hard hit if I turned it on to use it in the states. I didn’t get through to him BUT I said happy birthday to him before I left.

Okay, So we were crunching some final numbers tonight to finalize the total amount raised from Pre-ride events....The Ken's valu-mart & Purdy's All-You-Can- Eat Fish & Chips turned out to raise an incredible $4153.87. Mother Nature was on our side and gave us a beautiful bluebird day to serve over 200 folks who came out to enjoy a great meal/ support Parkinson's Cycle of Hope. A huge thank you goes out to Ken's valu-mart and Purdy's Fishery for donating the eats, the crew from Purdy's who kindly volunteered their time, Kaylin Elliott for capturing photos, my fam/friends for helping out again, and all the awesome folks who sold & bought tickets to this event!!! Sarnia support can't be beat and I greatly appreciate the people who have consistently had my back!!!!! Steph & Mike thank you SO much for hooking this me up with the opportunity to have this event!


Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope’s Car Wash for Parkinson’s research was an incredible way to end to the pre-ride fundraising!

First Christian Reformed Church is top-notch for allowing us to use their parking lot on the corner of Exmouth and Murphy Rd & WaterBoy Mobile Wash made the day by sponsoring the event! WaterBoy brought his professional mobile rig and sprayed down each vehicle while my family and friends volunteered their time to scrub, scrub, and scrub some more-I want to thank Chad, My dad/Mom, Amy, Maggi, Char, Keagan, Sean, Craig, and Hiller for volunteering their time! Also, Uncle Steve was the man of the hour a few times when he brought popsicles for the crew and customers!

The volunteers worked with WaterBoy Mobile Wash from 8am-6:30pm and the cars were very steady! I saw lots of familiar faces who have been supporting Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope along the way, and customers donated very generously to raise a total of $1143!!!!! We also had a kind woman graciously donate $1000 to Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope, so today’s final pre-ride fundraising event totalled $2143!!!!!

Elyse and I begin driving to Vancouver Tuesday, June 19th and I begin Cycling June 25th from Vancouver to Halifax, but Sarnia has been absolutely incredible through their support for Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope! I have a great family and great friends, but the support from businesses and individuals throughout the last 9 months can’t be matched. I am jacked to be able to call Sarnia my hometown and I will carry that with me throughout Canada. If the rest of Canada is as gracious as the residents of Sarnia-Lambton, Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope is going to surpass my goal of $50 000 without a doubt! We are working on calculating the final details from the wonderful night we had at Purdy’s Dockside Eatery and we will know our grand total raised thus far (Going to be very, very close to $30 000).

I hope Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope has brought a bit of awareness about Parkinson’s disease to Sarnia-Lambton, and I only hope we can bring more! I’m cycling for everyone who has ever been affected by Parkinson’s disease and I wasn’t sure what kind of support I would have behind me when I started, BUT let me be clear that I have a wonderful group of people supporting me in my dream to make a difference in the lives of people living with Parkinson’s disease. I love my old man and I hate this disease, so I can’t thank you enough for the generosity and support you have shown Parkinson’s Cycle of Hope!!!

Sincerely,

Cory Welsh

June 18th

June 18^th

The day before we were supposed to leave, the van was sitting at Lakeshore Automotive because there was leaking something…I thought it looked like coolant but we were told by someone it may be a head gasket issue. Mr. Kirk said it was rare to see head gasket issues on a Dodge Caravan, but my anxiety was still through the roof!

I saw that I had one missed call, so I listened to the voicemail and I heard very positive news! Lakeshore Automotive had discovered the van needed a new water pump and the van was fixed and ready to be picked up….Lakeshore Automotive donated the water pump and my keys were sitting there ready to go!

I was one happy kid…thank you Mr. and Mrs. Kirk!!!

It was 3 am and we still had packing to do before we could leave on the 19^th, so we decided not to leave until the 20^th.