4500 Mile Ride for Charity - Update July 18th

Hey everyone! I will be departing to continue the last 2000 miles of the 4500 Mile Ride for Charity, tomorrow, Sunday the 19th. I am 4 days behind my intended schedule...not bad for a guy that is winging it :). Regarding my note about being broke and all that...my apologies for whining in public. It won't happen again. I think I had some lessons to learn on this ride as well. All the way from Ottawa (where I ran out of funds) to CT I heard a bible verse echoing in my head, and when I got here to Bristol, my baby girl, Nitza told me it was Matthew 6:26...off the top of her beautiful head. I am so blessed. Look it up...it reminds us not to worry about anything and uses the beasts of the field and the birds of the air as an example...they don't worry or toil and yet they survive. We are God's children...wouldn't he take at least that care for us? Think about it and Believe! Here is a little reminder pic...of a little guy I captured in Montreal. Ever try and take a picture of a sparrow?? They don't sit still very long!

So I started doing that somewhere during the three days of rain riding I did thru Quebec, down to the Parc National du Mont Orford where I had to borrow $20 CAD from a stranger so I could get back into the USA and to my sister Catherine and her husband Kelly (Semper Fi my brother) for getting me to CT. Thank you to Bruno for helping a stranger in the forest...reminds me of a verse where Jesus says something like "whenever you do these things for the least of your brothers...you do it for me". May blessings be many for Bruno and his family and everyone that has helped me with my mission to help those in need. All my challenges have been resolved by an old investment in Compaq stock I forgot I had...and I am mounting Pandora to complete the ride. Praise the Lord. I am starting to sound like a preacher :o rather than a biker...actually I'm just a geek with a bike.

When people ask me if I' riding alone...I tell them I have lots of people online in social media (and angels) riding with me. Thanks for everyone's support.

Where am I going next on my way to Texas? Let me think about it a bit...hmmmm.

4500 Mile Ride for Charity - Bristol, CT - Farewell to my Grand'Mere Edna Didsbury

First of all, I want to thank The Lord for keeping me safe and allowing me to continue this mission to raise money for the needy in Houston, Ottawa and the world. Secondly, I want to thank all of my friends, family and supporters of the 4500 Mile Ride for Charity for the progress we have made so far with this social media fundraising experiment and epic adventure. It is great to be alive and to have met so many fantastic people with great big hearts and souls. Many blessings will come to those that serve others in need!

For those who have sent me messages asking how the ride went...Thank You BUT, we are not done yet!! I apologize for being somewhat absent for the past 10 days or so, but I had to get off Pandora for a bit to attend to some family business in Bristol, CT while on the ride. My Grand'Mere Edna Didsbury, the matriarch of our family, passed away right before I began this ride. Don't be sad...this was a circle of life situation, as she was 93 years old, lived a blessed life with her husband Lester for 64 years of marriage, many kids, grandkids and greatgrandkids,then passed into her Lord's house in her sleep, with no pain and no significant illness in her final days. I suspect Grand'Mere stopped by to visit her family in France first on he way to her Lord, as she told us three times that they were coming to take her to France during her final few days. We can all hope for such a blessed life! The Didsburys, Beans, Cables and all of our other family came up to CT to pay our respects and to have a family and friends reunion...it was amazing and we laid Grandma to rest in the Northfield Cemetary next to Lester and all of our ancestors since the first ones came across the pond. We all wrote messages to Grandma on helium balloons and let them fly into the heavens as has become our family tradition for our final goodbyes...try doing that with a dry eye!

The Northfield cemetary is one of my favorite places on the planet...beside it runs an old footpath through a dark ancient forest, where the ground is soft with centuries of Douglas fir tree droppings and the Northfield River below cascades downhill over waterfalls, cutting through granite rocks patiently. The breeze blows softly through the trees at the top of this hill above Thomaston, CT and the old Seth Thomas watch factory and brings with it a sense of peace I have found in very few places in the world. I took my daughter Nitza down to walk on this path after the burial service, stepping along in the footprints of our ancestors and drinking in the glory of His creation around us. Nitza is a very soulful child and she appreciated my "special place". I am happy and Grandma is now with my Grandfather, my father and all the other Didsbury's and Vidous. Rest in His Light Grand'Mere and thank you for a lifetime of your love and service to me, my children and of our family!

4500 Mile Ride for Charity - June 30 thru July 4th - Back in the USA!

Happy Independence Day and a belated Happy Canada Day to my friends north of the border!



At last posting I had stopped for the night in Victoriaville, Quebec after turning south on route 55 towards the States. The next morning while riding I stopped in Danville, Quebec at the Bureau D'Informaion Touristique, where Annie gave me directions to the border crossing and told me about the Canadian Parc National du Mont Orford near Orford, Quebec on my route south, so I headed there.



On the way I missed one of my turns and ended up discovering this cool bridge and memorial site along the way. I backtracked after a quick ride over this metal bridge and back...and found my way to Mount Orford near the town of Orford.

I spent that night the next day (Canada Day - July 1st) and night in the Parc, an appropriate day to spend Canada Day, as the Parc is like 75% Maple trees, part of a large grove of maples that inhabit the valley around Mont Orford. I spend the 1st exploring the parc, hiking, swam in the lake and relaxed a bit. I saw lots of the local flora and fauna, and captured some on film.

After watching the sunset, I made an Inukshuk statue (or my version of one) in the tradition of the northern tribes of Canada. According to Wikipedia, the Inukshuk is "is a man-made stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, from Alaska to Greenland." In my case, it marks my stop at that campsite, part of my 4500 Mile Ride for Charity. I left the statue behind, with its precarios balance...I wonder how long it will remain erect? Building one is harder than it seems. I started with a pile of rocks from around the campsite and the result is below.





I left the Parc du Mont Orford on the morning of July 2, and it began to rain as soon as I was packed. The day without rain in the park was nice, and it was nice to get back on the road, even though it would be stop and go riding all day due to all the rain. I rode about 10-20 miles each stretch before I had to stop for visibility problems and just due to the stress of riding down mountains on slick asphalt roads in the rain.



At night my visibility challenges worsened. During one stop around midnight on top of a mountain somewhere up the road from Hanover, VT, I pulled over to wipe the windshield and my goggles of bugs and fog. While sitting on the shoulder of the road in the pitch black, I was greeted by a fantastic firefly show, where about 30 fireflys were dancing in the air among the wet grass and up under the fir tree boughs. I stepped off the bike for a second and she fell over into the ditch, about 20 degrees upside down! With my load on Pandora, she is quite heavy, so here I was, grunting and heaving, gasoline spilling out of the top of the tank, rain coming down on me, 18 wheelers passing by blowing additional water on me as I struggled to upright Pandora. I would lift, then rest the weight on my legs while I caught my breath, then heave some more. Eventually I got her back upright, firmly on the kickstand, and started her up. Other than the rear-view mirrors and left front headlight/turnsignal being twisted around, some mud and grass on the windshield and footpegs, she was fine and I had been unhurt. I adjusted all of these at my next stop in Hanover, VT. I then continued down the road VERY slowly in the rain and dark.

By 3am on July 3rd I had had enough and stopped at a rest stop near Hartford, Vermont...and stretched out on a picnic table for a wet nap. When the sun came up, I awoke, changed into some dry clothes, warmed up some coffee and Chef Boy R D Lasagna and napped another hour or two before re-packing the bike and heading out.



Riding through Vermont on I-91 is scary in the rain and even more in the rain at night, but in the sunshine on dry roads it is amazing! It was so good to ride in the sun again, without the bulk of the rain gear!



I wouldn't see the sun again for two days of riding down I-91 thru Vermont towards Connecticut. fortunately the second day of riding was sunny and the roads were finally dry...until I hit Hartford, CT, about 20 minutes from my destination. After riding around a bit getting my bearings, I finally made my cousin's apartment in Bristol. After a brief visit with Allen, I slept until noon today, discovered a wireless connection and made this post. I will update the pics on Facebook and post some new videos on YouTube channel over the next few days. I plan to take some visits to local towns in CT while I am here to lay my Grandmother to rest and have a family reunion.

Thank you to everyone who has been following my 4500 Mile Ride for Charity and for all of the incredible support! I will share some updated statistics as soon as I can, but over a week ago, our message had been seen by over 250,000 people through all the media, 15,000 had visited this blog and donations and sponsors pages from over 26 countries, 233 people have joined the Facebook group from over 10 countries, and about 150 people have viewed my videos on YouTube.com/ldidsbury. The experiment CAN WORK...we can reach a million people and have them donate $1 or more directly to the charity of their choosing! Help me make a difference! Tell your friends and tell them to do the same!!

Blessings!
Lawrence