Fund raising ride - update 3

Note: To read my first blog on cycling around lake Erie and update on the fund raising, click here. On the second update, click here.

To donate: Click on the following secure link provided by CNIB - http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=2184105&langPref=en-CA

Just one month plus a couple days till D-day, time for an update. D day is now set to Sunday, August 17; I will tell you why, later on.

Fund raising: As of to day, July 15, $2,880.00 is raised. Thank you all for your generosity.
New sponsors are: Ash D'Silva, Barbara Low, Edward Tjioe, Laurene Cheung, Thomas Chen, Rudy Leem, Inge Susanto, Merna Jules, Lesmana Gani, Kwan Bhe, Iwan Suwandi, Florentina Harjani, Meta and Tony Tan, Elizabeth Liu, John Liem, Ira Djuanda, Gloria Campbell, Stephen Dobson, Merle Gonsalvez, Patricia Peltier-Joseph, Rudy Budi Hartono, David Tan, Roger Pascall, Leza Laswardi, Marcel Tio, Franciscus Sukardi, Maria Sudjana, Bernice Quintieri, Sioe Theng, Eric Tchao.

Preparation for the big ride.

Navigation:
Last month, I was introduced to a navigation tool that I thought would be helpful for my ride around lake Erie. Our team leader, Greg, for the 50 km Blaze-a-thon ride used his android smart phone with a gps app from ridewithgps.com, to get an audio turn-by-turn navigation during our ride. I was intrigued. I do not have a smart phone but perhaps it could work with my Nexus7 tablet.
After spending some time exploring the ridewithgps.com site, I decided to sign up as a basic member. The audio turn-by-turn navigation works well with my Nexus7, as long as the route is planned well. It took me some time to learn to plan and set up the route properly.
Here is a sample of my plan for Day-2 ride around lake Erie.
There are still things to explore and learn from ridewithgps.com, so far I am happy with it. The basic membership cost $6 a month and I do not have to purchase any new hardware to use the software. I will certainly use it for my ride around lake Erie.

Training:
Ride 4 or 5 times a week. Week days I cycled around the neighbourhood for about 35 km and in the week-end, north of Brampton for about 60 to 75 km.
Last Saturday, July 12, I cycled to Niagara Falls from Mississauga, total distance 138 km, carrying about half the load that I would carry on my tour around lake Erie.

Hills, near Glen Williams north-west of Brampton.

The route I cycled to Niagara Falls from Mississauga on July 12.

Physically I feel good and ready for the big ride around lake Erie.

Logistic:
Changed the D date to August 17 from August 31, because after September 2 the ferry service from Sandusky to Pelee island is limited to 2 runs, one on Friday and another one on Sunday, for the whole week.
To avoid going through Detroit and finding a way to cross the Detroit bridge back to Canada, which is restricted to cyclist, I decided to take the ferry from Sandusky to Pelee island and another ferry from Pelee island to Kingsville, Ontario.

Still have to work on the remaining plan for the route and study available facilities, like restaurants and bicycle stores, along the route.

I will write one more update before the big day, see you then.