Friday morning we woke to a glorious day, and the RFSK crew enjoyed a delicious breakfast, bacon and eggs, pancakes, croissant’s … We departed Crowne Plaza to ride through Cessnock and stop at our last school for 2011, Kearsley Public School were again we were greeted with open arms and the children were so excited to see us it was beautiful. The prizes for the colouring competition were again the highlight for the kids! The two bikes that were donated by ‘Hadleys Cycles’ we were told by Mr Ian Lampth the Principal of Kearsley Public School, that we could not have given to two more deserving children. Imogen, 6 and Liam, 7. So much so that he had tears in his eyes and thanked us! This is what the ride is all about! We hope that little Imogen, who didn’t even know how to hop on the bike enjoys her beautiful ‘bella’ and Liam can enjoy working on his fitness with his bright Blue Giant.
The riders enjoyed a tour of the school and sat with the students in their class room for 10mins before we departed on route to Terrigal. Another emotional school visit that hits home to all on RFSK 2011 why we are doing this. Keeping families together in tough times and giving sick children every chance of getting better, growing up and enjoying their own children.
The riders departed Kearsley Public School with our lead escort, a BMW X5, kindly donated to us for our ride by ‘Klosters BMW Newcastle’. The car looks fantastic all sticker-ed up with Ride for Sick Kids so all traffic can see it coming with flashing lights in tow. Brendan Drury, our Klosters representative rider for the week sat comfortably on the front of the pack leading them to the KOM (King of the Mountain) for today. A 1.3 climb out of ‘The Gap’ just prior to Freeman’s Waterhole. No outright winner today, the pack all rolled up together in a great time.
We took a drink break at Coorangbong, where our lovely driver Graham Smart from McKey stricked up a conversation with a very generous man who asked Graham what we were doing and then offered him a$100 donation. THANKYOU! Every dollar counts and we are so excited with our fundraising so far this year. We are going to be well and truly over our target and I can not wait to hear of the final figure that we have raised for this fantastic charity! Graham is driving our Truck (which sits right behind the riders to ensure their safety from all other Traffic) which is donated for the week, all petrol and Grahams services from McKey. The distributors of McDonald’s. McKey we couldn’t do it without you! Thankyou to Graham and Derrick for their continued support and help, collecting fruit, and muffins, delivering the ‘RFSK Travel Mugs’ to all the McDonalds Stores and ensuring all the luggage is courier from destination to destination.
The boys set off from Coorangbong for lunch 30km down the road, where we stopped at a beautiful beach side park, just North of Magenta Shores. The boys made great time today, putting the pace on to get into Terrigal as earlier as they could to have a well deserved sleep or spa. The road into Terrigal was long, with plenty of round-a-bouts, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, all riders safely navigated their way through, only to take the same route back out tomorrow morning. Everyone arrived at the ‘Haven’ park at the South end of Terrigal Beach to have photos with the local newspaper and enjoy Tim Tams and Wagon Wheels donated by Arnotts, not to mention one of our very large sponsors that have provided every drink for us known to man kind… Coca Cola! The riders have had so much to choose from, water, juice, coke, mother, powerade and the list goes on. So thankyou to Coca Cola for keeping our riders and support crew well hydrated for the entire ride.
We all returned to the Crown Plaza Terrigal to get ready for our last function of 2011. At present the function is still going, and I think it is going to raise alot of money for our RMH! I can not wait to hear the final results. A little inside to the function, it was very glamorous, the ladies were all dressed beautifully, the men in suits and the restaurant, ‘The Reef’ at the haven in Terrigal were pumping out some amazing food. The auction items looked fantastic, the mystery balloon purchase was a brilliant idea and everyone was having a great time when i had to depart! So final figures and photos will come tomorrow morning! One day left, 77km to RMH Newcastle and our ride for 2011 is officially at an end, but fundraising is not…
