The Final Tally

Over the last few days we have been contemplating getting on our bikes and riding home, because you see, the sun was laying on our left shoulders coming west. We thought it would be a good idea if we were to return home the opposite direction to even out our tans. Common sense prevailed though, and we're sticking with the original plan of flying home. After all, 6344 kilometres is quite a good haul. Yes indeed, our final tally was 6344 kms in 78 days. We did have 12 days off though, so really we did it in 66 days. And every one of them was so worth it, I've managed to come up with several adages (Bob's word). Here are some of them:

#1. If you are offered a free hot shower, take it. It's sometimes better than waiting a week for the next one.

#2. Good people and good pizza go together like bacon and eggs.

#3. Speaking of bacon and eggs, after an hour of biking it's great to fill up on 'em, especially on the prairies where two people can eat breakfast for $10.

#4. Don't pee into the wind.

#5. And finally, the prairies are flat and the Rockies aren't.

If you ever travel anywhere by bike, these are pretty good to know, especially #5.

Despite how amazingly awesome and educational this trip has been, I have to admit that I'm starting to look forward to getting home. School's soon starting and so are all the other things that go with it. Seeing as I missed 2 weeks of school at the other end I figure I shouldn't miss too much now. One of the greatest parts of doing a trip like this is that you get to meet so many amazing people, hopefully I'll get to see all of them again..... Only next time I'll drive.

The Feat

Well, we are pretty proud of ourselves today! Yes. those are our feet with the Fraser River behind them. In the last few days I have reflected a bit and come to know that we are privileged to have made this trip when most in the world cannot. I am thinking especially of the thousands of refugees around the world who must leave their homes, driven by chaotic rule or bad government. Their only journey, a search of survival. We can afford to take 3 months from work, when millions live in poverty. And we can voice our opinions, and sometimes silly comments, when others are imprisoned for doing so. Amnesty International helps thousands of impoverished and imprisoned, those without a voice and those struggling to gain their dignity. We want to thank everyone we met, who fed us, housed us and gave us donations and encouragement along the way. We entrust AI to use this money where it is needed the most. Here in Vancouver, thanks to Laurie and Don for letting us use their beautiful house while they are in Ontario. We're watching the log booms being maneuvered up the Fraser River, from their patio!

But this adventure is not over yet! We want to invite everyone, old friends and new, to a giant BBQ at our house! Watch here for the date! This will be one last fundraising, ginormous kick at the can to raise our total. In fact, I think we should light the BBQ right under that crazy thermometre that the AI donation page has assigned us, and watch the mercury climb, OK?

Tomorrow, we're going to Nanaimo to eat one of their famous eponymous bars. (look it up)

Out of the Okanagan

Sadly, after our last post, disaster struck. Bob got a bee in his bonnet, stung him in the noggin. And the day remained dismal for us, when we got to the campground and found a fire ban in place we had to resort to eating raw hotdogs for supper. Yum.... To top it all off, the zipper on the tent door was broken. The fates changed and our fortune turned after passing through Sicamous; houseboat capital of Canada. (Thus the picture below.) Fresh peaches bought from roadside stands, an awesome and well deserved swim in Lake Kalamalka (the temperature was 36 degrees Celsius), and a free pizza from Uncle Dave's Pizzeria in Vernon. To top it all off we figured out how to fix the door of the tent without having to buy a new one. We passed the 6000 kilometre mark today, Vancouver in 4 Days!!!!

Huckleberries and Magpies

The last 4 days have been perfect. This is cycling at it's finest, mountain scenes of staggering beauty in all directions. Tourquoise rivers and streams, trains winding through spiral tunnels and over iron bridges, snow topped peaks. We left Calgary in the cold and rain. We were offered a ride in a Staples van, but want everyone to know we did not accept. This was the 2nd offer on this trip. After spending a wonderful evening and morning with Paula and Simon we headed through Banff, Yoho and Gacier Nat. Parks... effortlessly. We are now convinced that we are traversing Canada in the "right" direction. The Rogers Pass and through the tunnels was the only work so far, lasting only an hour of pedalling. The Kicking Horse Pass was only difficult if you were coming east. Near Golden where we camped, we enjoyed fresh huckleberries from up in the mountains, with our granola for breakfast. We have not been in a real town for 3 days and have eaten all our provisions, so now we are leaving Revelstoke to fill up and hit the white line again for the afternoon.

Cowtown

After having a few days off to relax tomorrow is finally time to move into the Rockies. We arrived in Calgary on Monday, one day earlier than we had expected. Despite some seriously messed up mechanical problems in Drumheller. (A puncture in my tire that had come from the inside.) For our first full day in Calgary we did our old routine of playing tourist. We stopped in to the theatre were my dad used to work and got a tour from Diane. Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Warped Tour, as a volunteer at the Amnesty tent and in the evening we went to a BBQ at Nicole's house. Nicole had been our Amnesty contact in Calgary. After that Bob went to go see the Brandon Paris Band. It just so happened that they were in Calgary, on their way back to Vancouver. Unfortunately I couldn't go because it was at a pub, so I rode Bob's bike home to Morgan's house only getting slightly lost. Morgan was a Katimavik participent that stayed with us last winter.

A Prairie Wind

Well, here we sit in the library in Hanna, AB., home of Nickleback. We weren't sure to run for the foothills or bear the pain when we heard that. Closing in on Calgary. Tomorrow we will pass the 5000km. mark, somehow this one seems more important than the others. We really can do this. Here's some more windy statistics, since Tucker took all the good stories last post. From Winnipeg to Saskatoon, roughly 700km. the wind was from the north. We were travelling WNW so had the wind at 45 degrees in front. From Saskatoon to Calgary, roughly 600km. the wind remained the same. We are travelling WSW now so this is almost a tail wind. Following me here Maritimers. This is gold. So, the 1st leg was kind of tough but now 100km. days pass much more quickly. We did 100km. today in 5 hours with breaks! Please contact us if you would like more technical and mechanical details! Big plans for Calgary, stay tuned.

Saskatchewan. Hard to spell, Easy to draw

Ahhh.. the sweet smell of Saskatchewan. Four days of biking out of Winnipeg brought us to the Manitoba/Sask border. In that small amount of time we got lots to write about, first we stayed with Rob & Doris in Arden who we had met in Whitemouth, who made sure we were well pampered. Goose sausages for breakfast..... mmmmm. We also had two newspaper interviews, one in Neepawa and one in Shoal Lake, thanks to Ken Wadell and Darrell Nesbitt for those. Our most significant moment was walking up our first hill in the prairies. No way. Yes way! A hill. Another eventful four days of biking brought us to Saskatoon. Not so many good events though. A broken spoke and a flat tire on our way to Yorkton, about 5kms from the city, luckily it was repaired quickly the next morning. And now this morning when we woke up and got ready to head to a bike shop for a new chain for Bob's bike, we found out that the disc brake on my bike had a large bend in it. After scratching our heads for a moment we realized that the culprit was in our tent after we had picked it up last evening, a softball had come over the fence of the ballfield we were camped by and had hit the disc dead on. A true accident, which made us decide that we should lock the bikes somewhere different tonight. So now after an eventful morning we soon get to check out Saskatoon, and perhaps relax with a bison burger this evening.