Day 7: 67.76 km

May 13, 2012

Kelowna-Vernon

Today started really late. It is always hard to leave a nice house that has what feels like family there. We had an AMAZING breakfast with Joan and Dave. They made a skillet of eggs and sausage and veggies, with blueberry muffins, hash browns, fruit, and yoghurt. Man it was delicious! Then, after attempting to put pictures up again we slowly left. We were in downtown Kelowna by about 1ish and we met with Uncle Lucky for a glass of wine. So nice to see him again I have not seen him for a very very long time. Then, Matt, Dad and I went to Fresh Air Experience for a bike tune and proper fitting. they did only small movements of everything to properly fit my bike to my body, but we did move my seat about an inch so that my knees would be in the right place. That could have been a major contributor to my knee injury from the pass. They also told me that my handle bars were not actually wrapped for my trip! I basically had shop wrap on it, which is super thin. No wonder I have been losing feeling in my hands! I am basically just holding onto the metal bar! So we wrapped the handle bars, bought a bunch of stuff including a new pair of sunglasses for me (yay!), and arm coolers, which are white arm sleeves (to even out my farmers tan!). Thank god we got this because it was 32 degrees during the day!

By the time that was all over, it was 5pm (and now down to 27 degrees)! Matt ended up going back to his aunts place to stay the night and Dad and I trekked on to Vernon. We arrived in Vernon by about 7:30 and went to Alexanders Beach Pub for dinner.   I had a delicious meal of salmon and mushroom fettuccine, and then we went to Richard and Kellys place for the night. After putting pictures on Facebook I crashed. Good casual day.

It is so incredible the amount of things I have taken for-granted until this trip. Like the feeling of a nice shower after a long day, or when its hot out the wind off the lake. When your in a car you never notice that a biker would not only feel every ounce of wind, but we have about a foot of room between the rumble strips and the gravel. Hills that are not even noticeable in a car, a biker can pick out right away. Every car that passes we get a little shake from the wind. I cant even tell you how much I appreciate when a car moves over to avoid us. There are a lot of assholes that do not do this and sometimes rip by a couple feet from us. Not to mention that every time a semi passes close to us the wind from them eddies around their truck so it slightly pulls us into the lane. Its easy to stay in the shoulder, but the shaking is noticeable. Though when its hot any wind is appreciated.   When you stay at a house, you never want to leave in the morning, and when your camping, your sleeping bag and a nice meal is all you think about. This trip has really changed my perspective on so many things I am very grateful for it. I dont think I would be able to do it without my Dad here. He has been the most motivating, encouraging, funny, perfect person to have on this trip.

New Pet Peeves:
-Rumble Strips
-hills that you would have never noticed in a car
-cars
-going up a hill, that you can see you will be cruising down the hill, just to climb up another one again. Why cant I just stay at the same elevation until I need to drop down!