Day 9: 107.5 km

Today we woke up back in Vernon. Not the most motivating morning ever. Dad and I woke up nice and early so that we could meet Pete, Richard's friend, at his shop. Dad ended up buying a whole new bike today. It is a bike he's had his eye on for a while. He was pretty excited. Pete and the guys at Olympia got dad all sorted out AND did a warranty check on my bike (tire allignment etc). Then, on top of everything Pete has done for us, he offered to drive us the 50 km back to where we ended yesterday. I was SO excited! Every kilometer is so precious to me at this point! THANK YOU PETE! Pete drove us back to Enderby, just short of where we stopped the night before (so don't worry, I didn't cheat, I redid about 2 km) and showed us a back road to keep us of the highway. It was so beautiful! We took lots of pictures so eventually when I'm at another computer I'll put them on. We left Enderby at noon and got to Sicamous by 3 where we had A&W for lunch. I hadnt eaten enough today by that point so I was really grumpy and upset. But the food livened me up, as always. Then we carried on to Revelstoke via highway 1. Highway 1 was a good highway. Lots of semis, but they are pretty good at going around you. Some places there were narrow bridges so we would have to wait until it was clear and beetle across as fast as possible because 2 semis wouldn't fit let alone me on there too. Quite dangerous with those bridges. I was on one and 3 semis came around the corner. I knew I had cars coming up behind me too. So scary. The small car squeeked by me but the truck waited for me to get across. One thing I never really though of when I thought of biking were the smells. When you are in the car and you pass an area that smells like manure, you roll up the windows and you pass it in a second. Not the case here. The smell carries on and on and on! But it is also the same with the mountain smells. Car freshners, fabreeze, etc, all try to copy the smells of the forest but nothing actually can match it. It smells amazing! My knee felt better today after the guys at Olypia took care of my bike, but my right one still really hurts just from the damage I've already done, but my bike Definitely felt better today. But going down stairs at Kelly and Richards was pretty slow going. Nuni if you read this we can be knee buddies!!! We can go up and down the stairs together at our own pace! Or... Use your elevator! Haha One thing I'm trying really hard to do through BC is see what is around me, not race through. The prairies I'll race through but not here. Dad and I stopped for icecream today at the last spike and took pictures. We stop a lot to take pictures and I enjoy it. BC really something else. I want to enjoy the sun, the mountains, the views, the cool air coming off the lakes and streams, the trains hiding in the forest, all of it. It is beautiful! Dad and I are enjoying a hot chocolate and then it's off to bed for hopefullya long day tomorrow!