July 5th-9th, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes:

I just wanted to take a minute here to talk about our time in Vernon. Amanda crunched some numbers recently and I wasn’t really surprised, but it’s still interesting to note that in 335 days on the road (almost 1 year!) we’ve actually only spent 103 days riding bikes. We spent almost a week with our friends Kyle and Norma in Vernon. It’s really great having “family” (or friends) wherever we go. So we spent our time decompressing after what must have been the stressful Kettle Valley Railway. We ate, and sat out on their deck, drinking, and talked, and laughed, went out for dinners and just had an awesome time.

We uploaded pictures, and updated blogs, and did our “work” as it relates to keeping you guys all informed as to whats going on with us. Well, our plans haven’t changed..we’re still cycling towards Jasper. How we’re going to get there though remains a mystery. There are several routes that we can take, and we’ve mapped them out, and uploaded them to our GPS, but I don’t think we’ll actually know how we’re going to get there until we start riding and decide to turn right, or left, or go straight.

Amanda has finally gotten fed up with me lugging around kitesurfing gear, so I took the time off to post it for sale, and shipped it to a new owner in West Vancouver. Maybe I’ll replace it when we get back to a windy spot on the ocean, or maybe I’ll find a new passion to pursue. I’m actually thinking that I’ll get a surfboard and spend some time surfing waves in Costa Rica this winter. When I weighed it all, prior to shipping, it was a whopping 31lbs that I won’t need to tow anymore, so it will be interesting to see how this affects our cycling. I’m going to take some weight from Amanda, and I think we’ll both end up a bit faster, leaner and meaner on our ride going forward.

And now, the road beckons, it’s time to get back on the bikes and fulfill our destiny; let’s ride bikes!

Amanda writes:Our rest days here were so productive. We’ve updated blogs, I’ve completed some budgeting that I haven’t done since March! As Andrew mentioned staying with family is so special to us. And Kyle and Norma are special family; not the short bus kind of family but the good kind. When we visit with siblings, parents and nieces and nephews we spend all of our time and attention with them; as we should. With Kyle and Norma we were able to just sit at the table without interruption and blog for endless hours; no questions asked aside from would you like a refill on your water.

With the help of Kyle we took my fork to a couple of places and finally got it fixed. We’ll see how it holds up. When I was reassembling my bike I took a closer look at how the rack was mounted. I then looked at Andrew’s rack. When we first bought our bikes Andrew mounted his own racks and I took mine to the bike shop to be mounted. I figured if we’re spending $500 on racks we should make sure we do it right. Well it may appear that I should have just let Andrew do it. After closer inspection it appears that the way the bike shop mounted my racks way back when likely is contributing to the stress points on the bolts and subsequent breaks. Kyle looked at the different methods of mounting and agreed; Andrew’s method is far more effective. When Andrew’s bolt broke in Inuvik last year it was only because he tried screwing it in at an angle, nothing to do with weight. With Kyle’s help I mounted my racks the same as Andrew’s and Kyle gave me so special tape to seal up the bolts better. Let’s hope this does the trick this time. And I certainly have learned to inspect installations and think about the pressure points rather than assuming that it is done the most effective way. It was good to pay some more attention to my bike.

As Andrew mentioned he sold his kite gear. There’s a part of me that I feel guilty he sold it, but it really just doesn’t fit with our plans right now. He won’t admit it but it’s hard for him and I think he is a little down about it. I spoke with him about it when we were cycling near Penticton. I get that Andrew loves the sport and I wish that I was better at it. I also get that Andrew might get bored without another activity to do, but I’m confident he’ll find another filler. I was just left feeling that kite surfing is difficult to do when you’re cycling around the world; well at least it’s hard to carry all the gear around. In my mind it would be the equivalent of me carrying around my golf clubs; it doesn’t fit. I’m glad that he’s made the sacrifice for Team Prenty to lighten our load and I hope he is not resentful. Time will tell.

Today’s Photographs

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