6/5/09: Kelowna – Off day.
Man I needed this one. After yesterday’s beat down this was wonderful. Woke up in the morning knowing that no gear needed to be packed, and no itinerary needed to be adhered to. Woke up at a very leisurely 8:30am to……….a beautiful sunny day. I swear, this place is sun city. Worked for quite awhile trying to upload pics to our IT man Jerry, but I’m having mac bugs fighting me every step of the way, so I’ve giving up for the time being and will just send DVD’s in the mail. Also, we’ll get some pictures on the blog soon, and play catch-up with all the days we’ve not included pics.
Ate a massive, wonderful breakfast of French bread and a fruit salad, and then off to have Ray’s friend Dave, work on our bikes. My rig is riddled with shifting problems: cannot get front shifter to drop the chain from the middle ring to the little ring; and then there’s all the ghost shifting in the rear that seems to bite me in the arse every time we hit a big climb. Dave did a fantastic job with my bike, replacing the rear shifting cable, replacing the bottom rear housing, and readjusting the tension on the front shifter. Works great.
Next up was a trip to the bank to exchange cash, buy some beer for this eve, DVD’s for burning, and of course stopping at Subway for a bit to eat. My appetite is still on full go, even on an off day, and I gave Ray a show by pounding 2 foot long subs in about 15 min. By this time of day it was around 3 pm, and 85-90 degrees out – amazing for a little valley way up in BC.
Ray showed us some of his cycling routes and then it was back to the house to do some work on the photos I took at the race last evening. We cropped and photo shopped some shots of Eric to give to him in the evening. Our little get together with Eric and his wife Min was quite nice. We talked about our trip a bit, and then Eric shared some of his adventures with us concerning climbing with Chouinard and company over the years. They must have been a crew back in the 60’s – hitchhiking all over the western states and Canada, and just living living for climbing. When he’d run out of money, Eric would hitchhike back to the East Coast to work again. Sounds like quite the life in a pretty amazing time. That’s really how Chouinard got it going, was making the gear for their climbing available to sell so they could keep climbing.
But Eric does more than climb: he’s into alpine skiing, hiking, canoeing, bike racing, and a host of other outdoor sports. He may be 70, but he has the outlook and the enthusiasm of a 20-year old. We really enjoyed their company, and I swear that I could sit for hrs and listen to his recollections of the old days, the hey days of the climbing boom in the western US and Canada.
Back to Ray’s for a little nightcap where he cooked up some of the most delicious steaks on the grill. We sipped on micro brews and ate these picture perfect barbecued steaks as the sun set over the western foothills. Sat up on his elevated deck outside sipping brews and talking until 11:15 pm. Then it was beddy by. Tomorrow the adventure continues down the road. Again, another chance meeting with some wonderful people, Ray and Charlene. They’ve been quit kind to us, and have given us more great memories to take down the road. This is a people meeting adventure as well as a place meeting adventure. Combine the two and it’s pretty special.
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