Orientation Day

With all the excitement, there are the mundane things that need to be done. Like orientation. Actually it isn't mundane because there is a LOT of useful information that we acquire on orientation day. Bud is EXTREMELY knowledgeable about Canada and the various routes and stops we will make and it is always interesting to hear the stories. 

It is also the first time that our group is officially all together. Although we haven't had our official introductions (that will come in a day or two), I think I have met everyone. I don't remember everyone's name of course!  That is why we have the official introductions in a couple of days - hopefully by then we will at least have the names of everyone sorted out. 

The big event of the day was to meet our group for the galley duty. Yep - we are split into five groups of five. I am the vegetarian/liason in our group. That means I am the one in charge of the grocery list (OH DEAR) and of course, I will be helping with cleanup and whatever else needs to be done. With a group effort - it will happen quickly. 

TONIGHT though all the liasons were the cooks. YIKES - nothing like getting thrown into the mix.

Here I am with Larry as we make the salad. I am cutting carrots and Larry made a delicious dressing. We had loads of help from Fred, Bill, Jacquie and several others who wanted to learn the ropes. ACK!!!!   Where to find all the stuff????

Here are some of the others helping with the salad

In addition to the salad, we had pasta. Can you imagine making pasta for 28 people????   That is a LOT of pasta and we had this huge bowl of salad which we thought was huge, but there was very little left over.

Here are the hungry cyclists as they load up on pasta. I can't imagine how much we will eat when we are actually cycling!!!!

Let's just say that is was a TAD COOL out there as we cooked. Although the temperature was 14, honestly it feels like winter. I had to laugh because our lone cyclist from Australia (Greg) was laughing at the Canadians who were complaining of the cold!!!  And we had rain today - so it is a DAMP cold!!!!

We had our dinner outside the residence - that is our truck on the right hand side and our little cook stove in the corner where the people are hovering - trying to keep warm.

I have most of my stuff on the truck and will get the rest loaded tomorrow morning. YES - we start riding tomorrow morning. Oh boy - I am glad I have already done something like this as it takes away a bit of the apprehension of embarking on this journey. I know that some of the others are a tad nervous - I remember my first trip to the Arctic - I was a wreck!!!!!!   But we will all be helping each other and we have been already so I know that we can do it.

In addition to putting our luggage on the truck - we had to load all the bike boxes on the truck. That is done and now just the last of the luggage in the morning. 

Our "liason" crew did all the dish washing - yes - me cooking and washing up!!!!!   I must get a picture of the washing up - those pots are HUGE!!!!!    But when you have a group of people doing it - it goes quickly. I just hope everyone is that group oriented as time goes by. I think we do have a good group of people in my group of five so that should help a lot.


The forecast for tomorrow isn't great - cool and a good chance of being wet. ICK!!!  Not a good way to start, but typical Vancouver weather. And we may have to make a detour in the near future as there is some major flooding happening in Alberta. I haven't seen the news, so not sure where exactly that is, but it isn't my worry. Someone will give me the directions on where to go and when.

So - we will hang onto cool weather gear for tomorrow and hope for the best.

I managed to get the pictures ready very "quickly" tonight, but no guarantee that will happen all the time. I should be able to blog tomorrow as I am NOT on galley duty for a couple of days.

You can always tell where the WI-FI access is in any building. In this case, it is in the lobby of the residence which is quite big and lots of comfy couches. People are on their phone, mini iPads, tablets (me) and laptops. What I really hate is people who SKYPE without using earphones. I mean - it is bad enough that we hear one side of the conversation, but to hear the ENTIRE conversation?????   Well - that is too much information.

On that note - I am going to check out the flooding and Facebook and then off to bed.


Have a good day!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!