Merritt to Kamloops

The data of the day


Stats - Day 5

It was an AMAZING day and more than made up for the bad day the previous day. The sun was out - it was relatively warm (coolish to start) and this is what cycling is all about!!!!!!   It lifted everyone's spirits and we were sailing. To make it even better - there was a tailwind (YAHOO!!!!!!!) and the road was pretty flat!!!!   What more could one ask for!!!!!

The day did start with a completely flat tire for me on the back. Drat - how did that happen?????   Well - let me pump it up and see what happens. Took a spin around camp - yep seems to be holding air. I'll see what happens during the day and PRAY a lot. You see - I am NOT that confident about changing tires. And we were off.  Larry and his groupie of girls - oh should I say Larry joined US - we did NOT join him!!!!!   But we all get along great and have a lot of laughs on the road.

Here is our group!!!!   I was riding behind because I was slow due to that damn tire. Well - so I was still tired from the previous day's ride!!!   And my tires were low - so I should have changed it. What an idiot!!!!

Then I decided that I needed to get pictures of our group so here they are......

Anna

Diane

Ev

And Big Larry - who ALWAYS has a smile on his face (well maybe not yesterday!!!!!)

We had a break and Mark caught up to us!!!!

I did not get a picture of Mark on the fly as he was behind me. Then he came up beside me and I went to take his picture and he had his camera out taking a picture of me!!!!   It was pretty funny. It is hard to frame the picture when you are riding so you go on blind faith. As you can see - I am not bad, but almost missed Mark!!!!!

Now I am in front of the group (see Mark taking pictures of them!!!) and I just put the camera over my helmet and this is what I got!!!!   Pretty cool. Yes - maybe not the smartest thing to do, but I do take caution!!!!!

Lynn took this picture of Diane (in red) and me in Tour de France yellow!!!!!!

Yes - we also took time to SMELL the roses!!!!!! 

 By this time I had had to stop and put some air in my back tire. Drat - even though we only had 40 K to go - I wasn't thinking I was going to make it. Drat DRAT DRAT. Where is Dave or one of the other guys to do this when I need them. I knew at this point that Dave was the only really techie guy behind me. We stopped for lunch and then I decided to bite the bullet and change the damn tire. Well I surprised myself. I got that wheel off the bike, found the problem - a small piece of wire from steel belted tire from a truck that had embedded itself just enough into the tube to cause a slow leak. With all the bumps and vibrations of the day - it wasn't going to hold.

Then get the new tube in and pump up the tire. All the while, Anna was supervising and Big Larry topped off the tire with air!!!!!   Ev and Diane had dropped back at this point. And then I managed to get that wheel back on the bike with minimal effort. Never mind that my legs wer black from the effort. Hell - I didn't care - I was just glad that I had changed my first tire on the road (a back one no less) and I had managed it with no problems. YAHOO!!!!!!  Life is good.

Here is my FLAT Stanley who gave a helping hand in changing the flat!!!!!!

 And just like putting a new rotary cutting blade into your cutter - what a difference!!!!!   OK - so I won't wait next time.

We had one major climb in the day - again fairly steep, but only 2K which at this point seems like nothing!!!!!

Then a HUGE descent into Kamloops. Holy Cow - I don't think I would own a bike in this town either!!!!!

As I was whizzing down the hill - something flashed by me. What the heck was that?????   Why it was CRAZY DAVE!!!!!!!!

Crazy Dave with plastic ties on his helmet. He is an excellent cyclist to say the least. Here is a little blurb I copied off a web site. His name is David Dermont!!!!   We have a celebrity amongst us!!!!   And so humble. A very nice guy.

 The Single Speed Men category was hotly contested at 9:30 with David Dermont of True North Cycles capturing Gold and holding off a late surge from the Trek Store Race Team’s Matthew McCartney.





Anyway - we arrived at the Thompson River University in good time. Got our room - a real bed tonight yeah!!!!  Our rest day is Sunday - we wanted to hit a quilt store, but after checking around - we realized that NO QUILT STORES would be open on Sunday. WHAT???????   Anna and I grabbed a cab and went in search of a store that we figured was close.

We got out of the cab and wondered into the store and were DUMB STRUCK. This was an AMAZING STORE. Katja's Quilt Shoppe. There was so much to see - it was hard to get started. The store was featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine in the fall of 2008 (if memory serves me correctly). Well they had EVERYTHING in the store. Honestly - I could have spent a small fortune. They had great patterns, they had great kits, they had great fabric. I have to see if we can make a detour later this trip to get back here!!!!!   WOW - WOW - WOW. The ladies were awesome.

Me - outside the quilt store.

Inside the quilt store (yes we asked permission to take pictures!!!!)

The other side of the store

Me with my purchases

And what did I buy?????   Well - let me process those photos and you can see.......

Fabric for the bracelet (we were going to make bandanas out of this for the bike, but thought better of it!!!!)

Yes - I broke my own rule of only buying one thing. I could not resist this Twelve Days of Christmas fabric that was on sale!!!!  Got TWO meters

And even though I am NOT a cat person - this was too cute to pass up!!!!

Someone to protect all my UFOs

And this was priceless

We took a cab back to the University and had an amazing dinner prepared by our crew. Yummy salmon, steak, baked pototoes and salad.

We all sat around and chatted well into the evening. I have to say that the group is VERY cohesive. Everyone gets along (OK - so we all have our quirks), but it really is a fun group.

Then off to bed where I could NOT get to sleep. I don't know what was wrong with me. I was too tired to read, but couldn't sleep. At one point, I contemplated setting up my tent on the lawn (the dorm room was a tad too small to do that), but I thought I had better not!!!!!!

Have a great day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!