Wild camping, playing guitar, cycling through the Okanagan, swimming in beautiful rivers, playing disc golf, meeting up with old friends in Invermere and Grand Forks… These are just some of the many things that we have been doing while cycling through central British Columbia. I am truly living the Summer Dream in BC Canada.
I am currently writing this blog after having a very event-filled rest day with some good friends of mine in Invermere. We arrived at my friends Cael’s house yesterday afternoon, after having lunch with my other friend Allie at a provincial park next to Lake Windermere. Allie was the first friend my age that I had seen in the year of 2018 and my family and I were extremely happy to see her. She even brought ice cream! (My Dad had previously noted that if any of my friends were going to come see us, they would have to bring ice cream.) Later that afternoon we arrived to my friend Cael’s house, where we are currently staying before leaving tomorrow morning. Shortly after arriving, we were interviewed by The Columbia Valley Pioneer, a newspaper publisher in Invermere. Cael, his dad Jason, and his uncle and aunt were lucky to join into the conversation with the interviewer and they had the opportunity to hear all about our trip, while it was being noted down for an article that is planned to be released next Thursday.
The interviewer for the Pioneer was actually one of the many that have talked to us in the last week or so. We have also been interviewed by the Calgary Herald, the Star, CBC and are planning to be interviewed by the Breakfast Show, CTV and potentially other news corporations. It’s been interesting to see what the various interviewers are interested in, and the length of interview has been quite variable for some of them as well. The radio interviews have only lasted about five minutes, whereas the newspaper interviews have lasted up to half-an-hour which has allowed for much more in depth conversation. We have yet to be interviewed for TV, but I think that CTV might be setting something up for us during the day of our arrival. Overall, I think it will be interesting to see how many people have heard about us via the news once we get back!
While staying at Cael’s, we went boating, BBQ’d, played disc golf at Infiniti’s Sports-Ranch Disc Golf Course in Parson, and earlier this evening I had the evening out with him and Allie. It was actually a little bit overwhelming to spend some time alone with friends, especially because I have been doing everything with my family for the past year. While out for the evening, we went to have pizza at Pizza Mercato, which is a small-town pizzeria that Cael has been working at throughout the summer. After pizza, ice cream and bowling, we also spent some time down at the beach which had an incredible view of the Rocky Mountains. While driving back to Cael’s house, I even drove for the first time in my life! Allie and Cael were giving me a tour of Invermere and we happened to pass through a large empty parking lot, which was an ideal place for me to get my hands on the wheel for the first time. It was a lot easier that I had imagined, but I’m sure that learning the rules of the road and actually driving with other vehicles around me will be make it more challenging.
We plan on climbing up over Radium Pass tomorrow evening, and then continuing out journey back home. We are four biking days away from Calgary, and are still on track for arriving so that I can take my ELA 30-1 Diploma Exam on August 1st. It is crazy to think that a year has passed by so quickly and I can’t wait to see how things are once we return back to our house. I think that travelling in Canada has really made me realize how beautiful of a country we live in, and I am so glad that we are able to finish our travels with such a spectacular route.
My next blog post will likely be once we have arrived in Calgary, which will be last blog post for our Tromso to Tokyo bike trip. I have posted dozens of photos on my photography page, and I encourage you to check out the ones from all the other countries if you have not had the chance to do so yet. We are happy to be approaching Calgary and are excited to see the many friends that we haven’t been able to see in over a year. If you happen to see us between here and Calgary, don’t hesitate from pulling over and saying hi as we are always interested in telling others about our experiences and what we have been up to for the past year.
By the way, my pinkie is feeling much better and we are pretty sure that it was just sprained, which only took a few days to recover from. Hopefully that is the only injury we encounter in Calgary, as we plan on arriving back to Calgary all in one piece.
