Yesterday, the alarm clock sounded at 3am. I woke to find that the Lightning storm had knocked out three power poles just down the road from my house, and I had no electricity. Fumbling around in the dark, I found my headlamp and rushed to get dressed. I already had all my gear prepared and ready the night before; Today was to be a big day.
PJ showed up around 3:30 and we loaded everything in her minivan, my bike, gear and Anka. This would be Anka's first long car ride. My puppy only half woke up as I put her into her kennel for the trip, and she was soon asleep again. Of course, shortly after we got underway, a peculiar aroma began to seep forward from the kennel. We pulled over and cleaned out her kennel, and wiped off her paws (I always carry a supply of puppy wipes for just an occasion). I think we were only back on the highway for 10 minutes when, the now familiar aroma assaulted our senses again.
Another half hour or so down the road we began hearing a scraping sound. Stopped the van to look, and sure enough the rear tire had blown out and we were driving on the rim. After a half hour of crawling around in the mud, we were once again on our way. We had planned on meeting Lisa and Ayla at 6am in Regina, though now we had lost a half hour and had no hope of making up the time driving with the toy-sized spare tire.
Approaching Regina 35 minutes late, we saw Ayla and Lisa's support vehicle for their Across Canada For Your Heart tour. Waving frantically, the driver must have thought we were nuts, but he stopped anyway. PJ got out and explained who we were and soon Ayla and Lisa rode up on their bicycles.
Introductions all around and we were on our way.
I did look very out of place. The girls were so trim and sleek on their new road bikes, and there I was twice their size on my big old yard sale mountain bike.
We rode together for 57km until lunch time, stopping occasionally to rest and chat. I would like to thank Lisa and Ayla for allowing me to join them on their cross Canada adventure, and hope that more people come out to ride with them and show their support for a very worthy cause.
Visit their web site at http://acrosscanada.wordpress.com
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