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Published: July 10th 2010
Finally on the road. And gosh, its already been eventful.
The last two nights before we were leaving I didn't get so much sleep. I almost 2 weeks in Vancouver, but I decided to leave everything to the last minute organize, so the last two days were very crammed.
Our riding group was supposed to be made up of five people, one of which joins us a little late on the 20th in Banff. On the 7th 4 of us were to set off.
7th July
Charli, Sam and I were couch surfing in Coquitlam, which is a suburb of Vancouver and lays a little to the west, so we decided just to set off from there. Anne (1/5th of the group) was staying in Vancouver. We arrange to meet at 8.15 at coquitlam bus station.
The morning of the 7th we were all rushing around trying to get stuff done, packed, cleaned, setting up our bikes. We got to the station just on time to meet Anne. But Anne wasn't there. Well its pretty early we all said and we hadn't eaten breakfast so we settled down on the bus station floor to eat some breaky.
The sun was getting hotter and the minutes were falling away and Anne was still no where to be found. I decided to take the lap top and walk to starbucks to use the internet there. I loaded up skype and tried to call her - no answer - I left a message and decided to check my email. We were all pretty worried about where she could be and if she was alright.
I loaded up my email and there was an email from her saying she won't be coming on the trip.
This was really hard news and I didn't really know quite how to take it. I told sam, he thought I was joking. We walked back and told Charli, she thought we were joking. Then there was a few tears. Disappointment, confusion, anger, understanding, frustration, hurting. We knew we were going to set off any way, but it changed quite a lot of things. A big part of this trip is to make educational theater on the streets. The theater is about safer sex, consent, gender, hiv prevention and awareness, sti's and loads of other stuff. Without her it changes that aspect of the project. Also, it makes it just Sam, Charli and I for the first weeks, which could be a strain on all of us for many different reasons.
Anne also had the safer sex kits, which is big part of this project. We planned to give them out on the streets. We didn't know how to get hold of Anne to get the safer sex kits. Our bikes were fully loaded up, and time was ticking away, we needed them but also wanted to hit the road. We were all sitting in starfucks, in coquitlam wondering what to do and feeling really shitty.
I had a genius idea ......facebook. Hahahaha. I logged on to that sucker and voila, Annes online.
We talk to her, she came to meet us with the safersex kits and thats it. Why Anne dropped out of the project at such last minute no one knows yet. I am feeling pretty upset about it all but tryingg to keep my heart open.
We set off around 3pm from Coquitlam, way behind schedule, but what can you do.
We didn't really cycle all so much, we were emotionally drained I think. I've thought about nothing but this project for the last 8 months. Most of my free time was working on this and now it feels like its slipping out of my hands before it even got going.
It was hot, the hills starting to come. My bike is so heavy I just wasn't expecting the front panniers to add so much more weight, or for that weight to be so much harder to push. But it was and it is. Half way up one of the hills, my gears fucked up again, I got off my bike frustrated with myself. Why am I finding this so hard?! I just burst in to tears, tired, hot and sweaty. Charli gave me support and walked with me to the top of the hill where sam was waiting. I was crying my eyes out by this point. I just felt like i was holding everyone back and that I was a slow poke! I was just so so tired, the days events had really taken all the mental energy out of me and I didnt have any left to fight off my self destructive demons, the ones who were calling me a slow poke.
When we started to get tired and the day started to come to an end, we kept our eyes pealed for a suitable camping spot. Some girl we talked to earlier in the day offered us her back garden. We didn't really want to camp in a garden though because we wanted more to be on our own and not to socialise with others. It was so nice of her to offer though!
We finally found a little spot up a dirt track near a camp site. The forest was like a jungle! or what I imagine one to be like. So green and moss every where, hanging from every branch. So beautiful and refreshing. We found a little patch that wasn't so bumpy and pitched our tent there.
We cooked some rice. Climbed into the tent and didn't get very much sleep.
8th July
We got us really early but not as early as we would of liked to because none of us got enough sleep!
We rode in the hot sun shine, saw some beautiful views. I had some tissy fits, because my pannier set up kinda sucks and keeps getting stuck in my spokes, and my gears are (were) not working so great. But the day was a fun one. Sam and charli had a dip in a cold lake, I sat and watched. We had a long lunch break to try miss out some of the scorching mid day temps.
In the evening we found it difficult to find a wild camping area and we were 16 km off Hope the next town. So we pull off the high way and knocked on some doors until some one let us camp in there garden.
I have NEVER seen so many mosquito's in my life. That was a hard night and, I wasn't vegan by the end of it. There was blood, mainly my blood in the stomachs of mosquito's squashed when they tried to come back for seconds.
9th July
we cycled into hope on empty stomachs. Ate some food there, went to a bike shop. The day was getting late and we decided to stay in Hope to get some stuff done and tune up our bikes / set up. Tomorrow we have a 40 km ride which is ALL up hill and steep hills! We want to set off at 6.30 am to do it before the afternoon sun comes out and then maybe it will be slightly (just slightly) easier. We are all really nervous about that big hill, but we support each other really well so I am sure if I break down my friends are gonna be there by my side cheering me up.
We had a meeting today. It was hard to have a meeting because we are all so tired. It came up that if Telyn doesn't join the trip, then sam will probably drop out as well. Which I totally understand as traveling as 3 people is not what any of us planned or really wanted. I made be feel sad though. I spoke earlier about how long I have been working on this project. Its now 3 days into the actual project and it might have to finish. I guess for now we are all gonna cycle, work on the workshops and keep going as normal. The trip however might turn out completely different than we ever envisioned.
I try not to have expectations, of life, of people, of trips, of myself. Its a hard thing to let go of, but the more I work on it the more I let go. I kept reminding myself over the past 8 months to let go of expectations for Safer Wheels. I never knew what would happen with it or where it would go. I always reminded myself not to let my ego get in the way and to just enjoy each day as it is without looking to the future and guessing what that would be. So I am trying to keep this mentality.
We'll see how it goes.
Thanks for reading, i'll post some pictures soon
Love kay
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Muvva
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Ups and Downs?
Hi Kay and All, It was fascinating reading your travel blog; the upset and sadness are almost palpable, to have all your plans and preparations changed just like that must be so hard to deal with. Have you any idea yet why Anne dropped out? Hopefully Telyn will be ready and raring to go, full of enthusiasm and motivation to boost you all up again. Hopefully you will all get a good nights sleep soon and that will help! Take care, keep pedaling, love xxxxxxxxx