Three Months on the Nose: Its Officially Over

Well it's officially over. Three months on the nose. Im not sure exactly how that worked out. When people initially asked how long the trip would take we would always respond with a ball park of "three months". Somehow, with absolutely no planning, or aleast as little as we could manage, we nailed our anticipated end date. Stellar! But we can't take all the credit for the success of this trip. Over the past three months we've had the help of countless friends and the endless support of our families. But in between visits with these friends and families, we were lucky enough to bump into many new friends along the way. In each province we rolled into, we would consistantly run into people who would help keep the trip running smoothly, filling in the holes we happened to miss. Time and again, from the first day until the last, we met people who would go out of their way to help two confused and spandexed young guys.

L'Arche as an organization, as well as a community, was fantastic in supporting our trip. They were amped about our trip from the get go. The houses along the way were amazing and very welcoming. They would not hesitate to bring us into their home and offer us a place to stay, food to eat, and a warm shower. The people we met in the houses always seemed excited to have guests and were amazing hosts. Each house had a different flavour and different history, but all were similar in their warmth and hospitality. We are hoping to do a little more fundraising in the Victoria area to make up for the difficulties of fundraising on the road.

The final leg of our trip was up and down. I mean that in the most literal manner. The mountains were the final obstacle we were faced with, but I think we may have finally caught a bit of a break going from East to West. As we headed out from a wicked stay in Calgary with the Pittmans and the rest of the Calgary crew, we had a somewhat windy day (surprise surprise), but in typical trip fashion, the second half of the day was a breeze (or a lack there of). We pedalled into Banff in time for Skye's buddy Neil's rugby game. Banff is a beautiful town and the rugby pitch was surrounded by mountains and even had about 12 elk in attendence. Neil's team ran over the oppostion and so post game spirits were high. We headed back to Neil's for the evening and then toured about the town. We checked out some local spots and even met up with some of our new biking friends Joanna and Kyle. We caught up on trip festivities and then made our way back to Neil's apartment. One thing led to another and we were forced to enter the apartment from through the second story window. Who needs keys anyways? We woke up the next day and grabbed a little breakfast and then spent the day relaxing in the sun, finally out of the miserable weather we'd been experiencing in central Canada. After a midday nap we met up with our friend Mary for a feast of Chicken Nachos and some other delicious snacks. After a nice visit we decided to walk back across town to Neil's place. But, for the second straight night we were forced to use the second story window enterence. Buuut, due to our previous enterences, the window was incapable of being entered. So, we turned directly around and ended up crashing on Mary's couch/floor. After our "relaxing" staying in Banff we decided we needed to shape up and ship out or else we may just get trapped in that crazy little town. So, we took off the next day and made our way to Golden. Our good buddy and roommate Archie (Jeremey Archibald) hooked us up with his cousin Dave's contact. Dave and his girlfriend Sharma put us up for the night and were wicked folks. They were huge into the extreme sports world and Sharma even designs custom long boards for her own company, Slow Motion Longboards. Coolio. Despite the pull to stay in such a gnarly place, we decided to push on into the mountains.

As we made our way into the mountains and through Roger's pass, the landscape began to change. The mountains were smaller and totally different. Around Salmon Arm we noticed the haze and smoke of forest fires, but were easily able to pass through. The landscape began to take a desert like face. There was plenty of sand like soil and it became apparent why the area is so susceptible to forest fires. We arrived in Kamloops in the evening and stopped for a nice gourmet meal of hamburger helper. After being offered to sell crack for some local fellow we kindly declined and decided to try and make our way out of town in search of a good camping spot. Much to our dismay we realized that Kamloops is built on a huge, huge hill. Good for views, terrible news for bikes. As we struggled up and over this massive hill, I must have looked particularily shabby because a passing truck inquired if we were looking for a place to camp. Gasping, we both shouted "Yes!". The folks in the truck turned out to be new friends Allan and Jenny Eastwood. Allan and Jenny offered us a spot in their house and were kind enough to feed and shower us, even sacrificing some of their Okanagan Valley peaches to our weary selves. Allan and his son had traveled across Canada and were sympathetic to the bike touring cause. We spent the night chatting about the outdoors and the wonderful activities that come with. They were super friendly and its always nice to run into people who understand how crappy biking up a huge hill at night is. Their daughter Lindsay was kind enough to make us breakfast in the morning, setting us up for a good day of biking. We parted ways and began what we believed would be a decent day. Turns out, the first 6 mins were all down hill. And how thankful were we! From there on the day was hellish. The first half was seemingly all up hill. I struggled particuarily hard and was clearly slowing Skye down. We rolled into Merrit and were wiped. We had a chessey pork melange and our signature bag of Jalepeno Cheddar chips and then decided to hit the road and attack atleast a piece of the upcoming Coquihalla pass. A tidbit from a passerby let us in on a better route for atleast a piece of the journey. We took his advice and headed onto the road, and into the dark, down Cold River Rd. We had about 30kms to travel until we met back up with the highway, but we spent it all in the pitch black down an old side road. It was definitely scary. And I don't care who you are. That had to have scared you. It was honestly pitch black outside. And Im pretty sure its not where the deer or the buffalo roam. More like where the Grizzly Bear and the Cougar roam. But, lucky for us we came upon a camp set up for the forest fire fighters and they let us camp next to their camp sites right by the river. It was nice to see people and civilization after two hours biking through the dark wilderness. We camped out close to the river and I nearly knocked myself out trying to tie our food up and away from the bears. But, I just barely avoided it. Lucky for me.

In the morning we enjoyed a light beakfast of beans and a bun and headed out. We started the day with the beginning of the pass. It was about 6 kms of uphill climb and then it leveled out. We biked for a while longer and were waiting for the rest of the climb. We stopped for a break, scrounged our change, and bought a little snack. Chatting with a fellow and his daughter they told us some of the most fantastic news. Apparently it was all down hill for the rest of the trip. Barely believing him we still got stoked about the possibility. Shortly after, we found out he was right. We began a decent of almost 20kms. And it kept going. Right into Hope. The day was a breeze. We flew into Hope for grub and then continued flying through town. We hoped to get 40kms after dinner and lucked into 60kms thanks to some light tail winds and some sweet downhills. We rolled into Chilliwack as it was growing dark and searched for a place to camp. It was nearly a concrete jungle where we were searching but we figured that if the crackheads behind WalMart would leave us alone we would be fine. While we were setting up shop on a patch of grass behind the bargain giant a security guard came up and asked us how we were doing. We were slightly worried because, after almost three months on the road camping illegally we had never been kicked out and we figured, "crap, not on the last night!". But luckily for us, our new security friend AJ was really nice and was stoked to hear about our trip. He told us we were more than welcome to crash for the night and even radioed the rest of the guards and let them know not to bother us. He offered us washroom facilities and told us to hollar if we needed anything. Its funny how you can be worried about one thing, and then the total opposite happens.

The morning was a mix and mash of people from all over the place. We met some folks who were traveling back to the west coast after a long trip hitch hiking and rail hoping. We thought the rails were a dead, but atleast some people are still using them. Bahzing! We left Chilliwack and thought we had it all worked out. A nice and easy 100km day right into the ferry to meet our buddy Taylor Kipp at the ferry. Turns out that Vancouver is like every other city and insists we take an alternate route into town. Well, just like every other town, we do not know which the fastest, best, or even workable route is. So, as we searched for an alternate route we were lucky to have bumped into Barry and Wendy, two other bikers from Chilliwack. Noticing we were lost (somehow, must have been the perplexed looks on our faces and the fact we were standing on an overpass staring at the highway we weren't allowed onto) they offered up directions and then decided to join us for a pedal and lead us in the right direction. After a nice ride, we exchanged contact information and they pointed us in the right direction. But, par for the course, we shortly forgot the directions and were forced to ask more people and try to navigate the roads with our "trusty" blackberry. Regardless, we ran into highways that insisted bikes were not allowed on highways and that we must reroute ourselves. After some tricky road choices Skye had has pointed in the right direction and we cruised the final leg of our journey.

The feeling as we neared the water was exhilerating. Despite the 120km day, filled with confusion and route changes, the closer we got to the water, the larger our smiles got. It was tough holding in the excitement when we finally saw the water. It's an interesting feeling when you wait for something that long and then it is finally realized. Arriving was glorifying, but not in an extrinsic way, but in an intrinsic way. There wasn't a big parade, or fireworks, but what was there were the same things that were there all along. Friends and family were all behind us, from the first day until the last. Our famlies were both happy to hear we were safe and sound and proud that we had accomplished what we sought out to. Our friends were excited to see us, as we were them, and despite not seeing each other for a while, nothing had changed. Our buddy Kipp was waiting for us, ready to catch up on news of the summer.

And so I think those were the most rewarding and reassuring things about the trip. Our families were always behind us, supporting our desicions and helping us realize them. Our friends were always waiting with open arms to take us in, feed us until we'd burst, and catch up on missed stories and halerious situations that happened while we were gone. And new friends were always coming around the corner. We never knew who they were, where or how we'd meet them, but we always found ourselves at the end of the day saying how awesome it was that things worked out the way they did on that specific day. Most times you couldn't have planned the lucky situations we found ourselves in and the people we would meet. But, everything fell in place just so that we could enjoy three months on the road, exploring Canada. Though each hill had its ups and the wind enjoyed its time in our face, looking back, its clear that the trip was amazing, unforgetable, and definitely once in a life time.

Thanks to everyone who helped out. Honestly, we have the hugest Pay It Forward debt around. Were going to have to be nice forever to keep up with all the nice gestures people have shared. To everyone who donated, whether it was time, money, space, food, shelter or anything else, you're all gems. If you didn't get a chance to help us out, feel free to help out the next person you see. Believe it or not everyone can use a little help from a friend. Anytime. Any place. I think that may be infringement on the Beatles song, but Im sure they wont mind. We are so thankful for everyones help and hope you all had a wicked summer.

Cheers

Calgary, Cars, and Public Transportation...

After getting picked up by Marika outside the city, we were excited to see what this town had to offer. On the way home we picked up some grub for dinner and headed back to the Pittman residence for a delicious dinner. We spent most of the night relaxing at their place enjoying some great company and a few glasses of wine. As the night grew later we rallied a crew of mostly X graduates and headed to a bar to catch up and share some stories of our summers. Its funny when you travel all the way to the west side of Canada and spend the night hanging out with East Coasters. We had a fun night and coincidentally Skye was able to meet up with an old family friend Luke Theriault, whom he grew up with. Luke was working at the bar and so it was a good pick for the night. The next morning we were acquainted with the C-Train and the Calgary Bus system. Apparently Calgary isn't the smallest city in Canada. The trip back across town was long and arduous, but Im sure it didn't help that we indulged in one too many pops the night before. When we finally arrived back in the North West we headed over to Luke's house and prepared to head to Virgin Fest. Marika was kind enough to hook us up with tickets to the Saturday shows which included Wintersleep, K-OS, and Pearl Jam. Our buddy Tony from X was also playing on the main stage, but we didn't realize this until after his show had already happened. We felt stupid for missing it but proud of him for playing such a huge show! The shows were awesome, with Pearl Jam easily taking the cake. Again, we bumped into some other X folks, Liam and Graham, as well as spotted Ewan Thompson from a far with his X rugby shirt on. Again, so many East Coast connections in the West. The night concluded with a hilarious serenade by some random folks on the side of the road on our walk home.

The next day we met up with our buddy Andrew Bullied from X and went out to the Ship and Anchor. We met a couple of his buddies and shared some more travel stories, then made our way over to our friend Nicole's place. We indulged ourselves in her hot tub and treated our weary legs. We spent the night there and took the C-Train back to the North West end of town. Luke's Mom Lily treated us to a fantastic meal and a decadent dessert, and even indulged us with a treat from the ice cream man. If you didn't know, Calgary still has ice cream trucks that drive around and play those hilarious songs that must drive the driver insane.

We spent the next day cruising around the Tallesman Center courtesy of our buddy Dave Swinden and enjoyed a few games of basketball and a sweet diving board session in their dive tank. After our little playdate we headed over to Luke's house for another delicious dinner. We were stoked when JP Thompson and Marika showed up after dinner. JP was visiting from Jasper and was in town to meet his girlfriend Sally who was flying in that night. We went out to a little Sheesha bar and then made our way out to the airport to pick up Sally. We spent the night catching up and decided that the Zoo was a perfect option for the next day. We woke up and made it to the Zoo in decent time and got to see some pretty cool animals. It was funny because the whole day we were constantly thinking how cool the Zoo was but also how weird it is to have all those animals in such confined spaces. After the Zoo we made our way back over to Marika's where we had a big BBQ which conveniently was attended by another crew of X grads. A fun night was had by all.

The following day was the Kings of Leon concert. JP woke up Sally with a surprise set of tickets. She was excited to say the least. Skye lucked into a ticket thanks to our buddy Andrew, and so the three of them headed out to Andrew's place to have a few pops before the show began. Marika and I stayed home and had dinner with the Pittman crew. As the concert was underway we assumed all were having a good time watching some good music. Buuuut, this was not all true. Skye was the only person out of the trio that actually made it in to the show. Sally preindulged herself and was incapacitated before the show began. She got close to the doors, but didn't get in, and had to turn herself around. JP being the gem that he is stayed with her as they tried to walk it off. This was unsuccessful and JP called Marika to see if she could come pick them up downtown. So Marika and I headed down, cutting our dinner a little short. We met JP and lugged Sally into the car. Luckily for us Sally was 100% dead weight by the time we got home and so we tossed her in bed. JP stuck around while Marika and I headed out again. We swung to a train station and picked Skye up after the show and then headed to Loco Lou's to have a few beer. Apparently the show was a good time as Skye was pretty amped about it.

The next day we loaded up Marika's car and headed towards Jasper for the weekend. We stopped in Banff to pick up Mary Moore, another X grad, and headed for a local gem of a spot, this giant swing on a mountain. Luckily for me, this swing was able to help with my under the weather disposition. For some reason I didn't learn from Sally's display and also overindulged myself. The swing was a major rush and set the tone for the weekend. We cruised up to Jasper and I was blown away by the mountains. We swung by Lake Louise and some other touristy places on the way up. When we arrived in jasper we picked up a bunch of grub and prepared for a relaxing night. The next morning we ate a big breakfast and then met up with Mary and her boyfriend Ryan Davies for a hike. Unbenounced to me, this hike was no small task. It was almost four hours to the top, with no switch backs. Straight up the mountain we trekked to the top and enjoyed a snack and a break. Old Man Mountain has the profile of a face at the peak and so we had lunch on his nose. The decent was way quicker, and we were lucky enough to get really close to a Great Horned Sheep. By the end of the hike most of us were exhausted and ready for some rest. But, par for the course, rest takes the back seat to fun. So we followed up the hike with a delicious meal of greek cuisine and a hilarious host Achilles. After dinner we walked over to the Brew Pub and decided that instead of rest, we would start a dance party in the relatively un-danceparty-esque scene. A hilarious night in all, but it did nothing for our legs. The next day was spent moving very slowly around JP's apartment. After a nice relaxing day, we woke up and headed back to the city. We dropped Mary back off in Banff and returned to Calgary. When we got home we set our bikes back up and prepared to leave the next morning. The morning, which was supposed to see our departure, didn't. Instead we justified another day in Calgary because of our aching legs. There's no point in leaving more sore than how we arrived. So we traveled out to Cocharane and jumped off a bride into some chilly water. Sally had a slight hiccup at the final jump, but a little coaxing from Marika got the job done.

That night we dropped Sally off at the airport despite her inclination to stay out west and potentially join our bike trip and become a West Coast bum like Skye and I.

The next day we finally hit the road for Banff. It was a fairly enjoyable ride and was our first into the mountains. It turns out that the riding gets harder. Banff was an interesting little town. It seems no one is actually from there. We spent an extra rest day in Banff, jumping between Skye's buddy Neil's and Mary's place. There are tons of people from all over the world and everyone is enjoying the beautiful scenery the mountains have to offer. We left Banff and made our way to Golden to spend the night with our buddy Jeremy Archibald's cousin Dave and his girlfriend Sharma. They had a wicked spot and are huge into the activities the mountains have to offer.

We're still a few days from Vancouver, but the trip is winding down. Its bittersweet to be done, but we're both excited to see what it's like on the West Coast. Thanks to everyone who's helped us out along the way. It means the world to us and we definitely couldn't have done it without the kindness of all those along the way.

Cheers!

No Treeses, Only Breezes

After Manitoba proved to be overly friendly, we thanked our hosts and hostesses the Bleicherts and the Augusts, and aimed for Saskatchewan. Leaving Brandon, we were about 120kms from the border and despite the heavy head winds, we drudged slowly towards the hard to spell, easy to draw province of Saskatchewan. As evening approached we noticed the wind was dying down and our progress had picked up. The land was boringly flat, but our speed was quick for the first time all day, so we decided we would capitalize on the easy riding and committed to riding in the dark. We stopped at a gas station to grab a snack and set up our lights and such on the bikes. As we pulled into the spot we met a fellow whose car had broken down earlier in the day. He was trying to buy a used car from the sales lot across from the gas station. His car broke down on the way to a folk festival where he was supposed to be selling drums he makes by hand, Ear to the Ground drums. He seemed like a nice fellow but when we entered the gas station and were roaming around in search of some grub, the lady behind the counter asked us if we could stick around until the store closed because she was creeped out by this poor stranded guy. Trying to ease her worries we decided that we could use a bit of a rest and agreed to stick around. We had about 40 minutes to kill according to her so we grabbed a pack of hot dogs and prepared for a microwaved treat. We had a plethora of buns that we acquired from a grocery store earlier that day. (Apparently they throw out bags and bags of food at those grocery stores, but not on our watch!). So with all our fixings ready and a couple of ketchup packets to boot, we waited as the delicious aroma filled the store. As the store attendant caught a whiff of the dogs, she commented on how hungry she was. So we offered her a dog to which she willingly accepted. Unable to hold back her desire for the delicious dog, she opened the microwave, (that had just microblasted our dogs for about 5 minutes on high), and shoved one into her mouth. With that no holds barred attitude she had to have burned every inch of her mouth! Surprised by her antics, Skye and I had a quiet chuckle over her hasty consumption of the dog. All of a sudden, after asking us to keep her company, she decided it was time for us to leave. She seemed to get worried that someone might drive by and wonder why there was two bikers still in the store. So even though it wasn't quite closing time she asked us to leave. So, mildly confused, we left the store and finished our delicious dog treats.

It was now dark, but with our lights flashing, we decided to hit the wide shoulder that we had recently acquired and attempt to reach the Sask. border. As we were walking our bikes to the road we joked about how crappy it would be to get a flat out on the road in the dark. We hopped on our bikes and didn't get 30ft before we realized that Skye's tire was already flat! So, a quick repair was needed. Upon further inspection of the tire and quick pump up, it appeared the tire was holding air just fine. So we hit the road again. The biking wasn't the greatest as it was hard to see, but knowing the border wasn't too far off, the motivation to get to Sask was pretty high, so we trucked onward. As we peddled, we realized that the tire was slowly losing air. We stopped to repump it a couple of times but decided to call it quits at the edge of Manitoba, at their tourist bureau. Seeing all the other big rigs sleeping and campers resting, we decided a tent would be accepted. We set up shop in the dark and were excited to hit the hay and get to Sask the next day. Lucky for us, it rained all night. Our trusty tent was having some trust problems and decided to leak inwards. The last time we had leaks, Skye was the victim, but this time it was my turn. It was a wet sleep, but luckily it was plenty warm. Come morning, we headed into the bureau because of the continuing crappy weather and the friendly lady running the place let us eat breakfast inside. It was still raining, but we decided to tackle the crappy weather regardless. It was a horrible day, full of winds and rains, and it weathered us pretty rough. After a long, slow, wet, and cold day of biking, we decided to use one of our lifelines and grabbed a motel. It was a somewhat annoying ordeal, but a warm bed and a sauna made it worthwhile. We woke up at the Whitewood Inn and had full intentions of getting to Regina in two days, but once we hit the road we never thought we could make it. But then something amazing happened. The wind actually changed directions. After a terribly slow afternoon ride, we stopped for some lunch in a little town picnic area. After we ate we realized the wind had died down and was actually pushing us for once! With this new found support we blazed onward and started making some serious ground quickly. We passed town after town and realized that if we kept trucking we could actually make the 180km trip in one day instead of two! Luckily for us we cruised into Regina just in time to check into the hostel before it closed for the night at 11:00pm.

After a decent sleep in the hostel we swung down to the supermarket and grabbed a bunch of food for breakfast. With full bellies we hit the road again. We had a good day but as per usual the wind was crappy until the evening. We rocked into Moose Jaw for supper but didn't stay long. Called the "friendly city" Moose Jaw provided us with some of the most negative people of the trip. The fellows we chatted with had nothing but awful news to tell us, but like water off a ducks back, we didn't let it hold us down. As we were hitting the road again we spotted two other bikers stopping for supper but figured we'd bump into them later. Skye had another run in with glass but we continued on until a storm forced us to call it quits outside a town called Caronport. As we rolled up to a gas station we noticed a patch of grass that seemed suitable for tenting. Also we spotted another tent already set up and figured we'd be able to join them. Upon further inspection we realized we recognized the tent and the corresponding motorcycle beside it. Figuring it was too coincidental we decided we had to investigate who owned this tent and bike. Turns out it was our pal Frank whom we met earlier in the trip in northern Ontario in White River (the home of Winnie the Pooh). We bugged him out of his tent and surprised him then we chatted about how his trip out west had been. He had already been to Vancouver and was on his way back home. We chatted about our trips and then hit the hay. Frank was kind enough to buy us some breakfast in the morning and was really into the whole pay it forward idea. He was telling us about all the nice people who have helped him out along the way and figured he had to pass it along. So this means Skye and I are going to have a large pay it forward IOU by the end of this trip!

After breakfast we suited up and made our way to the highway when we bumped into the two bikers from the previous night. Joanna and Kyle, from the Toronto area, were sharing in our East-to-West, uphill, into the wind version of the cross canada bike trip. since they were just stopping for breakfast we exchanged numbers and parted ways planning to meet up in Swift Current for the night and camp together. It was 150kms away but it would put us in a good place to make it to Calgary for Friday. We biked hard despite a number of battles (with the hills in the prairies that they don't tell you about) but made it into Swift Current and found a nice location across from a Canadian Tire to camp. Our biking companions were behind us and rolled in late but were unable to find our dime of a camping find. We met up after breakfast the next morning and realized they had settled for a spot on the other side of the Canadian Tire. We swung by the local bike shop and got Skye and extra tire then headed out. We biked into Gull Lake and had some lunch and then moved out. Our new biking friends were biking with us when we had a couple of bike issues in a row. First Skye had a flat and then I had a weird front tire malfunction that we were able to frankenstein a quick fix for. These slowed us down and we were now behind schedule. It was getting dark and we were still no where near a suitable area to camp. If you've never been, the prairies have some places that have absolutely no trees around or any other shelter for that matter. So we trekked on into the dark. Lucky for us it started to rain and cooled us down to a numbing few degrees. We biked on and on and finally reached a little town near Maple Creek and were lucky enough to grab a motel. We shared the room with our new friends, had a couple of pops, munched on some chips, and then chatted about our trips while playing some crib and some memory. Because of our socializing we slept in mega late and were woken up by them kicking us out of the motel. We headed out quickly and had breakfast down the road. As we left for a day of biking we separated from our new friends, crossed the Saskatchewan border, and entered Alberta.

It was a good day for biking and we cruised up through Medicine Hat, which was beautiful, and stopped for supper at a Sobey's. We met some nice folks who happened to be into motocross type racing. They were into racing quads and both the husband and wife, as well as the kids, were all competing. We biked after dinner and made it up to Suffield and decided to call it quits for the night. We scoped out a spot behind a sketchy gas station but decided to set up the tent across the street by a radio tower. Noticing it was close to the tracks we decided we would deal with it, assuming that trains are a lost form of transportation. News flash: trains are not a dead form of transportation in the prairies. We woke up countless times at night fearing that the train was actually going to drive right through the tent. Needless to say Im never sleeping beside train tracks again.

240kms from Calgary, we realized we were still two days out of the city. We decided to try and tackle a bike day the first one to leave the second day more enjoyable. So with a little determination in us we set out. We had a decent day biking but were still amazed at how hilly (especially uphilly) it was towards Calgary. Not to mention boring. Between Medicine Hat and Calgary the coolest thing that happened was us becoming victim to a bird of prey. As we cycled by a field this hawk began swooping down at us. We decided that stopping to fight it would be a bad idea. It could go two ways. One: the hawk is so vicious that it attacks us successfully and we have our eyes gauged out. Or Two: we successfully disarm the falcon (probably witht he guitar) and get arrested for poaching. We opted for a new plan which consisted of speeding up and getting out of the bird's hair (or feathers). Other then that the scenery was not much to look at. We set up shop the first night at quite possibly the dirtiest gas station near Gleichen and Cluny. We tried to avoid the garbage but it was an overwhelming task as the place was littered with it (pun intended). We woke up and had a full litre of milk and an entire box of Nesquik cereal. Delicious. We cruised towards Calgary and desparatingly tried to contact some of our friends in Calgary to potentially meet us outside of the city. Our dear friend Marika was so nice that she came and picked us up way outside of town between Chestermere and Strathmore. Our somewhat travel challenged friends Greg and Jess were unable to fulfil the task, but we still love them. Those two are making up for their local travel challenges by heading to South Korea and continuing to broaden their international traveling experience. Enjoy it you crazy kids! And so, we're spending some time in Clagary resting our weery legs. Skye's achilles sounds like a creeky door. So we will spend about a week here in Calgary before tackling the mountains and then straight to Vancouver in hopes of catching our buddies Kipp, Tom, and Mary before they head back to school. For now, rest and relaxation.