Here I sit (tenderly)

So I would believe that after such distance and such training, my poor little ass would be better. Sadly, no, it is still paining me and I am wondering what the hell is going on? Clearly it is too little - and growing smaller by the day - for my great lumbering weight to be stuck on such a piton for so long a time.

On the other hand, my legs are growing into tree trunks. My thighs, this is no joke, rub on the center post of the bike as I peddle. I will never be able to wear pants again???

I sit here, today, in the lovely air conditioning of the Brooks, Alberta, public library. It is mid-afternoon and it is 32 degrees outside, hot and dry, and quite lovely. Too bad the wind is from the south-east making it either a quartering headwind or a quartering tailwind, depending upon the turn of the road. Today it is mostly headwind.

I did ok today. Reeled in another 150-170 km by 1430 hrs (maybe that is why my ass is sore) and so I feel free to chill and catch up this aft. I will continue down the road this evening (when the wind dies) and I will find a corner of a field down Medicine Hat-way. I will be in Sask tomorrow afternoon.

I last left you in Kamloops. From there I have seen:
kamloops - Revelstoke (-22km)
Revelstoke (-22km) - Golden (+6)
Golden (+6) - Banff (+10) ------ Alberta now!
Banff (+10) - Strathmore
Strathmore - Brooks (+??)

I give estimate locations for two reasons: 1) I have no computer or GPS (like everyone else on bike tour!!) and so use roadsigns to give approximate locations; and 2) I must stay outside of towns in order that I may 'flop' my tent undisturbed at highway pullouts or day-use recreation areas. This is me being cheap again.

If you do a mapquest on these locations, you will find that the daily distances run frm 150-200 km.

So some random thoughts:

JULY 1 -Revelstoke
Almost 195 km today, very tired. Didn't help that I hit the sand and took a skid while fooling with my new radio. Skinned up my left leg. Stupid. NO radio reception anyways, which makes it worse. Met a mama black bear crossing the road. Little while later met a dead cub too. HAPPY CANADA DAY

What is this news about Canada cutting a softwood lumber agreement??? Guess there is work in forestry now, da bastards.

JULY2 -Golden
Seems it is all uphill from Revelstoke to Roger's Pass (no kidding!), but then it is uphill to Golden afterwards too. What is that about? Got some great video of me shooting down the pass between 70-80 kph (I'm guessing). Whoohoo, hair straight back! Ran out of water heading up the pass making for a hard climb, did some walking too. Met some cyclists heading across Canada at Golden (while I inhaled brownies and chips at "valuefuel"). These cyclists were part of www.cyclecanada.com tours, meaning that they were fully supported and did a moderate distance each day (hear my grumpiness?). Marlene, from San Diego, asked me if I was detoxing (because she was and her skin feels so good now) as a result of all this great exercise. I couldn't say so around the muffin I was cramming into my mouth...while the 72 oz pepsi slurpy was craddled lovingly in my arms. I was hot and dehydrated and begging for calories. So much for detoxing! It is a good idea tho...

JULY 3 -Banff
Put 65 kms in by 1030 then faced the spectre of the Kicking Horse Pass. 1600 m of elevation in 7 km horizontal. Wanted to die. Pulled over the pass and it was all down hill to Calgary. God be praised! Met a herd of cyclists at Lake Louise - the first pitstop in Alberta. Sam a 19 year old Montrealer decided to ride with me and off we flew to Banff. Shared a large pizza at AARDVARK's and ate it on the curb beside the town drunk (I shared a beer with the town drunk too! What the hell, all in the adventure.) Sam and I found a pullout just east of Banff (but still in the park, a no-no) and set up the tents on a bluff overlooking the Bow valley. Very nice.

JULY4 -strathmore
Too bad about Sam; lost him in Canmore and decided not to go and retrieve him. As a kid, he runs to a different schedule...start late/finish late. No good to me. Finally, today I listened to the radio almost the whole day. Happy Independence day, America: Love what the Koreans are doing to the USA, makes me laugh. Turn around is fair play, right? Glad the shuttle made it. Launch for launch??? Made Calgary by 1300 hrs and found it was "Toonie-Tuesday" at KFC. Ate large and then went into the bathroom and had a complete make-over. I got to wash and shave. Banner day! After KFC, and after a congratulatory DQ ice cream in Strathmore, I went to the Superstore and purchased some grapes and oatmeal. Maybe today I will start my detoxing schedule. Yah! Finally broke down and purchased some lip balm. It IS a big day.

JULY5 - Brooks
Huge mileage today, making Brooks by 1430 hrs. Must be 160 km from a 0700 hr start-time. The sky was overcast and it was cooler, tho the headwind was a pit of a pain. As promised, the wind is coming from the SouthEast, so my dreams of flying a Westerly remains a dream.


FOOD aka "The how not to detox tour"(?):
Must go to a bank...I am trying to keep a 10 buck limit on expenditures each day, but that is a joke. Generally I eat one meal out (depending upon when I cross a town with services) and I like to have my pepsi/coke in the mid afternoon for energy. Today I found some skittles too - I must remember to stay clear of the skittles or i will be rehooked! So it is not so bad really, I am less than $15 per day, pizza stops included.

For example I have found: KFC has a two-piece meal for 2.50 on Tuesdays, 1 buck extra gets a pop. A&W has a burger and float for 5 bucks (the pop counts as my daily pop, and the ice cream is 'on the side' for extra cals!). Oh ya, DQ has 99 cent burgers.

I try to stop and buy healty stuff at the grocery stores but it is too hard due mostly to portion size. The portions of cheese, for example, are too large and will go bad (or melt) before I am finished. Fruit is good, but is heavy and often comes in packages too large to be useful as well. Tomatos...well just too fragile. Olives were great but a bit sloppy. Pita is good. Canned sardines are yummy, but then there is the garbage as well as the bear-factor. Oh what to do?

The other problem is that I have to carry all this as there is no planning of when I pass thru a town. If I could pass thru at say, dinner time, I could purchase one meal's worth of stuff. The truth is that I pass thru at any time, not necessarily eating time.

So mostly I eat out and when I eat 'in', it consists of oatmeal packages, oatmeal bars, workout shakes. I do have a stove, and when the mood hits (like when I camp where there is a place I can do dishes...) I have a few dehydrated packages of flavored noodles and flavored rice.