Days 8-14:Castlegar to Banff

I know it's been awhile since I've last blogged...sorry about that. We've only had internet intermittently and the computer battery died for a bit too (just after Warren updated his blog, I might add). So, point is, I'm doin' it now and it's going to be super long 'cuz, well, it's been another week full of adventures!

So, what's been goin' on? After our wonderful rest day in Castlegar (thanks so much Rick and Donna for the hot showers, terrific food, wonderful company, and the instant ice packs, among everything else!) we geared up and rolled out. We followed the Kootenay River through Nelson (I simply love this quaint little town) to Balfour where we got on a ferry. I heard someone mention that it's the longest free ferry in North America. The boat ride took about 40 min. Once off, after having rested now for about 1.5 hours due to waiting for the ferry, then the ferry ride itself, we had to slog a steep uphill. Quite a rude beginning, I must say. Once at the top of the hill, the rest of the ride was just beautiful. We rode rolling hills, taking in the breathtaking scenery. There wasn't even much traffic. We ended the day just outside of Boswell at a place called the Bayshore Resort. This place has definite potential, but also was the sketchy-ist place we've been to so far. We stayed in a cute little 2 bedroom cabin that had a pull out couch as the third bed. All was going well until we pulled out the hide-away bed and the mattress fell through the frame. Heh heh, what can you do but laugh. Warren and I ended up putting the mattress on the floor and sleeping there. At this point though, at the end of the days of riding we're so tired that we can sleep just about anywhere...so it wasn't so bad :)

From Boswell, we carried on to Yahk, through Creston. We stopped for lunch in Creston and met up with Joanne in the rental car as we were waiting to hear the motorhome update....last we'd heard, there was a chance the motorhome would be meeting us in Yahk that night..woohoo!! Anyways, we got the phone call and indeed Randy was going to drive the RV from Princeton to Yahk that afternoon/evening. HOORAY! We knew that even though we'd be riding that we'd still be waiting for the motorhome to arrive, so we devised the perfect plan. We'd take our time riding to Yahk, then stop at a restaurant and have a long leisurely meal at a restaurant while waiting. Off we went. We arrived in Yahk and our plan went awry. See, Yahk isn't exactly a booming metropolis. It apparently used to have a restaurant or two, but they both closed down sometime ago. Joanne had found a great RV campground though and booked us in there for when the motorhome did arrive. Um, that's basically all Yahk is. So, we dined on peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as pop and chips from the convenience store located at the front of the campground. (We had more healthy food, but com'mon, we'd biked over 1000kms by then...a coke and bag of chips was well deserved, I think!) We finished up that, and the wait began. We did a bit of math and figured the earliest Randy would show would be about 6:30pm (I think we arrived around 4pm). Joanne walked to the roadside ready to flag Randy down as he thought we'd be in a motel about a kilometer away. Warren joined her about 15 min later, and I walked up not much longer after that. By 9:30pm, it was getting cold and dark. More math ensued. Warren now revised his estimate as he realized that the RV can't travel up and down the mountains as fast as cars can and Randy was driving a particularly mountinous area. We brought the car and bikes up to the roadside to stay warm. It was fun trying to figure out if the headlights blaring at us from the pitch black darkness were that of the RV we were desperately hoping for or just another transport truck. Finally around 11pm, (I was sound asleep in the front seat, clearly keeping a watchful eye) there was much commotion as I awoke to a "There he is!!", as I see the RV slow, then drive right on by. Warren, Tanya and I jumped out of the car, grabbed our bikes and our styrofoam cooler to pull them away from the car as Joanne started the car and tore off after Randy. We very quickly realized once again just how cold it was. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the car returned and the RV was just behind her. Randy, our hero, still smiling after his chaotic week and long drive, had returned with our home away from home. We secured the bikes, climbed in the warm motorhome, made the beds and fell into them.

The next day we travelled to Cranbrook. It was a pretty short day of about 65 km. We arrived at Warren's grandparent's place to food, clean laundry and hot showers. Heaven. The RV was up at Warren's aunt and uncle's place being further tinkered with by his uncle Brian who has extensive RV-fixing expertise. After getting cleaned up and fed, Grandpa took us down to the local sports store so Warren and I could buy new helmets. (Warren's been wanting a new one for awhile, and I really needed a new helmet after dropping mine in Castlegar and cracking the outer layer) New helmet selection accomplished (ooooh, they are snazzy!), we went on a wonderful Grandpa-guided tour around town, ending up at Aunt Sue and Uncle Brian's place for a bbq of steak and tons of other food with the whole family. That night Warren, Tanya and I stayed in the RV. The view of the Rockies from our hilltop vantage point was unbelievable.

From Cranbrook we pedalled north to Fairmont Hot Springs. Given that we're still pretty early in the tourist season, and they were renovating their pools (we found out when we got there, which was rather sad as I had hoped to relax in the hot pools), we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves, save for a few bighorn sheep.

The next morning we headed off and met up with Joanne in the RV at Radium Hot Springs. Radium is located at the entrance to Kootenay National Park, and the beginning of a brutal mountain pass. At this point, I hopped in the RV with my bike as I had earlier decided my knees could not handle more steep climbs. This was a hard decision for me, for obvious reasons, but the pain had gotten to the point that there was a good chance that if I chose to do the final passes through the rockies, that I wouldn't be able to ride the prairies, or, even much more of the trip. Anyhoo, so I hopped in and we drove to the hot pools where we needed to stop to get a park pass. One problem: the RV door, yes, the ONLY door, was stuck. Heh. Joanne and I on the inside, and, after flagging them down to see if they could help, Tanya and Warren on the outside. We ended up sending Warren and Tanya off to continue the mountain pass after Joanne called a locksmith and had him on his way. 2.5 hours and two locksmiths later, the door was off its hinges (have I mentioned this RV is built like a tank??) and we were out. Of course, now they had to remount the door. These guys were terrific. One fella was an older gentleman originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL who couldn't really walk or breathe due to years of smoking, and looked like he might die at any moment. But man, did he have a great sense of humour. Thank goodness because he was going to need it over the next couple of hours. About an hour in, he phoned his partner to get him to come and help. This dude was about 7 feet tall, 300 lbs, a retired RCMP officer and a volunteer firefighter. He wasn't here more than 10 min before I heard him mutter something about the jaws of life. :) Anyways, these wonderful guys finally got us out, remounted the door, which, unfortunately doesn't lock anymore due to a misalignment, and gave us some grease to keep reapplying to the doorframe to help the door from binding closed again until we can get to Calgary to, hopefully, get it fixed. After many thank you's, we headed off and met Warren and Tanya deep within the park (they'd arrived at their final destination point about a half hour before we arrived and were quite worried as they were tired, hungry, and didn't know when we were going to be able to get there). That night we stayed at a picnic area in the middle of this park, in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome.

The next morning, in the cold and rain (thank goodness we didn't get the forecasted snow!) I started out with our team again and rode with them about 17km to the next pass. At that point, I hopped in the RV again and drove the 24km over the pass. Warren and Tanya arrived, frozen to the bones, about an hour and a half later. After a lengthy warmup period, we all hopped back on the bikes and rode to Banff, where Warren and I are currently taking our second rest day. Tanya left this morning with a friend to bike to Calgary. She'll be taking her rest day tomorrow there while Warren and I will be riding in to meet her tomorrow afternoon.

On today's agenda: laundry, blog updating and relaxation. We're ordering in pizza tonight!! Oh the excitement! Otherwise, Mom and Dad arrive in Calgary tomorrow for the RV driver switch. I'm excited, though will be sad to see Joanne leave us.

That's it for now. I'll try to give more regular updates in future so you don't have this epically long entry to read, and so I don't have to type for hours :P