You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello"

After our journey across Canada I had a few days off in Fort Langley to rest my bones at the campground here. Afterwards though we were quickly uprooted and transported to the University of British Columbia to help officially "launch" Tour Du Canada 2010. I was given my very own room at the university dorms with a real bed for two nights! This made me quite happy. The first night we were there was rather simple; just some preparation and bookwork for the coming days. The following morning we started to meet the cyclists. This was a day of registration, meeting and greeting and of orientation. The following morning was the first official ride of the Tour Du Canada and everything at UBC was packed up in the truck and shot out East. Everything ran smoothly on the first couple of days barring a bit of rain here and there and some confusion over bathroom keys. Highlights of the journey include jam sessions with one of the TDC guys who brought his own guitar s well, and on our last night many of the TDC cyclists and us went out for a karaoke adventure in Merritt which was a great amount of fun. I sang "Solitary Man" by Neil Diamond by myself, and then after a few more pints myself and the musician-cyclist did a duet of "Daddy Sang Bass". My partner and I only followed the tour for a few days in order to help launch the tour smoothly and I tried to stay relatively detached, but I can't help but feel sad after having left them behind in Merrit. They have now moved on further East and now we've headed back to Fort Langley to await the launch of Tour Pacific: our first official tour of the season! It was also especially sad to say goodbye to the Tour Du Canada staff as we went through all of training together and convoyed across Canada together. Dare I say that we became friends in the ordeal and that they will be missed every time I pull into camp and go to set up for dinner.

Gelbin and I hanging out at UBC enjoying a scene from his natural habitat.


Meet and greet with the TDC cyclists at the UBC residences

"Suit up!" TDC style
(Not pictured here are the 43 cameras laid at my feet so that everyone would have a copy of this picture. This took about 5 minutes to get everything shot!)



In BC some things are really, really tiny!



...but some things are really, really huge!


Camp: Day 2

A little bike repair

"Any place to swim around here?"
"Sure, just across the way!"

Two brave souls go in for a closer look

What a coooool walking path

On my last night with the TDC the other musician and I somehow dressed identically with awesome beards, earth-toned plaid jackets, jeans and black hoods!

My manager insisted that the Turkey Tiara stay with the TDC crew, so I wore it as often as possible while I still had access to it.

I have today off as it's Canada Day. Later I'll be going out to check out the fireworks, but right now I'm just bumming around the Fort Langley campground again! Tomorrow is the orientation for Tour Pacific and then we're off to travel all across western Canada the following morning.