Reverse Gear Blog

Wednesday, June 10, 2009
While the boys did a 100 km ride from Summerland to Osoyoos (which I understand was un-eventful), I did my first solo long-distance ride of 76 km from Summerland to Okanagan Falls and back to Penticton on Lake Okanagan. The last uphill was to Le Frenz winery owned by an Australian vintner for a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc for dinner and a bottle of great Muscat for after-dinner. The scenery was spectacular. The ride was exhilarating. And - I met some interesting people: the young cyclists from www.otesha.cawho were cycling from Calgary to Vancouver and doing plays on sustainability at schools as they go; the drifter who was taking his leather jacket to the flea market so he could sell it for $20 to buy a pedal boat;and the young fellow at the park who was enjoying a bottle of wine at the bottom of the lake and asked if I could put some of my sun-screen on his back and and give him some money for a hoagie because someone stole his back-pack last night. This may be the only time I had to pay to give someone else a massage. Coming home I missed the exit to the service road so decided to ride through about 2-3 feet of ditch off the highway. Wrong ditch! Rode like a “bat outta hell” to get to the campsite and watch all three tires deflate. I picked up spiky thorns and Len had to put three new tubes and tires on my trike after a dinner of pasta with ground turkey, sliced fresh cucumbers with local merlot vinegar and calabrese salad (bocconcini cheese and fresh tomatoes with a local Italian dressing) - with the Le Frenz Sauvignon Blanc of course.

Thursday, June 11, 2009
Every day has provided an “event” - broken converter, flat tires, etc. But today’s “event” brought the trip to a halt until it could be solved. The support vehicle would not start. The BCAA came out and took the vehicle to Summerland (where the fuel pump was replaced) and the boys headed out on the road.  Their adventure for the day was riding on the trike on the back of a pick-up truck for 7 km through a construction area. The view was wonderful and they didn’t even have to pedal. All arrived safely in Kelowna for lunch. After a few mechanical adjustments to the gears, the boys cycled all the way to Vernon BC. We camped at Swan Lake. The boys deserved the beer they drank on arrival - a local called Pils. Len also enjoyed his dark called Okanangan Spring - Pale Ale. Dinner was fresh snapper, basmati rice, garden salad and Sonora Ranch Sauvignon Blanc.Post dinner was carrot cake and Masala Chai tea beside Swan Lake - after the mosquitoes abated.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Blind-Guy Biking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.