Day 1: Commercial Drive to Whiterock

The day we've all been waiting for!! We started off with a morning pledge ride from the art gallery downtown to the park on Commercial Drive. There, a BBQ and karate presentation awaited us, as well as family and friends. It was pretty exciting, although you could tell we were all pretty anxious. At about 2:15pm, we were sent off - the traffic lights were stopped in our favour, and people were cheering. It was an interesting trek from the park to the church we stayed in. I don't know how many people got lost or sidetracked... our directions were to follow the skytrain, but it disappeared from time to time.

It was a day of learning, that's for sure. I wound up with heat exhaustion, and was pretty concerned that it was going to be an ongoing issue. Bugsy and Carly, our first aid attendents and ride leaders, told us that our bodies would tell us when we needed water and food. Also, I was the first on the tour to get a flat tire! My bike's different from everyone else's - a road racer Cannondale is not exactly the ideal vehicle for this kind of trek... - so no one really knew what to do. However, a girl from the European tour who had joined us for our first ride was able to help me out, and after 20 minutes, we were back on the road.

We were all pretty exhausted after the hot journey, and a bit confused. Since we were still in Vancouver, it just felt like we had done a day trip. But after some pizza and watermelon and intense stretching, we got revved up again, as tomorrow... we hit the States!