how 'bout some peektures

It's 10:30am and hubby is still asleep (with both cats - awwwww, they missed us) and I don't want to wake him by banging around so you get to see some pictures from yesterday and a little commentary from me.


We've arrived at the church in Kelowna that is hosting us for the night. Everyone has brought bedding for sleeping on the floor. Hubby brought the heart quilt that I made for him.


There are bikes everywhere!!!! We estimated the value of the church went up by about $300,000 that day.


The volunteers provided us with a hearty spaghetti dinner and afterwards, the riders got to work writing names on legs & arms. It was a very moving experience to watch.


On a knitting note, WWKIP week was well represented. Gladys finished a sock with a teeny bit of yarn to spare and I was working on some fingerless mitts.


And these are the famous blue potties. We spent the day either looking for them at the next rest stop or following them on the road.


I found out that it's really hard to take pre-dawn pictures with my little point'n shoot camera. The guy right in the middle with the white/red/black Specialized bike is my hubby.


It's finally dawn. ::yawn:: We're at the trucker's chain-up area just prior to the Pennask Summit.


And they're still climbing... towards the Pennask summit.


The riders made a brief stop at the summit for water & access to their bags. The rest of the crew continued onto the trucker's brake-check stop on the other side of the summit.


It's a short stop (only 10 mins) so all the food & water/energy drinks must be laid out and easily accessible. And it wasn't just the riders eating a ton of food. The crew were pretty good snacks for the jumbo sized mosquitoes!!!!


And they're back on the road. Next stop - Merritt.




Tony (forefront; second from the left in the blue helmet & orange booties) & my hubby (4th from the left wearing the grey vest) arriving in Merritt.


Merritt was a long lunch stop for the riders (40 mins) so hot food was served to them. On the menu was macaroni & cheese, penne pasta, orzo salad, fruit salad, brownies, date squares, and chicken noodle soup (this is only a sample of the food that was available - there was a lot more). It was a lot of set up because the soup needed to be heated and all the hot food (some of it was donated by a restaurant and the rest of it had been dropped off the day before and heated up by volunteers in Merritt) needed to be pre-assembled onto plates so that they were ready to hand out. I found it hard to eat lunch at 10am. But that's ok because I was pretty much eating all day long.

Hubby's looking pretty good after riding 6 hours.


Hubby took the time to change into some fresh clothes so I had to hold a towel for him while he stripped out of his bib shorts. Once he had the clean ones on, he pulled out his chamois butt'r and gave me that look. As a crew member, I'm supposed to help the riders with anything they might need. But I draw the line at applying cream down there. It doesn't matter that it's hubby's sexy butt.

At Merritt, the riders picked up their police escort. They close down intersections to allow the cyclists to ride straight through. Pretty nice, eh?

At every stop, the riders are given access to their "stuff". We haul out 100 or so bags and lay them out in numerical order so that it's easy for them to find what they need & quickly. Some of these bags are less than light and my sore arms are complaining today.


I couldn't get a picture of all the bags in one photo. This is about half of them. And here's the chaos that occurs at every stop when the riders arrive:


Both this stop (Coldwater/Larson Hill) and Merritt were very hot. I must've drank a liter of water.

There was a short stop at the Britton Creek rest area followed by dinner (4pm) in Hope.


In addition to serving food and helping the riders, the crew is supposed to keep an eye out for riders in distress. While I was fetching some chicken soup and a Pepsi, I saw Tony sitting on the grass, clutching his thigh with a funny look on his face. I immediately stopped and asked what was wrong. He had me fetch one of the medical support people. He developed a severe cramp in his left thigh. The white stuff on his face wasn't sunscreen - it was salt. Tony was completely dehydrated and ended up being hauled on a stretcher to the RV where he had to load up on sodium rich drinks and sit out several legs of the ride. I believe Gladys has pictures of a pretty blonde pressing on Tony's upper thigh.

There were 3 more stops - DeRoche (before the 11% hill), the Mission Visitor's Center, and Maple Ridge before arriving in Delta. It was getting dark so I don't have any pictures. The riders encountered wind just before Hope and battled it the rest of the way home. It slowed them down by over an hour.

It was good to be back home. A good friend met us and brought us a breakfast package for when we rolled out of bed this morning. I've already eaten two of the bagels. If hubby doesn't get up soon, he's stuck with the cinnamon (sorry, Sarah) Nutella swirl cake and granola. And we got a ride to our car from another friend so that I didn't have to walk to it.

It's almost noon now and I have to get going. It's Father's Day and I have a few errands to run before I head over to see Dad.