The trip to Hope was a short day (85 kms) and so we decided to sleep in and then take it easy in the morning. We almost missed the hotel's complimentary breakfast but made it just in time... which made Cam's day as he is carefully monitoring the budget. Ken now knows what it's like to be Sue as he has to save and hand in his credit card receipts to Cam daily...The first hour of the ride was very sweet with a beautiful tailwind that had us riding at an average speed of over 28 kms/hr, however, at almost exactly one hour, Cam noticed his back tire was getting soft and after three or four increasingly voluminous shouts finally got Ken's attention as they approached an exit in Chilliwack.
Flat Tires - Cam 1 Ken 0 Sure enough the back wheel had a slow leak and we just made it to an Esso station in time to change the tube. We weren't operating at pit crew speed and it took much longer than it should have. After some liquid refreshments at a nearby McDonalds (Ken's new favourite is the Iced Frappe Vanilla Chai!) we got back on the road - for awhile...!
Flat Tires - Cam 2 Ken 0 About 10 kms later, Cam was hollering once more with his tire again getting soft. A quick pump-up lasted another 15 minutes and fortunately we came upon a Shell station and set to work once again. This time, we figured that we'd better have a closer look at the tire, and thanks to a bright sun, Cam was lucky to spot a tiny metal sliver right in the middle of the tire - likely shrapnel from a blown out truck tire. This was a relief as Cam was beginning to wonder if there was too much weight on the tire. We were back on the road much more quickly this time and reached Hope at about 3:30PM with the tailwind helping us along once again.
Our Heros of the Day today are a couple that attend Ken's church who were sitting across from us on the plane to Vancouver on Saturday. As we talked about our trip, they asked if we were riding for a charitable cause. When we told them we were raising funds for El Jordan, we learned that their daughter had spent time a few years earlier working with Corina Clements at El Jordan in Bolivia and they loved the work that they do in South America's poorest country! We were totally blown away when they told us that they would support El Jordan for $1 per kilometre of our trip (over $6 thousand)! We had to ask them again as we weren't sure that we heard properly! We are so grateful for their generosity!
Key stats from today's ride are:
Distance: 85.1 kms
Average Speed: 25.5 kms/hour
Climbing: 2,381 feet
Check out more details on the the ride at Strava and the pictures from today's ride on the Photo Gallery.
Now it's off to bed, as tomorrow's assault on the Coquihalla Highway will be one of the toughest rides of our entire trip with the first 50 kms all uphill!
Key stats from today's ride are:
Distance: 85.1 kms
Average Speed: 25.5 kms/hour
Climbing: 2,381 feet
Check out more details on the the ride at Strava and the pictures from today's ride on the Photo Gallery.
Now it's off to bed, as tomorrow's assault on the Coquihalla Highway will be one of the toughest rides of our entire trip with the first 50 kms all uphill!