July 9, 2018
Kamloops
Back in Greece earlier this spring, we laid down a standard. For a day to qualify as a rest day it had to involve less than 15 miles of biking and less than a thousand feet of elevation gain.
So close today! We nearly made it - 14 miles, 1,100’. A semi-rest day.
That wasn’t really the plan for today. We meant to get to Kamloops earlier in the day than we did, with time for a nice loop east along the Thompson River in the afternoon. We didn’t get as early a start as we intended though, and the drive went slower than expected so we didn’t arrive in Kamloops until about 1:30. And, we didn’t have as much time available as we had anticipated because we unexpectedly had a social engagement on our calendar - a visit with Ken and Judy, a cycling couple from Kamloops who had reached out to us previously through the guestbook and again through our mutual friends Bruce and Andrea.
With only about two hours of cycling time available, we took a short ride recommended to us by Ken up the ridge south of town for an impressive overlook of Kamloops and the Thompson River. A nice ride, but with just enough climbing to blow our rights to claim it as a rest day.
The ride was nice, but what was really great was the visit later in the day. We enjoyed a delightful evening at their home, comparing notes about tours past and tours future, sipping wine and enjoying a rare treat - home made chocolate cake with beets. Judy described this over the phone to Rachael, who voiced some uncertainty about it to me since she’s generally no fan of beets. I swore she must have misheard, but not so. The cake did have beets in the mix, and it was delicious.
Ken and Judy generously allowed us to leave our car at their place while we’re on our week-long loop (surprisingly, the motel wouldn’t make room for it), so we can look forward to seeing them again when we return.
We have a pretty long day ahead of us tomorrow -it’s 70 miles to Vernon - so we’ll stop here and get a good nights rest. A semi-rest day from the bike, and from the journal.
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Today's ride: 14 miles (23 km)
Total: 96 miles (154 km)
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