Otesha invades Hope, BC!

Hey folks!

I am writing to you now from Hope, and we are 5 days away from our final destination of UBC Farms in Vancouver! I am still in shock that I have made it this far on leg power (and occasional hybrid power) alone, and am so excited to cross that virtual finish line and rejoice in my accomplishments!

The last time I posted, I was heading out of the hottest place in Canada, on my way to Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, just north of Penticton! We made a pit-stop first at a desert centre, where we took a long walk along a boardwalk, looking at all types of desert brush and cacti. We learning a lot about the delicate yet resilient nature of the environment, and how things such as roads and the presence of so many vineyards and orchards have damaged and broken up the living spaces of so many creatures, resulting in a loss of biodiversity in a very rare part of the world. It was interesting, but it also took up over an hour of our riding day, and we had to go almost 100 km! I was pretty distracted through the tour, to say the least, as I watched the time tick away. Note to Otesha: try and schedule learning opportunities when we are NOT expected to ride for 8 hours thereafter!

The ride to the Park was fairly flat, but also quite windy, so the going was a little tougher than it needed to be. By the end of the ride, we had to head through some treacherous construction sites, with rough roads, no shoulder to bike on, and some spots with a sheer drop down towards Okanagan Lake! I was not impressed, and neither was my bike buddy for the day, Katryna. We finally made it to the park just after 8 pm; our longest ride day finally complete! After a good grumbling session, we finally got the chance to relax by the lake, set up our tents, and eat a good meal that the people in the car so graciously made for us all, even though it wasn't their night to cook!

The next day we had a performance at the park, and we were all hoping for a great one since the ride into the park was so dismal. We were all hoping to make that awful ride worth it with a perfect performance! We were in luck; the guests in the park were really interested in what we were doing, and after we broke up into teams to canvass the park for spectators, we ended up with a pretty good turn-out! Lots of folks ended up buying the Otesha book, signing our tour flag (made from an old bedsheet and some markers!) and chatting with us afterwards! But we couldn't stay for too long; we had to head right out after that for Summerland, where we would be staying in a cherry orchard for a couple of days! I was really looking forward to this opportunity, since when in my everyday life would I ever get to stay in a cherry orchard? But of course, we had to bike back through that awful stretch of road to get there, and a lot of us were really frustrated when we arrived (even though it was only 15 km from the park).

The orchard was definitely worth the ride though, and I set up my tent in a nice little row of trees by the road and got comfy. We were doing all our sleeping and eating outside in the orchard, but were given access to washrooms and showers in the barn, so it wasn't as rustic as I originally thought! It was also an orchard that had just been sprayed with pesticides, however, and even though I was thankful for the lack of mosquitoes, it was still a little disappointing to know that pesticides were used there, as the Otesha message is pretty against the use of them!

We had a performance in Penticton the next day, which was just a short ride from the orchard, and then after that we had some time off to check out Penticton, Summerland, and all the beaches in between! I decided to spend my entire day off relaxing at Sun-Oka Beach on Okanagan Lake reading, listening to music, and hanging out with the rest of my team. I also got the chance to call my Mormor and my aunt and uncle! All in all, a good day off!

The next three days were dedicated as full riding days, with a couple of performances in between. We rode from Summerland to Keremeos, then from Keremeos to Princeton, and finally from Princeton to Manning Provincial Park, which was our last big summit of the tour! We biked over 220 km in those three days, and by the time I reached Manning, my knees were killing me. But what an accomplishment! Each day was very different - I biked with Natalie on the first day to Keremeos and that was the fastest I have ever gone - 67 km in 4 hours! The next day was with Caili, and we took it a little easier to get to Princeton. Our group decided to take Old Hedley Road to get there, instead of the highway, which was both a beautiful and frustrating ride! The road was much more hilly than the highway (which I could unfortunately see from the road, taunting me the whole way), but we also saw lots of wildlife and gorgeous scenery that we would have missed on the highway! The ride to Manning Park, which I did with Catherine, was a real test of my mountain-climbing skills. There were some steep grades that we had to overcome, and also some even steeper downhills to navigate without getting run off the road by transport trucks, or thrown flat on our faces by potholes! The last stretch of the ride before the park was nice and flat, however, so we made it there in great time. The best part about this day was definitely the end destination. After staying in creepy halls, like the one in Keremeos, and chilly hockey arenas, like in Princeton, we were going to stay in a Chalet at the resort in Manning Park, with access to hot tubs, a sauna, a salt-water pool, and beds! Yes, that's right, I didn't have to sleep on an air mattress on the floor - I got my very own bed with pillows!

The weather in Manning Park was very different from the 40 degree days in the desert, however, and we quickly learned what rain felt like again! We had two performances scheduled for the day after our arrival in the park, but we had to cancel one of them due to heavy rain and lightning! We used the time to canvass the area though, just to make sure we had a great audience for our evening performance (weather permitting). The skies managed to clear up though, and we gave a pretty fun performance at the outdoor amphitheatre in the park to an audience of families out for the weekend in the park. We reworked our intro and conclusion that afternoon as well, so we were excited to test them out! We normally begin with either a game show (for younger audiences or audiences that are more willing to get involved) or a game of Jenga, where we use the tower of blocks to symbolize our planet, and we ask the audience to shout out things that destabilize our "earth", like pollution, over-fishing, and using plastic water bottles. We usually end the whole show by asking the audience to "rebuild our world" by having them shout out solutions that are more sustainable, like turning off the lights when you aren't using them, riding your bike more instead of driving, and eating locally and organically! For this show, we started off with a song about Otesha to the tune of "My Girl", which really got the crowd clapping and laughing, and then dove right into the Jenga routine and play. All together, this intro worked really well, and now that we only have 10 days left in the tour, I think we have finally nailed our favourite intro!

I was in the car with Rozzy the next day for our drive to Hope, and since we knew that the ride out of Manning Park was a fun, fast, downhill one, we decided to make the most of our car day. We stopped at several little walking trails along the way - one called Rhododendron Flats, where I took so many pictures of the huge rhododendron plants; one that was a protected old growth forest, where I took pictures of Rozzy and I hugging giant cedars (yes, I was tree-hugging); and one called Engineers' Road, which was a historical walk along a path where Canada's first miners trudged to get to work. We then continued on our way to the town to get the grocery shopping done, and managed to get a ton of donations from one of the grocery stores there! We picked up about 20 green peppers, a huge bag of apples, another huge bag of oranges, some corn-on-the-cob, some bananas, and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment. We will be making a thank-you card for those people before we leave here!

We finally met up with the rest of the team and got settled into our new home for the time being - a church built into an old grocery store! It's a little odd (the doors swing open automatically) and kinda creepy, but I think last night was probably one of the most fun nights I have had on this tour - the church has a "free store" there during the week, so we played dress-up with all the old clothes they had stored there for hours and laughed until our sides hurt! It's no Chalet at a resort - I had to sleep on the floor once again - but getting the chance to act like I'm in kindergarten again was definitely fantastic!

Today, we were scheduled to have a performance at the local high school, but thankfully it was cancelled since they were in exams! It would have been a strange and difficult performance to do, since it would have been up to us to gather students to watch our end-of-the-day performance - and no student wants to stick around after writing exams to watch a bunch of environmentalist-hippies talk about sustainability and social justice issues! So instead, we had lunch out at a local diner (I had my first burger and fries in weeks - my stomach is definitely hurting) and in a few short minutes I will be meeting up with my group to do a nice leisurely walk through the forest. The town of Hope is surrounded by gorgeous rainforest mountains and is situated right next to the Fraser River - it is a really picturesque place (I learned that they filmed Rambo here, and I can see why, it kind of looks like we're in a forest in Asia or Africa), especially when the clouds form at the top of each mountain, as if each peak is wearing a fluffy white wig! I'll make sure to take some picutres of this phenomenon!

Anyway, I should go, but I look forward to seeing everyone really soon! I'll update again as soon as I can - maybe from Vancouver! 5 days to go!

Take care,

Sarah

Current Location: Okotoks, Alberta!

Hello again from Okotoks!

I hope all is well with everyone "back East" as they say out here, and that you all had fantastic Mother's Days!

So, to get you all up to speed; we hit the road from Kamp Kiwanis on Friday, and took the Trans-Canada Highway into Calgary. What a great ride that was! Much better than my first - probably because it was mostly downhill al the way into Calgary, and partly because the wind was at our backs, but also just because I think it's cool that I got to bike on the Trans-Canada Highway! How many people can say that?

In Calgary we visited the Good Life, a local bike co-op founded by former Otesha tour members! The mall it was located in was a really cool, earthy kind of place as well, and while we were on our break I managed to stop in at the Good Earth (a really awesome coffee shop out here) and pick up a fabulous fair-trade chocoloate brownie!

After the stop, we headed out again, this time bound for Okotoks. Just as we were leaving (I was biking with Lucy and Seth), it began to rain very hard. It was driving down on us for the most part of our trip out of Calgary, and started to let up as we hit the highway headed south. Just as we neared Okotoks, the skies cleared and the sun came out! There were still isolated storms all around us and out to the West (it looked really cool to be surrounded by dark storms, blue skies, and mountains!) but we managed to miss them all when we pulled up to the Okotoks United Church.

Upon our arrival, Doug, the minister, and an active church member named Elizabeth had concocted this fantastic feast for us, with two kinds of soup, tuna sandwiches (for the non-vegans!) and dessert! Doug had also set up our whole team with billets, and so myself and my teammates Kayla and Katryna got to stay with Elizabeth. The rest of KMT stayed with other members of the Okotoks United Church. Elizabeth has been the most hospitable and caring host to us; she allowed our whole team the use of her basement kitchen, and has even left her garage and back door open to allow for us to come and go as we need!

The reason we were staying with members of the Okotoks United Church is because the 2008 KMT team had stayed and performed with them the year before, and they loved Otesha so much they invited us back for another performance this year. As a special treat, they even set us up with a tour of the Okotoks Recycling Depot and a tour of a partially off-the-grid home just on the outskirts of town. Both were really interesting and informative trips - especially the house! Even though it wasn't totally self-sustainable, it was really cool to see all that the couple had done - including using old tires as roof shingles! And on top of that, it was gorgeous and luxurious - now that's the kind of sustainable home I can be comfortable in!

That afternoon we were given the opportunity to hang out with the youth group of the United Church, who were in the middle of World Vision's 30-hour famine. We talked with them about their passions, and gave them some information on why were were there supporting our causes, and crossed our fingers that they would come to our performance the next day! Oh, and for Jess and Akili; they were playing Rock Band when we arrived, and for once I was one of the "skilled" people playing! I taught some of my teammates how to play the drums and guitar :)

On Saturday night we were given access to the school gym (where their church service is being held as their church is renovated) to practice for our first-ever official performance outside of training week. During that practice we all realized that after 2 days of time off from the play, we were pretty rusty and needed to work on our lines and transitions. We came back to Elizabeth's basement kitchen that night and worked on the play until almost midnight!

On Sunday morning we were ready to go. We performed during the church service to a fantastic audience, who laughed along with our silliness and were so supportive of our cause! We had so many great comments and tons of positive feedback afterward that people even asked for our autographs. I couldn't believe the impact we had made! I truly enjoyed hearing about the community members' ways that they were working to help their community and the environment, and I felt truly inspired by the active nature of the United Church congregation. I think some great things are going to come out of Okotoks, Alberta!

Sunday afternoon was reserved as personal time, so I gave my family and Kareem a call and then went for a walk with Elizabeth in search of the first crocuses of spring. We ended up seeing two deer and multiple crocuses on our walk! Spending time with Elizabeth was great - she is a well-traveled and passionate woman, who works hard at preserving her community and the environment. I truly believe that we have a lot to learn from her example! In the evening, Kayla, Katryna and I spent some time looking through Elizabeth's travel pictures to Cuba and Gabon (in Africa) and we learned that she once had a Cuban band stay in her basement while they were on tour in Alberta!

I've really enjoyed my time in Okotoks and I'm really going to miss this vibrant, active and sustainable town. Tomorrow we hit the road again; cycling 54 km to Nanton, Alberta! We are only staying over one night there, as the next morning we will be getting up and biking 84 km to Fort MacLeod. Lots of biking in the next few days - I hope my legs can handle it! Not far now until we travel through the Crow's Nest Pass, and on to BC!

That's all for now - I really should be getting to bed since I've got the craziest cycling schedule ahead of me. Take care, stay safe, and I'll talk to you all again soon!

Cheers,

Sarah

And so it begins!

Hey all!

Welcome to my blog. This will be where I will post my triumphs, my setbacks, my frustrations, my hurdles, and my adventures as I prepare for the journey of a lifetime. I hope you enjoy my ramblings!

To get you all up to speed: My fundraising campaign is in full swing, and I have begun to step up my gym attendance in the hopes of preparing my out-of-shape frame for the daunting task of pedaling 2,000 km in a couple of months.

Essentially, I hope to rake in millions in donations and become ripped in the span of 60 days! (No, not really, but one can dream!)

In a nutshell, I have been to a total of 3 spin classes, and I think I upped my gym attendance from 1 day a week to 2. Hmm... I think I need to get a little more serious about that part.

In terms of the fundraising - it's coming along! I've already got the moral support of so many great people - it's convincing them to part with their hard-earned dollars during an economic downturn that's the hard part. Wish me luck!

I'll try to keep this blog as up-to-date as I can, and I will be sure to add photos and links as I continue in my preparations. In the meantime, if you are yearning for some more info, check out http://www.otesha.ca. If you're rearing to donate and can't wait to plunk down your plastic, then head on over to my personal fundraising page at http://www.canadahelps.org/GivingPages/GivingPage.aspx?gpID=2950!

As they say at Otesha,

Peace and bicycle grease :)

Sarah