Cycling my way into beautiful people.

Hello from Campbell River. I write to you again, as my 14 other team mates are mostly asleep in thier bags on the school gym floor, and I somehow find myself still awake and not quite exhausted - yet. We had a lovely (but early) day today, up at 5:45 to catch the 7am ferry over to Vancouver Island, after spending the last number of days in Coastal Powell River. Then, we cycled, along the ocean side, beside farms, and the sun was shining, the air super crisp. After my bike buddie blew a pretty good flat and we finally got her bicycle going again, we stopped for a marvelous lunch at Oyster Bay. Stunning scenery of blue mountains looming on other islands in the distance, with clouds no where in the sky except around those seemingly distant mountains. When we hit the road for the last 20km of the day, my bike buddie promptly had another flat, so we unpacked her bike again, patched the tube once more, and realized her whole tire was in need of replacement! Since this isn't something we carry on ourselves, we did the $5 bill trick, where you slip it in the tire before the tube (credit to the cyclist passin' by).

Needless to say, we eventually got here, and our team mates already had some yummy supper on the stove, and the angel of a custodian was fixing us up with anything and everything that we might need to make the school cozy for us. Whew. People are just. so. great. Over and over again we are meeting people who are open and willing to help out. Like the couple with the beautiful garden yesterday, whose door I promptly knocked on when I saw they had a composter, and I stood with near dripping food waste bags, asking if we could deposit our food scraps on their land. As my two bike buddies for the day curiously looked on, we got nothing but a jolly response from the man in who answered the door, as he told me stories of their fig tree, their hazelnut tree, and their bay leaf bush! my oh my...

I also keep bumping into this woman who is just sweet to talk to, saw her on our ferry ride to Saltry Bay, again at the Powell River Fall fair, and then again today on the ferry to Comox! She was just so curious and interested in what we were doing, so genuine. And when she shared what she is doing, volunteering with a group of youth advocating against drug and alcohol abuse, I was so excited that she was excited about her work. Inspiring she was...

I can't wait until tomorrow - when I might meet another curious soul, inspiring soul, helpful soul.

Goodnight my dear loved ones.