Day 13 — Wednesday, July 2

Rest Day in Lethbridge
We were given a real treat today at the University. A free barbecue was held for all staff, faculty, students, friends, and family in the Atrium. It truly was unexpected to see so many people out for the event.

We rode our bikes down the path that we’ve walked so many times. In fact, this path says “No bikes allowed” but we were actually instructed to ride down it this time. I admit, I made sure to take a few seconds to check my brakes prior to riding down it. This is not the time to wipe out. Luckily it was downhill the entire way so no pedaling was necessary.

I saw many familiar faces. Co-workers, professors, friends — that guy I always say “hi” to but don’t know his name. It seemed like so long ago when we left for Victoria, but it was only 2 weeks ago. We had many stories to share and people seemed genuinely interested in them, which was fantastic.

I got to see my cousin, Shade, who’s taking a master’s in Education over the summer. I knew he was in town but didn’t expect him to walk up to me at the barbeque.

I was told there were about 400 people there. Unreal. It was great to see people come out for it. I am dead serious when I say that there was a time already when I wanted to quit (mainly the first summit after Hope, B.C. when I was dehydrated and having bike trouble). Today just reinforced how many people are cheering us on and supporting us as we promote the University from SEA to SEA. How can anyone just quit after seeing this? Good knee or bad knee.

Speaking of which, I’ve had about 7 days off since my last day of cycling. I will likely take another week off and hopefully be ready to go by the time we hit Regina.

I have never tried acupuncture but I’ve had several people tell me good things about it. I am going to get some needles jammed in me tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I hope something positive can come of it.