CCCT 2012 - May 30th

Cross Canada Cycling Tour - Wednesday, May 30th
 Day 11 - Rock Creek to Greenwood, BC. Trip 36.44 kms Time 2 hrs 11 mins Max 43.5 kph
We were both very tired from yesterday's ride over the Anarchist Pass so when the alarm went off at 6:00 AM I reset it for 7:00 AM and promptly went back to sleep. When I finally got up at 7:00 AM every joint and muscle in my body was aching. Bev boiled some water using a camp stove which she set up on a stool outside our room and made us a cup of tea and some instant oatmeal for breakfast. We shared a banana. I put some mixed nuts and raisins in my oatmeal to pad it out a bit and also had a Greek yogurt. I made myself a PBJ while Bev made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. We finished packing our panniers and loaded them on our bikes. We then set off for Greenwood, BC, at 9:00 AM.
On our way to Greenwood, we met a young couple from Czech Rep, Philip and Irena, who were cycling in the opposite direction to Vancouver. They were on mountain bikes and Philip was pulling a 2-wheel trailer behind his bike. They were worried about cycling over the ANARCHIST pass!!! Of course we had to boast about how we had managed to do it in 7 hrs and were still alive to tell about it.
We made a pit stop in Midway and treated ourselves to a cold drink and a granola bar. We met a few "old timers" sitting outside the General Store and one of them remarked that he had passed us on the highway. Bev asked him "Why didn't you stop and pick us up?" To which he replied "I was going the other way!!!" After some very encouraging words we continued on our way to Greenwood. We saw a large deer at the side of the road. I slowed down just in case it decided to run in front of us which it did. It ran across the highway and gracefully jumped over a 4 ft (1 m) high fence. As we approached the outskirts of Greenwood we saw hat after hat on the fence post. There must have been over a hundred of them!!! We asked at the VC what the meaning of all the baseball caps on the fence post was? She said they belonged to the person who bought the property and that he was using them to "mark his property". Very strange!!! While in the VC we also got our BC passport stamped and asked about motels, etc.
We sat outside at a picnic table and had lunch before going on to check out the motels. The 1st motel was $69, the 2nd motel was $60 and the 3rd motel was $55 plus $5 to do our laundry (no folding) and wi-fi. We gathered our laundry and gave it to the motel manager. I checked out the wi-fi. It was then that I learned that my Mom had passed away the previous day at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, May 29th with my sister Theresa at her side. The motel manager had told us that if we needed to make any long distance calls in Canada we should dial 82 plus the number and it was free. I was able to call home to let my brothers and sisters know that I was aware that our mother had passed away. It was sad moment but fortunately Bev was there to lend me some moral support.
We waited some time for the motel manager to return our laundry. Finally when it still hadn't arrived Bev went to check on it and found that it was still going around in the dryer. The manager had stepped out to give someone a lift into town and hadn't told his wife about it. After folding and putting our laundry away we cycled back into town to have a beer at the SALOON then dinner next door at the Pacific Grill. We had an excellent meal. We cycled back to our motel instead of going back to the saloon to play some pool as I wanted to work on my blog. I put an ICY/HOT patch on my left shoulder and Bev put some antibiotic cream on her knee and put a gauze bandage over  it. Took a couple of Tylenol and was off to bed at 10:00 PM.

Restaurant deck back at Rock Creek

When we returned to the motel we went in to the little store by the office to buy some groceries for tomorrow's lunch. Bev picked a couple of mandarin oranges from a basket in the fruit section. When she went to pay for them the manager said there was no charge as they were the children's for school. He just kept them in the fridge.