Saskatoon

Our next stop on our Journey took us to Saskatoon where we stayed downtown and were able to wheel and walk to the heart of the city.

Saskatoon is a modern city and expansion is evident when you walk, roll and drive through the downtown core. The river front location is most striking.

We stayed at the Delta Beswood in the Downtown area and were treated very well by the staff.
The restaurant was excellent and the Chef personally addressed our group during our breakfast on the last morning wishing us well and becoming yet another messenger.

Lloydminister East to North Battleford.

After a memorable News Event in Vermillion we moved on to our next stop which was Lloydminister Alberta.

The days have been long for us and a lot has happened on the road. There have been repairs to the hand cycles, adjustments to the brakes and the occasional flat tire to repair.

We did start out on our journey with a number of spare parts but those have been diminished and tubes have become in short supply. We thought we would be able to buy tires and tubes on the road but this has proven to be difficult due to the speciality nature of the tires and high pressure racing tubes we are using.

An about Face

After rereading my previous blog and receiving an email from Tranquility Base I decided to write an explanation and apology to the towns I dumped on.

Firstly it is a very difficult job crossing Canada away from family and loved ones and our expectations are at times high and maybe not attainable.
Secondly just maybe our lines of communication are not perfecrt and things don’t get done that we thought had been done for us. After reading my blog again it became evident to me that I was unfair to the mayors offices in the larger cities.

Passing Vermillion

Hope everybody had a great Canada Day. We spent our day visiting a wonderful small town on the Trans Canada Highway called Vermillion where we were greeted by the Deputy Mayor Ben Bosgra and the local newspaper reporter.

This was our kind of town, small, friendly and open to strangers. Ben welcomed us warmly to his town and the pride he held in his town was evident. Ben did his homework and had done some of his own research into spinal cord regeneration and shared it with us. We had a informative long chat and press interview for the local newspaper

Six Days on The Road

The title of this blog came to me because of a comment sent to me by my Daughter saying she hadn’t heard from me on the blog in six days.

Firstly it sounds like the makings of a hit Song title to me that I personally could sink my teeth into and I’m sure a lot of truck driver’s families can relate to the title.

Secondly it has been a very busy six days since my last blog. We have since the great divide rolled through Calgary and were hardly noticed by the citizens of Calgary too busy with their day to day lives and the upcoming Calgary Stampede to take the time to notice 4 Paraplegics rolling through their town without a horse. Yes that’s right without a horse because we had asked to be included in their festivities for this years stampede but were turned down ( you guessed it )because we didn’t have a horse.

Crossing the great Divide

The team was very intimidated by the immensity of the great divide and approached it with their usual caution towards safety and desire to conquer it. After all it was just another mountain to defeat in the eventful lives of four very determined and focused individuals.     

It didn’t help when the locals we so often stopped to chat with scared the hell out of us with their description of the Kicking Horse Pass and the steep grades and winding roads. By the time we started our final assault were were psyched right out. Now I look back and wonder if just maybe they all walked away from us with a mischievous chuckle knowing the hook was set. This is something that neither Charlie nor myself would admit to ever being guilty of doing. Right charlie.

Kelowna a Special Place

When I sat down to write my blog this morning I reviewed some of my previous Blogs and realized that I had to go back To Kelowna.

Kelowna is a special place to us in so many ways. The Hospitality was amazing. The Motel posted a sigh to Welcome Wheel to Walk, people were friendly, the car show that welcomed us into their midst (Thank you Boyd) and we cannot forget the Hospital that cared for Harvey.

The Final Run Before the Great Divide.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   We have been very busy the last few days covering as many kms as we could per day and attending to all of the other responsibilities we have.

The brakes on the tow vehicle heated up pretty badly onMonday and we took the Van in for an inspection.

Canadian Tire in Kelowna did the inspection for us and went way out of their way to accomodate our schedule. The service was great and the best part the Manager did not charge us for the inspection.

The good news was that the brakes were ok and the only thing the overheating did was polish the brake rotors to a mirror shine.

From a Fellow Canadian

I received this email from a fellow Canadian who wants to get involved.

It says so much about what we are doing and gives some examples of how to become a part of our effort that I have asked permission to reprint  it verbatum in this blog.

I’d like to apologize to my Caring, generous fellow Canadian for my blunder and hope that you will dig in with both feet and give us the big shove we all want and need.

An Adventure Not Without Risks

Today we started out on our Journey as usual with the now routine caution about safety and not taking risks.

The day was beautiful, cool but not cold, windy but again not too windy and it was sunny. To date the trip has been uneventful weatherwise since we left Vancouver behind. The runs through the mountains have been difficult but with the resolve of our determined athletes not too difficult to make them submit to failure. 

The excitement of the athletes was infectuous after each run down the long mountain inclines especially after watching them sometimes struggle to reach the tops of the tallest mountains.

You and I could simply get off the trike and push it along when we could no longer peddal.

These guys don’t have that option and must struggle to twist the pedals so to speak to reach the top.