I've been seeing a lot of other cyclists these past few days, loaded up for long trips just like I am. Far more than I saw before this point. I think there are two reasons for this. The first is that this is where a lot of journeys like mine begin, being the westernmost province. Those poor fools have their whole road still ahead while mine is nearing its close. Still I do somewhat envy them; they've traversed the one portion I've yet to see.
The second reason for seeing so many of them is that now I can see them. Hwy 1 seems to be just a single strip of road through the mountains, with only two—three at most—lanes. This is different from the prairies, where the eastbound and westbound of the Trans Canada are separate roads, often far apart.
There have been signs on the road—they pop up now and then—telling of a project underway. A four-lane upgrade to Hwy 1 from Kamloops to Alberta. I've encountered roadside ridges blasted to rubble. Mesas of packed gravel running alongside the road at the other side of the parapet, waiting to be paved over. Long strips of shaven off roadside forest. Construction workers with large machinery, scooping and packing and paving. Hell, I even got held up for a total of about fifteen minutes by two different groups of the bastards occupying a lane, forcing traffic to obey the whims of those assholes at either end of the construction zone who wave around those all-powerful STOP/SLOW signs.
Other than those two holdups, the day was fairly boring. Easy even. Getting a good sleep really did help.
I'd say the most exciting part of today was eating at Wendy's. Damn, was I ever excited when I saw the highway sign for it. Salmon Arm was still hours away, but I let out a victory cry anyway. I'd had the thought a few days ago that I hadn't seen a Wendy's my whole trip, so this advertisement sorta came like an answer to my silent longing. I was craving that fresh-never-frozen and their summerlong 99 cent ice cream.
If this was a video game, I'd swim to that cave to check it out.
If your first thought was Skyrim, you're not even on my level. DK64 for life.
Boo Houses are my least favourite Mario levels.
Sounds magical. Also, in how many of these selfies can you see my phone reflected in my lenses?
Who posted this in the middle of the mountains?
Nice sign. But not what I'm looking for.
Now that's what I'm looking for.
YOU ARE READING
Jeremy to the West
Non-FictionIn 2018 I rode my bicycle across Western Canada, covering about 2300km. It's been two years and I figured I'd release my journal entries here for anyone interested in what a trip like this does to a person's sanity. Given that they're real-life jou...