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Avery's Ride for PKU blog

I will be blogging about my preparation and planning leading up to the ride and will try to Blog as much as possible as I pedal across the country.

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  • Jun11Wed

    Day 4 and 5

    June 11, 2014
    Well, yesterday we rolled into Kamloops and it was one of the nicest rides we have done yet.  Maybe because the majority of the ride was on a nice flat road through a rural setting.  We saw eagles, lots of deer and a few ranchers herding up their cattle.  There was also not a lot of traffic so that was nice.  We had a busy day in Kamloops.  We stayed with Amanda and Cole.  Amanda is an adult with PKU and it was interesting to hear her story.  Things were a lot different for someone with PKU when she was younger.  She is an advocate for those with PKU and I believe she played a big part in getting the cost of low protein food covered in British Columbia.  You can check out her blog here http://amandacosburn.wordpress.com/.  Amanda interviewed all of us for a story on her blog.  It was great to meet her and Cole.  Cole has a mountain bike and his stories made me wish I had brought mine out here.  Its great on a road bike but his stories of riding single track through the mountains made me think I was missing out on something.  But its probably best that I don't mountain bike on my time off, that cant help with rest etc.  Amanda and Breanne and a few others helped organize an event in Kamloops at McArthur Island park.  It was a great event with 30 or so people.  We had some food, did a bike/walk around the island and had some great conversation with the people there.  There is quite a big PKU community in Kamloops and its great that they can all get together and share stories and help support each other.  We also met an aunt of a PKU child (I cant remember her name) who was born around the time Avery was born.  We are actually going out for dinner with her parents in Salmon arm and they have put us up in a hotel for the night.  It was great to talk to her as she had a lot of the same feelings/experience as Sarah and I did when we found out our niece Avery had PKU.  We sold some Tshirts and had a small silent auction and all together raised over 500.00 for the ride.  Thanks to Amanda and her team for organizing the event and for putting us up in their home for the night.  

    Day 5.

    Today we rode from Kamloops to Salmon Arm.  It was just over 120km to the hotel in Salmon Arm.  As I mentioned before, Bruno Gaiger(SP?) has arranged for us to stay at the comfort inn in Salmon arm tonight.  Its a great spot and it will be a relaxing evening.  Im also meeting with a reporter from the local paper here tonight to talk about the ride so that will be good.  We were able to talk to a lot of the hotel staff about the ride today and they were quite interested in what we are doing.  They provided us with a spot to wash out bikes and a hose which was great.  Check out the photo section to see the pics from the last few days.  It was a good ride to Salmon Arm.  Rolling hills with a few pretty big climbs which seem harder after biking for a few days in a row now.  On the way through we met up with two other cyclists heading to St. Johns.  they were both carrying all their gear on them and were keeping up with us so kudos to them for that.  Maybe we are going slow?  Tonight Bruno has also offered to take us all to dinner.  Not sure he knows what he's getting into, taking 2 guys who have just biked 5 hours for dinner but hopefully the bill will be reasonable.  Cycling everyday sure builds up the appetite.  All joking aside, its been great to see all the support we have been getting in each place we stop.  Thanks to Bruno and his family for all the help they are providing its greatly appreciate.  Bruno actually saw us today on the road and then recognized the van and stopped to say hi. It was nice to meet him along the way.  

    I mentioned earlier that we met two other cyclists, well one of them, Gord (how Canadian) told us he had heard about our ride when he was in one of the small towns we had passed through (cant remember the name) so its nice to hear that people are talking about the ride.  It all helps in creating the awareness needed to continue to help support those with PKU.  

    Tomorrow we head to Revelstoke which is about 100 km from here.   Looking forward to staying with Sarah Newton and her family who we randomly found on a tour cycling website.  Thanks to everyone for your support, prayers, donations and words of encouragement.  Don't forget to check out the pictures.     

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