Day 7:
Hey everyone, brother Rusty here to update you on our trip from Nelson to Creston today.. As I am sitting here writing this blog at a picnic table at our over-priced campground in Creston, it is hard for me to stop thinking about the paradise that was Nelson yesterday and early this morning… We woke up at the Morrison residence to pancakes, fresh fruit, bacon, green tea (obviously for Scotty) and fresh juice… This was by far the greatest breakfast I have had on my trip and probably in my life.. No offense Kathy Mack, I still love your french toast.. Needless to say, we were full of energy and ready to go for the day… Papa And Mama Morrison we miss your cooking already!
Before I get started on our day I just wanted to give my old stomping grounds, the Town of Comox Parks Department, which I worked at for over six years as a summer-student, a shout out. Prior to my departure on this two month ride, I went in there to visit my former work mates and was informed that all of these hard-working friends of mine had amassed a big pool, betting on how far old Rusty would make it across Canada.. There was a 5 dollar entrance fee and the person who guessed the spot closest to where I would be to exhausted to continue would win all the money… I was Shocked to here that 80% of them thought I wouldn’t make it past Hope! I was extremely angered by this, but then began analyzing my training regiment over the past couple of months, which consisted of riding Guthrie hill in Comox three times over (which I thought was comparable to the Rockies), ordering a hot and ready pizza by 5pm and watching the bachelor or any other garbage show on T.V with my mom by 8.. So realistically, I can’t really justify being saddened by this, as my training had me ready for a hot dog eating contest, not an endurance trip like this..
Moving on, we left at 9:30 this morning, but it was different then most mornings, seeing we had to catch a ferry across Lake Kootenay at 11:30. Being 31km away we had to book it to make it in time, which actually sat well with us being satisfied by the earlier meal. The ride was beautiful, right a long the lake and with the sunny weather no one complained about the quicker pace then the average morning. We made it to the ferry 10 minutes before departure and actually picked up the Province Newspaper at the café there, which had an article on our trip in it… We made fun of Ryan for the rest of the day because the article had a big picture of him in a game this year playing Basketball for UVic and obviously none of us were in it.. Classic golden child Ryan getting all of the attention! Anyways, the ferry ride was unreal, and the best part about it was that it was free..
A common theme over this trip has been whenever we are super down on life, something happens to pick us right back up.. I don’t believe in fate or anything of that matter, but I am beginning to think something is happening to us… If you have been following us you have heard of us randomly running into the Michael J Fox Theatre, meeting our stranded German friend who saved us from the black bear, seeing mountain goats, foxes, badgers and more recently randomly meeting Harry and seeing a Grizzly bear just yesterday.. All of these moments have randomly occurred, but have definitely boosted the morale and helped us continue this journey… So I wasn’t to shocked when this next event happened. So as we biked off the ferry into Crawford Bay, who do we run in to who is parked at the ferry terminal waiting to go across? Our cousin Paul, who I haven’t seen in about 6 months and I know Scotty hasn’t seen him for at least 3 years.. For those of you who don’t know Paul, he is our Uncle Dave’s son, (Dave being the one who had rebuilt two of Baha’s bikes that we are taking across Canada)… He had no idea we were coming through this way at all and if that isn’t crazy I honestly don’t know what is… So we got to catch up with him for 5 minutes and he gave us a massive fruit salad prior to driving onto the ferry.. The rest of the day we called “the push for Paul”!
Today was by far the easiest leg of the trip.. Well for the two young bucks me and Ry at least! As Scotty mentioned earlier in a prior blog every single day someone tells us in the morning that “this part of the trip will be the most challenging for you guys” and we all put our heads down and walk out of the café or wherever we are to a day of pure torture.. Today, at least for myself, was not like this… I can honestly see a change of the guard in the family slowly shifting… Since I was born it was always Scotty and Neville having all the power and myself and Ryan having to deal with all the shananigans they put us through… Over the first week I have yet to breakdown mentally and I can see it in Scotty’s eyes everyday that he is losing confidence in his physical ability slowly.. Maybe it’s the extra weight I carry in my pouch that allows me to fly downhill at a rapid speed or maybe it is the little bit of air I deflate out of Scotty’s tires every morning that is inhibiting him from performing at his best… But whatever is happening there is a change happening with the Mackinnon boys… Usually when myself or any of the boys are looking for words of wisdom, we look to Scotty, but it is hard to look up to a guy that is finishing 30 minutes behind us every single day… Neville and Ry are starting to see my positivity and natural leadership abilities shine through and they are leaning towards me for words of wisdom and encouraging words… I can see Scotty slowly losing his role in the four of us and as much as it thrills me to see this happen, it worries me as well. I hope that Scotty can find his new self and role in our foursome sooner then later and we can ALL make this trip together!
Lastly, I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to both Highland Secondary and Mr. Rob Kinnear’s Social Studies 10 class at Oak Bay Secondary for following us and showing support for our trip! It means so much to all of us and I officially feel like Justin Bieber… Over the next couple weeks we are going to try and get CBC on board and to try and contact different celebrities so wish us luck.. Rusty out!
Hey everyone, brother Rusty here to update you on our trip from Nelson to Creston today.. As I am sitting here writing this blog at a picnic table at our over-priced campground in Creston, it is hard for me to stop thinking about the paradise that was Nelson yesterday and early this morning… We woke up at the Morrison residence to pancakes, fresh fruit, bacon, green tea (obviously for Scotty) and fresh juice… This was by far the greatest breakfast I have had on my trip and probably in my life.. No offense Kathy Mack, I still love your french toast.. Needless to say, we were full of energy and ready to go for the day… Papa And Mama Morrison we miss your cooking already!
Before I get started on our day I just wanted to give my old stomping grounds, the Town of Comox Parks Department, which I worked at for over six years as a summer-student, a shout out. Prior to my departure on this two month ride, I went in there to visit my former work mates and was informed that all of these hard-working friends of mine had amassed a big pool, betting on how far old Rusty would make it across Canada.. There was a 5 dollar entrance fee and the person who guessed the spot closest to where I would be to exhausted to continue would win all the money… I was Shocked to here that 80% of them thought I wouldn’t make it past Hope! I was extremely angered by this, but then began analyzing my training regiment over the past couple of months, which consisted of riding Guthrie hill in Comox three times over (which I thought was comparable to the Rockies), ordering a hot and ready pizza by 5pm and watching the bachelor or any other garbage show on T.V with my mom by 8.. So realistically, I can’t really justify being saddened by this, as my training had me ready for a hot dog eating contest, not an endurance trip like this..
Moving on, we left at 9:30 this morning, but it was different then most mornings, seeing we had to catch a ferry across Lake Kootenay at 11:30. Being 31km away we had to book it to make it in time, which actually sat well with us being satisfied by the earlier meal. The ride was beautiful, right a long the lake and with the sunny weather no one complained about the quicker pace then the average morning. We made it to the ferry 10 minutes before departure and actually picked up the Province Newspaper at the café there, which had an article on our trip in it… We made fun of Ryan for the rest of the day because the article had a big picture of him in a game this year playing Basketball for UVic and obviously none of us were in it.. Classic golden child Ryan getting all of the attention! Anyways, the ferry ride was unreal, and the best part about it was that it was free..
A common theme over this trip has been whenever we are super down on life, something happens to pick us right back up.. I don’t believe in fate or anything of that matter, but I am beginning to think something is happening to us… If you have been following us you have heard of us randomly running into the Michael J Fox Theatre, meeting our stranded German friend who saved us from the black bear, seeing mountain goats, foxes, badgers and more recently randomly meeting Harry and seeing a Grizzly bear just yesterday.. All of these moments have randomly occurred, but have definitely boosted the morale and helped us continue this journey… So I wasn’t to shocked when this next event happened. So as we biked off the ferry into Crawford Bay, who do we run in to who is parked at the ferry terminal waiting to go across? Our cousin Paul, who I haven’t seen in about 6 months and I know Scotty hasn’t seen him for at least 3 years.. For those of you who don’t know Paul, he is our Uncle Dave’s son, (Dave being the one who had rebuilt two of Baha’s bikes that we are taking across Canada)… He had no idea we were coming through this way at all and if that isn’t crazy I honestly don’t know what is… So we got to catch up with him for 5 minutes and he gave us a massive fruit salad prior to driving onto the ferry.. The rest of the day we called “the push for Paul”!
Today was by far the easiest leg of the trip.. Well for the two young bucks me and Ry at least! As Scotty mentioned earlier in a prior blog every single day someone tells us in the morning that “this part of the trip will be the most challenging for you guys” and we all put our heads down and walk out of the café or wherever we are to a day of pure torture.. Today, at least for myself, was not like this… I can honestly see a change of the guard in the family slowly shifting… Since I was born it was always Scotty and Neville having all the power and myself and Ryan having to deal with all the shananigans they put us through… Over the first week I have yet to breakdown mentally and I can see it in Scotty’s eyes everyday that he is losing confidence in his physical ability slowly.. Maybe it’s the extra weight I carry in my pouch that allows me to fly downhill at a rapid speed or maybe it is the little bit of air I deflate out of Scotty’s tires every morning that is inhibiting him from performing at his best… But whatever is happening there is a change happening with the Mackinnon boys… Usually when myself or any of the boys are looking for words of wisdom, we look to Scotty, but it is hard to look up to a guy that is finishing 30 minutes behind us every single day… Neville and Ry are starting to see my positivity and natural leadership abilities shine through and they are leaning towards me for words of wisdom and encouraging words… I can see Scotty slowly losing his role in the four of us and as much as it thrills me to see this happen, it worries me as well. I hope that Scotty can find his new self and role in our foursome sooner then later and we can ALL make this trip together!
Lastly, I wanted to give a HUGE thanks to both Highland Secondary and Mr. Rob Kinnear’s Social Studies 10 class at Oak Bay Secondary for following us and showing support for our trip! It means so much to all of us and I officially feel like Justin Bieber… Over the next couple weeks we are going to try and get CBC on board and to try and contact different celebrities so wish us luck.. Rusty out!
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