Amazing Flight to Vancouver and later

Sunday 18th May - after a comfortable night in the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport - compliments of the hotel manager Mr Craig Renfrew - my son Bob and I headed over to the Terminal. Bob had driven me over the day before from Luce Bay with the bike and all the gear for the ride crammed in my dear little old car. At the airport numerous relations, friends, cameras and the media were there to see us off. After tearful farewells we were soon on our way. With us was the lovely Lynwen who was to be camera person for the next week. We flew with ZOOM AIRLINES who had sponsored our flight. A little into the flight Kevin, with the smouldering blue eyes - oh to be young again!! - announced over the microphone that two special ladies were on board and told the passengers what we were up to. Kevin asked us to stand up and, to a great round of applause, there we stood blushing to the roots of our hair!! Not long after I developed severe abdominal pain which thankfully was eventually relieved by the simple expedient of spending the proverbial penny. It was around this stage that Kevin asked me to say a few words to the passengers. Penny was sound asleep so it was up to me although I felt really unwell. Lynwen stood with me holding my hand and with microphone in hand I spoke to the whole plane load of passengers. There followed a collection for Macmillan Cancer Support and over $1000 was raised! Amazing. The staff on the flight were wonderful and, apart from the pain I was suffering, it was one of the best flights I have ever had. On arrival at the airport we made our bleary way to The Access Hotel, paid for by cousin Susy and husband Charles. thank you so very much. The following two nights were to be in The Fairmont Hotel, compliments of Lynne and Jaque. Everyone has been so good to us and we have been quite overwhelmed with the kindness. Thank you everyone. The next couple of days were verging on a nightmare.
Monday 19th May - we headed off to downtown Vancouver to collect our brand new Blackberry Curve smartphone sponsored by Emma, and her husband John's, company Dunpark. Also a new mobile phone for me, as mine turned out to be useless in Canada, and some other technical bits and pieces. Penny and I are NON TECHNICAL so this was going to be a challenge. We have to learn so many new things also the camera strapped to the handle bars of the bike!! Me, a film maker. You see, when Lynwen leaves we have to do the filming!!! The mobile phone was kindly given to me by Michael, manager of Rogers computer shop.
Tuesday 20th May - was spent sight seeing and buying bicycle bits and pieces. Lots of things happened after that which I'll tell you in another blog.
Wednesday 21st May - the following morning and we are off but before we left we were introduced to Tom, our Mr Fix-it, an incredible guy. He works for Vancouver Tourism and was to be our driver and help us with any problems (little did he know what was in store!!). We headed off on the ferry to meet the Mayor of North Vancouver and his friend Dan. After the photo call and endless good luck messages, we were off. Now Tom insisted we load the bikes into the van and take a lift out of Vancouver as he said that "only crazy idiots would think of cycling out of the city as the traffic is horrendous". We accepted the lift with grace and headed off. He dropped us off and then Penny and I started The Bike Ride at long last. It was a short day and that night we camped at Vedder River. Lynwen did a lot of shots of us from the van as they sped past. It was great fun and ther was lots of waving and shouting out.
Thursday 22nd May - we set off to cycle to Harrison Hot Springs, a fabulous resort by the Harrison Lake. We did some filming around the lake and visited the biggest sand castle competition in the world and some of the features were absolutely awesome (picked up the expression when I was in Oz) We made our way to Springs RV Resort and there we met Sheila. Sheila was so pleased to hear the Scottish accent as she was born in Edinburgh although has lived for many years in Canada. She was on duty at the park and was so kind to us. She gave us free camping and insisted we put our tents in front of a couple of log cabins and to use the facilities. Then I went to blog and spent ages doing my first blog from Canada and managed to loose it for some reason. It was a good one too as I was in the mood and the setting was fantastic overlooking Harrison Lake and using Tom's fabulous hotel room with his lap top - maybe it's still out there somewhere. That night we had a visit from Bill and Tom and round the camp fire we heard the story of Big Foot, part animal, maybe part human, a huge wild creature having been seen roaming the wilds. Sure hope we don't meet it although it sounds slightly mythical.... maybe a bit like Nessy. Oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that!! We actually had a great night and other campers joined us for a few drinks.
Friday 23rd May - this morning before we left Sheila came out to see us off and gave us a cheque for $100 for Macmillan Cancer Support. All packed up and on the road again this time heading for Hope - nice place to spend my 70th!!! We had our first experience of the big road trucks and they are huge. We were able to cycle on a path at the side of the road so it wasn't too bad To-night we are in a camp site called Coquihalla and by the river. I have blogged a lot to-night to catch up with everthing and hopefully the next ones won't be so long. Tomorrow we ride through the mountains to Princeton - this will be a big one