The Eve Before Birthday

23rd May - this evening Tom (our Mr Fix-it), Lynwen, Penny and I went to The Home restaurant in Hope to celebrate my birthday. Lynwen and Ton were leaving that night and thought it would be a nice idea to dine out. We ordered a table for four and ordered a drink. A short while later my cousin Graham MacDonell, and his son Rylan who lives in BC, turned up out of the blue so we asked for a table for seven. Tom felt it would nice for me to spend time with my relations as I had only just met them. So they left. There were now five. Rylan then gave me a birthday present - a SPOT Satellite Messenger GPS tracker! I attach this to me so that people are able to track our route as we cycle. Pretty scary (but something I have always dreamed of in all my earlier travels!!). It was very kind of Rylan to be so thoughtful. Just then Rylan's phone rang with a message to say his Grandfather, who is in hospital at the moment, had taken a bad turn and they had to head off to see how he was. So now there were two. So Penny raised her glass and made a toast to me. The staff sang Happy Birthday and brought a little cake with a candle which I blew out to a round of applause!! Penny and I camped that night on the outskirts of Hope.
24th May - Birthday Girl . In the morning Tom and Lynwen came back to spend a couple of days with us before Lynwen flew back to Scotland and Tom had another Assignment - very busy man this Tom. By the way, he works for Tourism BC and not Vancouver - sorry Tom. We had breakfast in the Home restaurant where we had dined the night before. Four Mounties sat around a table having coffee. Tom introduced himself and told them about us and wondered if they might check on us now and again. They agreed to do this and said they would keep an eye on us that day and let the Mounties know as we moved along!!! On duty was Bill who around lunchtime had followed us up the mountain we had cycled. He found us by the side of the road enjoying a Gourmet Lunch organised by Randy (real name) who had come along to do some filming for Triple Echo Productions and would be with us for a couple of days. Bill parked his big police vehicle beside us and we enjoyed a good crack. Later that afternoon we came across our first black bear eating quietly by the side of the road. We had been warned about the bears but didn't expect to meet one quite so soon but we are in the mountains after all. Helen arrived at Manning Park where we would be camping that night. She is a friend of Penny's and lives on Vancouver Island. She is going to support us up and over the mountains by taking some of our panniers. That will be a wonderful as it is so hard with the weight we are carrying. I am so cosy at night in my wonderful sleeping bag given to me by Steve and Murray - enthusiastic workers for Macmillan Cancer Support. Randy spent a lot of time filming and at night we had another Gourmet Birthday meal round the camp fire Helen had brought a lovely birthday cake with sparkles on top and lots of balloons so there we were round the camp fire singing the old ranchers songs!! An unforgettable night and one of the best birthdays I have had.
25th May - I am wearing the fleeces kindly given to me by the GlenLuce Gun Shop, thank you Stoob. It is cold in the mountains and the fleeces keep me warm on the bike. It has been a hard day to-day and also very wet but we are in Princeton at last and have treated ourselves to a motel and are now going off to enjoy a well earned glass of Vin Roug!!