Foreword: I’m just gonna transcribe for John for this one:
John: “I should have gone to the movie. Biggest regret of the trip”
Me: “Why John, WHY!?”
John: “Listening to Herman talk for another two hours. That’s what it was. Not actual conversation, just listening to him talk. He talked beer and his ex wife and stuff like that. Somehow he didn’t gather that I wasn’t super interested and continued to just talk at me for hours. It was actually about three hours, the time it took you to cycle to the movie, watch it and back. Your movie cost you something, mine didn’t cost me anything monetarily but it cost me something else…”
Me: “Oh John, you are a prick”
John: “You mean gentleman”
The following year, John saw Hermann at a hostel in Iceland (a place that Hermann indicated he wanted to revisit) and avoided him at all costs. “Not because he was a bad guy,” says John, “but because I didn’t want to have another ten hour conversation that would take up my entire day”. Regardless of how full of words Hermann was, he was a real gentleman to host us, and we are really grateful to him. He knew a lot about biking and had lots of worldly wisdom. We suspect he talked so much because he didn’t really have anybody to talk to. Maybe also we were not the best conversationalists at the time – we were both definitely exhausted already at this point.
The next day almost ended the trip for me (Matti).
Kamloops to Salmon Arm
After we loaded up with carbs and protein at a local Denny’s in Kamloops, we set sail to the extremely scenic Salmon Arm. The trail today was visually epic, yet real easy to cycle. There were no real uphill battles to be fought. I listened to the music that zany Brit recommended and it did not disappoint. If you haven’t listened to The xx yet go find their stuff on YouTube now. They’re kind of like Metric meets the Postal Service meets Stars. I also listened to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack which added a real epic overtone to the day. Cycling towards ancient and majestic mountains while blasting Lord of the Rings through my ears further enchanted the already remarkable landscape. As I cycled, I pretended to conduct an imaginary orchestra, and probably looked like a complete ass doing so.
About half way through I took a quick dip in a beautiful lake to cool off. I definitely did cool off… brr!
As we approached Salmon Arm, a sign indicated a winery 4 km off the highway. I really wanted to go but because John doesn’t like wine he passed. The first half-kilometer was stupidly steep, but when I finally got to the winery, a lovely couple who owned the place, Graydon and Maureen, gave me a wine tasting as we talked about their business and happenings. The winery, Recline Ridge is great – I bought a delicious white named Kerner which had a definite green apple taste. I gifted it to the gent whose place we are couch surfing at tonight and he ungraciously commented that he prefers beer.
Despite this, Hermann is quite the generous man and is an amazing cook. He made John and I two delicious pizzas that included fancy cheese, broccoli, peppers and delicious sun dried tomato sauce. He also suggested we visit a hot spring that is outside of Revelstoke. An avid cyclist himself, he too wanted to cycle across Canada this summer but was unable to do so due to unforeseen circumstances. Maybe next year. I wish him the best of luck and the biggest thank you.
After the pizza I cycled back down to the centre of town to watch Brave. I was highly anticipating this movie but boy was it a disappointment. This movie was made by Pixar? It was by no means bad, but where’s the imagination? It was very well animated but wasn’t very interesting. There was no real depth I give it 2.5/5 pickles.
When I arrived back at Hermann’s, he told us a funny story about how occasionally chases off bears in his backyard. He just chases them with his fog horn and they run crying for their mommies. Jesus. As I listened, I sipped a beer from Halifax: Propeller’s Extra Special Bitter. I liked it but it didn’t really stand out to me. I like bold flavors.
Great day. Enjoy the pictures!
