Wet Ride to Vernon

By Denise McMahon, Vernon

Today we got up early to grey skies and the likelihood of a very rainy day. White Spot in Kamloops served us up a very nourishing meal to send us off to ride through to Vernon.  We donned our rain jackets, put on our rain pants, and rain bonnets at the Wildlife Park in Kamloops and hit the highway. The team rolled out along the highway for a while before we got to our first long climb. We were cursing our non-breathable rain gear part way up the hill. After regrouping at the top of Monty Lake Hill we made our way towards Falkland. The rain seemed torrential at times and by the time we got to the Falkland Detachment we were rifling through our backpacks and suitcases for anything that was dry. Sedo’s Deli out of Salmon Arm provided us with some very delicious sandwiches that we soon devoured before we were rolling back onto the highway. Our next stop was Swanlake Nurseryland where we were greeted by quite a large crowd of people welcoming us to Vernon. They provided us with some snacks and warms drinks to get us through to our final destination. There were many families at Swanlake Nurseryland who had been recipients of some of the Cops for Kid’s grants. It was nice to hear their stories that tugged at our heart strings and made us all realize the reason why we were on this Cops for Kid’s Ride. There was a large crowd of people at Boston Pizza in Vernon waiting for our arrival.  I think we were all glad to get off our bikes and take our wet rain coats and gear off, load the bikes up and get inside Boston Pizza where it was warm and cozy where we enjoyed drinks and some appies that they had prepared for us.  Boston Pizza sent us on our way with enough pizzas to feed our entire crew and more up at SameSun Backpackers Lodge at Silver Star Mountain. Warm showers, clean clothes, plenty to eat and lots of socializing in the comfortable lodge set us up for a good night’s sleep so we can be up and at it for the homestretch into Kelowna, our final leg of this year’s Cops for Kid’s ride.