2 June 2007It feels great to have completed Day 1, finally, after all the stress of preparing for this trip. Before this afternoon I had not yet attempted to ride my bike fully loaded, with front panniers, rear panniers, and handlebar bag. Through all of the planning for this trip, not once did I feel nervous; not once, that is, until 10 minutes before our departure time. That's when Dan and I had finally finished packing and loading our bikes up. We took them for a quick ride around the block just to get a feel for the weight. My bike felt completely unstable, and I was terrified. So we're really going to do this? I mean, are we actually going to bike across Canada? These are questions my mother had been asking me from the moment I decided to do this, but it was only right before leaving that I realized what I had gotten myself into.
Despite the fact that I was literally shaking, we finally began our journey--slowly, but surely. After completing the ride from Richmond to Vancouver--which includes three big bridges--we felt like we had accomplished something. Getting out of Vancouver was quite the ordeal. Apparenlty cyclists are allowed to ride on the highway in this province. At least that's where our route led us. The experience was absolutely terrifying. Not only did we have to worry about not running over sharp objects on the road and following our directions, but also not getting run over by cars, some of which were traveling at remarkably high speeds. However, we made it out of the city, safe and sound. The rest of the road to Mission was smooth sailing. We just got into the zone, and had to keep pedaling until we made it to our campground. And what a feeling of accomplishment it was! Finally, after all this time, we are on the road. Mission accomplished.
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