Today is Day #24 of The Road To Valour

On today’s ride I am riding on my own – sort of.

Starting off from Kim and Ian’s place, they have decided to join me for part of the ride – basically to the edge of town. This almost seems like something out of an old western movie – I’m getting run (ridden) out of town.

The sun is shining, the winds are calm and generally behind me and while there are still hills, the mountains are gone. Life is good! Rolling along I get the standard conflict between my bike computer and Google Maps. The computer is trying to send me along a very busy Hwy 2, whereas Google sends me to the west along a dirt road that eventually turns almost vertical. Finally it turns south again and I just have open cattle country, straight roads and rolling hills until I roll into Okotoks.

Just as I am getting into town, I roll over a rail line that is set in a trench. My bike is so heavily jarred that I bump into my phone that is nestled into its Quad-Lock and knocks it loose and onto the track. A couple of cyclists come up from behind me and I think that he is going to roll over the phone, but he picks it up for me.

As we ride into town together, they say that they are going for a cup of tea and ask if I wanted to join them. Did I mention thatchy had distinct British (not English) accents? I said that I was planning on staying att he local campground and they offer me a bed at their home.

Turns out that Jason and Sally are police officers and have supported local Wounded Warriors Canada initiatives in the past.. So they understand what this is all about.

To make it all the more interesting, we were talking about the Battlefield Bike RIdes and I said that I did BBR19 – Dieppe to Juno Beach – and that there was somebody from Okotoks who did that ride, but I couldn’t remember his name. Well, it turns out that they know Todd, so they. called him. We’re going to get together tomorrow evening in Nanton. Small world!

This ride has just been like that over and over again. As I said in the video, the support that I am receiving from people all along the way is making this ride so impactful.

Riding The Road To Valour