Keeping it Real 2008- day two (may 2nd)

Brrr. woke up quite cold, despite the fluffy. again gorgeous day. said goodbye to Kitty (or Katy?) and her husband, and paddled towards sicamous.
"it is not rick to go round the world these days. You can pay a lot of money and fly round non-stop in less than forty-eight hours, but to know it, to smell it and feel it between your toes , you have to crawl" (Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon, cited in Back in 6 years, Tony Robinson Smith). That must be right. i was definitely crawling, but without that i would probably not have heard the millions of frogs quaking along the highway- frogs that have only one thing in mind... you know.
there are some very strange things you start to notice on a really long bike ride: one is, butterflies are really fast- they are not idly flapping their pretty wings, they actually can go quite quick, quicker than i at least. same for bumblebees- its an astonishing experience to ride side by side a bumblebee, let me tell ya. or trucks- usually i think that they are rather annoying- except uphill, when the air flow they create pulls you along with them.
then there is the heritage aspect- i stopped at "the last spike"- the last spike that connects the trans-canadian railway. hammered into the ground on November 7th, 1884. a rainy morning and apparently the poor guy who had the honor of hitting that spike home, messed it up- bent the first spike and had to use a second one.
best part of it all are probably the random ppl that you meet- today, it was the guy who works at "The Last Spike" at Craigellachie. two degrees- civil engineering and forest biology- who told me all these little great tricks for a cross-rockies bike ride. how would he know? well, i did one two, before he became the loving father of two and tried to avoid working in either of his two degrees (hidden message?). According to him, there will soon be leg cramps- but a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar each morning can cure them very easily. mmhm yum.
no matter- the absolute favorites of the day are Nicole and Graham- who granted me asylum in their little house- (even though they are out of town!) and the best welcome i have ever had: little notes, relaxing shower gels, dinner prepared. I am mind boggled- really thankful and really full of good food.
and now i will go sleep- tomorrow: up to the pass!