Day 75-84: 24 Sep-3 Oct 2008: Pain in Prince George, reflections, and rain in the desert.

“emmm, I have a problem”

“Que paso?”

“My back hurts so much now, I cannot get up…”

We had arrived at Richard & Maggee’s place the day before. The pain in my back had become slowly worse during the past days, but at this moment it was so bad, I could not move. We were sleeping in the Yoga room, on comfortable, but thin mats, so I could not ‘roll’ out of bed either. It took about 10 minutes of painful balancing and slow finger movements before I could leverage myself into a semi-upright position. Ouch.

Once up, the pain was a bit less, but a cough and especially a sneeze made me grimace in pain. It shot sharply in unexpected moments from my right shoulder, all around my chest. I needed pills, a doctor or both..

After trying different types of pills the next days, Richard called a doctor and I could see him the same day. First pay $60, then talk to the doc. Once I told him that I had been cycling from Alaska the past months, he was convinced it was muscle pain, even though I told him that I could not pinpoint any specific muscle that hurt. I tried to convince him, but all he said was, that if I thought it was something inside my chest, it might be my lungs, and that I maybe should get an X-ray in the hospital. Read more

1000 Americans: Mike Rice, Hilltop gardens, Thompson Valley, British Columbia

‘Somehow it just gets warmer here than anywhere around in BC. We tried growing some chili peppers this year and they do great. Currently we have so much fruit that needs to be picked, problem is to find people helping us!”

“Most of it is completely organic, but to get certified costs too much, it is not worth it…”

Tip for cyclists: when going down through BC and passing the Thompson valley (between Prince George & the Fraser Canyon leading to Vancouver), reserve a week to work for Mike, anytime between August & October. He will supply a free camp ground with showers and you can make $100/day picking apples, peppers and all kinds of other fruits and veggies. It is a beautiful area, so it might be nice to stay for a week or so and make enough to go biketravelling for more than 2 months…

1000 Americans: Scott & Tina, Cache Creek

‘I live in Alberta now, but my heart always will be in British Columbia’ Scott said, after he posed with his daughter in the garden of his sister, where we had pitched our tent for the night…

1000 Americans: José F. Jiménez, Traveller & photographer from Mexico

When we met Jose in Southern British Columbia, he had almost finished his trip: 80.000km (50k miles) by car, following the outlines of the American coasts. he shot thousands of images during his 8 months of travel. We drank a few ‘mate’s’ with him and talked about the life of a traveller, while the sun set slowly behind us…

Read all about his trip on his website: http://www.xamerica.com.mx/blogEN/

1000 Americans: Jackie King & family, McCleese Lake, Canada

‘Where are you going?’ she asked and I replied that we were going to pitch our tent soon as it was getting dark.

I had stopped to put my pants on again over my cycling shorts, after a long hot day it was getting chilly again. We were close to McCleese lake, it was time to stop for the night.

While I was waiting for Ivana to catch up, a woman’s voice came from a house nearby: ‘Are you ok?’

I told her that all was fine and when she asked me if I needed anything I told her that some water for cooking would be nice.

‘Oh, you can pitch it in our yard or use our trailer! Come on in, I am Jackie, do you like wine?’

After we found out that her husband’s name was Terry, her brother’s Barry and mine Harry, we were set. We met her mother Joan, who was in her eighties, celebrating having survived a difficult surgery. It was a pleasant evening and we did get to stay in a small cozy trailer and the wine was drunk…

« Previous Page