The Magical Mystery Tour 2008 came at a time when I was transitioning out of economic development work and into politics.  On Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure 2007 I had decided to run in the provincial election that coming Fall…guess the tour made me feel like living life and taking risks. Full of youthful hope and exuberance, I ran a strong campaign but did not win on election night.  It wasn’t enough to dissuade me though…I had caught the bug… and over the course of that winter and spring I put a team together and ran for the Leadership of the Saskatchewan Liberals.  This tour came a few weeks after my Leadership campaign started.

The tour lasted a whopping 22 days and I unfortunately stopped writing journals after the seventh day.  I suppose at the time that I got caught up in the tour and thought that capturing everything would take up precious time that could be used riding and having fun.  I still took a lot of pictures there.  I’ll try to throw a few on here.

So what happened after “Day 7: Country House?”  Well, I hung out in Burnaby for a few days, then

headed over to Kelowna for the rest of that week.  I stayed at the La Mission Motor Inn again for the second last time (unbeknownst to me at the time).  I hit the usual wineries around Kelowna, hit the beach for a bit, and then headed south that Friday to Oliver.

In Oliver I met up with what would end up being the biggest wine touring group ever put together: Scott & Gill and Arron and Erin returned after all of the fun we had in Kelowna the year previous.  Scott & Gill’s friends Ryan & Katherine and Jen & Shaun also joined us.  We all stayed at the Cactus Tree Inn in Oliver.  It was a pretty awesome time, and the first time I had really delved into the south Okanagan winery scene after exhausting Kelowna the last two years.

After three nights in Oliver I headed up the Crownest to Creston, then up through the Kootenays through Revelstoke to Golden. I ended up staying in Golden for a few nights, and even rode down to Radium to take in the hot springs.  From Golden I headed up to Jasper, and then home.

I rode just over 4800 km.  I had toured the Island, the Lower Mainland, the North, the Kootenays, the Okanagan, and the Rockies.  There wasn’t really much left after this trip…