The cheery title notwithstanding, this tour had many dark clouds over it.

The tour was very late in the season.  A year earlier- about three weeks after the end of the Magical Mystery Tour 2008- I had been acclaimed as Leader of the Saskatchewan Liberals. In April my work in Economic Development ended and I then devoted full time attention to my role as a provincial party Leader.  I was taking a big risk which was both exciting and frightening (actually it was probably exciting because it was frightening…just like riding from New Denver to Kaslo for the first time in the pitch black).

If you compare pics on this tour with previous ones you can clearly see some serious weight gain.  This was almost entirely stress related.

Anyway, that was my state of mind going into this thing.  The great thing about bike tours are that I get to live in the moment and forget about all of the stresses of the world…get from Point A to Point B and enjoy the scenery on the way.  That’s my only concern when I’m on the bike.

Seeing my friends for our now-annual group wine tour was a blast even though the weather was cold and cloudy (look at those pics…I’m wearing a jacket!).  I was thrilled to be able to connect with my cousins Judy & Morris in Nelson and Lara & Shane in Peachland.  I was able to devote two trips through the Fraser Canyon and even got to go down the tram at Hell’s Gate.  Great stuff.

The tour was a little bloated and was the last of what I now call the “3 Week Trio”…Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure was 18 days, Magical Mystery Tour was 22 days, and this tour was 21 days.  Subsequent tours would be much shorter.  This would be the last time I’d spend an entire week in Kelowna and the last time I’d stay at the La Mission Motor Inn.  Of course, I didn’t know that at the time…before the next tour it would be sold to the City and used as a hospice home before being demolished to make the bridge across the La Mission Creek larger.  Kelowna itself was starting to lose its appeal anyway.  I was far more interested in Oliver when it came to wine touring.  In many ways, this tour was the end of an era.

It was also the first tour where I did not discover something new.  I had already been throughout southern BC on the three previous tours and this time around I was trying to see as much as I could….but I had seen it all before…look at all of the meandering and circling around on the map below.  I think I was trying to see the same places from different angles.  In the end I put on about 4300 kms and came home with about 30 bottles of wine.