My Gr.5 teacher, Brian Bonenfont, escorted me into Vernon, along with two RCMP cars, and about 40 cyclists.

After 30 years, getting re-aquianted with Mr Bonenfont was wonderful.

After getting picked up by Lorne and Deb, poor Lorne had to drive back north to the airport to pick up his wife Donna (who flew in from Vancouver on another flight).  Wow, it was great to see her.  I haven’t seen Donna since Aug. 1, 2010 the day I cycled out of town.  I remember at the time she gave me big hug with tears in her eyes.  I didn’t understand it then, but talking to Lorne over the past few days… he and Donna weren’t sure if I’d be coming home.

5km south of Vernon, we stopped on old Hwy. 97 to get out and admire the view of Kalamalka Lake, Rattle Snake Point, and Coldstream.  I tried to keep it together but it was all a little too much for me.  I broke down and began weeping.

My beloved grade 5 teacher, Mr. Brian Bonenfont.

Home.

Vernon.

Home.

Home.

Waaaaaaaaaay too much for my little scarred and scared heart to handle.  Way, way too much.

In his concern Lorne tells me to get stoic and pull myself together.  He is right.  Now is not the time to indulge myself with unbridled emotions.  In 20 minutes I am too meet a crowd of people at Okanagan University-College Vernon Campus.

Just as the Car Crew and I were about to pull away, a motorcyclist on big maroon Honda Gold Wing pulls up next to us on the side of the road

Mr.  Brian Bonenfont!

Mr.  Bonenfont taught me in grade 5 and was by my favorite elementary school teacher.  Man did that man make an impression on me!  Hockey cards, floor hockey, my class 4×4 fieldtrip with his jeep club, and my “Big Mouth Award.”

At the end of grade 5, when some kids got the Math Award or the Athlete Award, I got the “Big Mouth Award.”  Now some of you might be thinking, how inappropriate.   NAH.

Here is what matters.  The impact the award had on me.  It didn’t stop or cure my impulsive tendency to blurt things out before thinking, before raising my hand in class, but it did remind me of who I am and the way it can be perceived.

Most importantly my “Big Mouth Award” has been used as a teaching tool for both me and my Gr 4/5 students over the past 10 years of teaching.  The award sits on my desk in my class room.  Each year I do a lesson with it on the first day of the new year with my new class.

After about 20 minutes of classroom discussion and working with my students they realize that the award is there to remind them that I was once their age, once a 10 year old kid that forgot to put up his hand in class when speaking.  But more importantly they eventually understand that the award is there on my desk to remind myself that I was once their age, once a 10 year old kid that forgot to put up his hand in class when speaking.

On his motorbike, Brain escorted me to the University-College with his hazard light flashing.  Cycling next to him while chatting was truly unforgettable.

THANK YOU BRIAN!

Brian escorts us down into town.

October 13
Year 1 Day 74

End the day in Vernon, British Columbia

75km (-33km from daily target of 108km)
Moving Average 20.6km/hr & Cycling Time 3hrs 38min
36,045km Total

One scheduled morning radio interview, and then two more that arrived shortly afterward, plus the first morning of daily photos taken of me riding my bike and then emailed to Vancouver 24H has me on the road later than planned.

I ride part of the way to Vernon and then get picked up by Lorne and Deborah.  Lorne had raced ahead to the Kelowna airport, picked up Deb, and then drove back south on Hwy 97 to find me.

Oh my God, it was so nice to see her.  She is soooooo beautiful.  Soooooo smart.  Soooooo supportive    How in the heck did I get so lucky to have this person in my life?   Did you know that Deb basically ran RDH from the corner of her desk for the first 8 months of the campaign while working full time as a Langara College Communications Officer, with  social life that would make a butterfly feel inadequate, and with her partner missing somewhere on bike in some country on some continent.

Deborah So is incredible.

54-40
Trusted by Millions
“She lies to Me.”

 Music Video (click here)

She lies to me
Lies to me
I don’t wanna know
What she really sees

What is wrong with me?
I’m not supposed to be happy all the time
But I’m willing to bet it doesn’t matter yet
As long as she doesn’t mind

Telling lies to me
Lies to me
I don’t wanna know
what she really sees

Maybe it’s not fair to her
To believe in what she says
That’s the way it goes sometimes
And it can also go the other way

I wasn’t wide awake
When she said to me, “Buddy, you’re alright”
But I think she knows and I know it shows
That I’m confused all the time

She lies to me
Lies to me
I don’t wanna know
What she really sees

Deb and I. Vernon CMHA event.

Deb flew out to Singapore for my birthday and a month's ride through Malaysia and Thailand. Here we are in the infinity pool at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Definitely not my typical RDH night's stay.

Another yummy lobster dinner. Water Prince Corner Shop, Prince Edward Island.

August 1, 2010. I am leaving but I have Deborah with me, by my side, all the way.

A new RDH Chapter

October 13
Year 1 Day 74

End the day in Vernon, British Columbia

75km (-33km from daily target of 108km)
Moving Average 20.6km/hr & Cycling Time 3hrs 38min
36,045km Total

I have just learned that the newspaper Vancouver 24H will be providing a RDH space on page 3 of their newspaper every Monday to Friday from this upcoming Monday until I finish on Nov 12.

Holy crap!

Things are starting to snowball a bit here.  I am getting swept up into something bigger than even in my most grandiose of fantasies could I have ever imagined.

And really, who needs to experience mania to empathize with a bipolar person?  Just distill and make generic this small chunk of my life, bottle it, and sell it to potential buyers with their names labeled on it.

It’s all bit scary.   (Boo!)

The Twitter feed, Facebook commentary, and www.ridedonthide.com message board are all accelerating. , with straight-line-to-the-ego commentary that has me reading, smiling, shaking my head in wonder, and now saying to myself, “Easy does it big fella, let’s not get carried away and become an arrogant butthead like so many other people that have done something (seemingly) extraordinary.”

And what happens if I go off the rails, does that make the news too?  What happens if the so-called “hero” divulges his secrets, the other skeletons in his vast dark closet?  How ridiculous and yet so typical of anyone that has been placed on a pedestal in the public eye.  Whatever happened to cycling in isolation with a blank mind, open to whatever was around the next corner?

A new chapter of Ride Don’t Hide is upon me.  And this chapter will be more challenging than any chapter before it.  May I have the strength to weather through it and come out as a decent person on the other side.

Confidence is one thing, arrogance is another.  I loathe arrogance.    I can’t think of anything smaller of a man that has his oyster, than for him to be arrogant.  For him to psychologically benefit at the sake of others, while he himself is already in a place of psychological strength.  Yes, men with frail egos, small appendages, or height challenges… they (we) can be a bastard bunch.

I remember the grotesque gated communities in Carmel, California, the BIG yachts in the bay of the tax haven hell hole of Monte Carlo.  The worst, the ugliest I have seen in my 450 days of cycling through 33 countries.

Power: a man’s weakness worn on the outside, perhaps pinned to the lapel of his Hugo Boss double breasted suit.

To anyone that meets me, here going forward, be you a long term friend or merely a one time acquaintance. I ask of you a favour…

If I come across as arrogant, please tell me, so that I can check my behavior and attitude, and leave it at the door.  Please help me correct myself-

No, I hereby give anyone that is reading this permission to slap me up-side-the-head if I become arrogant due to this Ride Don’t Hide phenomenon.   And I mean, a hard slap.  Hard.