Kokanee Trip, Day 9 (Aug 18/12)

I took the opportunity to sleep in this morning, only getting up at 8am. I lounged in my room drinking some coffee, and going outside for a cigarette. It was after 9 by the time I left the hotel, and then I enjoyed a nice breakfast, before hitting the road at 10. It was quite cool this morning, but the sun was out, and I was dressed warm enough to enjoy the crisp morning air.

In Sparwood I stopped to pick up something to drink, and was on the bike getting ready to leave, when some guy pulled up beside me. Now I enjoy meeting new people, but this guy was strung out and very unpredictable. It felt to me like he really needed someone to talk to, and I obliged for a while, but it was a very fractured conversation. I hope he pulled over somewhere to sleep, since I never did see him again even though I stopped beside the road to take pictures more than once.

As I rode east, the mountains turned to foothills, something that always brings me down a little. Not long after returning to my home province, I reached the start of Highway 22 (The Cowboy Trail). I will ride this road beginning to end on my journey north.

The best part of the Cowboy Trail is that it bypasses Calgary and Edmonton, meaning I won't have to be in the city and deal with that traffic. Speaking of traffic, it was pretty light for the first while, although it began to pick up a lot as I neared Cochrane. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and I met a ton of bikes. There must have been some kind of ride happening in Cochrane, but I wasn't able to gather any info in my stop over at the Tim Horton's for a lunch and a coffee.

I passed through a lot of small towns throughout the day, never having to deal with too much traffic. The feeling of freedom is so much easier to attain when one isn't dealing with heavy city traffic or city scenery. With the mountains off in the distance, riding through the ranch land was easy on the eyes.

The ride ended much too early once again, in Rocky Mountain House. After winding down a little, and having a shower, I went for dinner. I had tried contacting an old friend earlier in the day, not sure if she lived in Rocky or Sylvan Lake. She got back to me, and after a couple messages back and forth, she said she was coming to RMH for a coffee.

Kathy, her husband Chris, and her brother David arrived at around 8pm and we had a good time catching up over a coffee. It definitely made my evening much more enjoyable to connect with old friends. So if you're reading this, thanks for making the effort to drive the 45 minutes each way to see me:)

I smoked the last cigarette of the package I purchased yesterday and decided that I was now done with smoking. The Champix pills I have been taking to help me quit are blocking the nicotine anyway, so the time has arrived to man up and quit.

470.7km today