Tuesday, July 27, 2010 a day of many firsts.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 a day of many firsts.

I went to the BMW dealer to get my bike when I realized that today was the first day in about six months that I awoke and didn’t take any antidepressants or supplements. Guess this is what it feel like to be free of a dependency on antidepressant meds and supplement regimen I was using to combat the withdrawal side effects of Effexor XR. Awesome!

After picking up my bike from Southwest Motorrad after it’s first major service, I headed off toward Rock Creek on highway 33. After getting out of Kelowna started to climb higher to an altitude of 1200+ meters. All along a series of twistie turns and one hairpin.

Following along highway 33 in the heat of the day (97 degrees) was brutal. I stopped at a small bar along the way and guzzled down four ginger ale and a great homemade burger with onion rings. It was expensive but tasted so damn good. I was so thirsty I never flinched for $8 for pop and $11 burger.

At the bar I met a guy on a Harley Davidson (his sons bike) who used to work in Bolivia in the 1980′s. He was a gringo working for a bank and using financing to sell airplanes. Or so he says. Sometimes I’m not sure I believe some of their stories, especially when somethings they say o not make sense or they forget what they said.

Got to Rock Creek but it didn’t feel like a place where I wagged to stay. Got myself some water from the mountain stream then back on the bike. I was headed to Grand Forks when I saw a provincial campground Boundary Creek. I pulled in and drove though to get a sense of the campground. Decided to stop, took campsite number 10 and sat down to guzzle more water.

Damn its hot.

Slowly set up my tent when I noticed there was a nice sized stream 20-30 feet down a small bank.

The sound of water going down a fairly sized stream is very soothing. I seamy tent up then walked around the campground to check out the bathrooms and refill my water bottle. Flush toilets and toilet paper! Bonus!

I was still so heated the stream was calling my name. I carefully navigated the steep path down to the edge of the stream (more like a small river) and I decided to step into the crystal clear water. Then I saw a perfect rock that would make a nice seat that was about 8 inches below the surface. I sat down.

Ooh! It was cool but felt so, so good. I just sat there and then decided to get wet all over. I splashed around like in a bird bath. Don’t know why I didn’t just layback in the water… right, my joints were aching due to the cold water. I splashed around a bit more then stood up, grabbed my shirt and bike keys (safe in the buttoned shirt pocket) which I had left hanging on a tree.

Then I came and had a short nap in my tent listening to sound of the stream bubbling merrily along. Simply a truly amazing day of firsts and many more to come.

Tomorrow I’ll awake early to travel in the crisp cool mornings. I want to do soem banking in Grand Forks and then onto check out Christina Lake and see if I can get a campsite on the lake for a few weeks before heading north to Nakusp for the Horizons Unlimited RTW meet up August 12-5, 2010.

Travel Light. Dream It Forward! Be.

Greg Balanko-Dickson

http://twitter.com/gregbd

gregbd at gmail dot com