Day 133, Catchin up on the olden days of the relay.



Okay, things are getting slow around sleepy little Summerland. Thank goodness Uncle Dave came over to offer a little motel
parking lot entertainment.

Ok, what's the first clue your grabbing at straws for blog material, pics of your breakfast at Denny's?

Or Teala's lunch?

Whatever she ordered to drink was colorful, though.

That's it! The gavel is coming down on this day, time to catch up on the days I missed on the early part of the 25th anniversary Rick Hansen relay. Here I am in the mayor's chair at our medal bearer meeting point at the Mount Pearl, Newfoundland council chambers. The town in Newfoundland's second largest, with a population around 25,000

This meeting was a lot of fun. We put all of the medal bearers in the council chairs.

Outside city hall, my roomie Jeremy is in charge of the pace motorhome on Day 2.

This medal bearer was here with Kyle and her son, who had an original t-shirt from Rick Hansen's visit to Mt. Pearl 25 years ago.

A good crowd today at our end of day celebration, the weather was good, and always a bigger draw when they know the man in motion is going to be in attendance.

It means a lot for people to be medal bearers, but it even means more to them when they get to meet their inspiration and role model, Rick Hansen.

thanks for having us!

Day 3 was from Mount Pearl to Clarenville, Newfoundland. I was on the medal bearer shuttle with Kyle, here is our group from Conception Bay South, Newfoundland

A group shot with the difference makers including their host Kyle, and our endurance athlete Sony

The group was lucky today, a surprise visit from Rick Hansen himself at the Conception Bay South rec complex.

A sight you will not see in British Columbia

Honor guard in Conception Bay for the medal bearers

The first rain I saw on the relay, in the little town of Holyrood, on our way to Clarenville

Holyrood is on Conception Bay

When your hungry, where else would you want to stop. Monty's in Whitbourne, Newfoundland. This place reminded me of a diner from the 60's.

Our end of  day celebration was at the Clarenville event center. Inside I found this painting from the Olympic Torch Relay. As part of the entertainment for the torch relay, Fritz, a member of the RBC team, would paint this picture while the canvas spun around on and easel, music blaring in the background. It was quite fun to watch, I can't imagine doing it over 200 times, though.

More great local live entertainment. The town of Clarenville (POP. 5300) has the distinction of being the first place the transatlantic telephone cable was layed back in 1955

the final medal bearer of the day.

Rick talks to the crowd.

Day 4, Clarenville to Glovertown, Newfoundland

First stop for Kyle and I , a medal bearer meeting point at the Royal Canadian Legion in Port Blandford, Newfoundland, a town of less than 600

Our master of ceremonies, Kyle

These meetings are the most intimate, small group combined with a small town friendly atomosphere made Kyle and I feel right at home.

 Once on the shuttle bus, the medal bearers get to watch a message from Rick Hansen, as well as some video clips from his original world tour.

Lunch today was at the Terra Nova golf resort, just outside of Port Blandford. Sony, Otto, Deena, and Bryn took advantage of the time to soak up the sun.

Our end of day celebration was in Glovertown, Newfoundland. Don had found himself a new moose hat to wear. I do not know why I cannot find any more pictures of this day, but it was special in it's own right. The town hosted a bbq for us and challenged us to a softball game, I think they took it easy on us and let us win, but it was good times.

There was not enought rooms for us in Glovertown, so some people, including myself, had to move ahead to Gander, Newfoundland

Time to relax after a hard day on the road, our hotel was right on the trans-canada highway.

Day 5 in Gander, sunnier days for sure, the proud medal bearer and her family.

Our police escort was brand new, but it had the old retro cherry on top. A McDonalds sponsor stop in Gander , Newfoundland.

This was interesting to me. Scott Simms, the member of parliment for the Gander  area, chose to run outside of his riding office. He also chose not to tell anyone, and basically ran his segment by himself.

This special medal bearer (I no longer have the records of their names) got a big surprise when he came around the corner and his entire church group was waiting to cheer him on.

A sunny end of day celebration in Gander. Jeremy interviews the final medal bearer of the day.

Interactive games, for the kids, and another BBQ for all.

Day 6 was an off day, time to tour around. Here is Dawn, Wendy, and Hank at Joey's look-out, looking over the town of Gambo. Named after Joey Smallwood, who brought Newfoundland into the Canadian confederation.

A shot of Salvage Newfoundland, one of my highlights of the relay so far, there are more pics on my Day 6 blog on August 29th, 2011

We stopped for lunch at this cool little restaurant right on the bay. If you can't see the picture beside me, it says : In cod we trust", now that's punny

Who doesn/t like starfish, this was one of many tidal pools we were fortunate enought to explore. Okay now back to winter in the Okanagan for me.