This trip has just done a turnaround for everything that was making it... challenging. Magic ingredients: Rest day, saddle switcharoo, and blessedly cooler weather. The constant napping we accomplished yesterday was crucial, and turns out that riding a bicycle all day on a comfortable saddle in temperatures in the low 80s is actually very pleasurable.
Today was also a landmark travel achievement for me. I pedaled through two states and then into another country! I've never even been to Idaho! It was lovely. The land is more lush and fertile, and steep mountains provide a backdrop to idyllic farms.
Then the real kicker... we crossed into Canada! I've never even been to Canada!
The first thing we did was hop in the river just because we needed to experience our first international swim of our journey.
Then got around too noticing what's different about Canada. They definitely spell Garden Centre wrong, their money looks funny and it's going to be really hard to figure out how many kilometers we're riding each day. But with the mountains popping up behind the town and both the wild and domestic cherry trees heavy with fruit, so far Creston, BC is turning out to be wonderful.
We're staying with our first Warm Showers hosts, Jan and Zach. Warm Showers is like Couchsurfing for bike tourists, and we'll probably be staying with a few hosts on this trip for lack of designated campgrounds. Tonight we pitched the tent in Jan and Zach's backyard under a giant weeping willow tree, getting ready for an early start tomorrow.