Homeless But Not Hopeless: 04/09/2011 Day 11 Cycling Across Canada

Distance Traveled: Stayed in Fernie
Money Spent: Lots of money for alcohol, Pizza and more alcohol.
Time cycling: N/A
Moving Average: N/A
Total Distance Traveled: 830.5 km

I made it though the night! although I was pretty frightened by the heavy footsteps surrounding me during the course of the night. I ignored all I could by putting on my headphones but one stupid mistake I made was that I left all my food in my tent... silly me. Well, I alive and kicking... thank fuck.
I packed all my gear and made my way out of the bear inhabited area and made my way out to the dirt road; here I met a lovely German woman named Carmen walking her dogs, she told me that camping where I did was not smart as the bears are searching for alternative food sources this time of year because it has been a bad season for berry growth. She also mentioned that cougars had been spotted in the area too... if I had known that I would have paid the $30 for a night at the hostel. I asked her about the demolition Derby that was on today and she convinced me it is a must see – apparently there are 3 holidays in Fernie, Christmas, Easter and Demolition Derby day – what a redneck town... but a cool town nonetheless.
Carmen was kind enough to let me stay at her place for the night so she gave me directions, how awesome is that!
On the way there I stopped by the bike shop to get an issue fixed on my bike, the second gear would take an entire rotation of the peddles to slip into place. I thought I would have needed another chain or the wear on the sprocket set had worn down but thankfully for me it was a quick re-alignment with the rear axle and all was sorted – free too.
Carmen showed me around her lovely little home and I freshened up in the shower – her shower is worth mentioning its a steam shower with more nozzles and options than ive ever seen, it could even play CD's.
I headed out to the Demolition Derby to see what it was all about. $10 entry and $1 for a coke that I kept on refilling with Southern Comfort that I snuck into the grounds.
I didnt quite understand the rules of the event, if there were any but basically a bunch of cars drive about a dirt barricaded field smashing into one another until there is only one car running -how redneck although it was a very good laugh especially when getting progressively more intoxicated and joining in on the shouting and yelling and avoiding the dirt and mud spraying you as the car would spit it off the field.
I met some cool people at the event too including one guy I planted trees with this season and another guy that I havent seen since Kelowna for Canada Day 3 years ago.
After getting pretty well wasted I made my way back to Carmen's via the pizza shop where she worked, I got a discount on a pizza and munched it down back at hers drinking more beer with Bart, Carmen's housemate from Poland who incidently was also a treeplanter. After several beers Bart and I hit up the bar up the road... it took an age to get in as the bouncer was a retard - I know its not his fault but there were empty tables and chairs that we could all see as 20 or so people waited in line for 45 minutes.
Dancing, more drinking and chatting to people outside was pretty much all that happened at the bar, I was trying my luck with a few girls I met earlier in the day but I did not succeed... perhaps it wasnt a good idea that I was leaving the next day.
All in all it was a good night out but an overall fantastic day where I got smashed and spent too much money, so penny-less and with no one to snuggle with I cut my loses and walked home getting to bed at 4am.