Things Can Change

Two days on the road and already the moments and memories are vast. As we learn to live in the moment it is amazing the unexpected things we notice and experience. Thanks to everyone who came to see me off and a shout out to Susan Tam for arranging an RCMP escort out of town. I’m sure the biker riding beside me couldn’t figure out why I didn’t pull over when the officers were behind me with the lights flashing.

Day One was hot with a strong cross wind but I made good time. The tricky part was the 40 minutes, within a 2 km circle, that I spent looking for my cousin’s home in Regina. Thankfully, she arranged for Suzi (my bike) to be parked under cover, as when we woke up in the morning it was raining. Wonderful opportunity to visit with family and rejoicing with all over new additions to the family through marriage and births.

Day Two there was a delayed start as I waited for the rain to lift. It was a cool ride but thankfully I’ve several tops along, so 5 layers later all was good. The rain held off until approximately 1 hour from my lodging for the evening just outside of Winnipeg. Much gratitude to wonderful hosts, Jim & Sheila, at the White Horse Escape Bed & Breakfast, who guided Suzi & I in (again I required assistance in locating lodging) and provided a great place to spend the evening.

The rolling prairies of eastern Alberta and western Saskatchewan transformed to the open land that so many stories are set in. Travelling I remembered childhood family vacations and visits with friends with my own children, while being attentive to the road and my surroundings. A few stops to fuel and/or warm up, but the best moment was when I was bypassing Brandon, MB and thinking that I might be headed in the wrong direction, I exited the TransCanada highway onto a small winding rural road that promised me that Brandon was 8 km ahead. Imagine my delight, when at the end of the road, I discovered a shopping centre with a Starbucks at the first intersection. Delight because I had been thinking how nice a hot Chai latte would be. Had I stayed on the highway I would have totally missed it.

Leaving Saskatchewan I noticed wind turbines operating in the fieldssourcing renewable energy for the future. More spread out on the landscape than around Pincher Creek, AB but an awesome statement about changes in thinking. I pulled over to the side of the road and thought about how Rachel Starkey through Transformation Textiles (TT) is changing thinking about clothing factory offcuts. Her idea is to help millions of girls world wide by enabling them to stay in school instead of missing classes or dropping out due to a lack of sanitary supplies during menses. The Zanaa organization reports that each month in Kenya, 868,000 girls miss 3.5 million learning days because they have their period.

In the first coordinated effort amongst mass-production garment factories a scalable solution for the need of low-cost washable menstrual kits has been created. With TT’s pilot project to Malawi, a replicable/sustainable social business model is being formed, whereby donations/seed investments, will enter a perpetual cycle of re-investment.

Many opportunities and options are available to me on this cross country tour and I am grateful to everyone who is along for the journey. Travelling down the road or through life is not without challenges or barriers; however, having a destination or goal at the end of the day helps us to persist and keep on keeping on.

Thanks for riding with me. I encourage you to learn more, invest by helping a girl overcome a barrier for as little as $5 and be a part of changing the future.