Today was a full but not necessarily an action-packed day.

At breakfast I met the remaining riders that I hadn’t yet met. Following breakfast we assembled for our orientation meeting. Bud, the owner of Cycle Canada, the company that operates Tour du Canada, led us through an overview of our trip. One of the first things on the agenda was to meet our galley crew members. Bud had divided us up into crews based on several factors. The other members of my crew are: Michel, Elaine, Gerald (Gee), and Greig. All of us, with the exception of Greig, had been on the Mile 0 trip so had already started to get to know each other. I think we are going to have a great crew! We also met the driver of our support truck, Adam.

Each galley crew, in rotation, is responsible for cooking dinner and breakfast next morning, in addition we do the cleanup, dish washing, etc. and load the truck in the morning. Two members of that crew then act as “sweepers” for that day, riding at the back of the pack to assist if anyone runs into problems. The sweeper duties can be passed to someone else if it becomes clear that rider is going to tail behind everyone else for whatever reason.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with various specific issues.

Following the orientation we had the opportunity to load our gear on the truck. Each rider is allocated a shelf and 2 baskets. The baskets, and any additional space on your shelf, are for your personal belongings. Your tent, sleeping bag, and other camping gear is kept in a duffle bag. These bags are loaded into the isle of the truck the last thing in the morning.

Dinner was our first experience with camp cooking. One member from each galley crew was assigned to tonight’s cooking group as a means of learning how everything would work. Dinner was simple, pasta and salad, but was absolutely delicious. For the first go-around, tonight’s crew did an outstanding job.

Following dinner there was quite a few of us that ended up at a nearby dollar store picking up last minute items ranging from pillows and lawn chairs to earplugs and sandwich bags.