The Final Countdown

            When we woke up on Monday, October 10^th, we were no longer biking across Canada.  This was, for the first time, a feat we could refer to in the past tense.  Now, we were just a bunch of stinky, hairy kids with a penchant for farting in public and wearing our shirts inside out.

What occurred over our final five days together in Corner Brook, I think, surprised us all.  Evidently, devoting six to eight hours each day to cycling tends to leave the cyclist with little to no surplus energy, and the remaining hours of each day were often spent in recovery mode.  Now that we could check ‘bike across Canada’ off our to-do lists, we could actually invest some life energy into other pursuits. 

And so that’s exactly what we did.

There’s a few things you need to know before you read any further.  You need to know about bananas and Kazuki Taira.

BANANAS
With four days left together, we ended up receiving a donation of about 50 pounds of bananas.  Even with our eating habits, that was a lot.  And so while reading this journal, you can assume at least half of us, at any given time, were eating bananas, whether in a sandwich, in a peel, in a smoothie, or otherwise.

You won’t hear much mention of Kazuki in the bulk of this entry.  That’s because he had claimed the southeast corner of the living room as his own.  And there he crouched, for most of the entire 5 days, huddled over the laptop, ipod in one hand, digital camera in the other, preparing for our slide show. Dishes piled up beside him, hours passed, and still he worked. Never, in the history of crazy eyes, have I ever seen crazy eyes like the set donned by Kazuki on the eve of October 13^th.

5^TH TO FINAL DAY

Monday was spent discussing post-tour projects.  The session was facilitated by Jenkins, who asked each of us in turn what our hopes, dreams and ideas for the future were.  Then, she took note of anyone else who could offer help or support to these projects, and made a big list, which has since been passed around to us all.

Next, we had time and blank paper to write a letter to ourselves to reflect on the past six months.  Many of us found a (relatively) quiet corner and doodled some thoughts down.

Earlier on, we’d decided that each Supersquad Duo would come up with some sort of a goodbye ritual/fun activity.  Our first ritual was Quiz Time with Nick and Jenkins.  It was during their singing and dancing of their hastily created theme song that it was revealed that Jenkins may have in fact missed her true calling – the world of song and dance – she was a natural.

Next, the living room was transformed into a workshop of sorts, where Nick facilitated our gift making session.  Fabric was flying, coat hangers were being untwisted, inner tubes were chopped… when all was said and done, some capes, an indescribable interactive piece of patchwork, and an unforgettable, much protested windsock emerged from the rubble for some much deserving folks in Ottawa and Victoria.

For supper, we were invited to join the church congregation’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner.  This was a real delight.  We all got to sit together like one big family, and were served platefuls of yummy food.  We were seated right near the kitchen door, where all the food servers were walking by with cartful upon cartful of delectable desserts.  It was a non-stop sugar frenzy for a long, delicious while.

Our after dinner entertainment was, as far as I can tell, one of those many ‘you had to be there’ Otesha events.  We were hosted by Adele’s most colourful alter-ego to date, in a talent show.  She emerged, dressed in the slightest of miniskirts, high heels constructed out of duct tape and soda cans, make up smeared on like clown makeup.  And for the final curtain, we laughed and cried to a variety show of music, human oddities, Japanese lessons, improv, and everything in between.

4^th TO FINAL DAY

            This was our last presentation day – two presentations, one at Herdman Collegiate to the high school students. Our very last C2C tour presentation was to the community, at the Church.  J-Lam rocked out an unforgettable Mother Earth, utilizing the grand piano’s lowest key for added effect when Careless Consumer tossed ‘another plastic bag’- that was my favourite part of the day.  It was an incredible final presentation – there was a local youth choir called “The Other Voices” who sang some beautiful songs, and a local musician who performed some Newfoundland music, and then he passed out the lyrics to “This Land is Our Land” and the whole audience sang along.  And just like that, our presentations were all behind us, memories scattered in a bumpy line across Canada.

            3^RD TO FINAL DAY

            We began the day with a yummy apple crisp served up by Tai and Artichoke.  It was a pretty non-descript meal, except for the strategically placed cabbage leaf that was worn by Tai (again, another one of those you-had-to-be-there moments I think…)

            After breakfast was the slowest bike race.  A race across the parking lot, except the winner was the loser, and the loser, the winner.  In the end, Mireille lost, I mean, won.  Next, Jess sang us through things to think about when trying to re-integrate ourselves into modern society, with a clever, pirate style sing along, “In the real world”.  One month later, and the tune is still in my head.  After the song, we all got comfy for a guided meditation, led by Mireille and Jess.

            That afternoon, after an epic trial and error silk screening afternoon at the high school, a car full of t-shirts arrived back at headquarters.  In the end, they turned out simpler than originally planned, but nonetheless, perfect.

            After dinner, we partnered up and competed in the strangest obstacle course ever.  Bobbing for bananas, blindfolded running, crawling under chairs, jumping into pots, words can’t do this justice.  It should be noted, though, that Treetops and Artichoke won with a time of 38 seconds. 

            The crew settled down and fell asleep to the Triplets of Belleville 

2^ND TO FINAL DAY

            Happy 30^th Birthday Jenkins!  Sara was dazzled with quite possibly the biggest grilled cheese shaped in the letters 3 and 0, which was created by Adele.

It was revealed to us on this day that bike boxes are hard to come by in mid-October in Corner Brook, Newfoundland.  With at least half our team in need of bike boxes, we got busy scavenging cardboard to DIY (do-it-yourself) some of our own.  And, like most things, the task took as long as we had to complete it, and most bikes were marched down to the post office by their protective parents, just before closing time.  How strange it was seeing those beautiful creations that had dutifully carried us across the country get dismantled and deflated, even if only temporarily.

            For our last goodbye ritual, the team gathered in one of the bedrooms (Kazuki remained in the southeast corner of the living room, even for this…the guy was busy).  Mireille popped a cake in the oven, and then we all circled up in the room, for our final ritual.  The conclusion of the ritual was meant to have been a hugging circle, where everyone had the chance to hug everyone else, and have one on one time with each and every member.  In theory, this is what was meant to have happened.  In practice, what happened, was Kazuki came running and screaming, “Fire! Fire! Fire!” and pounding on the locked door.

And so, our final ritual, even more appropriate than a hugging circle, was airing out, for one last time, a C2C fuelled, smoke-filled kitchen.  Once the ashes were scraped from the top of the Oreo crust of the Mirielle’s almond vegan cheesecake, we all sang happy birthday to Sara and enjoyed a slice.  And what a slice it was.

And finally, for the grandest finale of all, Kazuki unveiled his epic slide show to us all.  Twenty two full length songs, each themed to coincide with the photos, enchanted us all for the better part of two hours.

            THE FINAL DAY

            Morning came far too early.  Folks had ferries to line up for, planes to catch, bikes to ride, and hikes to hitch.  And so, on the morning of October 14^th, we said our goodbyes.  And that was it.  It was the beginning of the end…or perhaps it was just the end of the beginning.