Hinton

   No alarms, crows or caretakers woke me up. I got up from the dirty matress I had slept on during the night, where Downey still lay motionless and made my way to the couch. It was 10 am. The latest we had slept in on a biking or rest day. I had plopped myself on the couch in front of a TV, and started watching a meaningless soap opera. It was pouring rain outside, and so I was not in a rush to start moving. My hope was that the rain would pass on and leave us with good weather to bike in. However my hopes were dashed after an hours time and no more time could be spared waiting for the sun. Downey and I headed on into the rain, just like the day before, and the day before that, and biked towards our next town.
   Misery had become a constant companion recently. It seems that Emanuels departure not only left our trio incomplete, but also seemed to take alot of wind out of our sales. We had nobody to share our misery with but each other. Misery loves company, and our company had just left.
   We found a little restaurant on our way to Hinton where we could watch the Stanley cup finals. As if our day was not bad enough, but to witness the Canadian team we were rooting for lose 4 to 0 was simply too much. Exhaustion and cold had been a theme too common lately and it was being compacted by loneliness. Friends come and go fast on the road. Other than Downey, there is no other face I can count on seeing again in the future. The amount of time Downey had been spending on his cell phone texting friends and family suggested to me that he was feeling the same. When we finally did get into Hinton, we got a warm motel to sleep. No reason to be cold and wet again.