Well, we've had just an amazing few days!  All has been going extremely well from our flights out to Vancouver, to successfully meeting up with Gordon, Souhaila and Olin, packing ALL our stuff into a rental van and driving to Surrey to stay at Pat and Bob Smith's house, to being able to walk easily from there to find the nearest grocery and liquor stores!  We ate outside on their patio that night--magical.
Then we had a long day on Wednesday getting the Jeep re-licensed, etc. but it did proceed very smoothly.  Just took a long time.  Got the Jeep in for its servicing in the afternoon and it was done by 5 that night!  A big sigh of relief all round.  There was a lot of waiting around for things to happen but we managed to find a nice fish shop where we bought some of the small sweet peeled shrimp that are so Vancouver.  Olin met some Mounties in the parking lot and was intrigued with the picture of the Mountie on the horse on their cars.
Thursday Ward and I picked up the bicycle rack for the back of the Jeep.  Then we had a lovely lunch with Nettie (my sister-in-law), and picked up some supplies from Helen (my cousin who is accompanying us on part of this trip), before heading to the airport to meet up with Andrew at 3 o'clock.  We avoided most of the traffic out to Surrey and when we got back to Smith's house, Marlie and Tom had arrived from Victoria.
Whew.  Everything was falling into place.
And now we're at today, Friday!  We were all up early but it did take awhile to get our little show on the road.  Luckily, after Thursday's pouring rain, it was just overcast today.  Paul drove Helen out to meet up with us, and by around 9 the bikers were finally ready to hit the road.  Olin, Helen and I were there to cheer them on from the sidelines and Tom had his camera going.  (His pictures will be better than mine but you will get the general idea from all of them).  It was very low tide at White Rock at the pier.  And yes, there IS a huge white rock there!!  Our team of bikers appeared and went down the steps beside the pier to dip their back wheels into the Pacific Ocean.  Now they were truly on their way.
After finishing off at Pat and Bob's our Jeep team tried to catch up with the bicyclists.  They were fast!  Great countryside, very flat farmland, ringed with hills.  I wished I could have been riding too.  After a late picnic lunch in Chilliwack we were off again.  Now more farmland but the hills were much closer.  Such a pretty stretch.  The Fraser River is hugely swollen and there were lots of waterfalls cascading off the steep rock clefts at the side of the road.  Arrived into Hope late afternoon and immediately, Olin and Madge hit the    
hot tub.  Our motel is surrounded by brooding hills with enormous trees--cedars and Douglas firs.  Found a great restaurant (Joe's) for dinner.  Now bedtime.
I know you've all been anxious about us, and thank you for the e-mails, but really, the last few days could not have gone better.  Onwards to the rest of the trip.
I will try to put up some pictures.
Madge