Surprise?

I've never really been one for surprise parties.  Which is part of the reason why I was so completely shocked when my AWESOME friends threw a surprise going away party for me last weekend.  I had been told that it was in celebration of Linda's having made partner at her law firm, but that it was being disguised as a pre-reno party for her so that she wouldn't catch on.  That Imelda... she's a cunning one.  In the end I'm not entirely sure how many people were involved in the planning but it seems to have been a fair amount of work.  Derek showcased his mastery as an artist, and the guest list was kind of like a game of "six degrees of Gregg". 

I showed up late, with Julian, who had been updating everyone as to my whereabouts - so it seemed like I fell right into their little plan quite handily.  Once I figured out that it wasn't Linda's party, but mine, (and why), my shock was apparently quite obvious as I was unusually quiet for a little while - and not because my mouth was full, either.  :p

Way too much food, some tasty beer, and a showing of the RAAM movie - "for motivation".  Right.  Well.  I've never really been one for sleep deprivation, but I do like riding long - and the RAAM is a pretty badass race. 

In keeping with my pledge to Auntie Ella that I would keep everyone up to date, and at the request of my father, I've procured a SPOT II GPS tracking device.  This works in two ways.  One way is to give me a button to push in case I'm mauled by a bear but somehow miraculously survive the attack (with the beacon).  Then I can push the SOS button and the device will send a message to a tracking service who will call in the A-Team, having pinpointed my exact location.  (A domestic terrorist bear, okay?)  With BA as my shepherd, I shall not want.  The second way (and why I chose this device over a more "hardcore" PLB) is because it provides regular tracking - that is to say, entertainment for you folks.  Every 10min it sends out a message to the system with my GPS coordinates, which can be tracked via Google Maps on a website I'll publish once I get this device figured out.  Then you can see that it took me 1.5hrs to scale a pass and only 9min to descend the other side.  Or see how fast I got through MB.  Or wonder why I stopped for 3hrs in the middle of the day, just outside Chicoutimi.  Thus, even without blog updates you'll be able to see where I am. 

That's a bit of a weird concept, actually...