The Final Tally

Over the last few days we have been contemplating getting on our bikes and riding home, because you see, the sun was laying on our left shoulders coming west. We thought it would be a good idea if we were to return home the opposite direction to even out our tans. Common sense prevailed though, and we're sticking with the original plan of flying home. After all, 6344 kilometres is quite a good haul. Yes indeed, our final tally was 6344 kms in 78 days. We did have 12 days off though, so really we did it in 66 days. And every one of them was so worth it, I've managed to come up with several adages (Bob's word). Here are some of them:

#1. If you are offered a free hot shower, take it. It's sometimes better than waiting a week for the next one.

#2. Good people and good pizza go together like bacon and eggs.

#3. Speaking of bacon and eggs, after an hour of biking it's great to fill up on 'em, especially on the prairies where two people can eat breakfast for $10.

#4. Don't pee into the wind.

#5. And finally, the prairies are flat and the Rockies aren't.

If you ever travel anywhere by bike, these are pretty good to know, especially #5.

Despite how amazingly awesome and educational this trip has been, I have to admit that I'm starting to look forward to getting home. School's soon starting and so are all the other things that go with it. Seeing as I missed 2 weeks of school at the other end I figure I shouldn't miss too much now. One of the greatest parts of doing a trip like this is that you get to meet so many amazing people, hopefully I'll get to see all of them again..... Only next time I'll drive.

The Feat

Well, we are pretty proud of ourselves today! Yes. those are our feet with the Fraser River behind them. In the last few days I have reflected a bit and come to know that we are privileged to have made this trip when most in the world cannot. I am thinking especially of the thousands of refugees around the world who must leave their homes, driven by chaotic rule or bad government. Their only journey, a search of survival. We can afford to take 3 months from work, when millions live in poverty. And we can voice our opinions, and sometimes silly comments, when others are imprisoned for doing so. Amnesty International helps thousands of impoverished and imprisoned, those without a voice and those struggling to gain their dignity. We want to thank everyone we met, who fed us, housed us and gave us donations and encouragement along the way. We entrust AI to use this money where it is needed the most. Here in Vancouver, thanks to Laurie and Don for letting us use their beautiful house while they are in Ontario. We're watching the log booms being maneuvered up the Fraser River, from their patio!

But this adventure is not over yet! We want to invite everyone, old friends and new, to a giant BBQ at our house! Watch here for the date! This will be one last fundraising, ginormous kick at the can to raise our total. In fact, I think we should light the BBQ right under that crazy thermometre that the AI donation page has assigned us, and watch the mercury climb, OK?

Tomorrow, we're going to Nanaimo to eat one of their famous eponymous bars. (look it up)

Out of the Okanagan

Sadly, after our last post, disaster struck. Bob got a bee in his bonnet, stung him in the noggin. And the day remained dismal for us, when we got to the campground and found a fire ban in place we had to resort to eating raw hotdogs for supper. Yum.... To top it all off, the zipper on the tent door was broken. The fates changed and our fortune turned after passing through Sicamous; houseboat capital of Canada. (Thus the picture below.) Fresh peaches bought from roadside stands, an awesome and well deserved swim in Lake Kalamalka (the temperature was 36 degrees Celsius), and a free pizza from Uncle Dave's Pizzeria in Vernon. To top it all off we figured out how to fix the door of the tent without having to buy a new one. We passed the 6000 kilometre mark today, Vancouver in 4 Days!!!!

Huckleberries and Magpies

The last 4 days have been perfect. This is cycling at it's finest, mountain scenes of staggering beauty in all directions. Tourquoise rivers and streams, trains winding through spiral tunnels and over iron bridges, snow topped peaks. We left Calgary in the cold and rain. We were offered a ride in a Staples van, but want everyone to know we did not accept. This was the 2nd offer on this trip. After spending a wonderful evening and morning with Paula and Simon we headed through Banff, Yoho and Gacier Nat. Parks... effortlessly. We are now convinced that we are traversing Canada in the "right" direction. The Rogers Pass and through the tunnels was the only work so far, lasting only an hour of pedalling. The Kicking Horse Pass was only difficult if you were coming east. Near Golden where we camped, we enjoyed fresh huckleberries from up in the mountains, with our granola for breakfast. We have not been in a real town for 3 days and have eaten all our provisions, so now we are leaving Revelstoke to fill up and hit the white line again for the afternoon.

Cowtown

After having a few days off to relax tomorrow is finally time to move into the Rockies. We arrived in Calgary on Monday, one day earlier than we had expected. Despite some seriously messed up mechanical problems in Drumheller. (A puncture in my tire that had come from the inside.) For our first full day in Calgary we did our old routine of playing tourist. We stopped in to the theatre were my dad used to work and got a tour from Diane. Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Warped Tour, as a volunteer at the Amnesty tent and in the evening we went to a BBQ at Nicole's house. Nicole had been our Amnesty contact in Calgary. After that Bob went to go see the Brandon Paris Band. It just so happened that they were in Calgary, on their way back to Vancouver. Unfortunately I couldn't go because it was at a pub, so I rode Bob's bike home to Morgan's house only getting slightly lost. Morgan was a Katimavik participent that stayed with us last winter.

A Prairie Wind

Well, here we sit in the library in Hanna, AB., home of Nickleback. We weren't sure to run for the foothills or bear the pain when we heard that. Closing in on Calgary. Tomorrow we will pass the 5000km. mark, somehow this one seems more important than the others. We really can do this. Here's some more windy statistics, since Tucker took all the good stories last post. From Winnipeg to Saskatoon, roughly 700km. the wind was from the north. We were travelling WNW so had the wind at 45 degrees in front. From Saskatoon to Calgary, roughly 600km. the wind remained the same. We are travelling WSW now so this is almost a tail wind. Following me here Maritimers. This is gold. So, the 1st leg was kind of tough but now 100km. days pass much more quickly. We did 100km. today in 5 hours with breaks! Please contact us if you would like more technical and mechanical details! Big plans for Calgary, stay tuned.

Saskatchewan. Hard to spell, Easy to draw

Ahhh.. the sweet smell of Saskatchewan. Four days of biking out of Winnipeg brought us to the Manitoba/Sask border. In that small amount of time we got lots to write about, first we stayed with Rob & Doris in Arden who we had met in Whitemouth, who made sure we were well pampered. Goose sausages for breakfast..... mmmmm. We also had two newspaper interviews, one in Neepawa and one in Shoal Lake, thanks to Ken Wadell and Darrell Nesbitt for those. Our most significant moment was walking up our first hill in the prairies. No way. Yes way! A hill. Another eventful four days of biking brought us to Saskatoon. Not so many good events though. A broken spoke and a flat tire on our way to Yorkton, about 5kms from the city, luckily it was repaired quickly the next morning. And now this morning when we woke up and got ready to head to a bike shop for a new chain for Bob's bike, we found out that the disc brake on my bike had a large bend in it. After scratching our heads for a moment we realized that the culprit was in our tent after we had picked it up last evening, a softball had come over the fence of the ballfield we were camped by and had hit the disc dead on. A true accident, which made us decide that we should lock the bikes somewhere different tonight. So now after an eventful morning we soon get to check out Saskatoon, and perhaps relax with a bison burger this evening.

To the Plains

Well, our fascination with the trains continues, ever present by our sides and whistles through the night at our campsites. Not something that we're used to in Pinehurst. Containers making their way from oriental ports to malls across the country. Thousands of rail cars loaded with prairie wheat heading east for processing to hot dog buns. After 22 biking days in Ontario we are now in Winnipeg. Played tourist all morning, discovering the city, eating dim sum, snacking on spicy buffalo quesadillas and eating peroghies with our bacon and eggs for breakfast. Seriously, all good things Manitoban! One more new tire and we're on our way to Saskatoon in the morning, 700 km. from here.

Pics as Promised

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

Our backyard in Rabbit Blanket Provincial Park

The Wawa Goose and Tucker

North Shore of Lake Superior

The Seven Sisters Rapids in Massey

Waving to trains

After our last post we proceeded to the Press Box, which seemed to be the only place in town to eat. It ended up being a good idea as we finally got our meal of locally caught whitefish, we had been trying to get for quite some time, and we also found out that the Brandon Paris Band was going to be playing there later in the evening. To make a long story a bit shorter we went back later in the evening, watched the show, talked to some the band members, and got a CD with all of their signatures. It was a pretty grand time with some grand music. We also got our first bear sighting since the last post, at the dump in Nipigon. The owner of the campground we were staying at offered to take me with him when he went up to the dump so I could see one. There ended up being three. Pictures will again be coming of bears sometime, along with one of those elusive moose, I would say Winnipeg at the latest. We gained some time in Thunder Bay by biking really fast and getting there earlier than expected and getting all of the supplies we needed the same day. New front tires for both of us should get us to Vancouver. Due to a couple of days in a row where we have actually reached our goal of 100kms a day we should be into Manitoba in about 3 days. What we look forward to now is waving to more train engineers and seeing if we can get them to honk. It seems childish but it's worked twice, and they're ever so loud.

Northern Ontario, Still

Ever since our last post in Sault Ste. Marie we've begun to encounter what I call "the real Ontario". For the last five days we've been hopping from provincial park to provincial park. Our first day of biking along Lake Superior supplied us with some amazing lookouts from the top of Northern Ontario's mountains. Pictures will be coming eventually but we're having a hard time finding computers that will do what you want, nothing new there. The biggest suprise to us came when we woke up in the morning and the temperature was somewhere around 6 degrees. Very chilly when you wake up at 6:30 in the morning. To our dismay the temperature remained quite low for the next few days, despite the suns best efforts. Our spirits were lifted when we arrived at Obatanga Provincial Park, the first park after Wawa, and we met the Gauthiers who invited us to their campsite to chat and ended up feeding us an enormously delicious feed of rice, chicken stir fry, shrimp, and to my dad's delight, cold beer. We were (and still are) greatful for not having to a fallback meal of beans. Today when we woke up though, our luck with weather had run out. Above were gray skies. And rain. And fog. And cold. And wind. After a few hours of biking and losing the feeling in fingers and toes we called it quites at Schreiber and are now following the forecast to continue.

A Bear Story

On the way out of Ratter's Lake campground a wizened old timer in a pickup rolls his window down and says, "Howdy fellers. Careful of the big black bear up the road a piece." "Do you think he wants to eat us?" says I. "Oh, I don't think so." says the old timer. Cautiously, we carry on, ringing my ice cream bell the whole way, hoping he doesn't have a sweet tooth. We safely reach the highway, spared from the slathering jaws of the beast.
The weather in Ontario's near north has been quite damp and cool but we're coping better with getting wet.
Tucker had his 1st puncture and at the end of the next day I had a blowout that lifted me off my seat. Ben, our North Bay angel, rescued us, and by days end all was well again.
On the road ahead are pieces of a skunk. Bob sees a live one off the road and warns Tucker to stay well away. Tucker thinks he's talking about the dead one, and proceeds to almost run over the live one. That would have been very bad.
Life in Ontario's near north revolves solely around bait, fishing and hunting.

Sudbury

'nuf said

A Rumble Grumble

Most people that know me, know that I seldom rant. lol. But I have one.
Who thought those rumble strips at the edge of the road were a good idea? Do they not know that that area is ours? When there are only 10 inches of shoulder, that is carved up to a vicious bike shattering washboard, that forces us to ride on the dangerous side of the white line. That's a place I don't care to be. So maybe the next time the bureaucrats and decision makers are sitting around the big oak table, maybe one could ask... "what about the bicycles?"
And while I'm at it, would everyone please stop measuring distances in minutes.

Playing Tourists

As of the last few days we've spent in Ottawa we have officially become tourists. On Sunday we were planning on going to the National Art gallery and then the Museum of Civilization across the bridge in Gatineau. We ended up spending several hours at the art gallery and didn't have time for the Museum of Civiliztion. Our favorite piece of art would've had to be a large whale skeleton-ish model, made of cut up Corona chairs. (The white plastic lawn chairs that are really comfortable?) We weren't allowe to take pictures though so if you want to see it you'll just have to come to Ottawa. The next day we went to the M of C, and I could write a fairly lengthy bit about that as well, but it would take to long. Then yesterday to top it all off we dropped by the Amnesty Canada Headquarters for a lovely barbeque at lunch time, and then we had the official tour of the building. We also talked to Lindsay and George who have set up an online donation page for us, have a look if you want by clicking here. And today we hope to walk around a bit this evening, listen to some music, and watch fireworks. Happy Canada Day everyone!!!

Entering Ottawa

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the comments and e-mails! It gets lonely at times on the white line and they help point the way.
So, we saw this fellow on a Segway the other evening, having some problems negotiating the speed bumps at the campground. Ahh, the wheel was an amazing invention, but sometimes I think the journey was not that far from the caves to the suburbs. That was one of the goofiest sights I've seen and I'm sure my club wielding ancestors would be scratching their heads in bewilderment.
We have also rediscovered the slushie, another amazing invention and decided that koolaid has the best product. Yes, that smiling chubby face on the koolaid pitcher continues his reign, from when I was running around barefoot on Blair Road with orange peels on my head.
Perhaps Tucker will write the next post with relevance.

Flax and Fleur-de-lis

Well, after 8 days of biking along the St. Lawerence today we finally left it behind. After our last post we went for some well deserved and delicious strawberry crepes. With vanilla ice cream. It was all quite nice. The next couple of days the weather improved greatly, sunny and hot, so we now both have beautiful and well distinguished flip-flop tans. Today we took a detour off Hwy. 158 to La Plaine to visit Stephanie and Co. Stephanie was in Katimavik and stayed with us for a week during the winter. A greatly appreciated supper and swim was one of the best parts of the trip so far, especially because of the 30+ degree weather. And now we only have 2 more days in Quebec, which only makes me happy because it means that we might actually make it to Ottawa. Hooray!!!

What We Saw Today

Up the St. Lawrence River on Thursday into a fierce headwind, 11 km. an hour, very slow and we only made Riviere Ouelle. Tucker was sick all night and I have been fighting off a cold, it was a bad day, spent all day in the tent, raining and cool. Saturday the wind turned, our health improved and our spirits lifted... tail wind and 110 km. Sunday, same wind, a tad wet and then by ferry over to Quebec saving about 30 km. going around by bridge. Spending the day in Quebec, great town, hunkered down at the hostal. Oh... and what we saw today... a smart car with a bike rack. Too much!

La belle province

Spent the whole day biking the Trans Canada Trail from Edmunston to Rivière-du-Loup. Final tally of 137 km. at 16.8 km per hour which is epic on a single track trail. Tucker had to brake hard, 1st for a snake, then a chipmunk, then a rabbit... see where I'm going with this... yes indeed, a moose. (based on a true story) No animals were hurt during this ride. Needless to say we were very tired, and found no room at the inn (auberge internationale) but the tent is safely pitched in the back yard, and the bellies are full of sugar pie!!

Fiddleheads and Covered Bridges

So today as we rolled into Perth-Andover for lunch we figured that there is no time like the present to write a post about the last few days. On Thursday we woke up nice and early and took the ferry to St. John, and then spent the afternoon at a table set up for us by Maureen in the market. Our next day wasn't quite as peachy, we biked from St. John to Fredricton, a grand total of 120 kms in the rain. The day improved when we dropped by an old friend of my dad's, Ilkay, and she fed us a delicious and unexpected meal. Fredricton continued to surprise us when we went to the market the next day and found out that we weren't allowed to set up our banner anywhere. The last surprise was when we dropped into Savage's bike shop and Matt Savage gave our bikes a check-up free of charge, which mainly involved new sets of brakes for both of our bikes. We thought that our trip was doomed after we almost hit a black cat that ran across the road infront of us. Turned out to be quite the opposite, we got a free campsite in Hartland and an awesome picture of this car inside the bridge. And today we had a lovely morning biking up the St. John river valley to PA.

on the whiteline

1st day
blue flags and columbines
swallowtails and red wing blackbirds
a raccoon after the bumble bee bag (our food bag)
free firewood for a crane
the 1st 75 clicks have unfolded

3rd day
1st starbucks coffee for both of us on the Digby ferry
we saw no fireworks
porcupine falling out of a tree
farmed seahorse eggs destined for China

Human Rights College = Awesome

I really don't know where to start writing about the HRC, it was just that incredibly amazing. To avoid rambling on and on I think I'll just pick a few of the highlights: (According to me and in no specific order)

1. The Amazing Activist Race, part of which included taping up 4 Amnesty posters in the best places you could find. For our group these places included a Metro bus, Theodore the Tugboat, and Jenn Farr's bike.

2. Getting to hangout with people from right across Canada. A couple of them were even from....
Manitoba. Which is a joke that you might not get unless you were at the concert at Grand Parade, which happens to be the next highlight.

3. The march in support of the Lubicon Cree and the free concert. For the march pretty much everyone who was at the HRC and AGM walked from the Dalhousie Student Union Building to Grand Parade in downtown Halifax carrying posters with various slogans on them. Once we made it to where we finished we listened to some live music and had our pictures taken infront of a pumpjack that we the HRCers had made.

4. My final one would have to be taking part in the Annual General Meeting. I also realized during all the discussions that doing all the workshops during the HRC really prepared me to be able to talk to other Amnesty members and tell them my point of view without having to make everything up as I went.

School's Out (Almost)

We had a few busy days, selling cranes at the high school on Saturday and then presenting our project to 6 different groups at diversity day on Monday, also at the high school. Today, (Tuesday) our local paper, the Bulletin, came out with a good article that Keith Corcoran wrote about our adventure. Thanks Keith. If you want to have a look at the article: http://www.southshorenow.ca/archives/2009/052609/news/index011.html
We also received a call from Al Heubach at the Bike Barn in Lunenburg offering to donate some bike equipment to our cause. Thanks Al. We also received an unexpected email from Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty Canada, wishing us well. I hope to meet him at the Human Rights College next week. Bob is busy getting the garden planted and fixing the fencing for the turkeys that arrive the same day we leave. Mum will have to look after them this summer. There seems to be a lot to do in preperation to leave home for that long. Only 5 days of school left, and 2 weeks until we leave!!

Car Wash

It was a cold, drizzly Nova Scotia day but we washed a lot of cars and got more than $200 in donations! The Katimavik bunch were a huge help, in fact, there wouldn't have been a car wash without Josh, Jeremy,Ele, Angie, Frederique, Laura, Eli, Matt, Greg and Julia.

Special Thanks

Tucker and I just wanted to give a special thanks to Rev. Ruth Brown and the congregation of Trinity United Church, in Mahone Bay for inviting us to their Sunday service and their kind reception. The strawberry cheesecake was awesome as well!
And thanks to Sheldon MacLeod at CKBW radio in Bridgewater for furthering our efforts on this adventure. Thanks to all!

Progression of Speech

I have written a speech that I must deliver in the 4-H club. I figured that it might as well be about this project. This is competitive although I have little interest in that aspect. 2 weeks ago I delivered it to the club and won. Today I delivered it again at the county level and won, this time it comes with a tropheous blob of plastic, with gold pointy things on it. I hope I don't hurt myself. The good thing is that more people will hear about our project.

Human Rights College

I found out today that I'm accepted into the Human Rights College prior to the Amnesty Canada annual general meeting. Good news! This is an AI Canada youth program set up to involve us in the workings of AI Canada. We then participate at the AGM. This moves our date of departure to June 9. The countdown has begun!