Hello all and greetings from home! After 46 official days of biking and a few days off in between we have finally made it to the Atlantic Ocean! Before making it to these firgid waters we were able to spend a really enjoyable rest in Charolettetown, PEI. We arrived into the city on July 31st and decided that we had spent enough of the past few weeks sleeping in a tent and so we splurged and spent the night in a bed and breakfast with a cute old lady named Mary. Now just to clarify, this was an extremely low end bed and breakfast, in fact it didn't even serve breakfast, so essentially it was just a bed and it was wonderful! We also had acess to the kitchen and so we cooked ourselves two delicious homemade pizzas and in the morning we had french toast! The next day we decided to check out the sites in Charolettetown before heading east to Flat River, where we were spending the night. The city was awesome with its relaxed demeanor and friendly residents. We even played tourists and took a guided tour of the city to fully take in sites. After the tour we then decided to take in some traditional maritime grub and had ourselves some seafood on an outdoor patio. It was delicious and super fresh! After lunch we then had to hit up the Cow's ice cream shop as we were informed that everyone who goes to PEI must experience a scoop of Cow's ice cream. It was delicious and definitley did not disappoint! By the time we finished our ice cream we had to leave the city and headed to Flat River where we spent the night with another one of Katie's mom's colleague's and her family. Maggie and her husband cooked us a fabulous meal and then took us out to their red beach where we dug up 6 huge clams! We then cooked those up and ate them as a late night snack and boy were they good! The next morning we woke up at 5 am so we could catch the 6:30 ferry that was leaving to Nova Scotia. We were all pretty excited as this was our last day of biking and made it all the way to Truro without any troubles. After we left Truro we ran into a nasty head wind which definitely slowed down our progress towards Halifax. The hills on route also didn't help and it seemed like the longest bike ride ever! Finally we made it into the city with the help of my friend Meaghan's directions and slowly made our way down to the harbour. An hour later at about 8 o'clock that night we finally made it to the harbour and threw our fists up into the air! We couldn't actually believe that we had made it and didn't really know what we should do to celebrate. So, we got a nice couple to take our picture at the harbour front and headed to a nearby bar to celebrate further and have some east coast fish n' chips! Let's just say we had a fantastic night and ended up partying with a bunch of people out for a birthday party. Once the bar closed we were then off to the airport (thanks to Meaghan) as we had to catch our plane early the next morning. I'm sure we were quite the site pulling into the airport and I'm sure most of the employees were highly entertained. In the end we successfully caught our flight and made our way back to Ontario to see our families and friends!
We really appreciate all the support everyone has given us throughout our entire journey and honestly, I don't know if we could have done it without all of you! Thanks also to everyone who met up with us along the way and gave us a place to stay, we are extremely grateful! I am now in the process of putting up a link to some of our awesome pictures so make sure you check back again soon!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Onto the Gentle Island
Greetings from PEI! We have just made our way onto the gentle island across the confederation bridge (which is quite impressive) and have stopped at the PEI information center to collect some information on campgrounds near Charlottetown. As beautiful as New Brunswick was with its trees and rolling hills, we are pretty excited to see the sights in PEI. We left Moncton this morning after spending the night with Katie's mom's friend, Caroline and her cat Pino at their beautiful home. It was definitely nice to spend a night in an air conditioned home after spending the past few nights camping in the heavy summer heat. Caroline also cooked us up a delicious dinner and we are extremely grateful!
We have also been quite fortunate these past few days as we have managed to avoid the thunderstorms that the area has been expecting. Instead we have been cycling in the beautiful sunshine (and its accompanying heat) and perfecting our cyclist tans! We covered quite a bit of ground through New Brunswick biking between 130 and 190 km each day and we are looking forward to taking a slow day tomorrow to enjoy Charlottetown and see some of the sites that PEI has to offer.
It is pretty amazing that our journey is coming to an end with only one more province yet to cycle through. Once we are back into Ontario we will make sure to put up a link where you can view some pictures of our amazing country and the amazing people that we have met up with! Thanks again for all the support from back home we are looking forward to seeing you all very soon!
We have also been quite fortunate these past few days as we have managed to avoid the thunderstorms that the area has been expecting. Instead we have been cycling in the beautiful sunshine (and its accompanying heat) and perfecting our cyclist tans! We covered quite a bit of ground through New Brunswick biking between 130 and 190 km each day and we are looking forward to taking a slow day tomorrow to enjoy Charlottetown and see some of the sites that PEI has to offer.
It is pretty amazing that our journey is coming to an end with only one more province yet to cycle through. Once we are back into Ontario we will make sure to put up a link where you can view some pictures of our amazing country and the amazing people that we have met up with! Thanks again for all the support from back home we are looking forward to seeing you all very soon!
Friday, July 27, 2007
We've Reached New Brunswick!
Hey everyone!
We've reached the information centre just inside New Brunswick!
After beginning the day with a scrumptious meal of crepes with strawberries & custard, we headed down through Old Quebec and onto the ferry. Again this day we saw tons of bikers along the south side of the St. Lawrence River and we all waved and said 'bonjour!' to all those who passed by. Since the wind was with us at about 30km/hour we hope that our cheery bonjour didn't frustrate those who were biking into the wind!
We biked 160 km in total. The roads were fantastic except in the small towns we passed through where there were bumps and cracks everywhere...in two of the towns they were also doing large construction work that we had to walk through for a total of probably 2-3km! We camped at a place called SEBKA which was beautiful...great view of the sunset.
Today we have biked 130 km to the border and we're going to camp in St. Jacques. It was a demanding ride today - the wind was with us initially when we biked into Riviere-du-Loup but when we turned south on the 185, the wind was a little bit of a factor and as well the terrain was very hilly with long gradual uphills...although the view from the top was beautiful and the downhills were definitely a welcome break!
Today had another landmark of Dave's back tire almost disintegrating 8km beforeRiviere-du-Loup. Luckily the tire lasted him until that town where he bought a new tire...Leah and I have already bought 3 tires each!
Alright - until next time!
We've reached the information centre just inside New Brunswick!
After beginning the day with a scrumptious meal of crepes with strawberries & custard, we headed down through Old Quebec and onto the ferry. Again this day we saw tons of bikers along the south side of the St. Lawrence River and we all waved and said 'bonjour!' to all those who passed by. Since the wind was with us at about 30km/hour we hope that our cheery bonjour didn't frustrate those who were biking into the wind!
We biked 160 km in total. The roads were fantastic except in the small towns we passed through where there were bumps and cracks everywhere...in two of the towns they were also doing large construction work that we had to walk through for a total of probably 2-3km! We camped at a place called SEBKA which was beautiful...great view of the sunset.
Today we have biked 130 km to the border and we're going to camp in St. Jacques. It was a demanding ride today - the wind was with us initially when we biked into Riviere-du-Loup but when we turned south on the 185, the wind was a little bit of a factor and as well the terrain was very hilly with long gradual uphills...although the view from the top was beautiful and the downhills were definitely a welcome break!
Today had another landmark of Dave's back tire almost disintegrating 8km beforeRiviere-du-Loup. Luckily the tire lasted him until that town where he bought a new tire...Leah and I have already bought 3 tires each!
Alright - until next time!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Into La Belle Province
Back again after not being on internet for awhile....I will try and keep this one shorter than last time though!
We biked from Sudbury to Ottawa in 3 days. Before we left Sudbury, we went to the bike shop to see if we could fix Leah`s tire and luckily the cause for the numerous flat tires was found! We fixed that (redid the rim tape) and then headed out towards North Bay starting at the lovely time of 11:30a.m. Luckily the road was fairly flat most of the way - actually we found it to be slightly uphill all the way to Sturgeon Falls (where we stopped at the boulangerie for butter tarts and blueberry tarts as well as poutine...and ice cream...and a pogo stick...) and then slightly downhill from Sturgeon to North Bay. We also greatly enjoyed the ice cold water that the construction workers handed out to us on our way into North Bay!!! What a treat...you definitely appreciate the small stuff while biking! We stayed at the Marrs`house in North Bay - a friend of Katie`s from first year res! - which was great. Luckily I was able to catch up with Melinda the next morning as she and her parents came in from Moosonee at 3:00 a.m.!
From North Bay, we biked to Deep River...which was definitely one of the toughest days - if not the toughest - on this trip. Perhaps we weren`t mentally prepared for the hills as much as we were around Lake Superior but it was a tough 170km of continuous ups and downs. By the time we got to Deep River, it was 7:30p.m. even though we left North Bay at a reasonable time... we made our regular stop at Subway (in Mattawa) for the Sub of the Day & cookies. We stayed at the Koslowsky`s in Deep River - a friend of Katie`s from Queen`s Nordic - where we enjoyed a wonderful meal of lemon dill salmon, pasta, veggies, salad...and we can`t forget the dessert of multicoloured raspberries (from yellow to black...with yellow being the sweetest...or was it the black..I can`t remember!) and ice cream. After a vicious game of euchre - which Martin and Katie won - we headed to bed getting ready for our 200km+ day into Ottawa.
Our bike into Ottawa (or Kanata for Leah and I...Dave was heading downtown to meet his parents) was definitely much flatter than the previous day which we are eternally thankful for! On this trip, Katie got a couple of flats and we were worried that we were running out of spare tubes so Leah had to go fishing in the garbage can to get one that we thought was popped but we later realized it wasn`t!. While we were changing one of the flats, a kind couple who ran a furniture restoration business stopped and asked if we needed any help. So if anyone living near the Ottawa area and needs some furniture restoration, we do have their business card so let us know!!
While Dave continued the bike into Ottawa to have dinner with his parents, Leah and I stopped at Anita Melnyk`s house in Kanata...where we were served a lovely dinner! We thoroughly enjoyed the whole meal with the cheesy pasta and savoury chicken and pork..and the homemade lemon meringue pie as well as looking at the wedding pictures! Katie then headed off to meet Tom & another Melnyk (Adam) in downtown Ottawa and Leah stayed for the eventful night of the last book of the Harry Potter series coming out at midnight! By mid-day the next day, Anita and here mum was already a third of the way through the book!
The day off in Ottawa was spent in the bike shop, eating bagels and chocolate, at the beach in Gatineau park, dinner with Katie`s parents...we didn`t have time to update the blog! A great day off - and well deserved...since it was our first day off after 10 days of biking from Thunder Bay!!
Reaching Ottawa was a big milestone as we were then biking off into fairly uncharted territory for all three of us. We biked 130km on Sunday - 30km of this was with Katie`s mum biking with us along the bike trails and the Parkway and past the Parliament buildings through Ottawa. We took a quick break at Victoria`s (Dave`s girlfriend) house east of Ottawa and headed along the Hwy 17 and crossed into Quebec at Hawkesbury. We were too late to buy groceries that day (we forgot that it was a Sunday and that the stores closed early) so we **surprise!** had dinner at Subway - Dave`s favourite restaurant on this trip.
The roads in Quebec were indeed much nicer than the ones in Ontario...Hwy 138 was particularly nice and we enjoyed going through many small towns in Quebec with beautiful houses nestled among trees. I really hope that they do some house tours through some of these towns...some of the houses were incredible!
After 3 days of biking from Ottawa and after spending $30, $10, $35 for the campsites on our way to Quebec City, we awoke 60 km west of Quebec City and biked in to Leah`s brother`s friend`s (Brendan Green) place - right downtown, walking distance to Vieux-Quebec which was great. We took a day off (it was still a day off even though we biked 60km!!) and spent our day walking around the city and seeing some sights and being the most touristy we`ve been on the trip so far. We enjoyed the food here - went out for lunch and dinner and poutine and we are also going to have breakfast tomorrow at a restaurant so we can experience crepes.
Thanks for everyone`s notes - we really appreciate getting them! It`s wonderful to hear from everyone back home and it was great to see our friends and family in Ottawa.
We biked from Sudbury to Ottawa in 3 days. Before we left Sudbury, we went to the bike shop to see if we could fix Leah`s tire and luckily the cause for the numerous flat tires was found! We fixed that (redid the rim tape) and then headed out towards North Bay starting at the lovely time of 11:30a.m. Luckily the road was fairly flat most of the way - actually we found it to be slightly uphill all the way to Sturgeon Falls (where we stopped at the boulangerie for butter tarts and blueberry tarts as well as poutine...and ice cream...and a pogo stick...) and then slightly downhill from Sturgeon to North Bay. We also greatly enjoyed the ice cold water that the construction workers handed out to us on our way into North Bay!!! What a treat...you definitely appreciate the small stuff while biking! We stayed at the Marrs`house in North Bay - a friend of Katie`s from first year res! - which was great. Luckily I was able to catch up with Melinda the next morning as she and her parents came in from Moosonee at 3:00 a.m.!
From North Bay, we biked to Deep River...which was definitely one of the toughest days - if not the toughest - on this trip. Perhaps we weren`t mentally prepared for the hills as much as we were around Lake Superior but it was a tough 170km of continuous ups and downs. By the time we got to Deep River, it was 7:30p.m. even though we left North Bay at a reasonable time... we made our regular stop at Subway (in Mattawa) for the Sub of the Day & cookies. We stayed at the Koslowsky`s in Deep River - a friend of Katie`s from Queen`s Nordic - where we enjoyed a wonderful meal of lemon dill salmon, pasta, veggies, salad...and we can`t forget the dessert of multicoloured raspberries (from yellow to black...with yellow being the sweetest...or was it the black..I can`t remember!) and ice cream. After a vicious game of euchre - which Martin and Katie won - we headed to bed getting ready for our 200km+ day into Ottawa.
Our bike into Ottawa (or Kanata for Leah and I...Dave was heading downtown to meet his parents) was definitely much flatter than the previous day which we are eternally thankful for! On this trip, Katie got a couple of flats and we were worried that we were running out of spare tubes so Leah had to go fishing in the garbage can to get one that we thought was popped but we later realized it wasn`t!. While we were changing one of the flats, a kind couple who ran a furniture restoration business stopped and asked if we needed any help. So if anyone living near the Ottawa area and needs some furniture restoration, we do have their business card so let us know!!
While Dave continued the bike into Ottawa to have dinner with his parents, Leah and I stopped at Anita Melnyk`s house in Kanata...where we were served a lovely dinner! We thoroughly enjoyed the whole meal with the cheesy pasta and savoury chicken and pork..and the homemade lemon meringue pie as well as looking at the wedding pictures! Katie then headed off to meet Tom & another Melnyk (Adam) in downtown Ottawa and Leah stayed for the eventful night of the last book of the Harry Potter series coming out at midnight! By mid-day the next day, Anita and here mum was already a third of the way through the book!
The day off in Ottawa was spent in the bike shop, eating bagels and chocolate, at the beach in Gatineau park, dinner with Katie`s parents...we didn`t have time to update the blog! A great day off - and well deserved...since it was our first day off after 10 days of biking from Thunder Bay!!
Reaching Ottawa was a big milestone as we were then biking off into fairly uncharted territory for all three of us. We biked 130km on Sunday - 30km of this was with Katie`s mum biking with us along the bike trails and the Parkway and past the Parliament buildings through Ottawa. We took a quick break at Victoria`s (Dave`s girlfriend) house east of Ottawa and headed along the Hwy 17 and crossed into Quebec at Hawkesbury. We were too late to buy groceries that day (we forgot that it was a Sunday and that the stores closed early) so we **surprise!** had dinner at Subway - Dave`s favourite restaurant on this trip.
The roads in Quebec were indeed much nicer than the ones in Ontario...Hwy 138 was particularly nice and we enjoyed going through many small towns in Quebec with beautiful houses nestled among trees. I really hope that they do some house tours through some of these towns...some of the houses were incredible!
After 3 days of biking from Ottawa and after spending $30, $10, $35 for the campsites on our way to Quebec City, we awoke 60 km west of Quebec City and biked in to Leah`s brother`s friend`s (Brendan Green) place - right downtown, walking distance to Vieux-Quebec which was great. We took a day off (it was still a day off even though we biked 60km!!) and spent our day walking around the city and seeing some sights and being the most touristy we`ve been on the trip so far. We enjoyed the food here - went out for lunch and dinner and poutine and we are also going to have breakfast tomorrow at a restaurant so we can experience crepes.
Thanks for everyone`s notes - we really appreciate getting them! It`s wonderful to hear from everyone back home and it was great to see our friends and family in Ottawa.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Sudbury - Cottage life right at home
Hello everyone!
We have hopped over to Sudbury from the Soo in the last two days - both sunny days which we have enjoyed greatly! We have returned to normal and are carrying our gear on our bikes after saying good-bye and a big thank you to my (Katie's) dad for being our support vehicle. On Monday he did one more favour for us before he left - while we started biking towards Blind River, he picked up some spare tubes for us and met us along the way on the road. We appreciated that very much!
On Monday our final destination was Blind River where we stayed at the Purzners (friends of Katie's from high school) house. Their house was 5km east of the city (less to do the next day) right on a lake (very beautiful!). We were greeted by the three german sheppards whose job was to help with the bear problem but they were very gentle with us! We thank the Purzners for their hospitality and we're sorry we didn't end up going swimming with Matt that night!
En route to Blind River, we also had the opportunity to stop at the Ross' camp which was 40km west of Blind River. After biking a hilly 4km in, we had a lovely break at their cottage. We thank them again for offering their cottage to us and we had a great time.
On Tuesday we biked to Sudbury...at least, most of the way to Sudbury. Leah's first flat tire happened at lunch which we had in Massey - the home of brooomball - so we changed that. 10km later, she had another flat. 40km later she had another flat. When we changed that flat tire and were pumping up the new one, we popped it right by the valve so we had to change it again. 4km later she got another flat. It was clearly not Leah's day!! We had one more spare tube after that but we were sure that no matter how hard we cleaned the tire before we put the new tube in, it wouldn't make a difference. Conrad Henninger - who we stayed with in Sudbury - was great and got his friend's car and trailer to come pick us up! We're not quite sure what we would have done without him and Andre. :-)
Our experience in Sudbury was great - we had a wonderful dinner with Conrad, his mum Diana and her friend from Germany, went for a boat ride on Ramsey Lake (where their house is right on!) and got a tour of the lake, got ice cream and got a tour of Henninger Diesel where Conrad works, and went to see slag...unfortunately we were too late to see the slag - the remnant rock substance after the metals are separated from it so pretty much lava - being poured from the train into the large pit but it was still interesting! Thanks Conrad for the superquick tour of Sudbury!
We're on our way to North Bay for tomorrow night...talk to everyone soon!
We have hopped over to Sudbury from the Soo in the last two days - both sunny days which we have enjoyed greatly! We have returned to normal and are carrying our gear on our bikes after saying good-bye and a big thank you to my (Katie's) dad for being our support vehicle. On Monday he did one more favour for us before he left - while we started biking towards Blind River, he picked up some spare tubes for us and met us along the way on the road. We appreciated that very much!
On Monday our final destination was Blind River where we stayed at the Purzners (friends of Katie's from high school) house. Their house was 5km east of the city (less to do the next day) right on a lake (very beautiful!). We were greeted by the three german sheppards whose job was to help with the bear problem but they were very gentle with us! We thank the Purzners for their hospitality and we're sorry we didn't end up going swimming with Matt that night!
En route to Blind River, we also had the opportunity to stop at the Ross' camp which was 40km west of Blind River. After biking a hilly 4km in, we had a lovely break at their cottage. We thank them again for offering their cottage to us and we had a great time.
On Tuesday we biked to Sudbury...at least, most of the way to Sudbury. Leah's first flat tire happened at lunch which we had in Massey - the home of brooomball - so we changed that. 10km later, she had another flat. 40km later she had another flat. When we changed that flat tire and were pumping up the new one, we popped it right by the valve so we had to change it again. 4km later she got another flat. It was clearly not Leah's day!! We had one more spare tube after that but we were sure that no matter how hard we cleaned the tire before we put the new tube in, it wouldn't make a difference. Conrad Henninger - who we stayed with in Sudbury - was great and got his friend's car and trailer to come pick us up! We're not quite sure what we would have done without him and Andre. :-)
Our experience in Sudbury was great - we had a wonderful dinner with Conrad, his mum Diana and her friend from Germany, went for a boat ride on Ramsey Lake (where their house is right on!) and got a tour of the lake, got ice cream and got a tour of Henninger Diesel where Conrad works, and went to see slag...unfortunately we were too late to see the slag - the remnant rock substance after the metals are separated from it so pretty much lava - being poured from the train into the large pit but it was still interesting! Thanks Conrad for the superquick tour of Sudbury!
We're on our way to North Bay for tomorrow night...talk to everyone soon!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Ontario....land of lakes and hills and rocks and hills...
Well, after a solid 5 days of biking in cold, wet and damp weather, I am happy to say we are sucessfully back on track and happier then ever! Before I describe the events of the past week I wanted to thank Betty and John Peters who somehow managed to track us down at our campsite just west of the Ontario border a couple weeks ago. After watching Katie and I on TV that morning in Winnipeg talking about Huntington's disease, they took a chance on catching up with us as their lives are also touched by the disease. They were somehow able to track us down and graciously offered us a warm place to stay at their nearby cottage. We also had the opportunity to head out on a couple of canoes and kayaks onto Falcon Lake and watch the sunset. It was a pretty memorable experience and we hope that they are doing well!
We made it back to Thunder Bay on Tuesday, July 10th and headed back onto the road Wednesday morning after a comfortable night sleep at Dan and Sue Santerre's beatiful home...thank you so much for your hospitality, it was greatly appreciated! From Thunder Bay we headed east to Nipigon where we stopped for groceries and lunch. It was here that we were offered a place to camp for the night by one of the locals who had a gorgeous cottage on lake Superior and lots of room for tents! Luck was definitely on our side that day because just as we set up our tents a roaring thunder storm came in off the lake and we were able to take shelter in the cottage.... otherwise, it would have been a long and wet night!
The next couple days were not much better weather wise as the rain continued to fall. However, we made it through the hills and the rocks and the breath-taking scenery making a few stops at a couple provincial parks and blowing a few more tire tubes (which are especially fun to change in the pouring rain!). We were definitely greatful for having John follow us in the car as this prevented all of our belongings from getting soaked and it also let passing cars know we were ahead when the visibility was poor.
We have now made it into Sault St. Marie where we are spending a dry and warm night with the Regina and John Ross. We are again extremely greatful for their generosity and appreciate an escape from the rain and a chance to dry all of our clothes! The plan is to head out again tomorrow morning and make it to Blind River for the night and then North Bay the following night. Thanks for all the support from back home, that is also greatly appreciated! We are determined to finish what we started and safety is always a number one priority!
We made it back to Thunder Bay on Tuesday, July 10th and headed back onto the road Wednesday morning after a comfortable night sleep at Dan and Sue Santerre's beatiful home...thank you so much for your hospitality, it was greatly appreciated! From Thunder Bay we headed east to Nipigon where we stopped for groceries and lunch. It was here that we were offered a place to camp for the night by one of the locals who had a gorgeous cottage on lake Superior and lots of room for tents! Luck was definitely on our side that day because just as we set up our tents a roaring thunder storm came in off the lake and we were able to take shelter in the cottage.... otherwise, it would have been a long and wet night!
The next couple days were not much better weather wise as the rain continued to fall. However, we made it through the hills and the rocks and the breath-taking scenery making a few stops at a couple provincial parks and blowing a few more tire tubes (which are especially fun to change in the pouring rain!). We were definitely greatful for having John follow us in the car as this prevented all of our belongings from getting soaked and it also let passing cars know we were ahead when the visibility was poor.
We have now made it into Sault St. Marie where we are spending a dry and warm night with the Regina and John Ross. We are again extremely greatful for their generosity and appreciate an escape from the rain and a chance to dry all of our clothes! The plan is to head out again tomorrow morning and make it to Blind River for the night and then North Bay the following night. Thanks for all the support from back home, that is also greatly appreciated! We are determined to finish what we started and safety is always a number one priority!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Bike Trip to Continue!
Hello everyone!
Although our break was longer than expected, we are now returning to Thunder Bay today to resume our trip across the country! We're set to start cycling again tomorrow - with all three of us wondering whether what 10 days without any exercise at all and certainly no cycling will have in store for us.
Although our break was longer than expected, we are now returning to Thunder Bay today to resume our trip across the country! We're set to start cycling again tomorrow - with all three of us wondering whether what 10 days without any exercise at all and certainly no cycling will have in store for us.
We have a new addition to our team for a little bit as well: John Geale - Katie's dad - is flying up with us and will act as a support vehicle through some of the northern ontario roads.
Leah also has a set of improved wrists! :-) i.e. she has wrist braces to help reduce the irritation to her ulnar and possibly median nerve as well.
We are looking forward to returning to cycling and are confident that these two changes will aid us for a safe and healthy journey.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Cycle Trip Paused
We realize that there may be people who are wondering why we are not continuing to update our blog and we just want to make sure everyone knows that we're okay. However, we did have to at least temporarily pause our cycle trip just west of Thunder Bay, Ontario on Saturday, June 30th due to unexpected circumstances at home. We thank everyone for their support thus far and we will post more updates soon.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Winnipeg
Hello All!
Well, we had a beautiful westerly wind on Tuesday and rode it 200km...all the way to Winnipeg where we decided to take the next day off and enjoy the city. It was extremely enjoyable to stay in a warm bed for the night and escape the past few nights of crazy weather (apparently there were even tornado warnings in the area we were camping....eeek!) The Udows were so great to us and we really appreciate their generous hospitality!
Yesterday morning Katie and I were also able to meet up with Winnipeg's Huntington's Society president Vern and his wife Ellen. Vern was actually able to organize an interview with us and CityTV Winnipeg because they are coincidently doing a story on Winnipeg's new movement disorder clinic that caters to many patients suffering from HD. They asked us a bunch of questions regarding our little adventure and the taping is scheduled to air this morning here in the city. It was a really cool experience and hopefully it will further help to raise awareness for our cause! After the taping we were able to visit an HD patient and his wife at a nearby nursing home. Helen and Llyod were very pleased to meet us and wished us well on our journey. After this we headed to a wonderful Greek restaurant for lunch with Vern and Ellen who treated us to the city's best Gyros! Vern then continued to give a very informative and first hand tour of the city...thank you so much Vern, we really appreciated all that you did for us!
As it was our first time in Winnipeg and there happened to be a jazz festival going on, we were convinced by the Udows to take in some of the festivities. We went to a neat little place last night and enjoyed some Winnipeg Jazz...it was fantastic!
Now, we are just about to head back out onto the road and the plan is to make it across the border and into Ontario tomorrow morning! Thanks again for all the support....we miss everyone back home and hope all is well!
Well, we had a beautiful westerly wind on Tuesday and rode it 200km...all the way to Winnipeg where we decided to take the next day off and enjoy the city. It was extremely enjoyable to stay in a warm bed for the night and escape the past few nights of crazy weather (apparently there were even tornado warnings in the area we were camping....eeek!) The Udows were so great to us and we really appreciate their generous hospitality!
Yesterday morning Katie and I were also able to meet up with Winnipeg's Huntington's Society president Vern and his wife Ellen. Vern was actually able to organize an interview with us and CityTV Winnipeg because they are coincidently doing a story on Winnipeg's new movement disorder clinic that caters to many patients suffering from HD. They asked us a bunch of questions regarding our little adventure and the taping is scheduled to air this morning here in the city. It was a really cool experience and hopefully it will further help to raise awareness for our cause! After the taping we were able to visit an HD patient and his wife at a nearby nursing home. Helen and Llyod were very pleased to meet us and wished us well on our journey. After this we headed to a wonderful Greek restaurant for lunch with Vern and Ellen who treated us to the city's best Gyros! Vern then continued to give a very informative and first hand tour of the city...thank you so much Vern, we really appreciated all that you did for us!
As it was our first time in Winnipeg and there happened to be a jazz festival going on, we were convinced by the Udows to take in some of the festivities. We went to a neat little place last night and enjoyed some Winnipeg Jazz...it was fantastic!
Now, we are just about to head back out onto the road and the plan is to make it across the border and into Ontario tomorrow morning! Thanks again for all the support....we miss everyone back home and hope all is well!
Monday, June 25, 2007
The East Wind Prevails
We are currently sitting in the non-windy area of the Brandon Public Library and are enjoying it immensely!
We have had quite the tough bike rides since Regina. The day we left Regina, we actually left at noon for a number of reasons: First, there were dark clouds that were passing but it looked like it was going to clear up after a bit. Second, Leah had to change her tube in her bike tire and while she was pumping air into the new one, IT popped so she had to change it again. We realized that was our last spare tube between the two of us, so I took my panniers off and biked into Regina to a bike store. En route, MY back tube popped. Wow, what a series of obstacles! When we looked at my actual back tire in the bike store, we were on the the last threads of the tire! So I bought a new tire and tube plus four extra spare tubes. Finally we were on our way....The winds were against us that day but we prevailed and biked 120km to Grenfell, SA.
We biked across the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border on June 24th! We biked from Grenfell, SA to Virden, MB for a total of 171km, which really didn't seem as tough as the 190 that we had biked to Regina. The winds were from the north - again, please note, not from the west! - but they were not too bad so we kept a good pace.
We had discovered at the Manitoba Welcome Centre that there were thunderstorms waiting for us for the night and then that we would wake up to easterly winds. This weather prediction proved to be true and when we checked the weather report this afternoon, the winds had in fact been 24km/hr east with gusts up to 37km/hr. This was probably one of our toughest days throughout the prairies although we only biked 75km!! We took turns leading for 5km at a time and each 5km leg seemed to be longer than the one before it so we were happy when we reached Brandon.
We're planning on staying here in Brandon for the night and then biking the 207km east to Winnipeg to the Udow's (friends of Katie's) house since the weather is predicted to be sunny with westerly winds 10km-30km/hr (the weather network) or 40-60km/hr (Environment Canada). Either prediction will be fine with us as long as the wind will, in fact, be coming from the west!
** Thinking westerly wind thoughts, until next time **
We have had quite the tough bike rides since Regina. The day we left Regina, we actually left at noon for a number of reasons: First, there were dark clouds that were passing but it looked like it was going to clear up after a bit. Second, Leah had to change her tube in her bike tire and while she was pumping air into the new one, IT popped so she had to change it again. We realized that was our last spare tube between the two of us, so I took my panniers off and biked into Regina to a bike store. En route, MY back tube popped. Wow, what a series of obstacles! When we looked at my actual back tire in the bike store, we were on the the last threads of the tire! So I bought a new tire and tube plus four extra spare tubes. Finally we were on our way....The winds were against us that day but we prevailed and biked 120km to Grenfell, SA.
We biked across the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border on June 24th! We biked from Grenfell, SA to Virden, MB for a total of 171km, which really didn't seem as tough as the 190 that we had biked to Regina. The winds were from the north - again, please note, not from the west! - but they were not too bad so we kept a good pace.
We had discovered at the Manitoba Welcome Centre that there were thunderstorms waiting for us for the night and then that we would wake up to easterly winds. This weather prediction proved to be true and when we checked the weather report this afternoon, the winds had in fact been 24km/hr east with gusts up to 37km/hr. This was probably one of our toughest days throughout the prairies although we only biked 75km!! We took turns leading for 5km at a time and each 5km leg seemed to be longer than the one before it so we were happy when we reached Brandon.
We're planning on staying here in Brandon for the night and then biking the 207km east to Winnipeg to the Udow's (friends of Katie's) house since the weather is predicted to be sunny with westerly winds 10km-30km/hr (the weather network) or 40-60km/hr (Environment Canada). Either prediction will be fine with us as long as the wind will, in fact, be coming from the west!
** Thinking westerly wind thoughts, until next time **
Friday, June 22, 2007
Another Provincial Capital Gone!
Hello all! First off, we just wanted to thank everyone for all their support and encouragement...it is greatly appreciated and welcomed!
Before we hit the prairies we had a well deserved two day rest in Calgary, Ab. We definitely were not planning on staying as long as we did, but the weather wasn't very cooperative on our planned day of departure and so we took in another day of the Robertson's gracious hospitality. Cam (Robertson) is a friend of ours from Queen's and him and his family were very generous and gave us the pleasure of sleeping in a nice warm bed and a few fantastic meals! Thank you all so much! While in Calgary we were also able to visit the Fanning Center which is a nursing home where five patients with Huntington's currently reside. The head of Calgary's Huntington's Society chapter, Jacob, organized a meet and greet for us and we were able to meet the patients and their families. All were pretty impressed with the task we had ahead of us and were also very excited for us. It was so great to meet everyone and I hope that everyone is doing well!
We were picked up from the Fanning Centre by Gail, Glen and Justin (friends of Leah's family). We had such a wonderful time with them - enjoying a lovely meal at Joey Tomatoes (sneaky Justin being able to get two Shirley Temples!) then off to the movie theatre to watch a movie of Justin's choice: Fantastic Four. The movie was "ten out of ten!" We would like to thank Gail, Glen and Justin for such a great afternoon and for showing us the city.
We have biked the past 5 days and finally made it to Regina today! We are finally getting used to the hot prairie sun, well actually, we have decided to avoid the hot mid-day sun by taking a mid-day siesta and this seems to be working well for us! Today was probably our longest day of biking and we trekked approximately 190km today from Morse, SA to this province's capital and are hoping to be in Winnipeg in four days. There has been no rain on us although there have been thunderstorm watches for the past two nights.
The prairies are definitely not as flat as people think they are!! There are definitely some flat parts - and those times I get pretty bored - but the other times there are rolling hills and it seems they are mostly uphill!
We love hearing from everyone and hope all is well at home! Until next time....
Leah
Before we hit the prairies we had a well deserved two day rest in Calgary, Ab. We definitely were not planning on staying as long as we did, but the weather wasn't very cooperative on our planned day of departure and so we took in another day of the Robertson's gracious hospitality. Cam (Robertson) is a friend of ours from Queen's and him and his family were very generous and gave us the pleasure of sleeping in a nice warm bed and a few fantastic meals! Thank you all so much! While in Calgary we were also able to visit the Fanning Center which is a nursing home where five patients with Huntington's currently reside. The head of Calgary's Huntington's Society chapter, Jacob, organized a meet and greet for us and we were able to meet the patients and their families. All were pretty impressed with the task we had ahead of us and were also very excited for us. It was so great to meet everyone and I hope that everyone is doing well!
We were picked up from the Fanning Centre by Gail, Glen and Justin (friends of Leah's family). We had such a wonderful time with them - enjoying a lovely meal at Joey Tomatoes (sneaky Justin being able to get two Shirley Temples!) then off to the movie theatre to watch a movie of Justin's choice: Fantastic Four. The movie was "ten out of ten!" We would like to thank Gail, Glen and Justin for such a great afternoon and for showing us the city.
We have biked the past 5 days and finally made it to Regina today! We are finally getting used to the hot prairie sun, well actually, we have decided to avoid the hot mid-day sun by taking a mid-day siesta and this seems to be working well for us! Today was probably our longest day of biking and we trekked approximately 190km today from Morse, SA to this province's capital and are hoping to be in Winnipeg in four days. There has been no rain on us although there have been thunderstorm watches for the past two nights.
The prairies are definitely not as flat as people think they are!! There are definitely some flat parts - and those times I get pretty bored - but the other times there are rolling hills and it seems they are mostly uphill!
We love hearing from everyone and hope all is well at home! Until next time....
Leah
Saturday, June 16, 2007
1 Down, 9 To Go
So we made it to Calgary - our first major city stop along the way!
Some things that happened on our trip since we saw the bear at Hidden Valley near Salmon Arm...
We biked to Revelstoke that day - Leah got two flat tires...not too impressed. Katie got one flat tire but changed it twice because she tried to use a tire that was patched up and didn't work...again, not impressed - especially because we were only 10km from Revelstoke!! That night, Leah made her classic linguine with cream of mushroom and broccolli sauce. It is quite amazing how much food we are eating...not surprised, really, I suppose considering the biking we're doing.
The next day was probably one of the hardest days we've had. We biked from Revelstoke to Golden which was the longest day by far (~150km) and it was through Roger's Pass. Roger's Pass kept going up and up and up and up and needless to say we were pretty excited to be at the top. We then had a wondrous (although scary!) 13km downhill after that. It was a gorgeous biking day though and we were very excited to get to Golden, treated ourselves to Subway that night and...we actually camped out behind Subway....probably not the quietest choice but it was the choice by tired bikers.
The next day - from Golden to Lake Louise - was a shorter day (~90km) - but we went through Kicking Horse Pass (~1600m). The bike out of Golden was on the narrowest, windiest part of the Trans-Canada and it was a looonnnnggg uphill that we thought never ended. We didn't realize that was the toughest part of the day though because we had been warned that the hill from Field up to Lake Louise was an 15km uphill climb so we were more apprehensive about that. The Visitor's Centre in Field also made it sound extremely difficult...and while it was difficult, so much emphasis was placed on the climb that we actually didn't find it as bad. But I suppose that's a good thing!
We went and saw Lake Louise in the morning the next day - it was the perfect day for it - blue skies, some clouds...we were lucky to have a day like that on the only day that we go up there. It was quite the climb to get up to the lake though - a little morning 4km steep uphill surprise that we weren't quite prepared for! It was worth it though. We then headed to Banff and camped there. We saw deer, moose and mountain goats along the way through Banff...yay wildlife!
Yesterday we biked from Banff into Calgary which we thought was going to be an long but easy day as we were heading out (i.e. downhill, so we thought) of the mountains but unfortunately the foothills made the day slightly more difficult than we expected. As well the 20 minutes of extremely hard rain didn't help! Once we got into Calgary, Leah and I had another steep uphill bike to Cam's house where we stayed. Needless to say, it was wonderful to sleep on a mattress in the warmth! Beauty.
Today we're going to enjoy our day off. We've started out with an early morning wakeup to get to the Fanning Centre where there is a meet'n'greet with five people with Huntington's. The Huntington's Chapter here has been very supportive and helpful and we appreciate everything they've done.
Until next time!!
Some things that happened on our trip since we saw the bear at Hidden Valley near Salmon Arm...
We biked to Revelstoke that day - Leah got two flat tires...not too impressed. Katie got one flat tire but changed it twice because she tried to use a tire that was patched up and didn't work...again, not impressed - especially because we were only 10km from Revelstoke!! That night, Leah made her classic linguine with cream of mushroom and broccolli sauce. It is quite amazing how much food we are eating...not surprised, really, I suppose considering the biking we're doing.
The next day was probably one of the hardest days we've had. We biked from Revelstoke to Golden which was the longest day by far (~150km) and it was through Roger's Pass. Roger's Pass kept going up and up and up and up and needless to say we were pretty excited to be at the top. We then had a wondrous (although scary!) 13km downhill after that. It was a gorgeous biking day though and we were very excited to get to Golden, treated ourselves to Subway that night and...we actually camped out behind Subway....probably not the quietest choice but it was the choice by tired bikers.
The next day - from Golden to Lake Louise - was a shorter day (~90km) - but we went through Kicking Horse Pass (~1600m). The bike out of Golden was on the narrowest, windiest part of the Trans-Canada and it was a looonnnnggg uphill that we thought never ended. We didn't realize that was the toughest part of the day though because we had been warned that the hill from Field up to Lake Louise was an 15km uphill climb so we were more apprehensive about that. The Visitor's Centre in Field also made it sound extremely difficult...and while it was difficult, so much emphasis was placed on the climb that we actually didn't find it as bad. But I suppose that's a good thing!
We went and saw Lake Louise in the morning the next day - it was the perfect day for it - blue skies, some clouds...we were lucky to have a day like that on the only day that we go up there. It was quite the climb to get up to the lake though - a little morning 4km steep uphill surprise that we weren't quite prepared for! It was worth it though. We then headed to Banff and camped there. We saw deer, moose and mountain goats along the way through Banff...yay wildlife!
Yesterday we biked from Banff into Calgary which we thought was going to be an long but easy day as we were heading out (i.e. downhill, so we thought) of the mountains but unfortunately the foothills made the day slightly more difficult than we expected. As well the 20 minutes of extremely hard rain didn't help! Once we got into Calgary, Leah and I had another steep uphill bike to Cam's house where we stayed. Needless to say, it was wonderful to sleep on a mattress in the warmth! Beauty.
Today we're going to enjoy our day off. We've started out with an early morning wakeup to get to the Fanning Centre where there is a meet'n'greet with five people with Huntington's. The Huntington's Chapter here has been very supportive and helpful and we appreciate everything they've done.
Until next time!!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Ain't No Mountain High...
Wow - so much has happened since we last added to the blog! From Hope, we climbed through the Fraser Canyon and took a quick tourist's stop at Hell's Gate (the deepest and narrowest part of the Fraser River). We also tasted some green tea fudge created by the fudgemaker of Hell's Gate who plans to own all the candy companies by the day he turns 55. We made it into Lytton that day. Apparently all campsites are right by the train tracks! The train tracks were literally about 25m from our campsite!! Needless to say we were not impressed when the first of 5 or 6 trains rolled on by while we were eating dessert, as that set the stage for the rest of the trains throughout the night.
From Lytton, we biked a couple more hills up to Cache Creek where we took a nice break at Dairy Queen and got our first on-trip donation!! We then grabbed some food and headed 19km east to our campsite (again, by train tracks).
The next day we biked to Kamloops which was only 60km away and we thought it would be a nice half-day and then we could take the rest of the day off. Unluckily, the hills (and wind) were against us that day as the hills were long and tortuous. So it was still half a day but it was a tough half day. In Kamloops we met up with some tree planters (one of which was Leah's friend) who in fact knew two people (from Queen's) I knew and Dave knew a couple people (both from Queen's and his treeplanting days).
After the nights festivities singing karaoke etc., we were determined to make the 108km bike to Salmon Arm. Happily, the first half of the bike was pretty much all downhill so it wasn't as tough as we were expecting.
Oh! While setting up our camp at Hidden Valley Campground, Leah and I both heard a noise in the bush....it turned out to be a bear, as this young black bear comes strolling out of the bush and across the road. Our first encounter with the bears (apparently they haven't been seen here since 1991)...I'm sure we'll see more.
We are about to leave to head out to Revelstoke and hopefully arrive in Calgary in 5 days!?!
Thanks for all the messages from everyone - it's been a wonderful trip so far and it is good to get little notes from all of you throughout our time....
Until next time!
Katie
From Lytton, we biked a couple more hills up to Cache Creek where we took a nice break at Dairy Queen and got our first on-trip donation!! We then grabbed some food and headed 19km east to our campsite (again, by train tracks).
The next day we biked to Kamloops which was only 60km away and we thought it would be a nice half-day and then we could take the rest of the day off. Unluckily, the hills (and wind) were against us that day as the hills were long and tortuous. So it was still half a day but it was a tough half day. In Kamloops we met up with some tree planters (one of which was Leah's friend) who in fact knew two people (from Queen's) I knew and Dave knew a couple people (both from Queen's and his treeplanting days).
After the nights festivities singing karaoke etc., we were determined to make the 108km bike to Salmon Arm. Happily, the first half of the bike was pretty much all downhill so it wasn't as tough as we were expecting.
Oh! While setting up our camp at Hidden Valley Campground, Leah and I both heard a noise in the bush....it turned out to be a bear, as this young black bear comes strolling out of the bush and across the road. Our first encounter with the bears (apparently they haven't been seen here since 1991)...I'm sure we'll see more.
We are about to leave to head out to Revelstoke and hopefully arrive in Calgary in 5 days!?!
Thanks for all the messages from everyone - it's been a wonderful trip so far and it is good to get little notes from all of you throughout our time....
Until next time!
Katie
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
The day before the mountains....
Hey all, we have successfully started our bike adventure with only a few minor glitches and are now sitting in the library in the town of Hope B.C. catching up on emails and the upcoming weather forecast. We started out at mile zero yesterday in Victoria B.C. with the help of Bill Basset (Katie's friend Carly's dad) who showed us how to get there and then biked with us for part of the way across the island. The Bassetts were really great to us and let us spend the night at their house as well as cooking us a gourmet dinner consisting of lamb, spinach casserole and strawberry shortcake.... oh and also a little wine! We left pretty early yesterday so that we could catch the 9:00 ferry that head to the main land...it was close but we made it and boarded the ferry at approximately 8:58! Once on the mainland we got some groceries and then a man suggested that we take a scenic route towards Abbotsford....let's just say the scenic route (although quite scenic) was also WAY out of the way and fortunately we realized this before we got too far. So, we biked on covering about 120km and eventually made it to a camp ground outside of Abbotsford called the Aloha trailer park...it was an interesting little trailer park and the owner Bertha offered us an expensive place to stay. It was also here that we found out we bought the wrong type of gas for our stove and therefore had no cooking capabilities. This is when we went back to Bertha and asked in a round-about fashion to use her stove. After quite a bit of persuasion she agreed and then proceeded to give us a tour of her home and her husband's works as a taxadermist (....yes, interesting...). I think Bertha actually enjoyed our company and in the morning came around with sweet trucker style Aloha trailer park hats! Today we were able to bike about 100km into the inter of B.C. and had the opportunity to take in the amazing scenery! This province is beautiful, however, I think I would enjoy it more if it would stop raining and warm up just a little...it would definitely make the nights spent in the tent more enjoyable! The terrain today was also quite enjoyable (without too many hills) and I think we are definitely dreading tomorrow's start into the mountains. Hope all is well at home...we'll be in touch again soon!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Leaving on a Jetplane
Good day everyone.
Today is the day, actually tomorrow is the day we start. Today is just the day that I am flying out to BC. Just a little nervous. Looking ahead it seems like it is going to be a LOOOOONG journey home, but in many ways it really is a long journey home. We will take it one day at a time, one kilometer at a time, one pedal rotation at a time... kinda sounds depressing when i put it like that. How about I say it like this: We will take it one day at a time, one breath taking view of the Rockie Mountains after another, one AMAZING sunset and sunrise on the prairies after another, one very strong and constant eastward wind day after day. Anyway I am still really excited. Still have to buy a bike lock. Note to self: buy a bike lock. So the plan tomorrow is to go to Mile zero of the trans Canada Highway dip the front wheel of my bike in the Pacific and start pedaling East.
Simple plan. Wish me luck.
Leah
Today is the day, actually tomorrow is the day we start. Today is just the day that I am flying out to BC. Just a little nervous. Looking ahead it seems like it is going to be a LOOOOONG journey home, but in many ways it really is a long journey home. We will take it one day at a time, one kilometer at a time, one pedal rotation at a time... kinda sounds depressing when i put it like that. How about I say it like this: We will take it one day at a time, one breath taking view of the Rockie Mountains after another, one AMAZING sunset and sunrise on the prairies after another, one very strong and constant eastward wind day after day. Anyway I am still really excited. Still have to buy a bike lock. Note to self: buy a bike lock. So the plan tomorrow is to go to Mile zero of the trans Canada Highway dip the front wheel of my bike in the Pacific and start pedaling East.
Simple plan. Wish me luck.
Leah
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