Quickie

Hi everyone,
I'm basically taking a quick opportunity to update the blog as I
realised that I left, and then dropped off the face of the earth

My apologies, my mobile phone hasn't had any reception since leaving
St. Johns, and by now I'm starting to worry about it (read: take it as
a sign I should toss it in the next pond... there are a lot of
ponds ...) and to be honest I haven't felt in the mood for a peppy
update anyway.

It's been tough so far, getting used to the terrain (constant hills...
big ones) letting my body adjust (read: hate me), dealing with the
weather (oh yep, driving rain, wind, a bit of snow even - yuck it up
Ontario heat wave, you'll get yours) and a couple stressful bike
issues (back pannier rack and fender near fell right off, front right
pannier rack almost busted in twain).

I knew the first few weeks would suck, it's part of the game as my
body and bike and the roads get to know each other, but I'm ready now
to be past that part of it.

I'm on day 5? 6? I guess. I'm in badger nl, staying in a motel for the
night to escape the rain. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so that'll
be new and fun.

Newfoundland itself is rugged and gorgeous, and the people really are
just super swell. We'll chat more on that soon hopefully.

Keep on keeping on!

Finally, officially, on my way!

Yippie!!

I started. And I didn't

The plan was to start biking today.
May 25th.

That didn't happen.

I started early, biking from Cape Spear, the furthest eastward point in North America (wait, where does Greenland count to?) to Dana and Wade's house in St Johns.



It took about two hours, i went about 20 kms, and up and down 4 killer hills, got up 65kms/hr! Eeep.
Yep i definitely did some walking up them, especially Barletts Hill in St. Johns. Preposterous! I almost called a cab.
This is a pic of my first hill, seen from the edge of Cape Spear. Sigh.



That was a great trip, and allowed me time to sort out any kinks with the bike, which i took today to have fixed up. I also caved and bought a handle-bar bag.

So I'll be starting to bike tomorrow morning. Its calling for rain, and maybe some snow up towards Gander.
I may just go live in Gander actually.

Trash

We all know how i love my quiet time.
And I've taken a good deal of it here, in the form of a new series of trashy novels!

The minute i walked in the door, Dana flicked on True Blood and addicted me to the series, one I've been meaning to pick up for a long, time, but lacked the time.
I still lack the time to watch it, but I can read it instead.

I'm already through book one.
The novels are trash, but the very best trash there is.
Anything set in the deep south is fine by me. The Sookie Stackhouse novels are southern small-town, rootsy-backwoodsy, and have creepy vampires. Perfect for starting to camp alone in the woods.

Thank you Dana.

owshitgettinonbys?

I love St. John's.
I love Dana.
I love Wade.
I love it here.



This is Dana and Wade, our hosts.
Both very talented musicians.
They compliment each other so well, and have been so generous and hospitable, i don't want to leave.

In fact i stayed an extra Day.

So far in Newfoundland I've seen signal hill, and cape spear: where I'll be starting my bike trip, the Quidi Vidi brewery (yum) and eaten enough food to have more than my fill (some of you know that's a little tough). Sunday night we killed and ate almost every little animal in the sea. We even went to Dana's parents in Paradise for breakfast: Homemade bread, eggs rancheros, bacon, bologna, waffles, homefries, heaven.

The weather has been super co-operative, but we'll see what its like for when i start biking. We're in a mean cold spell right now...
There has been a bit of rain almost every day. Sometimes a lot, but its always been nice for when we wanted to go out.
Its a fair price to pay for being on a gorgeous island right in the middle of the north atlantic.



So many good times have been had, from Dana's over-the-top musical theatre show "Stucco in the 80's", to friday night debauchery with some of Dana's friends, to watching Dana and Andrew and Michael feed off of one another to mounting heights of hilarity.



Just a bit of the action.
More to come soon

All my bags are packed..,

Ok we're on the plane and on our way!!
Andrew got strip searched. It's profiling, we can tell.

This Weeks Horoscope, Rob Brezny

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
When Paul McCartney first got the inspiration to write the song "Yesterday," he had the melody and rhythm but couldn't get a feel for what the lyrics should be. For a while, as he was waiting for the missing words to pop into his brain, he used nonsense stand-in phrases. The dummy version of the first line was "Scrambled eggs, oh my dear, you have such lovely legs." This approach could be useful for you in the coming weeks, Gemini. As you create a fresh approach or novel departure in your own life, you might want to show the patience McCartney did. Be willing to keep moving ahead even though you don't have the full revelation quite yet.

Pret a partir

Let me introduce my bike:



This is a Caribou 2 by Devinci.
The company is Canadian, which I like a lot for a trip like this, and the bike is meant for long distance touring like this. Dark green with light brown leather; sexy.



This is my stuff...
There's a lot of it. I hope to shed some of it as I go, but I figure this should be everything I need to get me through 3 or 4 months.

Proper Welcome...

Ok friends and frenemies, I've realised some of you may not have had a proper introduction to my most recent step away from "sanity".

For a long time I've wanted to see Canada, and my old man-ish sensibilities have encouraged me to do so in the slowest possible way; to take in as much of our beautiful country as I can.

The plan is to leave from Cape Spear NFLD on the morning of May 25, and cycle as far as I can, ideally ending on the west coast of Vancouver Island at some point in September.

I will be camping along the way (and potentially couch surfing with a few welcoming relatives and friendos. I'm definitely glad to have the chance to live outdoors for another summer. Its been too long.

More to come; feel free to follow along, and send encouragment as you like.

Welcome!

Brand new blog, just set up b
More to come.
Please make yourself at home.