Day three, St. John's

Day three in St. John's

Oh my f'n lord.

I saw an episode of South Park one day, where Cartman saw a family that had asses for faces. Seeing that, he basically became catatonic, and realized that nothing will ever be as funny as that. So, he couldn't laugh at anything else, since he saw (what he thought) was the funniest thing on earth. It was an interesting concept, in which I've thought about in similar ways. Could this phenomenon happen with me meeting a woman? Could it also happen with biking certain parts of the country? Or, with the scenery I would take in today?

I dropped so many f-bombs today. They were usually with the words “un.....believable”, “unreal”, “surreal”, “this is a..... different world”. and just plain “holy ......”. Amazing, I couldn't talk at times (except for that one or two words I could muster-up, and could only say that for those minutes I was there). Unreal. More on that later.

So, after 2 hours of sleep (I went to bed after the sun went up), I got up early to get the scheduled 8:15-8:30 ride. I waited. Waited. At 9:00, when the lovely Florida girl (aka worker at the hostel who would be my gopher for the bike box and gift today) walked outside, she realized that the driver hadn't shown up yet. Out goes her cell phone, and calls 'dem bastards. So, 9:30ish, he shows up, and we finally leave around 9:45. We got to the spot (after getting lost, as the guy didn't know where to go) at around 10:15. Nice way to start early. Hopefully I'd be back in town by sundown.

From Maddox's cove, I would hike the Cape Spear path. It is an 11.5 km trail (estimated 4-6 hours, moderate difficulty) to Cape Spear. My gear consisted of close to 3 litres of liquids, bananas, granola bars, some gels as a back-up, the left-over bread I had, with the last of the PB. The kit also included duct-tape. Being limited with hiking gear for this bike trip, I did the hike in my sandals, wearing black socks (what rule does that break – the Jacky-Chan rule? I forget), and duct-taped my feet to prevent blisters. Just 3 km into the hike, one of the straps on my sandals got pulled out of the sole – out comes the duct tape. Useful that stuff.

The hike. The start was quite fun, and I was hoping it'd be like that for the rest of the day. Nice and challenging paths, where you had to occasionally use your hands to pull yourself up or descend (what I call three/four-point contact climbing). The whole hike basically goes along the coast, right back to the city. So, there's some great spots of cliff-side views, staring out at the vast ocean that just seemed to go forever, blue skies with the occasional white fluffy cloud, and drop-offs of up to a few hundred feet just located a few inches from the trail. Beautiful, breath-taking. The second half of the hike was basically on a plateau, where I thought that it would be great to ride a mountain bike in these trails (especially with a 29er). For the first half of the hike, it would be impossible to ride a mountain-bike (especially with a 29er). What was also amazing for the hike was that I was completely alone, and felt completely alone in this amazing world. Great, peaceful and amazing feeling.

Lunch time, at Cape Spear, PB sandwiches were on the menu. Exciting. How was your lunch? I sat on the edge of the cliff, maybe a 100 feet below me was a rocky base, being pummeled by aggressive waves. Lovely sound. I stared-out at the ocean, watching fishing boats coast by in the distance, and spotting whales just bob up and down nearby. The cool breeze from the ocean was nice, and surrouded me with a subtle sea-salt ocean smell. So, how was your lunch?

The second hike was the Blackhead Path. It is a mere 3.7 km path, considered “easy to moderate, 1 to 2 hours”, was nice. But, there was a km that wasn't easy. If this was “easy”, what would “moderate to difficult” be for the last trail of the day? Although short (1 hour), it was quite pleasing.

After stocking up on more water, consuming a fudge Popsicle with an iced-tea just at the trail head of the final one of the day, I trekked on. This was called the Deadmans Bay Path, a 10.6 km, 4 to 7 hour hike. This path would hike along the cliff-sides, then venture into the woods for a while, then dump you back to the cliff-sides at the top. Great scenes. There was one spot, called Peggy's Leg, that just knocked me on my arse (see paragraph 1 and 3 of this entry). I just stayed there for a while. There were many times during the hike that I just stood right on the edge, and I couldn't stay there for too long (got scared). Some cliff sides I didn't even have the courage to get close to the edge. Amazing.

During the first hike, I found that I was taking too many pictures and videos. “Memory Card Full”. Shit. So, I had to delete a few pics and vids to hopefully make it to Cape Spear, where I would hope to buy a memory card there. All the other ones, 3 gig's worth, are full of stuff from when I left Ottawa. But, I had to take videos at times as the pics didn't come close to capturing some stuff. The vids were alright, but can't replace being there. At Cape Spear, I wasn't lucky this time. So, more pick-and-delete stuff. I would definitely make it back to town with a full memory card.

Well, with the views on the 3rd hike, I had to take tons of pics, and a few fast videos of good quality (not compressed). I made up my mind that when I do hit Gros Morne one day (hopefully soon), I will make the detour to come back and hike these trails again (and more trails).

The last part of the last trail was on a plateau full of slanted rocks. The texture is similar to concrete mixed in with small rocks, where their appearance is also multi-coloured (different rocks, some hardened-peat, etc). This could be bike-able. Later on, I guess I had the same thoughts as a few other folks. Four dudes, riding some pigs, were doing these trails. Sweet. I got the big urge to go back to Ottawa and finally ride my new bike – Beckie. What was really making me curious is how they would descend (or at times ascend) some of the long unrideable terrain). Some sections would take me 5 minutes to go down 100 metres, having to grab on to anything and everything to slowly get down. Sweet, excellent hiking.

So, arriving to the edge of town, I took a cab to the hostel. Lazy. I then took a much-needed shower, packed up the bike and my gear. At 10:30, I went out and had supper (KFC). There was still two QB beers I hadn't sampled yet, so I went on a hunt. The QV Ale I found, but the Iceberg beer, I had no luck. I went back to the hostel, where I would get a max of 3 hours of sleep before having to get up to go to the airport.

Rest days, they were.

So, I am finishing the St. John's entries as I am waiting to board on the final flight home, from Halifax.

See you soon,

p
(pics uploaded, finally)
(yes, one more entry left, a little summary of the trip, more stats basically, to conclude this blog).

Day two, St. John's

Day two – St-John's

Let's do things differently. I am writing Day Two before Day One, but thanks to technology, you'll read them in order.

As always, the day started late, as I really like to sleep. The two frenchies had to get up early in the morning, so that interrupted the rest a bit. Breakfast at noon (strawberry ad banana French toasts with sausage and excellent fried potatoes). Again, as yesterday's breakfast, they were just cut strawberries and bananas on top.

After some window shopping, procrastination, running into the “you're cute” girl, and eventually buying some gifts, I headed to Signal Hill. There, I started my journey at the Johnson's Geo Centre. That is an underground exhibit/museum of anthropology and geology, with special exhibits on the oil and gas industry, plus the titanic story. The latter was quite amazing and enlightening – a no-holds-barred tale of what happened, and why. Newfoundland is a major hot-spot for archaeological stuff for the World. There are so many different types of rocks here (even noticeable by me, a total amateur). The exhibit shows, amongst many other interesting things, how NFLD broke away from Africa and started drifting away. Boy, with this big-bang theory, and evolution, my strong beliefs in the catholic religion didn't permit me to believe all the scientific stuff. Oh boy.

I continued the hike up Signal Hill for some astonishing views of the steep cliffs along the ocean shore, as well as the city itself. At Signal Hill, it's also where the first Trans-Atlantic wireless message came through in 1902 (or 1901).

I continued the hike through the hill and ended up in Quidi Vidi Village, where I wanted to visit the brewery (QVB). When I got there, after that nice hike along the shore, I found out it closes at 5 pm every single night. Took a cab back to the city, and had lunch (par food) at a pub where I continued to sample the QV beers. The VQ beers tasted yesterday were the 1892 Traditional Ale, as well as the Honey-Brown. Today, it was the Eric's Red, as well as the Honey Brown again. The red was the best of today, as the honey brown wasn't anything to write home about.

I finished my meal in time to head down to the haunted walk of St. John's, where I would meet, for the second time today, Kelly and Lindsay. We did the tour together (which was quite good, with an exceptional host), then headed to George Street for some brown pops in some local “house of worships”. It is also fun to be with some very good laid-back folks. A very comfortable, relaxed, no pressure situation. Appropriate lyrics that comes to mind from the song “Instant-club hit” from The Dead Milkmen: “I came here to drink, and not to get laid”.

The bar, Green Sleeveless, or something, was fun. There was a solo artist playing guitar and singing cover songs. What made the night a bit more interesting was the drunken single older guys hitting on the girls. Key lines to remember of the night: “You're a sensible person”, and 'You're a nice looking lady”. Nice pick-up lines, I must remember to use those one day. Other lines notable about the evening, from one of the songs sang: “We're just two lost souls living in a fish bowl... Wish you were here.”.

I took a cab to the 24 hour Sobey's nearby to gather some food for the night (aka supper) and breakfast (which was fast approaching), as well as for the hike planned for tomorrow. That should be a dandy one – an all-day hike (11-17 hours, pending on how well I do). Hung over? I will find out tomorrow.

I also scored today. One of the workers at the hostel will do some gopher work for me. Being stuck in the trails all day, I can not go get that last gift I wanted to get, nor the bike box and pedal wrench necessary to pack my bike for the plane back home in a few days. Time's running out, but I think I'll be able to manage everything I wanted to do in the days I am here. Worse comes to worse, I will come back for more time – more for hiking some trails in the area.

Tomorrow evening, after the hike, it is planned that I continue the George Street festivities, and get “screetched-in”. I am not looking forward to that. But, I might as well keep it to the last day where I can relax (aka sleep) in the plane the next day. Lindsay and Kelly are wonderful to be around. I'm sure they'll watch over me.

Later,

p

Day one in St. John's

St. John's, rest day 1

Who am I kidding, it's end-of-trip day 1. I am still in denial.

Alright, what did I do that day. The morning started off the usual – I slept in. It was around 1:30 when I finally got out of the hostel and headed for breakfast. There's this restaurant downtown that serves basically only breakfast, and there is often a line-up. I had a nice meal there – the mixed-berries pancakes with bacon caught my eye. Well, it was tasty, but it was simply a few pancakes with mixed berries on top. I guess I was expecting mixed berries into the pancake.

I was a downtown tourist afterwards, doing the sight-seeing on the West, North and South part of town. The East, where Signal Hill and other attractions are located, were on the menu for day 2. I ventured to Mile One Centre, where the St. John's Fog Devils play, an oddly enough, located at Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway. On that site, there were a bunch of little plaques showing how far certain things were (including Ottawa, Dublin, North and South Pole, etc).

Shortly after having breakfast and only visiting a few sites, I decided to hit the (apparently) World famous Ches's Fish and Chips, since I was in the area. Being here, I had to try one of their main dishes, even though I've been scared of fish for years (I generally don't like the smell, so it throws me off ad I don't want to eat it). It was alright, nothing fancy, but alright. I was tempted by the Quidy Vidi (pronounced Kiddy Vidi) Iceberg beer, which is a local company that makes this beer with, you guessed it, iceberg water. Since that brewery was i the plans either later tonight or tomorrow, I decided to skip it.

I was quite full at that point. I can't believe how many times I just stopped at a park bench and just sat there. This definitely felt different than any other rest days, as I was always busy trying to squeeze everything in. This time, I just sat there, with not much motivation (or rush) to move. It did kind of feel nice. It was also a time to soak in the view of multi-coloured houses all over the place. jelly-bean-ish. A local told me that it might of come from a tradition that the house was painted the same colour as the fishing boat. This way, the wife (home-bound) would be able to look out to the harbour and see if her husband was coming home. Years ago, all the levels of government had a program that donated various different colours of paint to home-owners, and started the boom of all the houses painted differently. It definitely adds charm to the city.

I visited a few other local attractions – the Bascillica, a few cathedrals, The Rooms (re-enactment of a soldier's barrack during the time of wars over a century ago), and eventually returned to the hostel to relax a bit.

The downtown, aka South part, was next. The main attractions are the courthouse, the big monument at the harbour, the harbour itself, the many stores lied the main streets, and of course, George Street. St. John's holds the title of having the most bars per capita in North America, where at the centre of it is George Street. I was saving that for the next two nights, where I could hit the sauce a bit, and even try screetch (local rum, terrible stuff apparently).

Something caught my eye: The Yellowbelly Brewering Company and restaurant. Yes, time for supper. Pretty good food, where I had the beer and cheddar soup (Pale ale, white cheddar, chive creme fraiche), grilled Atlantic salmon, with black pepper and horseradishpotato mash, spinach, pancetta and raisin saute. For desert, I ha to try the rosemary and wild honey crème brule, with a tuile cookie spoon, and fresh fruit garnish. That was quite delicious. The waitress stated that if that desert was a man, she'd marry it. Their beers: The Fighting Irish Red Ale, the Wexford Wheat Ale, and their Honey Brown. No testers, so I had to have a pint each. To accompany my desert, I ordered a half-pint of the red, as it was the tastiest of the bunch. But, since they didn't have half pints, she brought over a full one. Oh well, more to enjoy. You could taste the caramelized grains in the red, it really stood out. Tasty.

What was fun, and unexpected, was the conversation some folks were having beside me. At one point, they said “well, Barrymore's on Sunday for 80's night is fun”. What? Hey, Ottawa folks. So, we got into a conversation. Lindsay and Kelly, who drove all the way here, met Matt, from Maine, on the Argentia ferry. The girls were in town for a few days before heading out to Gros Morne for a week. So, with those folks, I would try to hook up later on in the evening.

The night already had a plan. Remember the 4 boys that I ran into just inside the Saskatchewan border, who were biking to raise funds for Cancer research? Well, their final destination was also (of course) St. John's, and their arrival was on Friday (like me). I didnt' expect to be here at the same time as them, so I thought I'd miss out on the bash they'd have on the Saturday night. So, the game plan was to show up, have some beers, congratulate the fine fellows, and eventually meet up with the fine Ottawa ladies.

As soon as I walked in the door, the boys recognized me. I was shocked, as usually cyclists don't recognize each other if we're in our casual clothes (if we're only used to seeing them with tight revealing clothes and a bucket on our head). Very good fellows, quite genuine, and also half in the bag (rightly so). It was great. After sharing some stories, I eventually heard about someone else who was suppose to show up tonight. This person, for the entire province of NFLD and parts of Cape Breton, I referred to as “The Ghost”.

You see, when I was biking through BC an Alberta, when I would stop at campgrounds, I would hear of “this girl from Victoria who was biking by herself across Canada”. I was quite sure I'd run into her at one point. But, it never happened. Once I hit Ontario, where I would take a different path than everybody else (until hitting St. John's), I would probably not run into any other xCanada cyclists. In Baddeck (where I had that lobster lunch), Bob and Joan, two older folks who were also biking this fine nation, told me that just ahead of me was this “girl from Victoria who is biking by herself”. Holy shit, The Ghost is back! Would I eventually run into her on the ferry or in NFLD? Time would tell. The big thing was which ferry she would take – the long one, or the short one like me. But, I never did run into her, and basically thought she took the long ferry and ended a few days before me. Alas, at Club One, where the big shin-dig for the boys was happenin', there she finally was. We met, and had a few stories of our own. She was amused at my story, and surprised as well. For her, she heard about me, as I was called (which became my reputation) “Mr. 200-a-day guy”. Thirty million people, a country that spans 8-9 thousand kms, and two individuals form a reputation that is known amongst select campgrounds and cyclists alike. Freaky. It felt nice to have a little rep. A nice heart-warming story about her trip – three girl-friends of hers from back home, flew to Moncton to ride the rest of the trip with her. They were busy hitting the sauce a bit, and tearing up the dance floor. One was feeling pretty good, was bold and said to me: “you're cute”. That was funny.

At the club, there was also two other cyclists, Darrick and Sinisa, that did the same trek, but did it with recumbent bikes. They, oddly enough, also arrived yesterday. Every one of us had a different agenda, different starting point, different day of departure, and we get there on the same day. Freaky.

At the club, I sampled (a few times) the local “Canadian/Blue” beer of NFLD – the Black Horse. Well, nothing major. It's like a one-legged, toothless, wrinkly lady – not pretty, but it can do the job. Now, would I meet up with the ladies from Ottawa? I was half in the bag at that point, and started doing what I refer to as “walking” back to the hostel. No meeting tonight. Bed time.

p

We did it, Thank you

I will write the story of the day sometime soon. Pictures of NFLD to be uploaded soon after as well. Tourist time in St-John's, which will have it's own post. Stay tuned, and be patient. Merci.
p

Day 65 - Bellevue to St. John's

Bellevue Beach to Cape Spear, then back to Saint-John's
The final destination
167 km, a little more than 7 hrs of riding
Sunny, hot, and winds around 20 km/h (mainly in my favour)

So, here I am. We made it to the end, and I can't go any further East. Cape Spear: The furthest point East in North America.

I get times when I don't feel the trip is over; that I have a rest day or two in St. John's and then have to bike somewhere again. Then there's other times that I know (and feel) that it's done. Those times I get a bit chocked up; but you guys knowing me a bit, I control those emotions fairy quick and become “normal” again. It hasn't hit me yet, I guess. After a few days of being the tourist here (which is great, because there's a bunch of things I think I want to do), I'll figure out a way to get back to Ottawa. For that, there's many options; from the quickest (fly back), to the slowest (mixture of bus, train, plain, hitch-hike, ferry, and bike). Honestly, I haven't thought much of the logistics yet, only on Monday or so that I'll make the arrangements.

The ride today. Thinking I was only about 100 from St-John's, I slept in late (8:30-9:00 am). But, going to bed just 5 hours before didn't help. The last ride itself was fun, it felt fairly non-chalant and quite easy. Roads, as usual, were pristine. I was behind on uploading two posts, so I took a little detour to Chapel Arm (15 km from the start) and ducked into that village to access the internet at a local school. I figured that if I upload the short post first, it would give some of you a bit of time to read it, before the monster post is uploaded. The 3 km fairly steep downhill into town was nice, especially with the wind at my back, but I thought that I'd have to climb that puppy and hopefully not use the granny. That was going to be a bitch. But, I stuck to my guns, and grinded up without touching those gears.

The next stop was a small detour to another little town, where I would then upload that big post. I also stopped for some PB sandwiches, before kicking it in to Cape Spear and such. There was a couple on a motorcycle that I had a fun chat with. They confirmed what I was hoping it wasn't true: St-John's city limits was 70 km away, then there's more distance until the downtown, and then another little hike to Cape Spear. No biggie, I knew I'd be alright for time. They also said that George Street is very safe, only a few mishaps happen here and there, with the latter usually a scuffle between some drunken friends. So, they highly encouraged me to spend a fair amount of time there.

The last bit of biking. Nice. Remember that string of songs that came on in NB (Seductive Barry, Sergio's Theme, Seven Notes in Black, Silverf*ck, Sing, Sing For The Moment, etc)? It was playing again on this leg. Great tunes, the moment wasn't the same though (but still good). The winds were now at my back, and fairly strong (up to 20 k/h), so I knew I was going to enjoy that last bit of riding (100 k or so).

The sun was fairly hot. I did like yesterday and rode without the jersey to try to even out the tan a bit (so I can be white in the front, and tanned in the back). At one point, the road shoulder was covered by a bunch of rocks, and both lanes behind me had cars there. Shit, I knew I was going to go through that. I just hoped that I could dodge most of it. The back wheel (my priority) cleared well, but I did feel the front wheel hit a rock fairly hard. I just hoped that it didn't cause a snake-bite. Sure enough, 5 minutes later, I feel the front a bit soft. So, my second flat of the front wheel for the whole trip. No biggie, I dont mind at all changing the front – it's a lot easier than changing the rear where I have to remove all the panniers and such. But, no flats with the rear since changing my tire in Halifax. The tire itself is looking a bit worn out. I wouldn't give it more than another 1000 km on it. Vittoria isn't as good as Hutchinson's.

When I turned onto the Highway 2 to head to downtown, it was a very very very plesant ride. New pavement, wind at my back, and downhill for probably 15-20 minutes. Fun. Got to St-John's, took some pictures of the “Welcome to St. John's sign. From there, I had to figure out a way to get out of the downtown (bit confusing, lots of loops), and hike (climb big-time) 17 km out of town to get to Cape Spear. Here I was, climbing the side of a mountain, and being very stubborn not to use the granny again. Water was running very low, the heat was still high, and I was getting close to red-lining it at times. But, I managed not to drop down to those gears. Steep stuff though. I guess it's the price I had to pay for that long downhill to St. John's.

Long climbs. Some steep ones too – switch back at times. Grind. But, I got to where I wanted to get. I was expecting tons of people there, but there were hardly any. I was also expecting to feel quite weird and sentimental, where I would just stop 5-10 metres from the spot and just stay there. You know, not wanting to go the whole way as I knew that if/when I touched the spot, it would technically be the end of the trip. But, I didn't feel that way. I just got out the phone to make a few phone calls, and the camera to take a few pics. There were three guys from Trinidad that were there, so they took the pics of me with the signs (when I was ready). I was their camera man and they were mine. They thought it was sharp. “We're here with a guy who biked across Canada, we're part of history here”. They were funny. With their camera, they filmed me. “When the camera rolls, state your name, where you're from, and what you just did”. Fun folks.

After spending a fair amount of time there, buying some water and a lollipop, and watching the whales bob up and down (with nice blow-holes, fun), I headed back to town. Weird to get to the end, and then having to contine biking. But, that ride back was so mellow (especially with that big lollipop in my mouth), even though there were a few nice long climbs, that it was hardly an effort. I debated: “Do I use the Granny, since the trip's technically over, or do I have to stick to my word and not use it for the entire province?”. I tried without the Granny for the first hill, and it worked. So, granny stayed sleeping.

The last few kms into town (well, more like 5-7) were all downhill. It was easy to hit 70 km/h (if it's that steep, think of how it was to climb that), and that's with the brakes on. Nice ride.

In town, I searched for a Hostel, and found the HI. On my map, HI doesn't have a hostel in St-John's, but this one just became a member of HI just two months ago. After settling in, nice shower, procrastinating a bunch, I finally headed out to have supper (at 10:45 pm). My roommates are two frenchies from Riviere-du-loup (QC), who are riding the Avalon Peninsula. Good guys, fun conversations.

So, that's it for the ride today. The next post will be about my touristy adventures (which will include my gastronomic and beer adventures, with maybe some screetch).

I guess my timing was bad, as most of you will read this during the work week (a few days behind my arrival). Understandably so, who wants to sit at the computer on the week-end when they do that during most of the week?

I hope you are all doing well.

Oh, to add to the day, my bike arrived in Ottawa today. My bro, sis-in-law, and my nieces put it together. If I have permission, I will post a few pics of that process with this. I get to ride the new bike soon. I get to ride again soon! But, more importantly, I get to see a bunch of you lovely folks soon. Just try not to laugh at my forehead-helmet tan lines and such. Maybe I'll get burnt on my noggin to blend in that tan before I get back home.

Home sweet home (soon).

Pierre
Final km at Cape Spear: Odometre at 11012 km.
Final km at the hostel: odometre at 11028 km. I'm around 10850 km for the trip. (unofficial).
Original ETA was the 30th of July, 63 days of biking, around 9900 km (estimated), 9 provinces. I guess I deviated and miscalculated a bit.

Day 64 - Gambo to Bellevue Campground

Gambo to near Bellevue
196 km, 9 hours on the nose
Sunny, winds up to 15 km/h (mainly head, some cross)
*100 km away (most direct route) to St-John's.
*second last riding day...

As per the warning I wrote at the end of the July 22 entry when I uploaded the post earlier today, I decided to divide the entry today in parts. This way, if you are bored, or pressed for time, you can read it bit by bit. That is, if the entry becomes long. I have been in a mood to chat today (maybe the Newfie is seeping into me), and since there's only one day of biking left, I have some house-keeping to do. Out of curriosity, for those who will read the whole thing in one sitting, time it. I am curious how long it will take to read. I'm sure it'll be a lot faster than what it took me to write it. Let me know (those brave and currious ones reading the whole thing) how long it took, s.v.p.

Scroll down to read the day before's entry, just posted an hour ago.

Here goes. The “novel” entry:

Part A: The ride today

Swell morning. When I woke up (well, the second or third time) at a reasonable hour, I knew the alarm would go off in half an hour. I just relaxed in bed for a while. I like resting in bed in the morning – I don't like to rush. But, with the sun beating down, it was getting a bit hot in my appartment. So, I rolled out of bed to start the day sooner than expected. Wow, it could be a nice riding day where I'd finish biking an hour or two before it's dark!

Left town, got back on the highway, and the first tune that played was “Peaceful Easy Feeling”, by the Eagles. How appropriate. It would be like that for the rest of the day. Way to set the mood. Plan: ride to Clarenville (100 k or so), eat lunch there, upload an entry on the blog, check the blog for those comments that I look so forward to reading every day, check email (diddo as the blog), and do a bit of business stuff (never stops, this registration thing for work, insurance, etc).

Well, 30 k into the ride, I spot another rider who just looked like he finished lunch. I pulled over and we talked. More accurately, he talked for 20 minutes or so. Another Swiss guy – that's 3 this trip. He started his trip in May, 2007, in California. From there, he hiked (well, biked upwards) to Yukon, did NWT, hiked down to the Sault. Since it was starting to get cold, he biked to Texas, then to Florida, and eventually went back to the Toronto/Ottawa/MTL corridor. From there, he continued to the Gaspe region, where he spent 3 days in Perce, where it was foggy for 3 days and he didn't see the hole in the rock. Bummer. Then, he rode down basically the same route as me for the Maritimes (I dont know if he did the Cabot Trail), and is now 2 days away from St-Johns. Twenty thousand km so far. He also created a little kick-stand for his BOB trailer, which BOB trailers bought the patent off of him for 500 bucks. Interesting fellow, talks a lot, and is writing a book about his trip. I scored a free book when it's written/published this fall – all I have to do is pay for the S and H, and the tax (2-3 bucks). It's in German, but there's access to the English version online once I have the book. It was the first time I spoke to someone who didn't even ask any questions about my trip. Funny. He rides also 8-10 hours a day, but does a max of 150/day. Since we had a different agenda for the day, and different speed, we parted ways after our brief encouter. A bit of time lost, but no regrets.

Going through Terra Nova National Park, it was starting to get hot. I figured it was one of the last days I could work on my tan (I am soooo vain). Yesterday, I wore my Rin N Hammer jersey, where the zipper unzips to the belly-button. That's the perfect shirt to wear for the days you just want to peel off the jersey while riding, tan, and put it back on when ready. But today, I didn't have that luxury. I pulled over, put away my jersey, and just rode with the shorts (hiked up, of course, to tan those white little twigs I call thighs). I was heading directly South, so that was perfect to tan the front of my shoulders; I have a lovely farmer's tan at the moment.

The park itself is nice. Nothing spectacular, but nice hills (still no use of the granny), few little lakes on the side, and many rocky streams. The shoulder is quite large here (almost a whole lane), which is great. But, the park pisses off the drivers, as there is no passing lane the whole 50 km. Honestly, I'd cut both shoulders in half (still plenty of room to bike on), and form a passing lane here and there.

Just before exiting the park, there was a hill to my left that caught my eye. It was a sight where people would re-arrange rocks (few inches in size) and write their names. One looked like it was similar to “PERRON”, so I decided to go check it out. There was an E, an an O. So, I decided to re-arrange things and wrote PERRON. I tried my art skills and did a bike logo on top, and an '08 underneat. So, I hope it turned out (in the pics). I wonder how many days it'll last. That probably took me 30 minutes, so more time wasted. Again, no regrets.

It was hot at that point, and the water was starting to run out. Just another 15 k left until I hit Clarenville. Finally, I get there. The cutie at the Information Centre let me fill all my bottles with their cold water-cooler. That was nice to drink, and to feel those cold bottles on my low back (in the pockets of the jersey). Off I was to the grocery store for lunch meats (the last of the bread was to be eaten today, yes by), and then find a spot to tap into Internet again. This little piggy rode a bike today. This little piggy had roast beef for lunch today. This little piggy didn't go “wee-wee-wee” all the way home (well, not yet at least – few more days).

Emails – I took care of a couple, where I am now under 40. Gees. There's also one I got from our College (Physio), where they stated they are missing documents. How can that be? As it turns out, my work didn't send out the papers my sister-in-law brought to them. Bastards. That's a delay I dont want. Anyways, after a few phone calls, I hope they fixed the situation.

I ended spending a fair amount of time in that town. Nice place, by the way (people wise, didn't see much of the town to have an opinion, but it felt friendly). So, riding time left was diminishing. On the way back to the Highway, I stopped at Tim Horton for another Iced Cap (seems to be a daily thing, almost), and a donut. I got into a nice conversation with some folks about the trip. After 10-15 minutes or so, I was heading out of town. It was 5 o'clock at the time – not much play to put in close to 100 k before it gets dark. I trekked on.

The winds picked up. Oh, getting out of the park, that's when the winds started (headwind), but honestly, I didn't care. Peaceful easy feeling, remember? That stayed with me the whole day. Leaving Clarenville, it was the last major town/city until St-John's. From there, all the signs just say “St-John's, x km”. They are accurate, as there's only little towns off the TCH from here on. Things started feeling weird from there; hills felt effortless, the wind didn't even phase me, and I was singing fairly loud here and there. Well, I call it singing, but I don't know if you'd call it that. St-John's is within reach. It didn't matter if I stopped right now, or later, but it would be reached in one riding day (or less). As planned, I wanted to leave the last day of riding fairly light (100 k or less). So far, so good.

I continued to ride until I would hit the last possible campground accessible. From here on, there's no campground near the TCH, so it was redundant to aim for further campgrounds. Just like yesterday, I would ride until the sun set. I got to my destination when it started getting dark. Perfect timing. I didn't hit 200 km though (too bad, I hope you are not disappointed in me).

Just within 20 k of the campground, I stopped into a convenience store to buy some supper. I was hoping for some KD or something, but they didn't have such thing (like most convenient stores). I settled for a few pepperoni sticks (for meat, to replenish my hugh bulked-up muscles), and a fresh loaf of un-sliced bread. I have peanut butter left, so at least I could have some PB sandwiches tonight and for mid-ride snack tomorrow. So, that was my supper.

(gees, this guy keeps on writing. doesn't he ever shut up?)

At the campground, I negotiated a serviced site from 22 bucks, down to 18. Then, after some of my usual flirting (lucky her husband wasn't around), she gave me the site for 16. Nice. After a shower, I got into a hockey conversation with the husband. He is a big MTL fan, and collects tons of cards. He has sweet cards – bunch of rookie cards in mint conditions: Rocket Richard, Ryder, Gretzky, Sundin, Lafleur, Boom Boom, you name it. We also had a nice chat about George Street in St-John's. Apparently, I shouldn't go there after dark. Rufi's (rohipnol), stabbings, fights are quite common. Nice. It's the combo of non-local (non-Canadian) fisherman mixed in with drunken Canadian-Irish folks, and some trouble-makers. Dont worry, I will be there during the day.

Well, that concluded part A. If you stuck around to read up until this point, I thank you. I hope it was at least a bit entertaining and not a waste of your valuable time. I give you permission to get up, stretch your legs, go empty your bladder, maybe grab lunch, and when you're ready, and if you're interested, read on. There might be some interesting stuff next.


take a break. the long stuff starts...



Part B: loose-ends (and no, I am not talking about the men at Church and Wesley, nor the ladies attending Curves). Those were really bad jokes, sorry (well, not that sorry).

Here's a bunch of bits and pieces, random stuff. Sorry, long entry. Being fairy organized person, I labeled the sections so you can read what intrigues you, and skip the rest.

Funny names in NFLD.

Blow Me Down Cove, Goobies, Come By Chance, Tickle Harbour, St Jones Within, Little Heart's Ease, Heart's Delight, Heart's Desire, Conception Bay, Witless Bay, Dildo, and South Dildo. I'm sure there's more, these are just some that I've noticed.

Injuries, and worries during the trip

I wasn't sure if I was going to make it past Vancouver. Honestly. I thought I could get some problems with the rear wheel (too heavy of a load for such a small tire), but the 28c (instead of the 25c) turned out quite perfect. Thirty-two might have been better, but I don't live in the “what-if” world. The “c” means millimetre for you non-cyclists out there. That was one of my worries. Once I would reach Vancouver, I could either buy a new wheel that would accept a 32 c tire, or do the trailer thing. I was lucky not to have to resort to that.

The other big worry was my Ilio-Tibial Bands (aka ITB). I've had chronic problems, mainly because I am a lazy bastard who doesn't work out on a regular basis. I tend to load up my training in May/June for Solstice (team or solo), and that's about it. So, having only done two indoor rides on my rollers in April, and 4 outdoor rides (2x30 k, and 2x50 k), I took a big risk with the start of the trip. If you have noticed, I would keep the days fairly light until I got through the Rockies. That was, I guess, my training. But, I pushed it (i.e. risked it), and it turned out well. I did stretch very often for the first few weeks. When I started gaining confidence in my legs, stretching took a back-seat. I would have to have a discussion with you about stretching, but there's no scientific evidence proving that it reduces injuries. The studies show that it leads to more injuries. So, why do I tell people to stretch when I'm at work? Hipocrite you say? Well, let's have a conversation on that (if you want) an allow me to convince you. Trust me, I would not tell you to do something I didn't think it was beneficial. I mean well, and I do care about your well-being.

The trip almost ended just a bit past Winnipeg.

You might recall a photo of my right knee patched up, with a scrape on the right inner-arm, and some puncture wounds above the left knee. I called that picture “Ode to Vinokourov”. Just before Moose Jaw, I was standing beside the bike before leaving for the day. As I was putting on my gloves, the bike started to fall (away from me). I grabbed the bar as quickly as I could, idem with the bike seat, and the bike pulled me down with her. With most of my weight, I landed with my right knee on the chain-rings (the front gears, for those who are not bikers). Nice deep gash, irritated the knee-cap). With such a nice deep cut, it didn't bleed for a minute. But, there was some nice grease at the edges. The other knee? Well, somehow, I got the teeth of the chainrings (5-6?) puncturing just above the knee-cap. I have no idea how. Arm got scraped up too. Dizzie had her handle-bar tape ripped up. I was not happy.

I spent most of the ride to Moose Jaw (30 k, I can't remember – don't hold it against me) cleaning up the wound while riding. The right knee bled for most of the day, on/off. For a few days after that, it would hurt under the knee-cap. I wasn't sure if it was the skin just healing up (scarring), or something else. Few more days later, the knee was affected. If I wasn't moving, there was no pain. But, if I bent the knee, it would be stiff pain until I stopped. It didn't matter if I went from bending to straightening, or vice-versa. At first, it was only at the end of the day that the knee would be quite bothersome (and +++ worrisome). But, a few days later, just before Souris (MB), the knee would start hurting mid-way through the ride and didn't let up. That's a good 4-5 hours of riding with some increasing discomfort. Not good.

I started appying Pennsaid (topica anti-inflammatory) on the knee, as it was noticebly swollen. The contours of the knee were gone (from all the swelling). After a few days, with repeated applications daily, I would start feeling a bit better. But, I quickly ran out of that magic stuff. Winnipeg I was entering, where I would hopefully score some samples at walk-in clinics. Hmmm, seems that no office has samples of that great stuff. No where. Drug reps for that company doesn't visit Winnipeg. I eventually spoke to a pharmacist, who said he hardly sees that drug prescribed in those parts. I'm not a doctor, but that's too bad. So, we discussed the situation, and he suggested I try Baclofen. But, I would have to have an MD prescribe it. Off to a walk-in clinic, pay my out-of-province fee, and got the prescription from an 75 year-old doctor. “So, you're a physiotherapist, what's your diagnosis?” He was a good guy, gave me what I needed, and off I went.

The next few days would be the big test to see if the knee would get better. Yes it did. Baclofen is good (did the trick), but it's a messy cream. Pennsaid is number on in my books though. The whole time the knee was swollen (and a bit hot), I thought of two things: a) pannus formation, leading to osteophytes, and eventually to some sort of early arthritis, b) swelling of the knee causes inhibition of the VMO, creating a delay in the co-contraction, and eventually leading to patellar-femoral tracking syndrome, and possibly illiotibial band friction syndrome. Gees, I was gonna get screwed if I kept going and this didn't heal up.

But, things turned out well, and the trip (and the race) weren't compromised.

How am I feeling now? Relieved, and still no issues with any parts of my body. Honestly, there are two parts that are a bit sore (but very minor) – my triceps, and the skin at the right ischial tuberosity (butt bone) – it feels like there's a tiny little cut there sometimes.

Shorty

You get a whole paragraph. I dont know who you are, where you are based out of, but welcome aboard. Thanks. When you originally posted something (and took it off somehow), I was intrigued. I checked out your blog quickly, but I dont recall if I could find the info I was looking for. I did notice that you were fighting some demons. Good luck with things, and I hope you are still victorious. Feel free to send me an email to give me an insight of who you are.

Friends in need

During the trip, there were times I wanted to be with a few friends who were/are going through tough times. A friend in need is a friend indeed. A friend with weed is better. A friend with breasts, and all the rest, a friend dressed in leather. Anyways, (good tune). But, I was thinking lots about the three people that I was feeling helpless, hoping it would send good vibes to you. So, sorry I couldn't really be there, but I hope that the phone calls and emails did help a bit. See you very soon (now that the storm has passed through for the most part).

Another big worry, pre and during the trip, was having a death in the family. I knew I would have to temporarely halt the trip in case of such event. I feel bad as I feel a bit selfish. But, there's always that possibility.

Being a lucky bastard

Let's see if I can stretch out that simple statement. You know I can.

Lucky. In many ways.

Lucky I can do a trip. I know some can't do a trip for whatever reasons (health, time, commitments, money). To be honest, that gave me a bit of fuel to do the trip, and to (hopefully) bring you guys along with me. With the stories and the pics, I always had a bunch of people in mind. It's much easier to tell a story when you have a specific audience. So, this trip is not just for me, I was a bit of the messenger.

I am also extremely fortunate to have the health and abilities to do a trip like this. Riding up to 11 hours in a day, and getting up the next to do another 8-10 hours, it's not an easy task for most people. By no means am I better than those who can't do this, I am just lucky that I can get away with it. Squeezing a race (and being relativelly happy with the outcome) in the middle of this trip, that too makes me realize that I am very fortunate. A bike trip like this is doable by many of you. You'd be surprised. No, I dont recommend you shooting for 200 k/day, but 100-120 is very reasonable and doable. It's actually ideal distances, very manageable (you'd be surprised).

This trip also takes a significant amount of time. Yes, I did do a bunch of detours, but I did load up the kms to make it happen. Usually, people do around 8500-9000 k in around the same time. So, 3 months off (between school and starting work), I am lucky.

Money. Hell, that shit is mandatory for this trip. Since I was pushing it with some of the old equipment I had (bike, tent, shoes, even clothing), I am very happy and grateful to have the funds to support me and allow me to finish the job at hand. I have such nice equipment, I like quality stuff (MSR, OR, MEC, etc).

Support. My folks have always stood by me, and believed in me. That means a lot to me. You guys have encouraged me tons throughout this journey. I love you for that. You guys believed I would complete this trip waaaaaaayyyyyy before I thought I could complete it. I was (basically) the only one who knew what could go wrong (my worries), and was being cautious on a daily basis. It's only once I got past Quebec City that I thought I might end up in St-John's all in one piece. I started to relax then. So, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. The comments on the blog, the emails, the odd phone call, and the family/friends I visited along the way, it all meant so much to me. It all means so much to me, and always will. Thanks. I think I owe you somehow, every one of you.

Work

I haven't worked since the end of February. It'll be interesting to file my taxes next year. From that last working day, the focus was on school, the placement for school, the national exam, moving (since the house was sold), being homeless (literally), buying a car (aka a boat, but can easily do 500 km with less than a 60 litre tank, surprisingly), trying to train for this trip, and of course, doing this trip. So, I technically haven't earned revenue in almost half a year. Ouch. Revisit “I'm a lucky bastard”, as I can survive financially (mainly due to me working full time during university, and buying/fixing up the house to sell it with a gain). Lucky bastard.

But, I love to work. I enjoy what I do for a living, and enjoy the people I get to work with (sure the colleagues are nice, but it's the people under my care that I like, since they are appreciative, and they put their health in my hands). That's the high I get – someone comes to me for some guidance, I try to steer them in the right direction, and they are appreciative of the help. I can't help everyone, but I try. I hope I get to be more and more effective as time goes on.

Solstice

I may seem “la-di-da” about the race. Yes, I am happy with the results, but I think there's more to the story. Where do I start?

a) I was wishing for first place, hoping for second, and expecting top 3. I've never trained much for when I did get the second place finishes, so with this trip, I thought I'd be in good shape (pun intended). With my experience, my training this year, and my amazing support crew, I was pretty sure I'd be on the podium. So, if I seem non-chalant about it, it's because I was pretty sure things were going to go my way (like many things in my life, freaks me out too many times). I didn't realize some of the (new) big boys were going to be there.

b) I didn't get some “flack” per-say, but I did get a bit of comments/criticism for possibly jeapordizing my podium finish by riding with someone during one very messy lap. Comments such as “you know she has a boyfriend”, “would you have done it if she wasn't so (compliments about who she is)”, etc. I was a bit surprised about all that. But, i wouldn't of changed anything. I know she could of gotten out of her own. I knew I wasn't jeopardizing the final outcome (see “things pretty much go my way”, and see “I'm a lucky bastard”, and see the third point).

c) priorities. ride with someone vs risk losing out on the podium. Friends first. Plus, I wanted to ride with someone. There are more important things in life than menial things such as a podium finish. There's probably a reason I get into the transition area and I stay fairly calm, instead of yelling “I need a sandwich”, “I need 5 lbs less in the front shocks, and 8.453 lbs more in the tires”. Relax, it's just an event. Side note: I could get a really talented person on the podium, with some advice I could give to them, but they'd have to swallow their pride. Sorry to pick on you (or your brother, pending on who reads this), but he's so talented now, but needs to learn some major things before he can excel.

Woah, slight tangent there. Oops.

Travelling

This trip was amazing. Not done yet, but I think it's not premature to say so. I really thing everyone, if they have the means, to do so. I reallly dont want to preach, so I'll try in a different manner. I have gotten lots from seeing many different parts of the country, and especially the manner I did it in. There are many things I've learnt, and I'd say it's fairly safe to say that I've changed in some ways. I wont say how, but I think the ones close to me might see a slight change in some things.

I honestly believe that when I do have my own family, I will try to somehow incorporate one or two Canadian trips (say one westward, one eastward) so they can get in touch with the various parts of our great nation (pun intended). It is such a valuable experience, I wish it upon anyone, and hope every one has a chance to do it somehow (bike, car, bus, train, hitch-hike, motorcycle). The world is ours to discover.

Heart rate, and genes

I notice in NB that my heart rate has changed. It was always at 70-80 just resting in bed (no matter what time of the night, how relaxed I was). That is fairly high, especially for someone considered “young” and “healthy”. I was never able to get it lower. But, I now realize it's at 60 when I lie down before I sleep. I wonder what it's like when I wake up. Unfortunately, I always forget to check it, so I might never know. Sixty is a good range for resting heart rate. As for the genes part, I feel I will be able to pass along some nice genes to my (eventual) kids. I guess I got to get a woman first. Always a catch, damn. Anyways, with my VO2max at 71-75 (under normal conditions, i.e. no Dextran injections, not fighting sickness), that's a very high endurance/performance measure to pass along. I wonder if my kids will want to do sports, maybe they'll just turn out to be lazy and trouble-makers. We'll see.

Past year

Freaky. I'd say since last June, maybe July, things have been on a slight roll, with picking up speed after xmas, and I've been riding a nice wave that just keeps going. Honestly, I am afraid of a crash. A year ago, someone important from my past, MIA for a while, came back into my life at a very good time. They helped me out tremendously, and I am forever grateful for that. Merci. I'm glad that the communications lines are open again, and I dont want anything more (or less) than what we have now. Why ruin anything? So, thank you.

Other bike trips

As mentioned in an earlier post, here are some cool ideas for other bike trips (no specific order)

a) tip of Alaska to the tip of Chili/Argentina (Patagonia), going along the Pacific coast.
b) Europe – especially Norther Europe (even ducking down to Romania, Czeck Rep), and doing the Scandinavian countries. Might as well throw in Iceland and Greenland.
c) South America (i.e. the perimetre)
d) South BC, up to Jasper, and towards Whistler (and down to Vancouver)
e) Yukon, NWT, Nunavut
f) Gaspe (with/without starting in Quebec City to do the Charlevoix region)
g) Saguenay/Lac St-Jean (route des bleuets)
h) Cape Breton (mainly the Cheticamp-Ingonish strip)
i) Russia
j) hell, might as well throw in New Zealand, and sure, Australia
k) Canada (again, but with my family, maybe nephews/nieces)
l) USA
m) I'm sure more will come to mind in the years to come. any suggestions?

Well, that's enough of me rambling. I do hope some things were interesting, and not a waste of your time.

It's now 2:45 am, and I guess I should go to bed soon. I have up to 150 km to ride tomorrow (detours and such), so I should rest up.

See you soon.

p2
(thanks for your patience and interest).

Day 63 - South Brook to Gambo

South Brook to Gambo
243 km, 10h20mins
Sunny, winds: tail (for 50 km), cross/head for 100 km

(updated on Friday, at noon. another post will be uploaded in an hour. warning, that one will be long - feeling chatty, lots of things that i wrote, and even feeling sentimental. so, i wrote a friggen novel. pictures to be uploaded in the next few days).

So, here's Wednesday's post.

Day 3 on the Rock. South Brook was basically the peak North that I would hit on the Island. Now, it's South and East, to my final destination. The ride started out swell with the tailwind of 10 k/h for the first 50 k until Badger. The first song played was “Mercy Street”, by Peter Gabriel (So, 1986). Great tune, mellow, which set the tone for the ride today. The tune was quite captivating that I had to listen to the whole album right after that.

In Grand-Falls, I did some grocery shopping (lunch meat for sandwiches), checked out the falls and the associated Salmon Interpretation Centre (Five dollars to get in, dang). As the ticket gave me in/out privileges all day, I decided to give the ticket to someone on my way out. I hope they were able to use it. In town, I also went to the post office to mail a few things. It is where I tapped into someone's Internet, where I was able to upload the post people refer as Hockey Night In Canada, check email, and do some business. Emails are piling up – sorry, I'll be able to get to the bottom of them soon (thanks for your patience and understanding). As for Grand-Falls, the people are nice, but a bit slow for service wherever I went. Corner Brook and Deer Lake are much nicer places (so far).

I spent a fair amount of time there, so I had to boogie a bit. I figured I could stay in Gander that night, or, light (and winds) permitting, continue to the next campsite 40 km away.

Gander is a swell place, from what I saw. Big sign coming in: “Ranked top 10 best places to live”. With an airport AND a drive-thru Subway (really), why wouldn't it be? After shopping for my supper (lunch meat again, as I am trying to finish off all my bread and condiments), I decided to continue. The campsite in Gander was 10 km North (away from the TCH), so that made me not want to hike up there and back. Go on, even though it would be dark in an hour (thus up to an hour of biking in the dark). With the wide shoulders, light traffic, and good/nice/respecting drivers, I wasn't concerned a bit.

I picked up the pace, almost TT for a while until it got dark. Sunset behind me was pleasant to see in my rear-view-mirror, and up in the sky ahead of me was Venus. Such a pleasant sight to ride with. Darkness fell eventually, and things were still alright (traffic, temperature, safety, etc). At one point, I could see at the crest of the hill up ahead, the cars/transport putting on their brakes. Why? I would find out a few minutes later when I reached the top. Fog, fairly thick too. That was cool in a way (no pun intended), as the traffic would slow down a bit, and the riding would be a tiny bit tricky (but quite fun). So, I too slowed down a bit. Yes, red flashing light was on, and I was using the light I won at Solstice this year. Good little thing that light. Better prize than I thought, and much better than the Camel-back I won for 2nd place the last time. Side note, what would I do with another Camel-back when I have 2-3 already? Shitty.

After finding the signs for the camping, and hiking a bit off the highway to the other side of Gambo, I found my spot (around 11 pm then). Twelve bucks again (showers included). The dude there was quite nice. Once I had my shower at the Office, I gave him my computer and mp3 to charge up in his office (as he didn't have a service site for me), and then lead me, on his bike with lights, to my campsite. I didn't know until we got there, but he brought a carpet to put underneath the tent for me. Luxury.

So, after eating a bit, I headed off to bed for a good night sleep.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Now, I understand that some of you don't know Sarah Jane, so I'll tell
you a little bit about her. She's a lesbian Eskimo midget albino. She
went to college and she started the Lesbian midget Eskimo Albino
Student Union, and four hundred people signed up. There they were,
hundreds of 'em, lesbian midget left-handed Eskimo albinos. Did I
mention the fact that she's left-handed? She's left-handed, alright.

Girl's got some strange hobbies. One of her hobbies is lowering children
into open manholes, which is kinda difficult 'cause a lot of the
children are taller than her, her being a midget and everything... or
her being a left-handed midget... or her being a left-handed lesbian
midget... or her being a left-handed lesbian albino midget... or her
being a lesbian left-handed albino midget Eskimo... life can be really
difficult on that young lady.

She bit me once, you know. Right here, ya see this? Left a mark. She was
lowerin' a friend of mine's kid into the sewer, I run up, and tried to
stop her. I said, "Listen there, you lesbian midget left-handed albino!
And you stop right there!" Then she bit me. I'm afraid I'm gonna... I'm
gonna turn into a lesbian left-handed midget albino when the moon is
full.

Oh my God, the moon is full tonight! I can feel myself shrinking! I can
feel myself getting left-handed! I can feel myself getting the urge to
build an igloo! I can feel my skin turning white and my eyes getting
red! I can feel... I can feel the urge... to buy a Suzanne Vega album!!

NOOO! NNNNNOOOO!!!!
NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Oh, I'm okay; it was just gas.

Day 62 - Corner Brook to South Brook

Corner Brook to South Brook
183 km, overcast
Winds – up to 30 k/h for half of the day, then quieter (but present) until the end, all headwind

I didn't want to get out of the tent today. As I was lying on my side, with my back close to the tent wall, the wind was blowing fairly hard, pushing the tent, thus nudging me. I knew that it'd be a windy day, and I had an idea that it would not be in my favour. So, I was lazy getting rolling. Eastern winds, so I predict that bad weather is on it's way.

The start of the bike ride confirmed my earlier thoughts. It was a battle for the first half. Plus, I believe I gained altitude to that point – the slight uphills that went on for a couple km, with barely a downhill, and another uphill that followed. Repeat. It took me until the 80 km mark to finaly hit an average speed of 20 km/h. With the winds, and no rain, it made it a perfect day to dry the laundry that I did the night before. I just hook it on top of the panniers, and ride. With the clothes flopping in the wind, it's a rolling dryer.

In Deer Lake, which also seems like a nice town nestled on the water and in between hills, was a quick rest stop. Only 45 km into the ride, and I stop to eat some cereal. I usually stop at the 100 km mark. The plan was to quickly stop at a grocery store to load up on some sandwhich meat and some fruits, and to upload yesterday's entry so a few readers wouldn't worry too much. At the Information Centre was a bit of information of the Viking Trails. Cool. While I was eating, a guy was intrigued by the bike all loaded up. So, he came over and we had a decent chat. PJ is also a rider in the area, and was genuinely interested in the trip and the logistics associated with it. I felt bad to cut the conversation short, but I had to hit the road at one point. Internet connection wasn't feasable (damn Alliance Network, like Rogers over here, a password is needed for all hot spots, or a VISA number – screw that). So, no post uploading.

I thought it'd be a 150 km day to the destination I planned the night before. But, when I looked at the map a bit closer when I left Deer Lake, I realized I forgot to include two little numbers that were a bit hidden on the map. Not 150 k that I had to do, but in fact, 180. Dang. There goes the ighter day I had planned, and things were looking tight to make it to where I wanted to go by the time the sun set. Off I went.

I ate a few sandwiches at the mid-way point, bought a Red Bull, and I was on my way again. Luckily for me, it seems like the hills were not as frequent, and the wind appeared to die down. But, then again, it could have been because my mind was not focused on the terrain as much, as I played two albums of System of a Down, followed by Tool (10,000 days), NIN (with teeth) queued up to get things a bit mellower, and finished the day off with Puscifer's album (for some fun rock). Then again, it could have been the Red Bull. I've never tried that stuff, and I'm sure it wont become a habit.

I ended up where I wanted to get for the night. The campsite was 13 bucks total. Again, I am in the washroom re-charging the mp3 player and computer as I write this entry. It was also a place to do the laundry that I soiled today.

Fun thing to say lately: “I've biked over 10,000 km so far”. It has a nice ring to it.

When was my last rest day? Oh, Halifax. I have no idea how many kms I've done since then, but I think I'll keep riding until I hit St-John's. As Puscifer's track “Trekka” states: “Climb away, get higher son, never stray, just move ahead. I dont know, but it's been said, we'll rest forever when we're dead.”

For those of you keeping track, the series is tied at one. It was an 8.5 hour battle, where they had to go upstairs to see who won. The judges awared the Rock the victory – they stated it landed more blows than I. Next time.

tere, mina igatsen sinu. moodalask! head ood, paikesepaiste. kallis-musi. naba.

Am I having fun still? (as they say over here) “yes by”. I got to hear that saying a few times today. Plus, there were many times during the trip that I envisioned certain moments. Now, these “visions” are stronger, and I go through a few different sentimental moments. I can feel that I am close. Cool feeling.

So, another few days... I'll be in Ottawa by the end of the month. Plan for when I reach St-John's – be a tourist for a couple of days, then head home. I'll try to bike back in record time. No, maybe I'll skip the biking and take the plane back.

Later,

p2
(uploaded from 179 km short of st-john's. stopped for lunch, more km to do today. kicking it in mid afternoon on friday. entry for yesterday not written yet. today's entry will be a long one as i'm going to try to tie up all loose ends before the end of the trip. plan: friday's post will be about the day, then the two or so days after that, i'll have a post of how st-john's is from a tourist perspective, and a last post about a quick summary of the trip. if you have any questions to ask, please post them or send them by email - i will answer it all on that last post. sounds fair? cheers, and see you guys very very tabarnacen' soon.)

Day 61 - Port-aux-basques to Corner Brooke

Port-aux-basques (NFLD) to Corner Brook
230 km, mainly overcast, drizzle/rain for 2-3 hours, sunny for 2 hours
Winds – up to (maybe more) 30 km/h, with gusts, mainly cross-wind with some head and tail

De pebble is on de rock.

Welcome to the finals, post-game one interview:

- Good show today, can you give me some of your insights of the past 10 hours?

- Yeah, sure. We were expecting the Rock to throw a bunch of things at us right off the bat. Coming onto their territory, we knew this wasn't going to be a cake walk. They knew we took the long road to get here, and having to travel overnight, they had a pretty good idea we'd be tired. They threw some nice tough winds right from the get-go, adding rain, then the hills. We knew it was going to be tough from the start. But, we stuck to the game plan, we were patient, and just put in our time. After a pep-talk mid-way through, and some help from a nice coconut cream pie, the Rock started to show signs of fatigue. The winds calmed down, but the hills just kept up the assaults, coming one after the other. We have to give it to them, they played hard. But in the end, we came out on top.

- I noticed you didn't use the granny today, is there any reason for that?

- It was a last-minute decision. It was used lots in the past few weeks, so we thought we'd try to get through these series without it. We'll see what happens in the next few days.

- You are the heavily favoured side to come out on top in this series. Today, you basically did a quarter of the Rock. Do you plan on using the same tactics as you did in Northern Ontario and try to go for a sweep here?

- No, definitely not. There will be some longer matches, but you never know what will be thrown at you. Never underestimate things, never take things for granted, and never use the word never. We're pretty sure this series wont end in 4 days, we'd be pretty surprised if that happened.

- Any last words for your viewers?

- Yeah. I'd like to say hi to my mom and dad, and to all my friends and family back home, and all over the place, who have supported me from day 1.

- Thank you.

- No problem Elliot, anytime.

- Back to the studio with Ron and Don.

(Ron) – Thanks Elliot, just talking to.. (interrupted)
(Don) – Good ol' hard-workin' Canadian boy, good kid, eh? He's definitely ain't a Sweede. Are you sure he's French?
(Ron) – Yes, but not from Quebec. Northern Ontario boy.
(Don) – Well, he's still a good Canadian kid.

I hope that was different and entertaining. Throw in the accents in there to make things a bit more fun. I had fun thinking of it during the ride.

Alright. The rest of the details.

Ferry – left late (apparently, as usual). I put in my earplugs, my toque over my eyes, and just slept on the floor between chairs. We docked around 8 am or so. Still in my casuals (i.e. jeans, sandals, t-shirt and coat), I biked into town to have breakfast at Timmy's. Afterwards, I went to the Information Centre and got a bunch of information (and a new free map of NFLD). The ride started maybe around 10:30.

Nice tail wind getting out of town (for 1-2 km), until the road turned, and it would then be mainly crosswinds (alternating a bit of head and tail winds with the crosswinds). It felt a bit cool, so the knee warmers and arm warmers came out, plus the coat. Arm warmers didn't last too long, but the coat lasted for the first 5 hours.

The road is nice – new pavement, nice shoulder (2-3 feet). At the 100 k mark, the shoulder is reduced due to the “wake-up” strip (I forgot what it is called). With the bike, it was fine, but if I had a trailer, it would be annoying. Most of the signs, and painted on the road itself, is written TCH (Trans-Canada Highway). Dyslexic being me often, I see “THC”, which is not the same thing. I find it amusing whenever I see it.

The scenery is nice getting out of Port-aux-basques (the first 10-15 km), after that, it's pretty barren. There's nothing – no houses, businesses, lakes (rare), mountain ranges, or shore lines. I can see why people would want to skip this section and just take the long ferry across. But, no regrets on my end. The terrain is some long straight-aways in between long up and down hills. Not killer hills, but enough to make you work a bit. Granny not necessary. Going downhill, you can only hit a max of 60, so they are not too big. There was a service station and restaurant at the 100 k mark, but nothing before that. The second exit off of the highway came at km 150. The third was at the 215 km mark. Besides that, not much in between.

Corner Brook seems nice. Did some grocery shopping, then headed out of town (East) to a campground. I didn't try to get free accommodation anywhere. There are some nice little mountains in this corner.

The big mental battle I had today was if I was going to do a detour and visit Gros Morne National Park. I didn't plan it before, but in the past few weeks, I thought I'd make a detour and spend a rest day there. But, doing some reading, and talking to others, I would need a good week (up to a month) to do stuff there. Going there for a day would only permit me to do a little easy hike, not the beautiful hike to the fjord as I wanted. That one is a 3 day hike (advanced). The spot is a UNESCO World Heritage site. So, final decision: bypass the park, and come back for a longer time with someone/group. Anybody up for a cool time here?

So, slowly knocking down the days.

Ciao,

p
(uploaded from Grand Falls-Windsor, lunch, on humpday. another upload tonight at suppertime)

Day 60 - Englishtown to North Sydney (and beyond)

Englishtown to North Sydney
140 km, sunny
Ferry to Port-aux-basques (NFLD) overnight

Short version: lobster dinner at noon, odometre showed 10000km, ferry to Newfoundland, nine provinces down, new time zone.

Regular version.

Another lazy morning. I haven't slept well for the past two nights. The wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead. I left for Baddeck around 11 am, did a quick stop to Giant McAskill's Museum, then rode 30 km for a lobster lunch in Baddeck. Tasty. A glass of white wine and deserts (cherry pie, and ginger cake) was also at my table.

I took a quick jaunt in Alexandre Graham Bell Museum. Not much excitement there – bunch of plaques with stories, but I must say that he was an interesting fellow. The first Canadian flight was also here, in 1909.

After lunch, I continued South-West for another 30 k to take another cable ferry to the South shore of the body of water I was riding along. From there, it would be a 80 k ride North-East, to North Sydney. Maybe 90 minutes after leaving Baddeck, I just didn't feel right. Stomach was not sure what to do, fatigue was a bit there (yawning), and motivation was low. I just had to ride to get where I wanted to go. Luckily, after 90 minutes of feeling like that, with no bad reactions, I started to feel better. It could have been the lobster dinner, the water I was drinking, the past few days of less-than-needed sleep, or a combo of all. But, I must say that I dont think I'll have a tasty lobster dinner before a 100 k ride – not recommended.

My computer hit 9999.9 km, and I watched it go to 10000. I thought it would roll over to zero, but nope. That's cool. So, I am approximately at the 9830 km mark.

The pamphlet I had on the ferry said that it would leave around 23h30, but the departure is at 1 am. I just have to kill time in the meantime. I hope to get a nap somewhere before the departure. The sleeper cabins were all sold out, so I hope to be able to crash on the floor somewhere. The trip will be around 7 hours. I just took a shower at the ferry terminal, and now I just have to wait.

Let's talk about xCanada trips. There are many levels, and all of them are cool. Usually the departure is from Vancouver, some leave from Victoria, and then there's the odd one that leaves from Tofino. Final destinations are sometimes Toronto, a lot end up in Halifax, and the rest tend to finish in Newfoundland. Now, to get to St-John's, there's two ways: the short ferry (to Port-aux-basques), where you still have to drive through the province, and then the long ferry (15 hours?), which lands you around 60 k from St-Johns. Many folks take the long ferry and hike up to St-John's to complete their xCanada trip. But, I think if someone has the legs, the time, the money, and motivation, the short ferry should be taken. I feel it's more of an authentic xCanada trip. But, any xCanada trip is amazing, don't get me wrong. For me, there's only one way to do this, hence the route I am taking. That's all. I want to ride every single connecting inch, from coast to coast.

Interesting new way of crossing NFLD – some guy I spoke to said he knew this guy who would hop from one ferry to another, connecting all the little towns south on the island. On the map, you see a ferry route connecting those little towns. Cool.

So, by the time most of you read this, I'll be on the rock, and in a time zone that's 30 minutes off of all you guys. I guess they don't deserve a whole hour change.

Carole – your draw dropped? Do you mean your drawers dropped? JNS, you're on to me. I am in Kanata, and using photoshop to put myself in pics. I'm actually just eating pizza everyday, gaining weight. Tubby. As for bike riding with both hands – that's for sissies. No risk in that. Glad I entertain you folks. Matante Jocelyne, my buns might be firmer now, do you still want to grab a handful? (ok, I wont bother saying more on this).

Well, take it easy, and enjoy the start of the work-week. I'll be joining you in that mundane routine very soon. Odd to say, but I can't wait.

p

Day 60 - Cheticamp to Englishtown

Cheticamp to Englishtown
166 km, overcast, with rain, drizzle, mist, and fog
Winds – some here and there, and all directions again
(even on a straight-away, it would be tailwind, and 500 metres later – headwind).

Sweet. I am a bit lost for words. But, I'll try to get some out to write a little entry.

I am coming back to Cape Breton to ride the Highland Park again. I could consider yesterday (part one of the Cabot Trail) foreplay, today was the “main event”, and part three, from Ingonish to Baddeck (as an example) is the cuddling phase. Sure, part one and three can be done, but we can also skip to the main event. What I do see myself doing (with a few people) is to ride from Ingonish to Cheticamp one day, and ride back the next. Super nice scenery, the hills are nice (uphill not bad at all, and the downhills are something to experience for yourself). Hill one, maybe 3, 3.5 k uphill, not a bad grade (they didn't post the ), but very doable. Just put in your time. The downhill was sweet. It is a nice winding road, nice switchbacks. There are many turns that the signs say “30 k/h max”, and they mean it. Very fun – just lean the bike here and there, with the brakes on for most of the time. Hitting 60 k/h is tough to do.

Hill number two, aka the North Mountain, is a nice 4 k hill. It was a pleasant grind. Again, very doable. Funny stuff happened on that hill. There was a Westfalia having a hard time climbing it, just put-putting along us for a bit. Us, that's the funny story. At the start of the hill, some tri-geek, who was out on a 300 k ride, was behind me. I let him catch up to me (he would of caught up to me anyways). We chatted for a bit, and then he was off. But, he was always no more than 100 metres away. When the hill kicked-up a notch, the gap was slowly decreasing, and decreasing. At one point, he dropped something, and had to do a little turn-around to pick it up. I passed him, and just had fun watching him in the mirror struggling up the hill. To his defense, he only has a double chain-ring (so less gears than I), but in my defense, I have 60 pounds more than him. But then again, he already rode 100 k that morning. We would eventually play cat-mouse until Ingonish (60 k later), where I stopped for lunch and he took off.

The rest of the park is pretty nice. Lots of places to pull over and take pictures. There were very few cars out there, 3 buses that we would play cat-mouse with, and maybe 3-4 transports. I finally did see plates from PEI today, along with Ohio, Idaho, Maine, New Jersey, Florida, and California. The big surprise was that 50 % of the plates were from Ontario.

Now, the start of the day. I was't too motivated to get up when my alarm went off, as I could hear the rain pouring down on the tent. I was hoping it would let off soon, but it didn't. Eventually, I got my lazy ass out of bed, and got started. Everything was packed ahead of time as I wanted to leave fairly quickly. I packed up, grab my food that was hung in the tree (bear country again), and took off. The plan was to eat breakfast outside of the campground. A neat thing – I took down my tent backwards today – I kept the fly on, unhooked the tent itself under the fly (to keep it, and me dry), rolled it up under that little fort thing, then took down the fly. It did keep things dry, but I'm sure with the rain during the ride, it was pointless to do.

Things went smoothly leaving the campground. I found a pic-nic area to eat. Since it was still pouring rain, I ate in the outhouse. Luckily, the smell wasn't bad. I was dry, for the time being. Afterwards, the ride started, and what a ride it was.

Once I got out of the park, where the original plan was to stay overnight in Ingonish, I decided to just keep going. It was raining a bit, I felt good, and there was still a fair amount of daytime left. I figured if I roll a certain number of kms today, and do the same tomorrow, I'd be a day ahead of schedule (from what was planned a few days ago). Things look good for schedule. Things look so friggen good actually, as I have one more day before I am on the Rock – the final phase. Calice je suis excite, c'est fricken weird. Surreal.

I took a cable ferry to Englishtown – the thing is being pulled by a cable that's hooked up to both sides of the river-bank. Neat. Also, I am around 30 k from North Sydney (the ferry to NFLD), but I'll do a long detour of around 150 k to get there tomorrow. Why? Because I'm sometimes a dolt. There's a few things I want to see before hitting the ferry. The big question is: Do I take the ferry to Argentia, or to Port-aux-basques? You can always give me some input on that. Louisbourg, no, I can't go down that far. Maybe some other time. I can't look at my map, as it's drying out. It's actually in 3 different pieces now (ripped, due to being wet). We'll see if I cave in and buy another one. Maybe getting into NFLD, they'll give me one.

Nothing spectacular for food today, except that I purchased a Cloudberry jam. It's some sort of small apple the size of a blue-berry or something. I haven't tasted it yet. It's an exclusive thing from NFLD. The other day, I tasted Merrick at the Glendale Manor (aka at the outlaws). Thanks again, by the way, for letting me crash there and to feed me. Gros merci les MacGillavray's. Oh ya, merrick. Some sort of sausage-ish thing. Very soft, almost like fried mashed-potatoes, little spicy. I think it's also called white-pudding, but dont quote me on that. I dont think it's like blood-pudding, whatever that is.

Alright, off to bed in a little bit, after I just relax for a while.

So, wishing you all a very swell day (Sunday, I believe).

To quote one of the few anthems of the 90's: “I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul. I want you to know, when I'm not around, you're so very special”. So, my parting words of the night – you guys are so very special. See you very soon,

p

(the video - sorry for the quality. i pressed "compact mode" when i was filming. plus, it's hard to film holding the camera in one hand, trying to go fast when it's drizzling and the roads are wet, and winding). (the risks i take for you guys).

Day 59 - Glendale to Cheticamp

Glendale to Cape Breton Highlands National Park
153 km, sunny.
Winds – on/off, and in all directions, nothing major

Interesting day, pleasant again.

I decided to take a little detour to Glenville. To get there, I would ride a secondary highway parallel to the Cabot Trail. That part of the trail isn't too spectacular (except for when the leaves are turning), so I didn't miss out. The route I took was along a big lake, so there was some nice scenery. All the roads today were pretty decent, but no shoulders. No biggie, the traffic was quite light at times, and the cars do give you plenty of space. Interesting fact for today – the only province I didn't see plates of was Saskatchewan and PEI. Tons of Ontario plates. Yukon was also seen. So was Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and a few more States.

I would have to break what I call the “Hanham rule” (no back-tracking), as I took a detour of 5 km (each way) to visit the Glenora Distillery. It's the only single-malt whiskey in North America. Essentially, it's scotch, but they can't call it that because it doesn't come from Scotland. So, I went, got the tour, and sampled their award-winning product. The end of the tour, they gave us a sample of their 10 year old batch.

Lunch was also there. Beer (Garrison's Red), 5 dollars. Cream of spinach soup, 7.50. Atlantic smoked salmon (smoked using the casket wood from the whiskey), 13.00 dollars. An ounce of their 18 year old single-malt whiskey, 25.00 dollars. An ounce, tabarnac. So, I tried it. The 10 year old stuff is tasty, but a bit fiery in the throat. The 18 year old stuff, which the distillery is only 18 years old, completely smooth. No burning. Good stuff. Everyday stuff for me? Nope. I think an ounce was good enough for me for a long time.

Off I went again by bike. I eventually made it to Cheticamp. The plan was to stay at St-Pierre's campground, just outside (before) Cheticamp and walk into town. But, it would be an 8 km walk into town, so I decided to change plans. It was still a good 90 minutes of daylight, so I decided to eat at a restaurant, do my breakfast shopping, drug store stop, and then head to the inside edge of the park in order to find myself the campground. They dont make you pay when you arrve at the park, but only when you leave. They are there at 9 am, so guess who will try to get up early to GTFO before they get here. Side note – the moon is full(ish) tonight, and I can't get a good view of it. Too bad. Maybe tomorrow.

Supper tonight. Since it was the last Acadian town I will see for the rest of this trip, I decided to try this little Acadian restaurant for some local food. Their meat pie (not tourtiere, but similar) was the first thing I had. What followed was a chiard, which is basically a beef ragu with vegetables. For beer, they had Moosehead Dry – something I've never seen or tasted, so that was the chosen brew of the night. Good, pretty decent. Desert – it's been a long time that I wanted strawberry-rhubarb pie, so I ordered it (a la mode). The butterscotch meringue pie also caught my eye, so I ordered it too.

I am starting to count the dodo's left. Feels good. Tomorrow, the hills are calling me. I'm expecting to work a bit tomorrow, and the granny will definitely be woken up. It's time to work.

Get high on beauty.

p2

Day 58 - Sherbrooke to Glendale

Sherbrooke to Glendale
145 km, sunny, hot (28) and humid (35) during the ride
Winds – up to 10-15 km/h, in my favour

Cape Breton. Every day these days, I tend to break a few different records: the longest trip I've ever been, the longest I've been away from home (or the town where I technically reside in), the furthest East I've ever been on a bike, the longest bike trip I've ever been on, and I get to break the previous day's record of the longest I've ever lived (in this life-time, of course).

The day started off a bit wet. Well, to back-track a bit, I decided to test my luck a bit and not put the fly up on the tent. Again, in the middle of the night, I had to get out to put the fly in a hurry.

There were roosters near the campsite. I didn't realize that until they were doing their morning “wake-up you bastards” screech. It was also at that point that I realized I forgot my earplugs in Halifax (I believe, as I can't find them). No biggie, I'll go to a pharmacy to purchase some more.

I ate my breakfast in the washroom, as it was raining cats and dogs while I was packing up. No visits from bears while I was there. When I started cycling, the rain had stopped, but the humidity levels were quite high.

When the sun came out, the humidity seemed to be reduced at times, but it stayed fairly high for the rest of the day. It was probably a high 20's day, with the humidity bringing it up to mid thirties. The winds started after lunch, luckily at my back for most of the ride. (Thanks Joyce. That old Irish saying was true today. Top of the morning to you.)

What's neat about these towns around these parts, is that they have the Gaelic name of the town below the English name. Some are pretty close, but other's are way out there. What also threw me off a bit during the start of the ride were signs to local towns nearby: Aspen, Denver, Rocky Mountain, and Ohio. Where am I?

Cape Breton Isand. Not bad so far. The highway leading me to the Cabot Trail has nice pavement, wide shoulders, and gentle but long hills. Fun ride. The drivers here are saying hi (honking and waving) a fair bit. In these parts, they have to assume any cyclists they encounter is about to finish their x-country trek.

I arrived at the outlaws 15 minutes later than I anticipated. I didn't remember the directions correctly, so I didn't turn at the right moment at first (lost maybe 1-2 km), but the kicker was that I turned left instead of right to access the final stretch to my destination. That 2nd detour took me through a really rough unpaved road, where I was hoping that I wouldn't flat. In the morning, I'll get to see if I acquired a small snake-bite with a slow leak.

After supper, I was able to clean the bike a bit, replace my front brake pads, cut a hole in a wooden board for Stephanie's home-made Ouija board, and work on Christopher's bike. So, I felt useful.

Well, time to retire.

Air do dheagh Shlainte. (to your excellent health)

p

Day 57 - Halifax to Sherbrooke

Halifax to Sherbrooke
220 km, sunny (high of 28, humidex 33)
Winds – calm, from the ocean.

It was a beautiful day, so I decided to go for a bike ride. What a ride it was. Two hundred and twenty km. Boy. (I'll let you in a little secret – it was easy today, very enjoyable. don't tell anyone though, this is just between you and me. i can't afford for people to think this trip is easy. I think I was smiling the whole time.). On the menu today: mainly winding and smooth roads with rolling hills, add shore-line biking, drain out any traffic (as much as possible) until there's virtually no cars, add a few drops of 1.5 meter waves crashing on the shore nearby, mix in a fairly constant cool breeze coming in from the ocean, and let simmer under the sun for 8h45 minutes. Result – one great ride.

The first thing to do this morning was to go see my name in print at the Dartmouth Trans-Canada Trail. Dem' folks wrote to me and told me it was in Halifax, not the (apparently) lower-class Dartmouth. But, I saw it. Neat feeling.

Climbing out of Dartmouth was fun. A bit of hills (I had to wake up my granny), and play with a bit of traffic. I decided to take a 10 km more detour to go along the shore, and to go through Cole Harbour to see if there was a sign of “Sidney Crosby's home town”. Nope. But, the road out of town, which eventually dumped me onto the 7, where I would ride that for the rest of the day (and a big chunk of tomorrow). Wow. Super nice detour. I found a super nice spot for surfing. Tons of surfers here. Waves were up to 1.5 metres. Screw Tofino for surfing, here's where I'm coming next. Sweet stuff here. I could hear the waves crashing on the shore from the road. Beautiful spots.

At the 40 km mark, I saw a sign I liked: “Serving breakfast all day”. I stopped in, as I semi-skipped breakfast in the morning (toasted bagel with cream cheese at Tim Horton's near the ferry). I had the Junior breakfast (egg, toasts, potatoes, bacon), and the half order of the Belgian waffle with fresh local strawberries and whipped cream. Delicious. Little Acadian town named Grand Desert. Folks from this corner are quite nice. Plus, more and more folks (about 10 today) wave as they drive by. Good sign.

Onto the 7, traffic was a big busier, but eventually became quieter once I was further away. It's there that the B-52's (music, not planes) coincidences started. Check out the pics to get what I'm talking about. The ride was basically along the coast the whole time, detouring around bays constantly. A little bit of construction, but it was still fast.

The riding was quite enjoyable. I hardly noticed that it was 5 hours into the ride, and I should stop for lunch. The grocery store wasn't too stocked up, so I bought a package of ham (close to 300 grams). A block of cheese was also purchased to add some more stuff on the three sandwiches. That was a heavy meal. I felt sluggish for up to an hour after lunch, with the water on occasion wanting to pull a Matt at Solstice. But, everything stayed down. Side note: there's some chatter that I should find a fast woman (biking wise) so I could do Hot August Nights Tag Team. But, we'll see. This would only fuel Paranoid Android's conspiracy theories, but would make a few other people have a chuckle here and there. Time will tell....

There's one section where I got freaked-out. I was riding, then something caught my eye on the left of me. It looked like there was a yard beside a house where there were random people just walking and standing there. But, no movement. It was like those zombie movies that I dont know much about. There were at least 20 mannequins. Weird. I stopped, stared for a bit, took pictures, tried to fight off that weird spooky feeling, then turned around and did a drive-by video. I do hope it will capture that feeling of biking by and spotting those freaks.

The riding was so easy today, it just felt right. I felt fresh. Ever have that not-so-fresh feeling? I felt good, legs felt great, but I'm sure I might of smelled a bit. Just a nice cruise today. I almost feel guilty that it was so pleasant. I could of gone for a long time, but decided to stop in Sherbrooke as there was nothing for another 50 km (no camping, no service stations, etc). Shower and early night trumped riding for another 2 hours.

In town, I bough a 650 ml Propeller IPA (room temperature), then headed to the grocery store to buy ice and the rest of the supplies for tonight/breakfast. I tapped into people's Internet in town, where a Swiss guy approached me. Nice fellow. He said he remembers passing me during the construction part. Neat tid-bit of info: Cancellara stayed at his place for 4 days, and Martin Gerber's sister lives right beside him. Gerber himself stays there in the summer (his town). He invited me to crash at his place if/when I decide to do Europe.

I went to the campground to eat and such. There, some Wyoming people saw me and said “We passed you on the road today, and we had a feeling we'd all be at the same place at the end of the day”. Cool. Two different crews from Wyoming, coming from different directions (one towards, and one from Cabot Trail), are here at the campsite. Nice little campsite on the waterfront, cheap (twenty bucks), and Internet is here too. My food is hung up in a tree. I wonder why?

I am now finishing the entry sitting in the bathroom while I recharge things. The IPA is doing well, but that's a big bottle. Luckily, I am close to the toilet. I feel like staying up a bit later tonight, as it's not a long day tomorrow (140 k or so).

Next stops – Glendale, Cheticamp, Ingonish, Baddeck, North Sydney. No backtracking, but few detours to visit different spots (including a little surprise – somewhere where I might get more class! - imagine that).

Lastly, I want to thank Ian and Luke for their hospitality, and to A for hooking me up. AS, A+.

Night night.

p

Rest Day - Halifax

Rest day in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Busy day, busy day. Over 12 hours of being downtown.

Let's try to get some order in this entry.

Oh, but first 1. Mario, thanks. 2. Brenda-Lee, it's pedaling, not peddling. My peddling days are over. 3. jnicole, you're welcome. I must say I'm surprised, and honoured that you appear to be reading my entries fairly quick. merci.

bien, ca commence mal mon recit bien organise.

Ok. Touristy stuff that I saw: Keiths Brewery (with it's theatrical/entertaining tour), Brewery Market, Casino Nova Scotia (I lost my 40 bucks at the black jack table – I didn't have my good luck buddy with me, le “beau” Matthieu”), Cathedral Church of All Saints, Old Burying Ground, Halifax Citadel (the outskirts, as it was closed after 5 pm) and it's Naval clock, Halifax Metro Centre (where the Mooseheads play), Halifax Public Gardens (nice, peaceful, and lovely), Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (Titanic exposition, Halifax Explosion expo, and various stuff there), Old Town Clock, Pier 21 museum, St. Mary's Basilica, Tall Ships Quay, and a bit of the Jazz festival. I even went to the laundromat to do a load. Oh, and I walked around a bit.

Food. Had a quick bite to eat at the Cabin Coffee (I think it's called that) – take-out, as I wanted to drink a beer somewhere remote with the meal. Eventually, I ate at the Lower Deck (Privateer's roasted red pepper and caramelized onion dip with warm pita wedges, French Fry wedges with pesto mayo) with a Keith's Traditional Lager. For supper, I wanted sushi, since I dot think I can get good sushi in NFLD. But, when I got there, it was closed. Ate supper at the Economical Shoe Shop (weird name). Spring rolls with a spicy Thai sauce, followed by their Bouillabaise (with shrimp, mussels, and scallops, i a rose sauce seasoned with fresh herbs and spices). I had the Propeller IPA with the meal. For desert, they had cheese-cakes (chocolate mint, strawberry, or chocolate). I actually skipped out on that. Imagine that. During supper, there were these annoying 22 year old celebrating one of their birthdays. They were quite loud, very annoying. Yelling quite often like "Ya, give it up for Stacey (whatever the b-day girl's name was). Hi five!" One girl was especially loud. I really wanted to shove something in her mouth to shut her up. Maybe the styloid process of the ulna would of been a good start. It is know as the "soyez bonne" technique.

Now, on to the beer. It's an amazing thing when you sample a new beer and you are blown away by it. It happened today. I was surprised, and giddy. Keith's Traditional Lager is only brewed (and sold, I believe) here. But, it's not that crap I'm talking about. But, let's start in order.

Keith's brewery tour – sampled the beer mentioned above, then their red. Nothing special, just hype.

Afterwards, as I told the girl at Garrison's Micro-Brewery: “I just went to the Keith's Brewery tour, now I want some real beer”. Samples came quickly, with a smile. Raspberry Wheat, Tall Ships Amber Ale, Irish Red, Nut Brown, and the Unfiltered Imperial Pale Ale (6.9 %). Holy shit, that last one was amazing. Strong, bold, very hoppy taste, and something that I couldn't put my finger on, but my taste buds were going crazy. So was I. Eventually, the cutie behind the bar told me – white grapefruit. Damn, that was (is) amazing. I hope that when Joel and Carole go to Cape Breton, they can do a detour to Halifax to buy me a few Growlers of that stuff. Plus, Joel would be able to sample some good beer. Once you go good beer, you try not to go back (something like that). Sacrament, c'etait bon. Big Al, you gotta be here. You to Hardcore Dave. I wonder if that ruined it for the rest of the other beers to be sampled today. So good, I had another IPA (not India, but Imperial, just thought I should re-iterate that). I bought the Jalepeno beer (bottle) to take out, as they didn't have it on tap. I would have to find a spot to drink it in public, as it's not a bar there (license to sample, but not to serve beer). After the Keith's tour, and this, I was almost having a spin-on. Not bad for 2 pm. It might be a long day...

Propeller Micro-Breweryr. They make their own pops there too (like Garrison's). The beers: hmmm, I didn't write the names down. Ok, I remember they had a IPA, a nut brown, an amber, a red, and I think a cream ale. Damn. What was I thinking? I should check to see if I took some pictures. Maybe I should find it on the Internet later on. But, that takes time. Eventually.

(Top ten reasons to procrastinate: 1. )

Rogue's Roost Brewery. Good stuff, clean and crisp, but nothing spectacular. I would definitely drink that stuff anytime. Beers: Weizen (German style), Czech Pilsner (with imported Czech hops), they didn't have the Cream Ale (as stated on the taste-test page), IPA, Raspberry Wheat, Brown Ale, Red Ale, and an Amber (or Pale Ale?). I am going by memory, but it's in the on-line picture album.

Finally, Granite Pub. They had 6, I believe. Now, you know I am getting lazy, as I just took the picture of them. So, hold on, I'll go look at the pics to get the names. Best Bitter, Real Bitter Special, IPA, Ringwood Ale, Keefe's Irish Stout, and the Peculiar.

So, that was it. Busy day. Sampled many things. Didn't get sushi.

On the road again tomorrow. I just fixed a flat tonight – when I brought the bike in the preivous night, I realized it was flat. It deflated sometime between getting in, and bringing it in the house. I think I found out why – the tire is basically toast. That makes sense, the other one konked out at 4000 km. When I hit Dartmouth tomorrow (via the ferry, as it's 2 bucks, and supposedly nice), I'll hit 9000 km. Let's see if it's the cause of the last few days of flats.

It is now 1:30 am, I am now all packed, the blog is up to date (and the pics too), and I have to get up in 5 hours at the same time as Ian. I wonder if I'll take a nap somewhere tomorrow. It's maybe a 200 k day, so that should be interesting. Oh, I'll get to see my name in print tomorrow... Stay tuned.

Rock on,
p2

(seems like the beer writings took up half the entry. I'm laughing as i write this).
The old game of guessing which town in Quebec started with St/Ste – it was a bad joke. Just pointing out that 80 % of the towns start with a St/Ste. But, I found it funny. Hell, I'll laugh at almost anything (much easier to live that way).

New game – how many kms will I end up doing? The winner gets to go riding with me (I'll bring a pizza for the road, and a beer or two).

Do I do Cape Breton clockwise or counter-clockwise? It's tricky to go to Glendale, then the Cabot Trail, then head to North Sydney, while trying not to back-track or do the same road twice. But, I think I figured it out. Any suggestions?

p