Introduction

Allo, hello, tere,

Some old lines/puns: Pierre qui roule, rock and roll, the rolling stone (gathers no dust).

Who: Pierre, Ottawa (ON)

What: Cross Canada travel.

When: After a few days rest in Tofino, British Columbia at the beginning of May, 2008, hit the road around the 4th. The 1st time-based goal is to arrive in Ottawa in mid June, race in a 24-hour mountain bike competition, and head back on the road a few days later. Finish the trip in St. John's, Newfoundland, at the end of July, 2008, before returning home to Ottawa to start being an adult again.

Where: Canada, West to East, via Toronto, Ontario. Detours: Val Gagné and Manitoulin Island (ON), Gaspé region (QC), and Cape Breton (NS).

Why: Visit this beautiful (and fairly big) nation of ours. See family and friends. Taste the cuisine of different parts of the country and enjoy the various beers and wine along the way. Experience anything the villages and cities along the way have to showcase. Lose 50 pounds and be buff.

How: By bicycle (her nickname: Dzie, pronounced D-Zie).

Extras: According to mapquest, a drive from tip to tip (via Toronto) would be 7710 km (85 hours of driving, 2 ferries). A flight would only be 5400 km (9 hours flight time, with switching planes 2 times).

* I do occasionally feel I am following the footsteps of a few great ones (whom I've also had the honour of riding with), who have done this trip in the past - Al, and especially Tanya. I do hope that I can bring in some new pics, new stories, and not rehash stuff that those amazing folks have done before me.

** I imagine I'll be a bit lonely at times throughout the trip, where I highly request and encourage comments from you guys. It'll be my way of having some conversations with you. I'll try to update the blog every few days.

Disclaimer: Most of you guys know me. In my posts, there will probably be a mixture of bizarre stories, silly jokes (like the weight-losing bit a few instances before), some references to music lyrics and movie lines. I will do my best to entertain, but sometimes, I might miss the mark on being funny or entertaining (hopefully not though).

Posting messages: Readers with a gmail/blogger account - you know what to do. Readers who do not: post a comment as anonymous (but put your name at the bottom of the comment please). The occasional personal messages can be sent to pierre.l.perron@gmail.com

Ciao,
p2

Sunday, July 27, 2008

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