Time for some Family, Friends, and Fundraising

Hello Again!

After arriving home a few days ago, Skye and I have been lucky enough to get some much needed family time in. Lately we've been spending some time catching up with friends and family and enjoying some rest and the perks of being home. These rest days have also been in our fundraising favour, as everyone has been super supportive and generous. Our new friend Sean Michael Paul was kind enough to organize an event for us at the Player's Club in Cornwall. The night was a success and the guys were kind enough to donate generously to our cause. Friends have been fantastic in their support and excited to hear how the trip is progressing. Skye has been able to catch up with his brother and sister in Ottawa. His sister just moved into a new spot and we had the pleasure of reassembling all her Ikea furniture, sans manuals. Despite the many screws, we were happy to help and I'm sure she was glad to be able to catch up with her brother. We were lucky enough to be able to meet with L'Arche Ottawa the other day for their Annual General Meeting. They had us over for supper before the meeting and then kindly introduced us to the crowd and let everyone know what we were doing. The meeting was light hearted and full of interesting activities: full of laughing, singing, and joking. We had a wonderful night meeting the many people involved in their community and look forward to meeting more people at the other houses along the way. As we prepare to set out across this vast province, I need to make an adjustment or two to my bike, then we should be ready to hit the road. As Im writing this I just saw my parents off as they headed to the aiport to drop my little sister off. She's heading out to the East Coast to watch my cousin MaryBeth get married to her soon to be husband Ian. My parent are heading out to the wedding tomorrow after they finish work. MaryBeth and Ian, I wish you guys all the best and Im sorry I'm missing the wedding. If I wasn't so lazy I'd bike back, but lets be honest, Im that lazy. So our departure is around the corner, but we hope to sneak in a little more vacation time as the weather is perfect and the company is superb.

I hope everyone is out enjoying the sweet heat and is using plenty of sunscreen,

Cheers

Home Sweet Cornwall

Hey everybody,

Just rolled into Cornwall yesterday after a nice stay in the Montreal area. Travelling through that crazy city can be difficult on bikes especially when you have no idea where you're going. Regardless, Tammy and the Pelletier family were kind enough to put us up for a night on the west island and make the trip a lot easier. Gaston, a friendly fellow was kind enough to lead us out of the west island and set us straight on some fantastic bike trails that would leads us into Riviere Beaudette for a perfectly timed visit. We stopped at the depanneure and were lucky enough to meet a guy named James who was kind enough to donate to our cause. The nice lady who ran the dep was also supportive and gave us some sandwhiches on the house, some cold water, and a donation to boot. We then cruised into Cornwall and are hoping to get a few things going. On Friday June 19th (tomorrow) there is a show at the Players Club, which is now just a normal club, to help raise money for L'Arche. There will be some sharp local talent playing and some draws for some cool prizes. So come on out and have some fun for a good cause. Hopefully, we will be having a venue to catch up with everyone and fill them in on our journey soon. The details are not finalized yet but we'll keep you posted.
We're in town for a couple days and would love to see anyone who's in the area! Its been a while and I'm not sure when Ill be back in the area. Its nice to be home and see the family. My Grand Parents are celebrating their 57th wedding anniversary, so the timing could't be more perfect. I'm also hoping to swing down and catch the Fathom Ties show, and wish them all luck in their battle of the bands this weekend.

Hope this finds everyone enjoying some warm weather for once, though apparently its supposed to be rainy all weekend. Gotta love that crappy weekend weather.

Cheers

Vive La Quebec ( and the bike trip)

Hello all!

So we had a good stay in Quebec, tragedy averted, thanks Shawn and Kim! Actually they saved our lives. 

We took Babs' bike into the shop on Saturday and they needed a few hours to do the reparations so although Shaun thought he was finally getting rid of us, he wasn't and allowed us to pile ourselves and our crap all back into the Jeep and he entertained us for a while longer. We went into Old Quebec, back out to Montmorency Falls and then to Costco to stock up on granola bars and trail mix before taking off.  Finally we took off at 4:30 and were able to put a few kilometers under us before stopping. We had a family can of Chef Boyardee cold outside of a grocer and then stopped at a campground  where we ended up paying for our first accommodations of the trip! 

It was a surprising camp ground with a restaurant and pool and tennis courts and many other things. More of a community of motor homes than anything. Anyways we were able to take advantage of some fantastic accommodations and indulge in a great brunch the next morning. 

We took off at around noon again and cruised our way down the 132 towards Montreal. We stopped in Nicolet for supper at the supermarket. With about 100 give or take kilometers to go to Montreal we shut it down in Pierreville, Quebec, on some town property behind a little water station. It was getting dark and it seemed like a good place. haha. Plus we'd be forced to leave early in the morning since tenting in the direct sunlight is not conducive to sleeping in. 

We set a new record for early starts on Monday the 15th, getting all packed up and on the road for 9:30 in the AM!!!! Good thing because after having a great breakfast at "Eggsquis" we decended on the city of Montreal and a series of bike trails that we had absolutely no grasp on.  Again we relied on the kindness of strangers and raced away from a looming thunder storm following some fellow bikers who offered to let us follow them till our paths veered. Montreal was in site early and was impossible to get to. Numerous bridges and the never ending St. Laurent grew tiresome but we made it to out friend Tammy's in Montreal for a cold beer some great food and some much needed sleep. Soon is Ryan's hometown in Cornwall, Ont. And to see my brother and hopefully sister in Ottawa where we may hang around for a few days and have "our summer vacation!"

There are some possible events in those areas so listen in for the details!

Cheers, 

Skye and Ryan

Florenceville and Beyond!

Well its been a whirlwind trip since our last stay in Florenceville with the Stephensons. We made our way up and into the wind to Grand Falls. The trip was tricky but we lucked out with a fantastic camp site right beside the falls. The town proved to be somewhat quiet, closing early as per usual in New Brunswick, but we were able to catch a bite at the Burger King. Good eating for a cross country tour you can be sure. From Grand Falls we made our way up to Edmunston, which proved to be a friendly mixture of french and english. We had some grub at Spilly's, and were treated to some delicious greek cuisine and a free pitcher of beer on the house. The company was halerious and friendly and warmed us up for some french to come in Quebec. After camping on the side of the trans canada trail, we put a long day in and cruised 132kms into Riviere du Loup. We got caught in the rain for the first time and rolled in soaked and dying for some warmth. We set up shop quickly and were able to grab some food with the help of our Esso gas station buddies. We decided to stay the next day in Riviere du Loup as the weather was pour and hoped it would clear up. The day was dreary but we caught a good meal at the local Zellers, a trip which proved that Riviere du Loup was poorly set up for walking. Regardless we made our way back for a somewhat restful day. Though the weather didn't let up we made our way out of the town and bouggied to a town just outside of Montmagny. We set up camp on a seemingly perfect deck over looking the St. Lawrence. The view was great and the set up was dry, but the deck proved to be somewhat hard and we were greeted with some unwelcoming weather. Wind and rain kept us up but we tried to fight it off with an early start. The start was futile as the day, set to end in Quebec city with a viewing of Game 7 hoping Pittsburgh would beat Detroit, would not be as easy as expected. I was graced with the busting of all my spare tires and would require the help of multiple people throughout the day. First, a popped tire was easily fixed, though an early pop was unexpected and not easily explained. Soon after a second popped tire and some loose spokes was also unexpected. The kind words of a passer byer, though french, told us that he had an air compressor. We obliged and stepped into his garage. We chatted while filling the tire and he offered a cold beer to chat over. We shared stories though butchering each others language and were happy to have the company despite the pour tire conditions. Unlucky for us these tire disparities would not let up. As we left the kind company of Louis Michelle in St. Michelle and made our way for Quebec city and the big Game 7, the trip again was unsuccessful as I lost yet another tire. Luckily for us, our destination was a kind fellow from Glace Bay in Quebec City. As we were still about 30 minutes drive from Quebec, or about an hour and a half bike ride, we were in need of some major help. With no spare tires left, our new friend Shawn Smith did us a huge favour and came and picked us up in his jeep. We got a ride back into town and look forward to grabbing some much needed supplies in town tomorrow morning. Though the biking was poor today, the company was fantastic. And to boot, Pittsburgh won the cup! A tough day but our spirits are up. Happy Birthday Dad!!! I hope your bike ride went better then mine. Cheers and we'll drop a line next time we can. Cheers!

Freddy, Millville, and Florencevegas!

Thomas McArthur's was kind enough to treat us to all the benefits of the university lifestyle. He fed us some delicious grub and we sat around catching up. After our 100km day we had an invite to visit with an X rugby alum but a couple glasses of McArthur's own homemade wine and we couldn't do it. Soooooo ... we decided to stay another night. We met up with our old X rugby boy Malcom MacAfee as well as a couple of others who play on the Black Spruce. It was a great night of sharing a few stories and beers and the Fredricton Loyalists Rugby Football Club was generous enough to donate $100 to L'Arche and our bike trip. Special Thanks to Malcom and the boys from the club. The next day we took off for another day, we did about 65km on route to Millville, NB. We stopped at the corner store/ diner when we got there but the diner was closed so we bought some hamburger helper stuff and the owner was kind enough to point us to a nice little camping spot on a little stream. It was quite picturesque and we made food and met some local boys who ripped through the parking lot doing donuts and stopped to see what we were all about and have a beer. We had a good old sleep, woke up and took off on the way to Florenceville, NB. We are now there, enjoying a few beers and laughs with the Stephenson girls on the front porch while watching an impressive display of thunder and lightning. Let 'er come, the more it rains now, the less it will rain tomorrow!

Cheers for now,
The Boys

Hard Ride to Fredericton

After a pleasurable stay with the Furzes's in Moncton we got our wheels rolling and began our trek towards Fredericton. This leg of the trip showed us that the wind is truly our enemy as we make our way westward and constantly face the easternly winds. Despite everyone's suggestions to travel the other way, we continue on westward. This is proving to be a challenge, but we're doing our best to be as aerodynamic as possible and are considering losing some of our excess baggage. We worked hard into the wind and made it to Cole's Island, but not before enjoying some spaghetti courtesy of  Mrs. Furze on the side of the road. Our Coleman burner worked fine and the mosquitos were kind enough to join us for dinner. We ended up traveling about 100kms and were about to make our way to a camp ground when we decided to settle on a random inlet just off of the road. So a thank you goes out to the anonymous people who owned that land. After a somewhat comfortable sleep we awoke and were able to make our earliest start of the trip: 9:30am. Though that may seem like a late start for the day to most of you, we made up for it with a long, hard day of biking into the wind, again. We stopped somewhere in Sheffield for lunch at Casey's Diner and enjoyed some fantastic grub. The last leg of the journey was a tough one as we traveled along the river the entire day, but besides the wind it was a beautiful day and we both got sunburns on our legs. Though the tight bike shorts are good for biking they do little for sun protection.  We arrived in Fredricton and are currently staying with our good friend Thomas McArthur, who has been kind enough to lend us a place to stay, some food to eat, and some great company. Next stop Florenceville to visit our friend Michelle. Until next time...

Cheers

Day off in Moncton

Taking advantage of some superb accomodations available from our friends the Furze's in Moncton, we decided that it would be a good idea to stick around for a rest day and to try and make a little money. So we borrowed a guitar, played a plastic bucket as a drum and set up shop on Main St. in downtown Moncton. It was cold, cloudy and windy but the rain held off and we were able to gather some generous funds from the friendly Monctonians. Our first experience as street performers went over quite well and we're looking forward to spreading the love through music many more times across this ginormous country. Tomorrow it's onward and upward and Fredricton should be reached in the very near future.