Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Life on the road

We have been biking up the west coast of Newfoundland- a land of trees, rocks, mountains and hills! its been great so far, i think this may be canada's Alaska :)

eating steamed mussels in butter.. yumm....

mary about to get epic
made it to newfoundland!


suns out, bugs out!

out on the open road!

fiddleheads- a common food up here- we found some growing wild and steamed em up! YUM!

we ran into a local in the rain who let us stay in his partially finished cabin for the night! not a bad location to camp!

got the knee checked out! and the verdict is... tendonitis! looks like he wont lose the leg after all! stretching and ice are in place!
 
our campsite in corner brook, overlooking the town and bay- gorgeous!

a wooded trail through town that made us miss mountain biking.... :)

 

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Oh the places you'll go!


Dale, our P.E.I host cracking open oysters for us to try (live!)
The barn we enjoyed for a few days with our friend Dale.
We had a couple days of sunshine finally, but we were too busy actually riding to take any photos, however, we have sunburns to prove it :) the days are still fun of adventure and everything unexpected. Lately, B-rad has been battling some intense knee pain, so in an effort to save it, we have been experiencing Canada by hitchhiking instead of riding as much. We are hanging out in New Glasgow, headed to Sydney to catch a ferry to Newfoundland later this week. We have been incredibly fortunate to meet so many nice people who go out of their way to help us. Canada- thank you- youre awesome.

there are some awesome coastlines!!!

Found this nice hat in honor of Anne, in Prince Edward Island (thought Dirk might like it)
Its been a lot of this lately.
We jimmy rigged the tandem to be able to pull B-rad for a few miles to save the knee :)

Too bad there werent any mounties around to give brad a ticket for this no hands crime....

Made it to Nova Scotia! and SUPRISE! its raining!


Monday, May 16, 2011

From Maine to Prince Edward

 Loading up our bikes on the fishing boat.  Thanks Harvey and Scott for the ride to deer island
 Unloading our gear onto the pier. That rhymes, totally unintentional. 
 Captain Christopher Keith Pendelton, giving us a lesson on how to drive his 103ft ferry from deer island

The 8 mile bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island
 Home sweet home, just off the highway hidden from all the passersby
 Making dinner, drying out and warming up in Dales Barn on P.E.I
Loads of stories going on. We got a ride from a couple fishermen across some pretty bouncy ocean.  Was told a poem about Newfoundland by some random walker by.  Met the bassist of Jericho road, she was our camp host.  Had lunch in an old RV with some Hoggs from Vancouver.  And now we are sleeping in a barn of a oyster fisherman in Prince Edward.  This trip is bringing us countless experiences that I never could have imagined.  I am keeping a very detailed journal and hoping to be able to retell so many of these tales for years to come.  We are meeting so many genuinely nice people that are sharing their lives with us.  We are being very blessed and taken care of, and loving almost every minute of it (as long as we can keep Marys feet warm).

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

some pics from our travels

 Well, it seems like we have a weeks worth of adventures every day, which is why i want to post every day! We rode to Lubec in some crazy wind and rain and got stuck here for a number of reasons, but its nice, we found a cute little Inn on the water and have finally found a boat to take us to the canadian island we have been shooting for. Lubec is the easternmost town in the U.S and its the most windy/rainy coast we have been to yet!
 At the inn, they let us buy lobsters right there, live ones! we went to this basement warehouse place under the inn and we picked out our own lobster. The guy gave us a pot and told us how to cook them. Which we did, and they were delicious!

we are SO CLOSE!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Pay it forward!

I know, i know, we just posted yesterday, but we have to take advantage of internet whenever we get it! I just wanted to give a shout out to all those nice guys out there. We made it to Machias, Maine this morning and went to a little church here, where one of the members offered us a place to 'freshen up' in his Inn. What he meant by freshen up was give us a room with laundry, a full kitchen, internet, warm showers, and tons of free food! I know its only been a few days, but it is HUMID here! so it was all appreciated ALOT. When asked what we could do around here for him in return, he simply replied- "just pay it forward". So this is my request to all of you who wish you could do something for us on our ride- just pay it forward to someone, in honor of Rob Abraham. Its nice to know there are still people like him out there. I hope someday i can be that kind of person to someone :)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Look Mom, I'm bike touring

      The trip has begun.  The flights out didn't work out quite as planned thanks to the overly responsible and competent site known as cheaptickets.com.  We missed a layover in New York and forced to spend the night in a land where we felt very out of place.  So the next day we caught our flight to Bangor, hopped a shuttle to our paid for unenjoyed hotel for the night before and assembled our bikes/lives. Thanks to Cody at Wasatch Touring for teaching us the skills to get our bikes back into working form.
         We have made it to the busting metropolis of Sullivan, Maine.  We love the scraggly forests and the lack of mountains.  Its only day two of riding and our muscles are already yelling at us after 40 miles.  The weather has been overcast but so far dry, although the clouds are threatening pretty harshly. Knock on wood, but with the 8 tires on our caravan we have not had a single flat yet either.  This is still just the begining of our adventure and I am drooling like a teething baby for more.  Love you all and I hope your jobs are almost as much fun as this.






*B-rad

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Farewell



The party last night was the best way to begin a trip like this.  Thanks to all who took the time to come out and give us a hug.  We are flying outta here in just a few hours, and still just bouncing with excitement. Tonight we plan on getting to our lavy Days inn and putting our bikes together then Friday we will meet Keith and Michaela in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Just a short 44 mile ride to start out this summer with a bang.  Thanks to all the goodbyes and thanks to those who slipped us money.  Love you all, now the real adventure begins.

Monday, May 2, 2011

BIKE VOYAGE!!!

Hey fanzz and friendzz- we are almost ready to hit the road, and we will be gone from Utah a good long time, seeing as how we are moving to AK at the end of our trip for a while... so we wanted to be able to see everyone and say good bye for now... Come to our bike voyage party! This may be the last time you see us, unless the canadian bears turn out to be friendly.
its WEDNESDAY MAY 4th at 6:00 PM
Its at the Burton's (Brads parents house) in West Jordan
4492 west Black Elk Way (9380 south)
West Jordan UT 84088
call us for directions if you need them!!!!