Day 24 Whoa, that's a rough day! Your bike computer problems would be enough to put me on edge. I don't know about the terrain in Cape Breton, but I at least hope the wind and weather goes in your favour!
I'm jealous! Wow, travelling by car, a seafood feast, and Shira, what a treat! It seems like you are cherishing your non-cycling days. Enjoy while you can because you have a long trek ahead of you in Newfoundland. Give my love to Mary and Paul, and lots of hugs and kisses to both of you from Pickering. Love MOMXXXOOO
Pictures Eric and Therese,
You both must be in great condition! Hope you enjoy the ice cream tour tomorrow. My mouth is watering. Morry is eating ice cream right now.
We would love to receive a postcard.
2137 Lamplight Drive, Marietta, GA 30062
Love Auntie Janis and Uncle Morry
Day 21 With all of the hilly terrain and windy conditions you've been encountering, it's a good thing P.E.I. is a small province! How is the seafood on the island?
Fine dining I'm impressed with some of your restaurant choices. You haven't mentionned McDonald's for a while.
So, you made it to P.E.I. I wonder if you passed by a restaurant called Fiddles and Vittles, it"s where dad sang in a contest and won a free dinner when we went on our Bowler Trailer trip to the east coast in 1996. Memories!!! I hope you get a chance to visit Aunt Agnes' sister Mary and Paul Demeulenaere (R.R. 1, Montague, P.E.I.). What ever happened to the other 2 bikers?
Later, love MOM
WHAT?!?! Not gonna lie, first read Sydney to Argentina..... long way to go on a ferry :P
I gotta say, I'm more used to doing exercise in my basement, having some guy yell at you on a video..... that sounds really wrong...
Incroyable! That's pretty incredible guys, I'm with Therese on the animals, speaking of which, I will go find one right now to eat.... surprised Eric didn't try to sneak in the buffalo x 7 joke. Your blog is actually really interesting to read :) What roads are you travelling on?
Wow! Wow guys, that's awesome... +50km/h speeds!!!!!! and not to mention biking (which I prob couldn't do 20k of in one go....)... I cheated on the scroll down and saw that you guys made it to kingston in two days... nuts!
Happy Trails Wow!! We love reading your blog!! You are handling all the challenges of road closures, and other incidents along the way. Your days are long, and you are doing such a great job of biking. Looks like you are enjoying all your experiences. I would have to agree with your comment about the sun being out. No matter how hot it gets here, I much prefer seeing the sun than the rain. The heat doesn't bother me! Continue being safe and have fun! We'll keep reading about your journey. Love, Auntie Janis and Uncle Morry
Off-road biking Seeing the photos of the road you had to bike on, I don't know how you pushed on. That "road" looks like an artist's conception of Yonge Street from 1793 (the year it was first surveyed, I think). Even without those "lakes," the road conditions still look insane. I don't even want to imagine pushing on road bike pedals while barefoot!
Re: Music, PEI, Newfoundland Sabrina: That's an amusing song for our journey. Mostly when we're going we sing to the tune of "She'll be coming 'round the mountain" to keep us going. We change the words to pretty much anything we want to say. Example: "I really hate big hi-ills, yes I do...". Lately we've been thinking about the ferry we'll take from PEI and singing a bit of the "Wolfe Island Ferry" by the Arrogant Worms, but change it to the upcoming Wood Islands Ferry. We also love to sing "We are going to make it" to the tune of "We're not going to take it". Sometimes the not slips back in when we're in low spirits.
Phil: Glad you know PEI so well. We've really been enjoying it so far, but biking on some of those hilly back roads can be tough - more on that in tonight's entry.
Madhu: Thanks for the Newfoundland info. We'll be sure to take a good look at it when we're there!
Just so you know that I've been reading your blog! My apologies for the long post in advance=) Congrats on the journey thus far and best of luck for the rest of the journey! It's great to see that you are taking in all the "Canadiana" along the way. Kinda reminds me of the movie "One Week" with Joshua Jackson, except he took a motorcycle trip from Toronto to Vancouver. Hahaha. The blog is great! It's like I'm right there with you, except without the hard work=)
We have lots to share with you about the rest of Janelle and Sebastien's visit here. By the way, I thought I might pass along some suggestions for Newfoundland. St. John's anyways. In regards to eating, there are toutons (spelling? It's basically fried dough) and obviously seafood. There's also Ches's (fish and chips), Mary Brown's, Moo Moo's (ice cream), and Jig's dinner [usually consists of vegetables - carrots, turnips, etc.-potatoes, meat (turkey usually, with salted meat)]. If you get a chance to walk around downtown, you'll come across some nice sights (e.g. Signal Hill, the Harbour, the War Memorial, etc.), stores and restaurants (e.g. Apparently there's a restaurant called Mustang Sally's where they will put anything you want on your burger or something. I never got the chance to go when I was there.). Water Street, and Duckworth Street. And of course there's George Street. There's also the Basilica and the Rooms.
As for outside St. John's . . . I've been to Ferryland which is an archaeological dig. I've also been to Brigus (which is the first place everyone was telling me to go. It's a really cute town. It's as if everything is where it is supposed to be and has not changed. It's still. And I'm not sure when the Blueberry Festival is, but it might be around the time you're there. That's where I had a moose burger!). Ferryland is the furthest south from St. John's I've been (I went along that coast several times for whale watching tours. But there are other activities too like sea kayaking.). I've also been to Topsail Beach, and been to Bell Island.
Anyways, just know that I'm rooting for you guys to get that CHECKMARK on the bucket list!!!
Enjoy PEI I always enjoy going to PEI. I know exactly where you had those PEI Mussels.
I've always wanted to take my bike there because seems like a really great place to ride. Especially those many rural back roads. The ferry ride to Nova Scotia will be a highlight no doubt too.
I am loving the blow by blow adventure details! Keep it up.
LMI I don't think your arms will become toothpicks with their daily resistance to gravity and all...and also perhaps using them for a bit of support as you go up the hills. We should do an n of 2 control study. I try to guess by the style and content of the blogs who has written them... it's a little pop quiz for me at the end of the day! You two are hard core and doing wonderfully! Nice picture poses! PS... sometimes when I read your blog I can't help but picture you two riding to the song from "the littlest hobo" ...this was mainly from the time when you tented on that guy's porch... but if you see a smart helpful German Shepherd on your travels..be sure to give him a little scruffle for me! Have a great ride tomorrow... Cadel Evans/Andy Schleck style!
Day 19 I've said it before, I'll say it again: I HATE headwinds! I would rather bike up a steep hill then bike into the wind. Fighting a headwind takes so much energy out of you, even with aerodynamic bikes and form-fitting bike attire.
Head Advisory It sounds like you two had an interesting day! For what it's worth, I've never been fond of biking through the rain, either. Generally I prefer weather that is too hot over weather that is too cool, but given the weather in Toronto lately, I'll make an exception - it got up to 39C on Thursday (more like 49C with the humidex).
Heat wave It seems that the Heat wave is all across Canada. I wish you were here to join me in the pool. It's very refreshing! Too bad you haven't met some nice family to invite you for a home cooked meal.
Eric, tomorrow I'm making P A S T A, your
favourite, Mmmmm, PASTA!!!! Frankie and Suzie and their kids are coming over.
By the way, Therese, fantastic work on the blog! (sorry I assumed you'd be sleeping when Eric wrote the blog) Good job you two! Enjoy tomorrows adventures. Love MOM
Re: Bloggers and Eating Lots Mom (Angela): "Hey! I write the blogs too! ;) " -Therese
Ray: Yes, we have been eating a lot! After the trip is over we need to be careful to eat less because our bellies will want to keep eating the same amount, but we won't be able to burn off all the excess.
WooHoo ! My internet is finally working! I've been Blog deprived for about a week! I contacted Rogers all by myself and they restarted the modem from there. So I'm now all caught up with your blog. I read all the blogs I missed and I think I need to go to bed. It's almost 2:00 am. Some pretty rough days and some unfortunate setbacks are delaying you a bit but your adventurous spirits and determination are keeping you on track. I'm glad to hear that you are taking in some of the local sights and meeting up with some nice people. Those are the parts of the trip you'll remember. Eric, you are doing an amazing job on the blog. Many of our friends and relatives have commented on it, the Turcos, Frankie, Francine, Donna etc. But really Eric do we need to know when you eat peanut butter every day? Just Kidding, I like hearing about everything. I promise this will be the longest comment I'll send. Hopefully I won't have any more internet problems. I love you guys. Be strong and BIKE ON!!!
Rest and Tourist day in Fredericton All your eating since the start of your trip has given me much temptation to over eat.
I recognize that I would need to spent all that energy your delivering for me to be acceptable.
Since I am on a 25 lb. weight loss ... I'll wait.
Cheers
Ray
Way To Go You two are making REAL progress. You must be soooooo tired. Tomorrow I will call my sister, Mary and get her house number to make it easier for you to find. She will be happy to see you.
Ride carefully and don't overdue the peanut butter.
Re: Body Fat and Chinese Food Sabrina: Sadly, we forgot to weigh ourselves before we left... but we do know our approximate weights. I'm sure our legs will have gained a fair amount of muscle by then... but my aunt told us that if we are not careful to use our other muscles too...our body will ignore them and they will lose muscle mass... (Is this true Dr. Sabrina... we have been lazy and not doing push-ups in the evening... will our arms become toothpicks?) We should use a LMI (leg mass index) instead of a BMI!!
Alex: The Chinese restaurant Wingos officially called itself "Chinese and Canadian" (their menu contained hot dogs, chicken fingers, etc...) but even the Chinese food was pretty un-authenic. We ordered sweet and sour chicken... and got chicken balls in red sweet and sour sauce... It wasn't up to Toronto's standards, but it sure beat the pants off more sandwiches!
Eric is a PhD student who studies Math at the University of Toronto. Thérèse is a high school math teacher. We are cycling from Toronto, Ontario all the way to St. John's, Newfoundland. This is our blog.... full info
Alex Leonard
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Day 24
Whoa, that's a rough day! Your bike computer problems would be enough to put me on edge. I don't know about the terrain in Cape Breton, but I at least hope the wind and weather goes in your favour!