Becky's Travel Adventures

Skating away

2008-02-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, we didn't ski. We each had a complimentary Thai Yoga massage, which felt wonderful. The weather wasn't conducive to skiing on a lake (it rained and warmed right up), so we spent the day relaxing. I discovered that it was glorious to turn the steam on in the steam shower, and then compliment it with a cool shower. The steam ensuring you didn't get too cold and the cool water ensuring you didn't overheat :).

Wednesday was a day for skate skiing. With my toe not being 100% happy, I wasn't willing to try classic skiing.

Scott skied: 3 hr 20 min, 20 km
Becky skied: 2 hr 35 min, 14 km

So, you see the stats and ask yourself, how is it that Scott skied 6km and 45 minutes longer than Becky? Well, by the time we reached the cabin, I was pooped. I felt I needed a break before tackling the skate back. So I hung around the cabin while Scott skied a lopped.

I had a bit of an adventure trying to get the fire started. I wasn't about to sit in the cabin and get cold, so I lit a first in the wood stove. The problem was, that some smoke seemed to be entering the cabin. I lit the fire with the door open and the windows open, so that it didn't get too smoke filled. I figured that once the fire was going the smoke would start to go through the chimney. At one point, I blew on the fire to get it going better and ended up with a face full of smoke (oops). When I thought things were going better, I closed the door ... the cabin filled up pretty quickly. Eventually, I clued in that there might be a flu on chimney. I saw a ring sticking out, so I giggled it a bit and to my surprise, the ring moved up, just like it was releasing a flu! The smoked started to flow nicely out the chimney and the fire started burning better. Oh well, lesson learned.

The fire didn't keep me very warm, but it did stop me from getting too cold. I was pretty much ready to leave again when Scott arrived. He took about a 15 minute break, and then we were back on our skis heading back to the resort.

It was a beautiful day skiing. I was surprised at how well I could skate ski, and the conditions were not too terrible. Having gotten cold overnight, we were able to ski over-top of the frozen snow (for the most part).

Another good day on vacation :).

A day in the classic tracks

2008-02-04T17:49:00.000-05:00

Scott skied: 3 hr 45 min, 21.5 km
Becky skied: 3 hr, 15.5 km

Today, we headed out to try some classic skiing. We have spent most of our time this year on our skate skis, so this was a nice change of pace.

For the first part of our journey, we headed out across Galeairy Lake towards the Algonquin Park Leaf Lake trail system. It was a glorious day, the sun shining, but a little bit warm, hovering just above 0 degrees celcius.

The tracks across the Lake were set in some places, but not in others. Mostly, you just made your way across the flat surface. It was pretty easy going and quite pleasant.

We entered the park trails at Q and skied that narrow up and down trail to the trestle; the same path we skied yesterday on our skate skis. It was much easier with the classic skis.

Midway along the trail, I paused to smell the air and listen. It was uncannily quiet. You didn't hear any birds chirping, or snowmobiles growling. The only sound was the wind moving through the colourless trees. I snapped a picture of Scott. His bright orange jacket making him appear like a flower in a sea of dark green and bright white.

On one of the downhills, I felt that my balance points were a little off. I am usually cautious on downhills, but always ski with a feeling of control. Today, I felt that I wasn't as in control as I'd like to be.

We entered the trestle, then skied west to join with the David Thompson trail. We followed the trail from S to N to L. When we arrived at L (6.86 km), I stopped at the cabin to make lunch. Scott dropped off his backpack (which had lunch in it) and went for a bit more of a ski along the Fraser Lake loop.

Upon arrival at the cabin there was a gentleman from Barry's Bay enjoying a sandwich. We shared some pleasantries and he continued with his ski while I prepared lunch.

I prepared lunch on a little alcohol stove that I recently acquired. Lunch was a bit of an experiment. I had chicken soup mix and a dry mixture of basmati rice, red lentils, and green lentils. I boiled some water, mixed it all up, and let it simmer.

While making lunch, I enjoyed the company of at least two pairs of Whiskey Jacks and several chickadees that were not at all shy. I found some sunflower seed in the cabin, and placed them on the railings. The birds quickly came by to pick some up, testing how close they could come to me. The chickadees flew right over my head, such that I could hear the flutter of their wings.

I popped into the cabin to grab some more fuel for the stove and heard my phone ring. That is an odd sound, a cell phone in the middle of the woods. Scott called wanting to know if he should head back. I said yes. Later, I found out that he wanted to know whether it was closer to finish the loop or turn back. It turns out that if he continued on the loop, it would have been shorter than turning back. Oops!

After a nice warm lunch, we decided to take the Old David Thompson trail. This trail was packed but not track set. With each stride, we would sink into the heavy wet snow an inch or two. It was surprising that we were still able to get a decent amount of glide. It was quiet and peaceful, with the only sounds being our skis crunching through the snow.

We came upon a hill, that was signed with a warning. I remember the hill from a few years ago, from the first time we attempted this trail. I attacked it pretty quickly, and ran into some trouble right after the first turn. My snow plow turned out to be ineffective in the heavy snow, and I fell - laughing as it occurred, although I was a little bit shaken. I had a long way down to go yet. I dug myself up and prepared to tackle the rest of the hill. Unfortunately, I didn't make it very far. After about 20 feet, I fell again, this time rather spectacularly. My left ski ended up upside-down underneath me. My left two was at a very unhealthy angle. My right ski was also stuck in the heavy snow and such an angle as I could not move. Any attempt at motion caused pain in either my hips/abductors or my toe. I called for Scott to come and unclip me from my skis. I couldn't reach either of them. I can't imagine the mess I would have been in if I was skiing alone!

Scott made his way down to rescue me. I was afraid that he would lose control and plow into me, which would not end well! However, he was suitably careful and made his way below me to unclip my right ski. Once that was out, I could move my hips to a more comfortable position, and then figure out how to extract my left ski from under me in a manner that didn't further injure my toe. Through great contortions, I was able to straighten out my ski. At that point, I decided that we had had enough of the Old Thompson Trail. We were in about 1 km, and the ungroomed trail was 7km in length. With an uncertain toe and other potentially sore body parts, I figured it was wiser to turn around and head for safer ground. I unclipped my left ski and walked up the hill.

Once on flat ground, I put my skis back on. It wasn't until then that it occurred to me that the reason for my issues on the hills was my backpack. This was my first trip out this year with a loaded backpack. The load (although not that heavy) was causing me to adjust my balance inappropriately. I wasn't lowering my center of gravity correctly. Add to that, that my classic boots don't provide the same level of support as my skate boots (and I've done a lot more skate this year than classic).

The remainder of the ski home was pretty uneventful. I tried to take it easy as much as possible, so as not to hurt. I found I was really nursing the toe and not skiing with that great of form, but I was able to ski without too much discomfort.

When we got in, I got a chance to check out my toe. It was a little swollen, but not in too bad shape. I could still walk on it, with only mild discomfort. So, all-in-all a nice day of skiing and only a little mis-hap.

A beautiful winter Sunday

2008-02-03T16:54:00.000-05:00

We are up at the Couples Resort up in Whitney Ontario (on highway 60 at the south east board of Algonquin park).

This is actually our third time at the Couples Resort, previously known as the Bear Trail. We like to venture up here in the winter and spend a week cross country skiing. The resort is far from roughing it. Every room has a jacuzzi tub, and included with your room is a gourmet 4-course dinner and breakfast. In the summer, it is expensive, but in the winter they have week-day 50% off rates that make it all pretty reasonable.

This year we chose to say in a Spa Villa. In the past, we have stayed in a Bridle Suite and a smaller room. We found the smaller room to be too small. It appears that we were not the only ones, as they don't have those as rooms anymore. Our experience there was that the extra $200 was worth it for the larger room (that is, $200 for 5 nights). The Spa Villa is huge in comparison to the suites. It has a bonus funky steam shower with two stations, so you can shower together without getting cold!

We arrived early today, at about 1:30 pm. That meant that we had lots of time for a ski before our room was ready.

We strapped on our skate skis and headed out across the lake. The snow was a little soft and the grooming was rather sparse compared to Gatineau park. We were reminded just how spoiled we are at home. The track was slow but we were delighted to discover that the last two years of lessons had made a huge difference. Last time we were skate skiing here, we struggled to ski 1 or 2 km. Today, we skied just under 6km without much struggle.

Our total for today was 5.86 km in 1h 12 min. That doesn't sound great, but 1km of it was over a classic trail that involved a fair bit of hill climbing. The narrow trail made it a challenge.

We found ourselves skiing across the lake and into the trail system by memory. We realized after we got across the lake that we forgot to pick up a trail map (oops). We stuck to familiar areas, specially since we had our skate skis on. They just aren't as versatile as classic skis.

Entering the classic trail posed a challenged, but once we were in up in the hills, surrounded by nature it was pure bliss. That is pure bliss and a fair bit of laughing at what we got ourselves into. I took a picture with my cell phone camera. Scott was an amazing site of bright orange in a field of dark green and gray. The wilderness looks black and white with it lack of colour, so Scott's jacket made him stand out like the colourized red rose in one of those artistic photos.

Skate skis are quite useless on a purely classic trail. You are limited to doing the haring bone to climb hills and double polling when it is anything close to flat.

Once we escaped from the trail, we skied along a rail line trestle for a bit. It as just wide enough to allow us to get reasonable glide. When the trestle trail ended, we headed back out over the lake. This was an interested experience. We found ourselves skate skiing over ungroomed powder across the lake. I was surprised at how easy it was to get pretty reasonable glide. I expected it to be much more work.

We eventually found our way back to the ski-do trail and then to the groomed trail. It was a wonderful day for a ski.

Day 8 - Home for a rest

2007-08-26T20:52:00.000-04:00

Today: 16 km
Ride time: 58m

Track from Dovern B&B to Charlettetown Airport.
Track from Ottawa airport to home.

Today was pretty unadventurous. We rode to the airport in Charlottetown. It took us only 30 minutes to change and pack our bikes (much quicker than for our departure from Ottawa).

We arrived home to have all our luggage arrive with us.

Pretty uneventful. The weather in Ottawa is gorgeous (22 degrees and sunny).

My ride total for the week is: 461 km
With ride time totaling: 26h 13m

Scott's totals are probably about 35 km longer and 2 hours longer, as he rode to East Point on Day 6 and I didn't.

Day 7 - Back to Charlottetown

2007-08-25T19:35:00.000-04:00

Today: 65 km (60 to the B&B and an additional 5 km running around Charlottetown.
Ride time: 4h 3m.

Track for ride from St. Peters to Charlottetown.

As Scott would say, today we cheated. More specifically, we took a ride from Souris to St.. Peters, which took oft about 25 km from our ride today. I felt that 85 km was a bit beyond what I could manage. I am glad we did take the lift, as I was rather beat by the time we finally arrived.

Becky on the Confederation trail just as we were leaving St. Peters.

Mussel farm near St. Peters. If you look closely you can see a cormorant.

When we passed this swampy area outside of Morrel (on the Confederation trail), I was reminded of those black and white photos with the single red rose. The red seemed so out of place.

I thought this photo gave a good sense of how straight the trail is, Notice the slight gentle. upward slope. The trail was a great way to avoid the hills.

We stopped for lunch at the Trail Side Cafe. The food was good, but a little bit pricey. It was very nice to have an alternative to the greasy spoon down the road.

After lunch we took highway 21 back to Charlottetown rather than continuing on the trail (continuing on the trail would add 10 km to our return on the slow going trail). Highway 21 was a back road with little traffic and a few nice sized hills. We arrived in Charlottetown at 3:30, so I took a quick trip up to McQueens to pick up our bike locks (which were accidentally left in their van) and to pick up some sandwiches at the Sobeys for lunch on the plane.

For dinner, we returned to the Piece a Cake to enjoy another good meal and what turned out to be Lawrence's last night singing in PEI before heading back home to Manitoba. It was a great way to end our time in Charlottetown.

Day 6 - water and wind

2007-08-24T16:07:00.000-04:00

Today: 36 km
Ride time: 2h 7m

Track for ride to Singing Sands and back.

Today was wet. It is hard to look back at the pictures of the last few days and remember what the Sun felt like. Today is full of wind and rain. the picture is me ringing the water out of my socks. We rode out to the museum near the singing sands beach (12km). After a break at the museum, Scott decided he wanted to continue the ride out to the East Point lighthouse. I decided I was too wet and just wanted to go back to warm and dry. So, I headed towards confederation trail and Scott proceeded further east. My ride back was more work then expected. The detour to the trail added about 12km (6 of which was into a brutal headwind). I'm not sure if I wouldn't have been better off sticking to the main road and tackling the hills.

Some Pictures from Scott's journey

Day 5 - The journey east

2007-08-23T19:03:00.000-04:00

Today: 70 km
Ride time: 3h 51m

Track from Knox's Dam (Montague) to McLean House Inn (Souris).

Today we journeyed from Knox's Dam B&B in Montague to Souris. The journey began on a very nice part of the Confederation trail. I was quite happy to discover that the trail did have parts that were better packed than the part we had been on between Murry River and Flat River.

We paused on a bridge over a heritage river to visit with some cyclists that were passing by in the other direction. They told us they had the opportunity to see an 800lb tuna be brought into harbour. They said it took the fisherman more than 3 hours, with a hook that was only 2 inches long and 200lb test line. The tuna was estimated to be worth $5000. I can see way the deep sea tours say that the captain keeps the fish!

The river was very pretty and had several herons and other birds nesting in and around it.

We stopped for lunch at the Inn at Fortune Bay. It was only the second day they were open for lunch, so we were lucky. It was the best lunch we had for the entire trip (and possibly even the best meal ... although, we really enjoyed Piece A Cake in Charlottetown).

We arrived in Souris a little early; that is, we arrived at the McLean House Inn and my GPS only read 67 km, and it was supposed to be a 70km day. I could see the Souris lighthouse from the Inn so I dragged Scott along for a short additional jaunt to see the lighthouse. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the many others we had seen throughout our travels. I guess that is why it doesn't appear on the list of lighthouses to see!

Day 4 - Beaches and lighthouses

2007-08-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

Today: 57.24 km
Ride time: 3h 11m

Unfortunately, I don't have the GPS tracks for today because I forgot to plug in my GPS last night and I appear to have not turned it off at the end of yesterday (oops). Here is the track for part of the ride out to Panmure Island.

Today we ventured out to the Panmure Island lighthouse and beach.

On our ride out (and many other times throughout the week), we saw herons. Scott took this great photo:

On the way to Panmure Island, we took a detour to see the St. Andrew's point lighthouse. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was on private property, so we were not able to go an take a close look. We did continue along to a little park, and had a good view of some seals. While in the park, we met a gentleman that was traveling by motorcycle. He lived on PEI and had a bunch of huskies. He commented that he liked to run them on the Confederation trail in the winter time, but unfortunately, it was difficult, because snowmobiles used the trail and were often traveling at very high speeds.

When we got to Panmure Island, we passed by the park and continued onto the lighthouse. Since we did not see Catherine and Kurt at the beach, we wanted to check out the lighthouse before going swimming. We chose not to climb this lighthouse, because they wanted $4 each person! We thought that was a little excessive (specially since the Prim Point light was free).

Panmure beach is a long beautiful beach.

Scott and I did make a valiant attempt at swimming. We ran into the water and dunked our heads, before departing. Our ride back to the B&B was quiet and uneventful.

That night, we did get a chance to try out that new organic local restaurant in Murray River, Finnan Haddie, the one we missed on our way through the first time. We had a decent meal at a great price with great company.

Day 3 - great ride and great stories

2007-08-21T13:56:00.000-04:00

Today: 38 km
Ride time: 2h 15m

Track for ride from Fiddle Farm to Knox's Dam.

Today was a short ride day (38 km), and my muscles were very glad of it. My muscles were also very glad that the B&B had a nice soaker tub. The ride was a series of rolling hills. The road was very straight so you could see the hills for many Kilometers ahead. The hills were exactly what my muscles needed after 2 long days on relatively flat roads. They say "variety is the spice of life." Hills are the spice for cyclists.

When the hills ended, our route took us over a series of short dirt roads, some with loose gravel, others with hard-packed bright red clay.

We arrived to discover a beautiful B&B with gardens and nice spacious rooms.

Since we arrived at 1 pm, we headed directly to lunch. Unfortunately, food and town were not as close as I would have liked (2.5 km) especially without a car. We made dinner reservations and plans to ride our bikes into town for dinner. Town was just a little too far to walk.

The Stories
Richard Knox, he and his wife Janet run the B&B, has lived in PEI, all his life. He has many stories of his long history here. His father used to operate the power plant at the dam, hence Knox's Dam.

Our Surprise
After lunch we had a chance to sit back and relax. Whilst relaxing, we noticed someone arriving. A closer glance showed it was Katherine, Kurt, and Rachel - for some unknown reason, I thought they were not meeting up with them until Souris. We were glad to share the beautiful B&B with them. And the added bonus was that we would not need to ride to dinner!

Day 2 - Tired after a long day

2007-08-20T20:18:00.000-04:00

Today 79 km.
Ride time: 4h 16m

Track for trip to Cape Bear.

The day started and ended lovely. The sun blessed us most of the day.

Our first stop was at the visitor information centre just outside the Wood Island ferry terminal (where the ferry from Nova Scotia lands on PEI). We were amused by the fish shaped bike rack.

Our first detour was to see the Wood islands light. The whole time both Scott and I were singing the Arrogant Worms:

Oh the Wolfe Island Ferry is a very nice ferry
It´s a very nice ferry it´s the Wolfe Island Ferry
The Wolfe Island Ferry is a very nice ferry
It´s a very nice ferry, it´s the Wolfe Island Ferry

As we recalled various portions of the song, it occurred to us that there was a reason the Wood Island Ferry reminded us of Wolfe Island Ferry (near Kingston Ontario) song. Apparently, were were not the first people to see the similarities. The lyrics include:

Well, they´ve got lots of potatos & Anne of Green Gables
Oh crap, that´s Prince Edward Island

The wood island lighthouse is on the southern most tip of PEI .

Wood island light

The Wolfe Island Ferry is a very nice ferry. It´s a very nice ferry, it´s the Wolfe Island Ferry.

After the Wood Island light and ferry we continued down the road to the Rossignol winery (the only winery on PEI). We sampled several of their wines and bought a bottle for dinner that night and a fish shaped bottle to take home.

We then continued along the road to the Cape Bear Lighthouse. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed on Mondays, so we did not get a chance to venture inside.

When we were finished out lighthouse visits, we stopped for lunch in Murray Harbour at the local greasy spoon. Unfortunately, we discovered during lunch that a new organic local food restaurant (Finnan Haddie) had opened up in Murray River (less than a 30 minute ride away). If only we had known :(.

After lunch we headed back to the Fiddle Farm via the Confederation Trail. This was our first experience with the trail. We discovered that it is no paved. The trail is packed stone in some places and packed clay in others. On the part from Murry River back to Flat River, it is packed stone. We found it hard to make progress, compared to the roads, so at one point we jumped off the trail a little early and followed an adjacent road (which started out as clay and quickly became paved). Throughout the rest of our trip, we would be debating between the flat slow going trail or the hilly smooth roads.

Day 1 - Adventuring forth

2007-08-19T16:46:00.000-04:00

Today: 77 km
Ride time: 4h 2m
Fiddle Farm B&B 46deg 00.587' N 62deg 51.612' W

Track for Charlottetown to Fiddle Farm.

The day started out a little chilly (about 12 deg C).

We began by making short trip out to see Victoria Park in Charlottetown before heading away from the city.

Along our travels, we came across an alpaca farm. I'm pretty sure I had never seen alpacas before. They are odd looking animals with cuddly heads.
After lunch we decided we had the energy for a 22 km detour, to see the Point Prim lighthouse. One of the signs showed a picture of a lighthouse and the number 8. I thought this meant the lighthouse was only 8km away. Scott later pointed out that the number referred to the attraction number on the provincial tourist maps. oops! The lighthouse was an 11 km away from the highway. The way there was mostly into a pretty strong headwind. Fortunately, it made for a nice ride back.
The Point Prim lighthouse is the oldest operating lighthouse on PEI. It is also the only one made of bricks. They let you go inside and climb to the top (for fee, it turned out all the other lighthouses charged for the experience of climbing to the top. The view was excellent.

Scott decided to play a little with the reflections on the glass of the light on the lighthouse windows.

Scott also decided that we needed to take this opportunity to taste the salt water of the Atlantic ocean.

When we were at the lighthouse the sun came out. That too made for a nice ride back. Unfortunately, the nice weather did not last. Five km before the end or our rides destination the rains started again. We arrived slightly before 4 pm nice and soggy.

Day 0 - All is well that ends well

2007-08-18T15:40:00.000-04:00

Total distance: 22.5 km
Ride time: 1h 23m

Track to Ottawa airport.
Track from Charlottetown airport to Dovern B&B and some touring around Charlottetown.

Departing
We got up early, but still didn't leave the house as early as I to would have liked. We were a little surprised when the alarm went off at 5:30 am and it was still dark out. By 6:00 am, the light was better and we were packed and on our way by 6:15 am. So far, So good. We arrived at the airport at 6:45 am. This was a little later than I had hoped but still lots of time for an 8:15 am flight.
Becky and the bikes
My approach to packing changed last night after a test ride, my original thought was that I would just strap my duffel and backpack onto the rear rack. However, when to did that, the balance was off. The century gravity was too high, making the bike difficult to balance and manoeuvre . My second approach was to place the contents of the duffel into my panniers, and place only my back Back and empty duffel on top. This worked out OK.

What I'd Change
For our next trip, I'll rig the front panniers. Also, I will get a larger collapsible duffel bag. The front panniers would allow me to move the contents of my backpack onto the font rack, which would make the bike much steadier. We took turns going to the washroom to change into comfortable clothes for the flight.

Packing up the bikes
Once we arrived at the airport, we quickly began preparing for the fight. The gear was unloaded from the bikes and packed into duffel bags.
To prepare the bikes for the plane, the handlebars must be turned and lowered, the peddles must be removed, and some air must be let out of the tires. Finally, the bikes are rolled into large plastic bags and taped shut. When I thought Scott hand things under control, I went to the line to check us in. I soon discovered that things were not running as smoothly as we had hoped.

Waiting
The line was not moving. It was not clear to me why, but the area did appear rather cluttered. When I asked an agent, he explained that the baggage belt was broken. He said not to worry as most flights would be delayed 1-3 hours as a result (the belt broke yesterday as well). We were thinking "oh well, we will get there when we get there. "

After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, I was finally next in line. The agent turned the sign to closed and left! We were stuck in a line with no agent!

After about 10 minutes, I mentioned to an agent that wasn't helping any one, that we had bikes that we needed to pay for. She then allowed us to pay for the bikes and she checked us in. It was very much a relief to get to this point.

We had not had breakfast and I was starving. By this point, the time for our fight didn't matter to me. I just want to get some food. We dropped our bags off at the oversize counter (the only belt that was working). They hand carried our bikes down to the luggage area and placed our duffels on the belt. We headed to security. Scott checked the departures board, which directed us gate 13. Gate 13 is at the far west part of the new airport. Upon arriving at gate 13, we discovered the flight was actually leaving at gate 21. Gate 21 is in the old part of the airport (to east!). Scott felt the need to rush to our gate. I figured all flights were delayed and I wanted milk for our cereal. So I sent Scott to get milk while I made a pit-stop. We the proceeded to the gate. Scott rushing and me progressing at a leisurely pace.

Half way to the gate, Scott decides to go ahead to see what is up and I figure I'll take a look at the books in the bookstore before heading to the gate. A moment later we hear "Final boarding call for Jazz flight to Halifax" Ack! That is our flight. We run to make our flight, hoping our bikes make it. When we arrive at the gate, we are shown to our seats. We do notice our bikes being loaded onto the plane. We sigh with relief.

On the first plane
Our first flight is to Halifax. The flight leaves only 25 minutes late. There is actually hope that we will make our connection to Charlottetown. We relax on the plane and have our breakfast. Unfortunately, the milk Scott picked up specifically for Becky is Sour =(. Fortunately, Scott has enough of his milk to share! We arrive in Halifax well, with plenty of time to transfer to Charlottetown.

In Charlottetown
We arrive to watch the baggage guy drive the truck into the ditch. He decides to move the baggage carts by hand; which was rather amusing.
Unfortunately, we were soon to discover that Scott's bag didn't make it. Fortunately, my bag did make it. so Scott borrowed some sending clothes and we setup our bites and headed out. It was a beautiful afternoon in Charlottetown. We easily navigated our way to the confederation trail. At one point we observed some row houses that were painted in nice maritime colours. We enjoyed the short ride from the airport to the B&B we are were staying at. We arrived at the B&B, dropped off stuff and headed to the bike shop to check in. At treble shop we relieved our packets. Then it started to rain. Really heavy rain =(. Unfortunately, without Scott's luggage, he didn't have any wet weather gear or a jacket of any type. This made for a cold afternoon ride ,that was cut short due to weather.

A lovely dinner
After drying off and warming up, we headed out to the "Piece a Cake" restaurant. The food was excellent, the ambiance was excellent, and the entertainment was excellent. It was a thoroughly nice evening. During dinner, I got a phone call telling us the luggage had arrived. So, as the title says, all is well that ends well. We are here, we are dry, and we are ready for a good nights sleep! Cheers.

more on technology

2007-08-17T17:52:00.000-04:00

Well, my new tablet arrived. I think the handwriting recognition will take some practice. I am debating whether or not I am going to need a keyboard. So this post is being done with my tablet and handwriting.

Here is what my old on the road blogging solution looked like:

As you can see, the screen is really small. What you cannot see is that the modem/wireless Card is really slow. As a result, I was unable to place pictures on my blog using that solution. The tablet has the advantage of being a PC, including USB Ports. So, I can transfer pictures from my camera to my tablet and then post them. The only disadvantage is that too not nave a keyboard. So l am limited to the pace that I write, which is slower than I type.

I am certain that at some point during the vacation Scott will take a picture or me writing on my tablet. When he does, I'll add a photo here.

Blogging on the road

2007-08-15T20:03:00.001-04:00

So, I've been contemplating how I will blog during my upcoming vacation. When we went to Hawaii back in November, I picked up a keyboard for my palm pilot. I figured that if I had a keyboard, I would journal more. I was hoping to convert my journal to a blog at some point but it never happened. So I know that if I don't blog while I'm there, the blogging wont occur. So that again leaves me with the question of how?

I have a palm pilot and keyboard. I also have a wi-fi card for my palm pilot. In addition, I have a camera phone. I do find I am able to write OK on the palm pilot, but I would much prefer a more visual medium. I'd prefer to be able to integrate pictures directly into the posts.

Why not just use Internet Cafes? Because in Canada the cafes are few and far between, and that makes using them impractical. It does appear that in Montague and Souris that the public libraries have computer access. So, if all else fails, I'll be able to check on this blog and post a couple of things from those locations -- assuming I find the time and the library isn't too far from our B&B.

The biggest problem with my current solution is that I can't easily post directly to my blog. I can email the post to my blog; however, for some reason Versamail adds a bunch of header stuff to my message. I really don't want the header stuff on my blog. So, I am left with emailing the text portion of the message and connecting to blogger to edit the message prior to publishing it. I also do not know of a way to set the labels from email.

Oh well ... unless my new tablet arrives prior to vacation, this is the solution that I will need to live with.

This message was sent from my mobile device.

This is another test message

2007-08-08T15:28:00.001-04:00

This message is being composed using versamail and will be sent via gmail. Hopefully this will work better than using gmail directly on the net and will allow for offline composition.

Preparing for PEI

2007-08-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

From August 18-25, Scott and I will be cycling around south eastern PEI. We are doing and independent tour, which means that the tour company will move our luggage and give us maps (see MacQueen's Island Tours). Otherwise we are on our own, free to move at our own pace and do our own thing. Our accommodations will be in several small B*Bs:

Packing list
To add to the challenge, we have decided to ride our biked to and from the airports. This means that we can't bring too much stuff. We are working on defining the minimum amount of stuff we need while ensuring that we are comfortable and not feeling we left something behind. Here is our list so far:

Apres Cycle:

one pair of long pants (that can be both causal and semi-formal)
one pair of shorts or capre pants
one short sleeve T-shirt
one long sleeve T-shirt
one dressy shirt
running shoes
sandals (that can be both utilitarian and dressy)
socks and underwear

Cycle basics

2 or 3 pairs of cycling shorts
2 cycle jerseys
rain pants
rain jacket
sweater (can be worn cycling or apres cycle)
sunscreen
gloves
helmet
bandana
knee braces
GPS
lock
camera
cell phone
bike bags (panniers, rack bags, etc)
bike repair kit (tools, spare tube, pump)
first aid kit
water bottles
powdered cycle drink (e.g. Gatorade or Cytomax)

Other stuff

liquid laundry soap (for washing cycle shorts each night)
clothes line (for hanging up laundry to dry)
butt butter (to prevent bicycle butt)
shampoo, conditioner, moisturizing cream (for wind and sun burn)
toothpaste, toothbrush, floss
medications, Advil, decongestant, antihistamine
log book, palm pilot, keyboard (for blogging)

That's all I can think of at the moment. If you think I've forgotten anything critical, let me know :).