Floating over your rocky spine....

Wow, I did not expect that I would not update my blog once during Tour Pacific, but that's how things turned out! I've been quite busy in the last few weeks as I travelled over Canada's rocky spine. Things started off in Fort Langley with an orientation day and a dinner of chicken paprikash as made by yours truly. Our riders were a crew of 14 consisting of some very diverse individuals. We had a pair of psychologists from Toronto, a pair of brothers (the Holy Rollers) one of whom was a PHD in theology and the other who is an episcopalian priest, a lovely Australian couple and several other lovely characters. The day after orientation the crew dipped their tires in the pacific ocean and began their journey out east.

Cooking on the stove



Who's that handsome fella?
Ol' blue, my commuter bike that I built out of my dad's old racing bike

Part of the Tour Pacific 2010 riding crew

The crew in its entirety before heading east

Our time in BC was actually rather uneventful. We travelled up the Coquihalla highway passing through the BC interior on our way to the icefield's parkway in Alberta. Along the way things went rather smoothly and my partner and I got to know the riders. We had a rather lovely rest day in Kamloops where I found a Scotiabank, slept in a real bed and ate out at real restaurant! What a day! I also got to see Toy Story 3 which was pretty decent. My glasses exploded this day however and I have yet to get them fixed. Thank God form y prescription sunglasses.

Our first real glimpse of the rockies (on this trip at least!)

Young Anna (FROM GUELPH!!!) celebrates her 32nd birthday with a cake provided by the lovely staff

Can't remember where I took this, but it's real pretty!

We then crossed into Alberta where things took an interesting turn. One of our major stops on the icefield's parkway was Jasper. We had a rest day scheduled here. On the night leading into the rest day (my only day to sleep in) my air mattress broke in the middle of the night! The following morning was teeming with rain which continued all day. I spent my day off in Jasper checking out the local laundromat/internet cafe. I managed to buy a therm-a-rest which was on the best decisions I made in my life. It may be thin, but it sure is comfy! The following morning was just awful. I awoke to heavy, heavy freezing rain and temperatures hovering around 0. As we packed up the galley in the downpour the rain began to slush and quickly turned to wet, cold-packed snow. Now, I like a good fluffy white snow, but this snow was basically like getting pelted with a 7-11 slurpee. As this is a DIY tour except for food and a campsite, the riders bravely set out into the frost. Most of them made it about 10km, but a few made it for longer. A bus was called in to pick everyone up and take them to the icefields center where they spent the night. However, us staff needed to tend to our duties and stay at the proscribed campsite and had to set up camp with our soaked gear in the -5 temps and camp the night!! I slept in the back of the truck while my manager and my partner slept in their tents in a shelter next to a woodstove.

TURN BACK KEVIN!!!

A view from the road

Gelbin and I 'chilling' at the campsite for the night

We eventually survived this ordeal and headed out for Banff where we had a lovely, sunny stay. We then descended into Calgary over a scenic and lovely couple of days where the tour sadly ended. There are no pictures of the going away party as I went to bed right away! This job really is working me quite well.

The water everywhere is so green. It's eerie

Some more mountains

Sad that all these are from the truck, isn't it?

Tomorrow I'll be doing orientation for Tour Arctic and then the following day we begin to head north! Things are moving really, really quickly.

I miss you all terribly.

One Great City!

Having travelled from Ontario all the way to the coast of BC, I can say that in the past few weeks I have seen an awful lot of Canada. However, one city stands out in all that adventuring as an albatross: a city that possesses a certain "je ne sais quoi". While passing through - and even near - this city we were subject to flooding, camping relocations, construction detours, lane restrictions, and awful, awful weather. In my brief stint passing by this metropolitan and allegedly world-class level city I accumulated quite a strong emotional perspective on her.

In that vein, I have recorded a song as written by The Weakerthans which I feel sums up how I feel about Winnipeg quite nicely.

You say "Goodbye" and I say "Hello"

After our journey across Canada I had a few days off in Fort Langley to rest my bones at the campground here. Afterwards though we were quickly uprooted and transported to the University of British Columbia to help officially "launch" Tour Du Canada 2010. I was given my very own room at the university dorms with a real bed for two nights! This made me quite happy. The first night we were there was rather simple; just some preparation and bookwork for the coming days. The following morning we started to meet the cyclists. This was a day of registration, meeting and greeting and of orientation. The following morning was the first official ride of the Tour Du Canada and everything at UBC was packed up in the truck and shot out East. Everything ran smoothly on the first couple of days barring a bit of rain here and there and some confusion over bathroom keys. Highlights of the journey include jam sessions with one of the TDC guys who brought his own guitar s well, and on our last night many of the TDC cyclists and us went out for a karaoke adventure in Merritt which was a great amount of fun. I sang "Solitary Man" by Neil Diamond by myself, and then after a few more pints myself and the musician-cyclist did a duet of "Daddy Sang Bass". My partner and I only followed the tour for a few days in order to help launch the tour smoothly and I tried to stay relatively detached, but I can't help but feel sad after having left them behind in Merrit. They have now moved on further East and now we've headed back to Fort Langley to await the launch of Tour Pacific: our first official tour of the season! It was also especially sad to say goodbye to the Tour Du Canada staff as we went through all of training together and convoyed across Canada together. Dare I say that we became friends in the ordeal and that they will be missed every time I pull into camp and go to set up for dinner.

Gelbin and I hanging out at UBC enjoying a scene from his natural habitat.


Meet and greet with the TDC cyclists at the UBC residences

"Suit up!" TDC style
(Not pictured here are the 43 cameras laid at my feet so that everyone would have a copy of this picture. This took about 5 minutes to get everything shot!)



In BC some things are really, really tiny!



...but some things are really, really huge!


Camp: Day 2

A little bike repair

"Any place to swim around here?"
"Sure, just across the way!"

Two brave souls go in for a closer look

What a coooool walking path

On my last night with the TDC the other musician and I somehow dressed identically with awesome beards, earth-toned plaid jackets, jeans and black hoods!

My manager insisted that the Turkey Tiara stay with the TDC crew, so I wore it as often as possible while I still had access to it.

I have today off as it's Canada Day. Later I'll be going out to check out the fireworks, but right now I'm just bumming around the Fort Langley campground again! Tomorrow is the orientation for Tour Pacific and then we're off to travel all across western Canada the following morning.

I forgot to write out a digital copy of Gelbin's letter before he sent it, but it's already in the mail and here's the picture we took of him in Fort Langley!

Go West, Young Man

I have arrived safely in Fort Langley, British Columbia but my adventure west was far from simple! Luckily for you all I have detailed my trip day by day so that you can relive my journey across Canada. I hope you enjoy this monster sized blog post.

Day 0: My send off from Orangeville

My last day in Orangeville with my mom and Bryan was a rather pleasant affair. My mom made me some salmon pie (which is one of my favourites!) but more importantly it is likely that this pie will be the last baked thing that I'll get to eat for months as there is no oven whatsoever on my tours across the country. We also had potato salad and celebratory champagne to mark the occasion of my last night sleeping in a real bed and indoors for a long time to come...

Smiling mom

The tasties

Goodbye Ontario!

Day 1: The foreshadowing

On Wednesday we all arrived in Alliston to to final preparations to the trucks and to pack our personal gear the morning before we shipped out. When I arrived I was informed that the truck's trailer had a major flat and needed to be repaired and would be back later. I also noticed that it was absolutely teeming with rain. Eventually we got everything packed up and we headed north to Thessalon, Ontario. When we arrived the rain had thankfully stopped and we were able to set up camp rather easily. I made a dinner of sausages braised in a white wine and lemon sauce served with penne. We arrived in good time and spent the evening exploring the beach.

The view from inside my galley on her maiden voyage of 2010

D'aw, our first night of camp. What memories!

The ladies stayed on the sand while the men went out for a dip

Day 2: To Thunder Bay!

Day 2 was a rather smooth ride through northern Ontario's beautiful back country. There were no major complications besides the lateness of our arrival into camp. I got a dinner of chicken tikka masala on the table at around 9:30 and then it began to thunderstorm around 9:45 with heavy, heavy rain. We had to scramble to get everything put away into the trailer, much of it unwashed. I did not get to finish my dinner this night. I was not very happy.

Amaretto and good food: the makings of a good night gone to waste

Day 3: We should have stayed in Thunder Bay

On day 3 we woke up early and packed up our rainy tents and gear to head out west to Manitoba. First we made a sobering stop at the the Terry Fox memorial. We then headed towards my favourite town of Dryden Ontario! In Dryden I got to pay a visit with my dad, but the cost was steep. I couldn't find the Petrocan in town, I then blocked up traffic by having to back the trailer out of some back-roads driveway at about 1km/h. Upon arriving at my dad's I only had about 45 minutes to stay which is awfully short! We then all rendezvoused back in the Wal-Mart parking lot where we realized that our trailer had sprung a leak in the patched tire. We then had to get the tire replaced in Dryden before continuing on with our day severely behind schedule. When we arrived in Manitoba our campsite was literally flooded and much of the campground was underwater. It was still teeming with rain. Being the troopers that we are we began to setup camp. We were then forcibly removed as we were setting up partially on someone's private property (still not sure how that happened). We then setup next to - of all the irony - a waterpark in the RV section. The rain never let up. One of my wonderful coworkers cooked us some bacon-wrapped chicken with caesar salad under a canopy in the rain. The girls slept in the truck and us boys doubled up in my tent that night to conserve the amount of gear that would need to be dried out.

The Terry Fox monument

Our original campsite

I'm glad we weren't assigned to this site!

Day 4: Off to Swift current, I mean Outlook Saskatchewan

We all packed up in Manitoba and were very glad to leave (although I thought that the check in girl was really cute, we had the day from hell and that didn't outweigh it). My partner and I stopped in Brandon, Manitoba for a gas-station shower trucker-style (oh yes, they exist) and got ourselves a little behind schedule. Then we ended up in Regina to do our shopping and were even further behind schedule. After checking in with head office we realized that trans Canada highway was actually closed due to severe flooding and lane destruction at the Alberta border. Having slept in a pond the previous two nights we found this not too surprising. Already behind schedule we made a several-hundred kilometre detour north to Outlook Saskatchewan where we would stay instead of Swift Current as was originally scheduled. We stayed at an absolutely beautiful campground although we were eaten by mosquitos worse than anywhere I'd ever been in my life. I'm still scratching and it's been several days! That night one of the staff made us a lovely version of Maria's traditional recipe, Spaghetti Bolognese. We arrived late, and thus ate, cleaned, and then slept. The showers were somewhat out of order here and thus I did not shower.

Welcome to Saskatchewan (Found in a ditch at the border with no other posted signage)

I don't use the term flooding lightly. This was a farmer's field mere days ago


We pull into our sleepy little spot for the night in Outlook, SK

Day 5: Oh God, why won't the prairies end??

I awoke this morning with no less than 11 plump, dark purple mosquitos lining the walls of my tent. These opportunistic pests were heavily stocked with a hemoglobic meal from my sleeping body. As a stirred they too stirred and my own blood flew around me everywhere - my own blood airborne with wings and proboscides. After this surreal experience we packed up camp and made our way across the remaining prairies. It was at this point that I realized that the prairies never end. They are an illusion which constantly makes you feel as if you are moving when in reality you've not travelled at all. After escaping the insanity of that illusion we passed through the badlands and came out the other side to see sweet, precious mountains! Oh how beautiful they were to see! We all stopped for a touristy moment at lake Louise and moved on to set up camp in the heart of the mountains at Golden BC. Showers here were $1 and I had no change: I went another day without a shower. For dinner we had some (overpriced) Alberta steak we picked up in Drumheller with homefries.

I see mountains, you guys!

See ya later, prairies!

Lake Louise, no big deal

Yeah, seems pretty average to me

Day 6: Why are we still driving??

Our final day of driving was a gauntlet. There were traffic jams outside of Vancouver, rainstorms to pass through, winding mountainous highways with construction, visibility issues and heavy traffic and also high tensions from 6 days of being seated in a car for 10 hours a day. We eventually arrived safely at Fort Langley and set up a dinner of chicken fajitas. Everyone except myself cleared themselves out to Vancouver and thus I am here for 4 peaceful days of solitude and rest. I'm looking forward to travelling no more than 100km or so a day for at least a little while! Our job picks up again on Friday and until them I'm on vacation. I plan on patronizing a few quaint little shops and sleeping a lot. Nothing more.

Gelbin and I hanging out in Fort Langley. Stay tuned for his second letter tomorrow!

Four Days off and the Missing Hayden Sisters

This week I've had a bit of a prolonged reprieve from training and was given four consecutive days off! Unfortunately the car is not here and thus I was somewhat stuck in the Orangeville area. However, I did certainly make the best of that time.

Thursday during the day I graduated from university!!! ...sort of!! I went to student services and tried to postpone my graduation date but was told that it was too late. I was told that I could be put on for graduation in absentia and that I could then attend a later (yet hollow and meaningless) ceremony. So that's what I did! I'll get my notice of being an official graduate in the mail really soon and I'm quite excited. That same day I took Karen out for lunch on her birthday, then we played some pool and bought candy. Then Thursday night I met up with one of the missing Hayden sisters, Rebecca. Beck and Laura both live in Orangeville and though Orangeville is my hometown they only moved here long after I'd left! These are the sisters of Karen and Kaila whom I never see. Beck and I went for a tour of my old walking trails in Orangeville which turned into quite a muddy and messy adventure due to all the rainfall earlier in the day. We got lost a lot due to my terrible sense of direction and my not having been out on the trails in years. However, I did manage to get Beck back home in one peice and I myself wasn't too worse for the wear!

Friday night I hung out with my old friend Sam Bull and we got up to not a lot of anything important at all. Just the way I like it.

Saturday was more Hayden hangouts again. There was a bbq in honour of Karen's birthday and Karen, Beck, Laura (whom I finally got to meet this day!), baby Alli and Kayla-via-webcam-from-Newfounland were all in attendence. I had a lovely time sitting in the sun, eating steak and drinking Red Stripe.

Unfortunately I think I may not have a lot of free time between now and when I leave next Wednesday so I'm a little upset that I have to toddle off to bed early tonight as I didn't get a lot of sleep the past few nights!

You don't make friends with salad

Tonight I made a Niçoise salad for everyone which I thought would be a lovely summer meal but was greeted with great scorn by my fellow staff. I'm realizing that a huge factor which makes a difference between working as a line cook and working in this environment is that people are generally picky eaters within specific parameters and I've just never realized this due to the difference in work environments. In a restaurant people look over your menu - often consisting of anywhere from 6-50 items - and select the thing which suits their tastes best that day and then subsequently enjoy that item greatly assuming you've prepared it properly. Picky eaters are always sure to find at least one thing which fits the tastes of their palate and - if you're skilled - you can please them every time. However, the difference here is that I'm not working from a menu; I'm selecting one dish to prepare in bulk quantities to serve to everyone that day. While some people love Niçoise salad apparently not everyone does. I'm either going to have to become a superhero and come up with a menu that pleases everyone every day or I will have to resign myself to the fact that a significant portion of people will leave every meal complaining of something which didn't suit their culinary tastes. The realization that I cannot possibly please everyone at every meal no matter how hard I try is disheartening and something I didn't fully consider! There's nothing I can do though, so I suppose I will move on to brighter matters.


On another note, here's a picture of all of us staff from the weekend event! As I haven't asked their permission to publish their names (I doubt anyone would mind, but let's play it safe) you can just enjoy their smiling faces for now.

Ship out date for going out west is June 16th and I'm counting down the days! I miss you all!