Oh The Places We'll Go!

The beginning count on our odometer. Soon to be clicking forward quite comfortably.

So we did it. We finally got out of town. Monday morning was spent running around getting all our last minute stuff packed and dealt with. Not to mention saying good bye to my parents and a few of our friends. We tried to make it a quick good-bye so everyone could stay happy and not get too emotional… okay maybe that was just me. We are both so excited for the trip, but that doesn’t mean that goodbyes are easy.

Last shot with the parents. Don’t worry, we will take care of each other!

After leaving our quaint little town in the mountains that we have both come to know and love as “home”, we headed east towards the big metropolis of Calgary to meet up with my old teammates Anna Goodman, Kelly Vanderbeek and Larisa Yurkiw. It was a fantastic coincidence that we managed to make them our first stop. They were all in town on a joint rehab dryland camp. They have all been working incredibly hard to come back from some serious knee injuries, but they seem to be at the point where they see the skis in the light at the end of the tunnel. It is amazing the friendships that are created from living in such an intense environment like travelling around the world with the White Circus. The bonds that are created are ones that will never be broken and I know I have friends for life in all of them.

From Left: Kelly, Larisa, Shona, Anna

After another good bye we took the road and headed towards Edmonton. Our first night was to be spent at a friends acreage just outside of Edmonton. Mike and Mel Chalmers were on Andrews ski team at Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. They recently had an addition to their family with their new son Kalem.  At 3 months old, he was pretty cute and a great baby, but I still didn’t want to hold him in case parenthood was contagious.

We had a great night making incredible home made pizzas and catching up on lost time. There is not much better than having a few drinks with awesome people and just shooting the breeze. It was great to hear stories from their time at University. Andrew was surprised that I still loved him after some of the stories that were told! Actually they weren’t that bad. Mike and Mel took off early to head to North Battleford, Saskatchewan, and we spent a lazy morning getting ready to hit the road.

Us with Mike and Mel (Thanks for everything guys!)

After jumping in the car we officially started the road trip together (Andrew drove the Golf to Mike and Mel’s to store for a few months). In honor of the beginning of our trip we threw in one of the two mix CD’s that our friend Helen made for us as our going away present. The Get Psyched Mixes are incredible and provide us endless hours of  stoke… which just add to the already dangerously high levels that we are experiencing. I am sure they will be useful for the 730 km of dirt road along the Dempster Highway where our natural levels may be dropping.

We are now hanging out in Grande Prairie, Alberta, home of the great chuckwagon driver Kelly Sutherland. If anyone knows the best way to add pictures to a blog with minimal internet time could you leave the info perhaps in a comment after this posting. It is hard when you are trying to find internet and you only have so much time to devote so much of it to uploading each individual picture. Thanks!

Born To Be Wild

My father finally returned home from his epic two month long excursion down the length of Ellesmere Island in Canada's basically unexplored north. Some of the things such as the huge ice bergs and ice sheets that covered much of the northern section of the island and the fjords were expected. Others, however, such as the gigantic fields of colorful wildflowers were not. We had the full run down in a slide show yesterday of all the trials and tribulations of the trip, and I realized "epic" is really putting it mildly. Look on to discover some of the breathtaking scenery and the incredible flora and fauna that is "Ellesmere Island".

Starting Place. The small research base of Eureka located at almost 80 degrees north

Typical Arctic Hare searching for food

Common crack through the ice that caused many detours attempting to find crossible sections.

Floorless tent. Trying to dry out clothing after a long crossing of Greely fjord

Typical landscapes while travelling across the ever melting sea ice.

Iceberg or LION?!

Cracks in the ice were sometimes too large to easily cross, so boat crossings were delicate and time consuming.

Camping spots were expensive and had to be reserved months in advance... oh wait, that was Alberta on the August long weekend.

Camping with the sled converted into a buggy.

Pulling the buggy

Wolves scope out John and Clive's camp.

Not sure which is more incredible, the massive Muskox or the field of vibrant fire weed.

Sometimes the going was tough and they had to disassemble the buggy and make multiple trips over high passes!

Another okay campsite... if you are into things like stunning scenery and pure nature.

Enjoying hot cocoa after a big day.

Another day of rough going in the rain and cold.

Yes! What you have all been waiting for. This Polar bear showed up in Grise Fiord on the last day. A perfect ending to an incredible journey.

Picture from Grise Fjord.

Grise Fjord was the final stage of their journey and from there began the arduous journey back to real civilization. Grise Fjord is the most northern civilian settlement in North America and one of the coldest inhabited place on earth with an average temperature of -16.5 degrees Celsius. In Inuktitut it is called Aujuittuq and literally means the "place that never thaws". All in all it looked truly like a one of a kind trip. One that I may never journey on, but am deeply proud of my father for completing.

As for us, we have been informed that Kumu is healthy again. We are all holding our breaths till we get it back on the road tomorrow. We have a few days left of final prep before our launch date on Monday. It seems as though everything is falling into place and we are looking forward to leaving with great anticipation!

Born To Be Wild-Steppenwolf

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

This time 8 days ago, things were shaping up quite nicely. However, as the old adage goes, "It never rains but it pours"...Or something along those lines anyway. Needless to say, this week was a bit of a tropical storm in terms of trip planning and more specifically: Van  maintenance. We had taken in Kumu for some routine maintenance to an unnamed place in Canmore. Brakes were good, engine was good, all we needed was some TLC, a new filter here, a new filter there, just to make sure everything was in tip-top shape. After a week of waiting, not hearing a peep from the garage, I decided to head down and see what the deal was. I would like to think that the owner just had a terrible day and was taking it out on me, but it was one of the worst experiences I have had in quite some time. Apparently the brakes were a disaster and we had just about started a fire trying to install our stereo. (He never bothered to ask what the wiring was like BEFORE we installed our stereo (basically a melted mess)). Long story short, I got into Kumu and discovered... Yes, indeed, the breaks WERE a disaster and certainly noticeably worse than when we took the car in. As we had great long weekend plans, I scrambled around to get someone to fix the all of a sudden ruined breaks, and thankfully Reese at Midas in Calgary was incredibly helpful and got them done in just a few hours. So big thank you to Reese.

It gets better... On the way home from the breaks  debacle, Kumu starts to get hiccoughs. Now all of a sudden, (again coincidentally close to taking it to douchebag Canmore garage) Kumu is drinking fuel like its going out of style and she's trying to be a trendsetter.
Once again, long story short we have a rather big problem of fuel consumption. Trying to make it to Argentina while filling up every 100km, is not my idea of fun, and we would have to sacrifice our bikes, clothes and food for Jerry cans.
So, before the trip has even begun our Kumu (teacher-Hawaiian) is teaching us many things. Patience probably being top of the list.
As our proposed departure date looms closer and closer, I feel like we should hire a film crew just to document this impending climax. Will they make it on time? Will they even make it at all? Stay tuned for the next dramatic stage of these epic events.

And on a much more positive note, despite being ruined by eclectic vans and somebody adamantly refusing that we head west, we managed to salvage what was left of the August long weekend.

At Takakaw Falls in Yoho

A must see attraction for all tourists to the Rockies!

Tui looking cute as we work on the van

We had to take the whole roof off to put in the new canvas! Talk about a big job!

Kumu looking fine with the new, finely installed canvas and the gravel guard paint job on the bottom. (painted by me!!!)

So the next two weeks will be filled with hectic running around and stress but I look forward to it all as part of the greatest adventure ever!

Every Rose Has Its Thorn-Poison

Painted Love ohohohhhh

We did it! We painted Kumu, and she looks damnnnn fineeeeee. Okay fine, Voiteck painted it, but we did all the body work. Okay fine, Andrew did most of the body work, but I did help a bit! I am most likely responsible for the parts that are still bumpy and noticeable. Oops! Anyways, here are the updated pictures of our baby!

Before Painting/After Body Work

Just being the bas ass duo that we are.

During Paining.

Voiteck working his magic and giving light to our new home!

After.

Looking like a fluffy white cloud of perfection.

A huge, huge, huge, huge thank you goes out to Voiteck for his amazing help and his insistance on perfection. And I apologize in advance if that is not the way you spell your name....

I Just Wanna Live While Im Alive, Its. My. Life

It's my life

It's now or never

But I ain't gonna live forever

I just want to live while I'm alive

(It's my life)

My heart is like an open highway

Like Frankie said, I did it my way

I just wanna live while I'm alive

It's my life

-Bon Jovi

Who needs therapists when we can just listen to the lyrics of rock songs? Honestly, they've got it going on. Whenever I am down, I just throw on some good ol' 80's rock and it reminds me to go out there and do it. Because like Bon Jovi so eloquently states, 'Its now or never'. That's basically how we feel about this trip, if not now, then when? But I get ahead of myself... I was talking about Bon Jovi. Now most people, I truly believe, have a hard time really disliking Bon Jovi. Many people say they do, but you throw on "Livin' on a Prayer" and within no time they are singing along and rocking out. Its true, try it sometime. I, on the other hand, have no problem proudly stating that I am a Bon Jovi fan and I don't care who knows it!
There definitely were not too many people sitting still at the concert in Calgary on Wednesday night. Even with a 'calf injury' John still rocked out like it was 1983.

JBJ Rockin' out at the Dome

Ava and I watching the fireworks at the Stampede after the amazing show!

So basically what I am trying to say is (again using the unchallenged eloquence of JBJ):

First time I heard the music

I thought it was my own

I could feel it in my heartbeat

I could feel it in my bones

My momma thinks I'm crazy

My dad says I'm insane

I got this boogie woogie fever

That's burning in my veins
All I want, is to be a Rolling Stone

They don't understand what we all know

It feels so good that it ought to be illegal

I got my vaccination from a phonograph needle

I'll never grow up and I'll never grow old

Blame it on the love of rock & roll

Well I figure its about time I add something to the blog. I have been working like a dog trying to save up some denieros to make this trip possible by helping to build a house in the little hamlet of Lac Des Arcs. The guys I work with are rad, and I am learning a ton along the way too.

We both decided that we should get Kumu in tip top shape before we depart (only 5 weeks away now!) and in that we both decided a makeover was in order - more so she doesn't fall apart from rust than for style...

So I took on what I thought was going to be a nice little hobby of doing the body work, little did I know that it would consume my every waking hour for the last 3 weeks!!!!!!

First came the removal of the rust......

Then loads and loads of sanding; both before and after the primer.

With a little luck and a lot of after work hours, hopefully she'll be done in time for our buddy to paint her up this Friday....

After this, hopefully the rest of the tasks won't be too time consuming so I can enjoy a little chill time........

So, I am sure you all saw Shona's detailed recount of her history and what brought her to here in her first post..... Well I can tell you that I am not an Olympian nor a Canadian champion. I am simply a guy who decided being a physicist wasn't the path for me right now, and decided to take a risk and move across the country to follow a true passion of mine, skiing. I landed a job in Kimberley BC as a ski coach, wow, nine years ago, and never really looked back. Quickly I realized that skiing and travelling the world were key to my happiness and have been doing so ever since. Each winter I ended up back in western Canada with an amazing adventure south almost every summer. Now, I have actually found someone crazy enough to drop almost everything and have no serious endpoint to go with me....... I have deemed this one the Mega trip. Let the games begin.

The Waiting

I know I must do better than this if I want to keep up an entertaining blog like some people I know. (i.e. Kelly McBroom and Anna Goodman). We actually have been quite busy the last couple weeks which is the lame excuse for my poor blogging skills.
Andrew has been hard at work on Kumu. Sanding, bonding, priming and sanding some more. I did help out, but I dont think I was made to do work like that. I may possibly have a mild case of ADD which causes me to work in a non-logical manner which basically just makes the whole process go slower. Ergo, I did a small part but I really think it's best left to Andrew. that being said we should be done today or tomorrow which means we can get it PAINTED! Yahoo!! No more rust bucket for us! Check back soon for updated pictures! Andrew has also been hard at work builing a house in beautiful Lac des Arc. Not a bad summer job... except when it rains ALL the time.
As for me, I had my first official coaching job with Lake Louise Ski Club on a one week camp down in Mt Hood, Oregon with Pierre Luc Dumoulin. Despite Mt. Hood being a summer training resort frequented by many teams, it was actually my first time there. We missed 2 out of 7 days on snow because of rain and 90 mile an hour winds. But thats okay, we made up for it by going to OMSI! Portlands sweet science center. We also managed a day trip to Hood River where it was over +30, so that was pretty great too!

Cooking for 13 was a bit of a chore, but we made it look good!

PL (The man in charge of the madness) standing on the clouds

Crazy clouds from the crazy wind

Up at mirror lake

I created little motorboating monsters. Muahahahaha

The whole crew (sans PL) up at Mirror Lake

Love at first sight.

I feel pretty good about my first coaching experience. I really felt like if I could make just one kid better, or get a little more stoked about skiing I had done my job. Because when it comes down to it, skiing is a super radical sport and we SHOULD be stoked about it. And we should all really enjoy the feeling of the freedom of being out in nature and ripping down the mountainside. If I can get a few kids to recognize that, I am happy.

As for the upcoming adventures, well, we are on a countdown of about 5 weeks. Its coming up fast and there is still a lot to take care of, but it does feel a bit like waiting. The anticipation level is rising, and both of us just want to get on the road.

Also, just right now, I have decided to start each blog with a song title... or a song lyric... It will be interesting how far I have to stretch my writing to make the subject relevant.

Until next time (hopfully sooner than last time!)

*The Waiting-Tom Petty*