Monday May 24, 2013

Woke up with a blinding migraine. Weather changes always seem to bring them on even though I do not drink red wine and am careful about other migraine triggers. But you can\’t do anything about the weather.  So how am I (and Ralf for that matter) going to deal with our migraines on the Grand Adventure.  I have prescription drugs for them and if I get the aura I can usually take Ibuprofen to reduce the migraine to a dull roar.

Maybe I won\’t get them on the Grand Adventure – that would be nice.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – migraines I really hope I don\’t get a three day migraine on the Grand Adventure, that would really set us back.

Well we will just have to cope with them as they come.  I am going with … Not getting them on the Grand Adventure!!

This post has very little to do with the Grand Adventure or cycling, except for the fact that we generally cycle so that we can eat pasta, ice-cream and chocolate without fear of putting on a ton of weight.

This post is really about THE Chocolate Shop in Orangeville.  Ralf and I love chocolate and we really love good chocolate.  We discovered the Chocolate Shop in Orangeville a good number of years ago, while going to Theatre Orangeville.  Over the years Barb (the owner) has given us great tips on where to eat in Orangeville and we have become friends.

Barb makes handmade truffles and chocolates which are too die for.  We have of course told her about the Grand Adventure and although this time she wasn\’t in the shop to greet us, she left us a special treat.

I would argue that both of these little bars match the colour of both of my bicycles, so I should get to eat them both.  I think Ralf may beg to differ 🙂

Check out the chocolate shop at ~The Chocolate Shop~

May 4, 2013

Saturday was the annual tent sale at Sojourn.  This is a great sale where they have a lot of the big companies at the store and in the parking lot showcasing their tents – Big Agnes, MSR, Marmot, Mountain Hardware, Sierra Designs, Eureka.  It was great to be able to compare Big Agnes, MSR and Marmot tents all in once place and talk to the reps from the companies.  I had been doing a lot of research on the tents and had basically decided between the Big Agnes and the MSR tents.  When we could see them up close and personal, we decided that the Big Agnes was the winner.  Both tents were really good, Big Agnes was slightly lighter which meant we could buy the Thermarest cots for added comfort and still come in under 15 lbs each for camping gear.

We decided to buy the Thermarest cots for added comfort, but didn’t buy the Thermarest mattresses.  We decided that we would try the cots first without the mattress and see how warm/cold they would be.  We set them up in the basement with a sheet covering the cot and using the Thermarest Down blanket on top.  We could really feel the coolness of the concrete basement floor and felt quite chilly from underneath.  Decision made, we would buy the Thermarest Pro light for extra comfort.

Of course sleeping in the basement also left us at the mercy of our cat, Oliver, who is not allowed in our bedroom.  At about 4:00 in the morning Oliver decided that he would join us in the basement, of course at that time in the morning (according to Oliver) everyone needed cleaning.  Being woken up by a cat’s tongue on your forehead is not the nicest way of being woken up – so I moved down the cot a little bit, this is exactly what Oliver wanted, because now he had my camp pillow to sleep on.  However he didn’t quite have enough room so spent the next few minutes wrapping himself around my head until he was comfortable – needless to say I wasn’t very comfortable.  Then the purring started a deep rumbling from his body which seemed to reverberate around my ears.  Why I allowed this to happen I am not sure, I could just as easily have shoved him off the cot (they are only about 5 inches of the ground) but no I didn’t do that I allowed myself to be uncomfortable for another couple of hours while Oliver snored happily away wrapped around my head like a giant ginger tea-cosy.

On Tuesday after getting my snow tires removed and an oil change and service for the car, I was told Hattie needed new tires and rear struts.  Too expensive for me to put that money into her as I was going to sell her in May anyway.  I put her on Kijiji with the work that needed to be done and got loads of response.  She left on Friday evening, it was quite sad to see her go, but I think she has gone to a good home (lol).  I am now car free – that is good.  It forces me to ride rain or shine and may be even do my grocery shopping via bicycle.

Fortunately the weather at the moment is perfect around 10 degrees (C) in the morning and about 20-25 (C) in the afternoon.  Perfect weather for riding and I am adding more weights to the panniers to get some practise in.