September 29, 2013

The flights are booked !!! It is really happening.  We fly on December 4, 2013 to Los Angeles and then on to New Zealand arriving on December 6, 2013 – approximately 5 hour flight to LA, a bit of a layover in LA and then the 13 hour flight to New Zealand.  We will spend about 3 months in New Zealand and then onto Australia, for approximately 6 months.

• Nomads Insurance is paid for.
• Australian visas have been applied for.
• Storage unit is reserved.
• All we have to do is pack our panniers and we are ready 🙂

The Grand Adventure is about to begin 🙂 🙂 🙂

September 21, 2013

The Warm Showers Community is a free worldwide hospitality exchange for touring cyclists. People who are willing to host touring cyclists sign up and provide their contact information, and may occasionally have someone stay with them and share great stories and a drink.

Check out the website at www.warmshowers.com

As we started to plan the Grand Adventure, we were looking at our various options for accommodation, apart from flights, accommodation is going to be the most expensive part of our trip.  I had heard about Warm Showers and looked into it.  At first Ralf wasn’t so keen on it, who would we host, what are the expectations of hosting and being hosted?  What happens if we didn’t feel comfortable with the cyclist(s) when they showed up at our door? Will we feel comfortable staying with perfect strangers?

This spring we decided to sign up for hosting.  It was fun.  We hosted 4 different pairs of cyclists – two older couples on tandems and two younger couples 2 girls crossing America and Canada the northern tier, and 2 guys cycling from the Appalachian Trail back to Chicago.  I hope they all enjoyed their stay with us.   We felt very comfortable having all the cyclists stay in our house and had a wonderful time learning about their adventures and cycling experience.

As the days get cooler and shorter we were not expecting any more cyclists to come through Barrie.  We were surprised on Wednesday by a phone call from a couple who were about to embark on the Underground Railway Route in reverse.  Starting in Owen Sound and cycling to Mobile Alabama. This is a route I definitely want to cycle but from Mobile to Owen Sound. We had a wonderful visit with the Tandem Teachers (Ret’d).  Hobs had a great quote: Touring cyclists only need 3 bones: a wish bone (to dream), a back-bone (to be able to implement the dreams); and a funny bone (you are going to need it).

Our first and last Warmshowers guests were both older cyclists on tandems (early sixties).  They had a wealth of experience and knowledge to share and we feel more comfortable about utilizing the Warmshowers community on the Grand Adventure.

The house is sold!! – Now down to some serious planning.

• Vaccinations on the 4th October – ouch
• Nomads Insurance
• Visas for Australia
• Book flights to New Zealand and then on to Australia in March.
• International drivers licenses
• Pack and store stuff
• Quit work 🙂

July 20, 2013

We need a new roof.  What has that got to do with the Grand Adventure.  Well, the question is do we put on a new roof before we leave or negotiate the price on the sale of the house?  A call to our Real Estate Agent was needed and by the way how is the housing market in Barrie?  Farida Jones has been our real estate agent for the past 15 years.  She found the perfect houses for us each time we decided to move and has given us great advice when buying and selling the three houses we have lived in.  Need a real estate agent in Barrie call Farida Jones (Royal LePage).

Back to the Grand Adventure – o.k. Farida if we decided to sell now instead of February 2014 what are the chances of selling and what do you think we can get for the house?

Farida as usual did her homework and on Saturday July 20, 2013 came around with all the listings that are similar to ours and what they were offered at and sold at.  We discussed what she would price ours at, if we decided to sell now. After our discussions we needed time to digest the information and to look at the consequences of us leaving earlier.  We talked it over, slept on it overnight and after breakfast on Sunday called Farida and put the house on the market.  The For Sale sign went up on Monday and then Farida told us what to do – she knows exactly how to “stage” a house but still making it looked lived in.  We had to declutter the kitchen.

Ralf went on a Kijiji selling binge – putting everything we are not keeping on Kijiji (a website for selling unwanted items).

Last week was a whirlwind of getting the house decluttered, selling stuff, getting ready for viewings and still going to work.

I called my family on Sunday July 21, 2013 and told them about the change of plans they were all really excited for me.

What a week.

We do have the proviso that if the house does not sell by the end of September we will take it off the market and go back to the original plan of February 2014.

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.

January 11, 2013

I have Mrs. Sweet Cheeks.  We drove up to Huntsville on a warm (11 degrees) January day. She is awesome, she looks \’bomb-proof\’.  Glenn spent about two hours fitting me and going over the components that he had used.  Everything is blue from the cabling to the stem button 🙂 Perfect.  I can\’t wait to ride her.  As the weather was so mild, I thought I might be able to ride to work in January.  But winter did arrive, so I had her on the trainer downstairs.

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The original photo of Glenn at Algonquin was out of focus so here is a better one.

November 2012

During November we told my Dad and siblings about the Grand Adventure.  It was a mixed reaction.  Dad was \’gobsmacked\’ as they say in England, but was very excited for us.  My younger sister (Joy) was very interested and knew that I would be planning everything to the nth degree.  My eldest sister (Wendy) was very excited and wanted to follow us around the world in a car.  Nikki, was excited but worried how we would keep in touch.  Skype and this blog.  As Joy mentioned MickeyDs have free wi-fi around the world.  We are also not going to be roughing it too much, so hopefully the B&Bs and hotels will have free wi-fi as well.

We spoke to Ralf\’s father about it and he was interested in the planned route.  He also gave Ralf a lot of information about his family in Germany as we were hoping to get Ralf a German  passport.  After further investigation and letters to the German Consulate, we had no luck.  Germany does not allow for dual-citizenship, if you voluntarily gave German citizenship up for a new citizenship.