Hi everyone,
Just a short post here- we doubt anyone is checking this page anymore, but if you are and you are wondering- what has happened to our fine adventurers since this epic trip? Check us out at www.delaplante.com for updates, new photos and fun stories about life!
Hope all is well!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, July 18, 2008
CELEBRATIONS ABOUND!
Super quick post! We are currently in a library rushing off to meet back up with Ed at our campsite in ST. JOHN'S NEWFOUNDLAND!!!!!
We just added about 120 photos... but they aren't all captioned just yet... so feel free to do like my dad and invent your own.... or check back in later too.
We are super happy to be done, but we will definitely miss the carefree, vagrant days of our bike trip!
10 provinces, 7521km, and just about 2.5 months. Wow. What a trip.
We will blog again with more details about the beautiful province of Newfoundland and our travels home... and perhaps even some tips for future bike-trippers (if we are industrious).
Once again thanks to everyone who has commented or just checked in on us over the summer, we always appreciated the lovin' from home!
Must run... We're done!!!!
We just added about 120 photos... but they aren't all captioned just yet... so feel free to do like my dad and invent your own.... or check back in later too.
We are super happy to be done, but we will definitely miss the carefree, vagrant days of our bike trip!
10 provinces, 7521km, and just about 2.5 months. Wow. What a trip.
We will blog again with more details about the beautiful province of Newfoundland and our travels home... and perhaps even some tips for future bike-trippers (if we are industrious).
Once again thanks to everyone who has commented or just checked in on us over the summer, we always appreciated the lovin' from home!
Must run... We're done!!!!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Speedy McDemonson writes a blog entry!
'Sup dudes and dudettes! Get ready to have your socks rocked by a special guest post in a non-linear, not particularly factual manner on behalf of Neil de Laplante! Kate, Dad and I are currently chilling in Gander, NL; and by "chillin'", I of course mean "cycling furiously and typing a hundred miles an hour while the ladies at the tourist info desk give me dirty looks because I'm rapidly reaching my 15 minute limit". We've had great weather and great wind so far in Newfoundland; my 4 month experience in St. John's would never have lead me to think that I'd have to come to The Rock of all places to get a sunburn on this trip... perhaps that's more a factor of it finally being July (i.e. appropriate cycling season).
We also spent a day hiking in Gros Morne; it was deathly restful since we decided to climb the mountain the whole park is named after. A great time was had by all, especially our calves and stabilizer muscles in our legs, which are still crying uncle a couple days later. We've been pushing pretty large distances (150-180 kms) due to the duel joys of not having weight and wanting to go whale watching when we get to St. John's. It's a good time all around.
Also: After 7175 km, Kate finally got her first flat tire! Considering I've had 11 at this point, it was with some glee that I hopped off my bike and bare-handed her tire off of its rim. Shows her for getting cocky and discussing her options for bronzing her tubes and turning it into a statute to bequeath to future generations.
We'll post pictures before the end of the universe, but I'm no Nostradamus, so I can't tell you when that will be... you might want to use up your leftover vacation days by 2013 though, that's all I'm saying.
Keep on rocking in the free world,
Neil (on behalf of Kate)
We also spent a day hiking in Gros Morne; it was deathly restful since we decided to climb the mountain the whole park is named after. A great time was had by all, especially our calves and stabilizer muscles in our legs, which are still crying uncle a couple days later. We've been pushing pretty large distances (150-180 kms) due to the duel joys of not having weight and wanting to go whale watching when we get to St. John's. It's a good time all around.
Also: After 7175 km, Kate finally got her first flat tire! Considering I've had 11 at this point, it was with some glee that I hopped off my bike and bare-handed her tire off of its rim. Shows her for getting cocky and discussing her options for bronzing her tubes and turning it into a statute to bequeath to future generations.
We'll post pictures before the end of the universe, but I'm no Nostradamus, so I can't tell you when that will be... you might want to use up your leftover vacation days by 2013 though, that's all I'm saying.
Keep on rocking in the free world,
Neil (on behalf of Kate)
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
30km from the ferry and hoping to cross tonight!
SO our repairs this time put us in the situation of having to rush to fit the BOB and our two bikes in a luggage bay of an Acadian bus in about 3 minutes time. After unsuccessfully procuring a one-way car rental and finding that taxi's charged 200 smackaroos to get us to Sydney we were directed to the bus by one of the taxi companies! 4 hours later we arrived into a very dark Sydney, Nova Scotia and found a hotel that was luckily having a sale on their rooms for the night. So today, I sat in the park and gaurded our stuff while book bingeing (that is what we've decided I do.. I don't read a book... I binge it) and Neil went off and bought yet ANOTHER new rear wheel to replace his highly instable one. He did keep his old wheel though and will have it rebuilt with a new rim when we return home. It's currently strapped onto the back of the B.O.B. and looks QUITE hilarious.
We only have but a few minutes at the library now, we are headed out to bike to North Sydney and meet Neil's Dad at the ferry. He just called so we know he made the drive safely and undeniably in much better time than we made the trip!
Promised story from last blog:
Neil met Sarah Belanger at Geek camp, oh, I mean at the Deep River Science Academy when he was 15 and they have remained fast friends ever since. I had the pleasure of meeting her in Sackville, New Brunswick on our last trip out east (that time by car on the way to Neil's Co-op placement in Newfoundland). And just a few days ago.... we both had the amazing pleasure of meeting her boyfriend Aaron! We had just finished biking through this hellacious construction zone/emergency scene detour-combo that had us going on a back-roads detour that had zero shoulders and roads that were not meant for 1 direction of semi-truck traffic, let alone PASSING semi's (don't worry, we pulled off the road whenever traffic from our direction caught up to us again, luckily due to the construction zone before the detour it came in spurts so we could mostly keep riding). ANyways, we had just finished this ride and were back on the normal highway when a dude pulls up in a car next to us with his window rolled down. I was expecting him to ask us for directions, because even with all of our gear people still expect cyclists to be local, when he asked, "Is your name Neil?"
We were both thrown a little until he explained that he was Aaron, Sarah's long-time boyfriend that we were finally supposed to meet the day before but had been thwarted by missing the earlier P.E.I. ferry by all of 16 minutes! SO he pulled over and we had a quick chat and pictures were taken with the camera and camera phone of course... and then he headed back on his way home!
Awesome meeting you Aaron!
Alright, library time is up!
Hope all is well at home!
We only have but a few minutes at the library now, we are headed out to bike to North Sydney and meet Neil's Dad at the ferry. He just called so we know he made the drive safely and undeniably in much better time than we made the trip!
Promised story from last blog:
Neil met Sarah Belanger at Geek camp, oh, I mean at the Deep River Science Academy when he was 15 and they have remained fast friends ever since. I had the pleasure of meeting her in Sackville, New Brunswick on our last trip out east (that time by car on the way to Neil's Co-op placement in Newfoundland). And just a few days ago.... we both had the amazing pleasure of meeting her boyfriend Aaron! We had just finished biking through this hellacious construction zone/emergency scene detour-combo that had us going on a back-roads detour that had zero shoulders and roads that were not meant for 1 direction of semi-truck traffic, let alone PASSING semi's (don't worry, we pulled off the road whenever traffic from our direction caught up to us again, luckily due to the construction zone before the detour it came in spurts so we could mostly keep riding). ANyways, we had just finished this ride and were back on the normal highway when a dude pulls up in a car next to us with his window rolled down. I was expecting him to ask us for directions, because even with all of our gear people still expect cyclists to be local, when he asked, "Is your name Neil?"
We were both thrown a little until he explained that he was Aaron, Sarah's long-time boyfriend that we were finally supposed to meet the day before but had been thwarted by missing the earlier P.E.I. ferry by all of 16 minutes! SO he pulled over and we had a quick chat and pictures were taken with the camera and camera phone of course... and then he headed back on his way home!
Awesome meeting you Aaron!
Alright, library time is up!
Hope all is well at home!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Nothing like completing 2 provinces in 22 hours
P.E.I. was WAY hillier than I was expecting. Nevertheless we took the shuttle bus over the confederation bridge out of New Brunswick and had taken the ferry to Nova Scotia within 22hours. Felt pretty sweet.
The maritimes are absolutely gorgeous. Rolling hills, so many trees and tons of water. How could one resist the feeling or smell of the salty air blowing in their hair?
As I said before, we've had fabulous weather since we've crossed into New Brunswick, and now that we've left New Brunswick we've mostly left the black flies too! I was getting close to the end of my rope at being able to keep any semblence of a good mood with random parts of my body continously swelling up on me. It was painful - and I am happy to be back to my normal size once more!
We are now contemplating more bike repairs though, the nipple of one of Neil's spokes broke through his (supposedly "bomb-proof") rim making it highly unstable. Hopefully we can get it fixed in time to meet his dad, Ed, in North Sydney to make the ferry to Newfoundland.
Alas, I must surrender the computer to Neil so he can look for bike shops since we just lost access to the other computer....
will try to update soon!
(Oh! And it was awesome randomly meeting Aaron (sarah's boyfriend) on the road yesterday! That story and more to come later!)
The maritimes are absolutely gorgeous. Rolling hills, so many trees and tons of water. How could one resist the feeling or smell of the salty air blowing in their hair?
As I said before, we've had fabulous weather since we've crossed into New Brunswick, and now that we've left New Brunswick we've mostly left the black flies too! I was getting close to the end of my rope at being able to keep any semblence of a good mood with random parts of my body continously swelling up on me. It was painful - and I am happy to be back to my normal size once more!
We are now contemplating more bike repairs though, the nipple of one of Neil's spokes broke through his (supposedly "bomb-proof") rim making it highly unstable. Hopefully we can get it fixed in time to meet his dad, Ed, in North Sydney to make the ferry to Newfoundland.
Alas, I must surrender the computer to Neil so he can look for bike shops since we just lost access to the other computer....
will try to update soon!
(Oh! And it was awesome randomly meeting Aaron (sarah's boyfriend) on the road yesterday! That story and more to come later!)
Thursday, July 3, 2008
New pIctures
New pictures posted up until today... captions to come a later date, library closes in 5 minutes!
Cheers!
Cheers!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
New Brunswick... New weather!
We are now in New Brunswick making a quick stop at a library on a longer day of biking. We had quite a few short-er days in Quebec as the weather insisted on remaining rainy/foggy and very windy. However, after turning South and crossing a few of the hills of the Applachian mountains we are now in sunny skies!..... and clouds of bugs. It turns out I am allergic to black fly bites. This has been declared after my eye has swollen up for the second time... and various other parts of my body such as my right calf, both hips, my neck and my right wrist have swollen to double their normal size. So tonight we will be sleeping indoors so I can de-swell and I have purchased extra strength bug repellant to go with my bug hat. Hopefully I can avoid their bites in the future. Note to self: never move to backwoods Canada.
Otherwise we are doing really well! We had a lovely day in Quebec city and are hoping to reach Fredericton, N.B. tonight. We will write soon and will REALLY try to post pictures next time!
Love and hugs!
Otherwise we are doing really well! We had a lovely day in Quebec city and are hoping to reach Fredericton, N.B. tonight. We will write soon and will REALLY try to post pictures next time!
Love and hugs!
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