Team Ontario bikes the USA

Thank you Mrs Jones!

2008-04-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

On a cold January night, four girls from different parts of Ontario sat by the side of the road near Mittie, Louisiana. They ate canned vegetables and whole wheat pasta, prayed it would not rain and were a bit cold. Before hopping into their sleeping bags for the night, the girls drank camomile tea and laughed while thinking of where they would be spending the next night.

" Wouldn't it be great if we just happened upon the perfect host."

"Yeah, we could just pretend to be out of water and start knocking on doors until we found the ultimate person to stay with."

"She would offer us tea and scones..."

"...have warm and comfortable beds..."

"...be an amazing cook..."

"...have great stories to tell us..."

"...and kittens pulling trollies covered with pies..."

"...and her name would be Mrs Jones."

While the girls laughed at the impossibility of such a scenario, they had no idea what was to come. They thought Mrs Jones was too good to be true, but she wasn't. Magic was afoot on that January night by the highway. As Team Ontario listed dozens of charactaristics they wished to find in friends or host allong the way, they conjured Mrs Jones in dozens of incarnations.

Every person we met allong the way was a different version of Mrs Jones. Each and every individual who helped us was astounding in their generosity and openness to bring four (then two) perfect strangers into their home and treat them like a long lost friend.

Mrs Jones, thank you for showing us your town, for giving us directions and for driving us around when we were stuck by the side of the highway. Thanks for lending us your truck, your towels, your spare bedroom, your car, your computer, your phone and your shower. Thanks for feeding us birthday cake, pizza, cookies, chilli, salad, pasta and breakfast of all kinds. Thanks for visiting museums, going to movies and riding roller coasters with us. Thanks for opening your heart and home to us, for sharing stories and bits of your life with us. This trip would not have been possible or very much fun without you.

San Francisco!

2008-04-09T20:39:00.000-07:00

The day we cycled into San Francisco was pretty amazing indeed. The wind was howling, there was construction and hills to conquer but frankly, we didn't care too much. We were hours away from reaching our destination and nothing was standing in our way. Here it was, at the top of a very steep and arduous climb in Daly City. We had cycled from New Orleans to San Francisco... Whooooooeeeeee!

In keeping with Team Ontario's tradition, we stopped for a photo shoot. Friendly motorists honked us on...

Our time in San Francisco was fun filled and exciting. On our first day, we cycle around, getting a feel for the city, checked out a farmer's market, Fisherman's Wharf and had Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista.

Uncle John arranged for many fun and exciting activities for us including an evening at the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

On the weekend, we escaped the city to visit Yosemite National Park where we hiked around the valley and played many games of scrabble. For the record: Cowpokes is not a word!

On one of our last days together, Marianne and I cycled over the Golden Gate Bridge together. She flew back to Ottawa on April 16th and I took a train to Vancouver on the 20th. Both of us will be working on our respective farms this summer. Marianne will be working at the Experimetal Farm as a camp counselor in Ottawa and I will be joining the team at Wildflight, an organic vegetable farm in Mara, BC.

We will miss traveling but will keep our bikes close at hand...

A favorite San Francisco moment for me was a pedestrian calling out: "Look at you comming up that hill like its not even there."

To which I replied: " I rode from New Orleans!"

"S#%&*!" is all he had time to reply before I was out of earshot and off to my morning yoga class...

Rain? Yes Sur.

2008-04-09T20:26:00.000-07:00

Please forgive the cheesy pun. I couldn't help it...
Well we had seen rain forcasts before, many times before. Never had they actually resulted in any rain. That's right folks, believe it or not, Team Ontario made it across five states, cycled for three months and saw little more than a 20 minute shower on two or three ocasions...Until we got to Big Sur. Leaving San Simeon, we remained dry for the first few hours of cycling. Time enough to check out some seals lounging on the beach. Then it began to rain and did so for the rest of the day. We were pretty wet once we reached Lucia, a gas station with some rooms above it and a very expensive restauraunt. We were presented with two options: 1-camping in the rain and 2-room above the general store.

While Team Ontario is a very hardcore team which can endure physical and mental tests of every kind, they were totally unprepared for rain having never experienced it before on their trip. They opted for a lovely room with fireplace, shower and the entire thing was conveniently located very close to a source of ice cream... While it was expensive and a bit of a drag to be stuck inside for the afternoon, it made us realize just how lucky we had been for all those weeks of rain-free cycling.

Day two of Big Sur was sunny and beautiful. It was a challenging but short ride to our next hike-and-bike and we enjoyed the afternoon in Pheifer campground. We even had the oportunity to go for a hike in the afternoon.
Kit, our friend in Apache Junction cleverly nicknamed these hills the PUDS: Pointless Ups and Downs. And that they were... the elevation profile on our maps looked like a heart rate monitor compared to what we had seen in the past.
I do have to disagree with Kit about their pointlessness though...
The ups and downs were worth every grueling hill to be cycling through countryside that looked like this.
These were some of the most beautiful biking days of the trip, even with the rain.

After Big Sur, we got to stay with Juliana and Brian in Monterey where we went for delicious sushi and watched a strange but fun movie. Then we biked to Santa Cruz where we spent the evening with Ian and Christine.
This is where we had the oportunity to go on the second rollercoaster which was considerably more fun for the younger Anne than the older one... Another thrilling part of our time in Santa Cruz was a guest lecture at the university where we learned about a four-man trek through the desert in China. Very awesome indeed, suddenly our bike ride through civilized America seemed less intense.
Our last camping night was spent in Half Moon Bay. It was a gorgeous site overlooking the ocean and we were antsy and excited to reach San Francisco, Uncle John and to lay our bike trailer and paniers to rest for a while. While the touring was soon to be over, much fun was still to be had...find out more in Adventures in San Francisco and Yosemite!

The coast: Biking in Fast Forward!

2008-04-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

As we left Jim and began to cycle north, we were awestruck by how quickly we reached other towns. We barely had to cycle five miles along Highway 1 before we reached another stretch of surf, bike, coffee, clothing shops and restaurants as far as the eye could see. This was a bit of a shock to our system having come from the land of desert, farmland and tumbleweed... It was totally fun to be surrounded with all this stuff but I definitely felt disoriented with all the action. Distances just don't seem the same when everything is scrunched together like that.

One thing that made the coast great was the hike and bike campsites. In many state parks along the coast, there are specific non-utility sites set up for people just like us. These sites don't require a reservation and cost much, much less than a site for an RV. It was quite nice to be able to count on these spots along our way.

As we neared Los Angeles, we were able to stay with Dennis and Diane in Newport Beach. We studied maps carefully with these folks to try to figure out the best way to navigate our way through Los Angeles. We left their place feeling rather nervous about the 60 mile cycle through the city that lay ahead of us.

Luckily, after only one freeway off-ramp experience, we found the L.A. River bike path which led us north for about 40 miles towards Molly, our host's house. The bike trail saved us many hours in traffic, alongside cars and trucks, not to mention that there were no traffic lights, which meant that we were able to travel much faster through the city. After a few more hours of riding, we reached Molly's, but not before a pit stop at the local gelato place...

Molly and her roommates were great hosts. She was able to drive us up to the Getty Center, a beautiful museum and garden which overlooks the city. We rode our bikes back to Molly's through Hollywood. While our bicycles would have been perfect for infiltrating celebrity homes, we opted not to stop to get star maps. Our time in L.A. was also spent cycling around and checking out the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City.

Finally, we were ready to hit the road, but we were not to go very far... We cycled a mere 20 miles to Venice Beach where we stayed in our very first hostel and rode our fisrt rollercoaster! (watch for the second comming up soon) Venice Beach was fun and pretty crazy with it's beachfront flea market and vendors. We were definetly ready for a bit of quiet time when we left though.

Two more biking days would have us in Santa Barbara where we stayed with Shauna and Rachel who, very kindly, took us in quite at the last minute. We enjoyed a great dinner with them as well as the chance to hear about the kayaking trip they are planning in Palau! In Lompoc, a couple days latter, we enjoyed an evening with Terry, who cooked for us as we listened to delightful classical music. Terry told us all about his experience of this unique town and he was surprised that we had decided to cycle northbound allong the coast as most of his other guests were going in the oposite direction. He even offered to drive us up the coast so that we could cycle back, the wind at our tail...
As we cycled through Oceano, we were reminded just how far we had come and just how close we were to reaching San Francisco...
We spend one day off in San Luis Obispo, where we got the chance to stay with Sarah and Pancho and their lovely cats. We checked out this great town, its shops and restauraunts to finally spend the evning having dinner with our hosts and Brian, a friend who had found us a place to stay.
After SLO, we cycled a short day to Morro Bay and were able to enjoy some bird and seal watching from our kayaks in the bay during the afternoon. We got to stay with Ross and Jean and hear all about their past trip to Thailand and upcomming cycling tour across the northern part of the United States.

Another short jaunt got us to San Simeon where we toured Hearst Castle. This gigantic estate, built in the 1930's by a media tycoon from Los Angeles, is located five miles from the coast and overlooks water, mountains and San Simeon Village. It is filled with antique furniture, art and sculptures which were purchased by Hearst and he hosted many guests in this lavish home. It was quite the sight to see!

The following day was threatening rain and had us beginning the PUD's portion of our trip. To find out what a PUD is and how the Anne's would fare in the rain, tune in for BIG SUR or almost there...

San Diego

2008-04-09T20:01:00.001-07:00

Okay, so before we get too excited about the coast, we must get Team Ontario's dirty little secret out in the open... We make no excuses and will be perfectly honest with all y'all, we did not cycle all the way from New Orleans to San Francisco. And our arrival on the coast was one of the moments when we were assisted by a motorized vehicle.

As we rode away from Margarita's house it seemed forces were at work against us. We were facing a forty mile day with a 4000 foot climb during the last 16 miles and strong headwinds in the forecast. For many of you, these numbers mean nothing, be it because of the imperial-metric conversion or simply because you're not on a bicycle tour. Well, the important thing to keep in mind is that this day was not exactly our idea of a picnic. We got separated navigating around town which took about 30 minutes to sort out then we were forced to take a very bumpy road towards Ocotillo. Once on the bumpy road we were facing the most intense headwinds of the entire trip. Both Marianne and myself were in our easiest gears and going very, very slowly.

After traveling 28 miles out of El Centro, before the massive climb, we stopped at a gas station and were accosted by Sean, who gave me a sticker for my bicycle (which now is proudly displayed on my trailer). Sean and William were traveling to San Diego in a large truck, pulling a large quarter-pipe with which they did BMX bike demonstrations in high schools. Well, as things turn out, our bikes and gear fit pretty nicely into the quarter-pipe and we both fit pretty nicely in the backseat of the truck...need we say more.

Originally, we were going to get dropped off in Jacumba, where we had planned to stay that night. At this point, however, we were about 90 miles from San Diego, had been riding for 7 days straight and decided that this opportunity had likely presented itself for a reason. We rode with the boys all the way to San Diego.

We arrived in San Diego a couple days early so, instead of surprising our pre-arranged hosts, we opted to stay with William for our first night in the city. We enjoyed sushi and a rather petrifying jet ski ride in the bay with him before riding towards Jim and Julie's place on Saturday morning. The coast was a major shock for me with all its stimulation, people, water and joggers!

It was all really rather exciting though. We very much enjoyed our time in San Diego with Julie and Jim. We got to experience Balboa Park, farmers markets, great food and thrift stores (not that we could buy much), more museums than you could shake a stick at and, for Mare, the ZOO !!!

A lovely part of our time in San Diego was all the bike enthusiasm we received from our host. A typical day consisted of a leisurely breakfast at which point Jim would generally stroll in and ask: "Do you guys want to go for a bike ride? There's a really cool (insert really cool thing to bike to here) that I could show you guys." Well, inevitably we would take off and cycle around (Jim, always on a different bicycle) and check out parks, bridges and markets. We left San Diego on a misty morning and Jim lead the way to the boardwalk where we would head towards San Francisco.

"Ladies, go north" he told us. And that's just what we did.

California begins!

2008-04-09T19:48:00.001-07:00

Okay so... apologies for the large delay in keeping the updates flowing in a timely manner. Things have been hectic and stimulating along the coast with less time for our precious friend the interweb. But enough with the excuses, where were we?
Ah yes, once upon a time, we were still in a state which begins with the letter A. This picture was taken in the vacant property of Sherri, a school administrator in Salome, Arizona. It was not vacant, however, on the night of March 11th. After a hard day of riding in the hot sun, this little orange and grapefruit grove was a lovely oasis where we got to eat, read, sit in the shade, eat citrus fruit and ultimately, hang our bike helmets for the night. And it was to be the last night we would spend in Arizona before arriving in California to the town of Blythe.

In Blythe, we scoped out the local law enforcement and asked about a good place to camp. The officer directed us to a municipal park where we spent the evening loafing and making dinner. After the sun had gone down and we were just about ready for bed, I got up and out of the tent with a hunch that the green grass we were laying on was not naturally so green... A few locals just happened to be waiting for a bus nearby and confirmed that should we sleep in the park, we would get sprinkled at roughly 4 or 5 a.m. Luckily, the fire department was across the street and they allowed us to move our camp to their un-sprinkled, if slightly crispy lawn.

Our next day of riding had us land in the dunes of Glamis. A very strange place indeed. Picture beautiful sand dunes as far as the eye can see and one store. The store closed very soon after our arrival in Glamis and luckily we were able to purchase a large bottle of water there before it did. The dunes are a big attraction for quad drivers who pour into this speck of a town on long week-ends and ride around in the sand. We were very lucky to avoid much of this insanity by being there on a Thursday.

Following Glamis, we spend an evening in El Centro, at the home of Margarita, a real-estate agent and her husband Oscar Sauza, a 90 year old heir to a Mexican tequila company. While Oscar didn't speak English, Margarita told us some stories and antics about his youth and I very much wish we could have heard more...

That's all for now but you will definitely want to find out more as the Anne's get closer and closer to the coast...

Welcome to California

2008-03-15T23:16:00.001-07:00

Well, as things turn out, we have been in California for a bit of time now and I am getting terribly behind in my updates to you, faithful reader. Things are seemingly more busy, stimulating and happen much faster here on the coast so please don't despair and have patience. You will be filled in on adventures of Team Ontario and the Anne's in due time...

But for now, enjoy these amazing shots of us cycling through the dunes in Glamis, California before we had reached San Diego...

Lots of love,

Anne the 1st...

Arizona Part 2:Phoenix, Grand Canyon and motorized vehicles!

2008-03-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

Marianne and I rolled into Phoenix just in time for an amazing picnic with our hosts Cynthia and Tom. The picnic was at Damon's very cool school just by their house. We got to spend the week-end with these guys and they took us to the Botaincal Gardens and to a very cool soda fountain where I tried on another crazy dress (unfortunately, Mare's camera battery was dead, no photographic evidence is available).

From Cynthia's place, Mare and I rented a car and drove up to... GRAND CANYON! While we thought the Arizonans were exaggerating when they said it would be cold at the Grand Canyon, they were not. We began to see lots of snow in Flagstaff which is still a few hours south of the National Park. We arrived around sunset and quickly pitched our tent in the snow... It felt like a good idea to check out an indoor presentation about mountain lions by Ranger Laurie. So that's what we did.

The following morning, we woke up at dawn to watch the sun rise with a few other hardcore tourists who made it to the rim of the canyon in the blistering wind. We then enjoyed breakfast at one of the lodges before beginning our hike down towards the river.

The hike began on steep switchbacks which were covered with slippery ice. Some of the ice had mule dung on it, which was nice and provided some much needed traction. We descended for about three hours crossing mule trains, other hikers and park rangers and construction on our path. We seriously debated going all the way to the river, however, having gotten a bit of a late start, we knew we would be pushing our daylight hours if we kept going. Having made it to a point where we could see the river, we began climbing back out of the canyon.

After the hike, we drove south towards Sedona where we would stay with Pete and Genie in their very newly acquired home in Cornville. We got to spend some time with them and also drive around Sedona and Oak Creek, two very popular destinations due to the Red Rock formations which were amazing!

After our break from cycling, we returned to Phoenix where we would spend some more time with Damon, Cynthia, Tom, Kit and John. Cynthia very kindly hooked us up with some friends of hers, who showed us around First Friday. This art event happens every first Friday of the month and it is an opportunity for galleries to open their doors to the public for an evening. There are also hundreds of street vendors, performers and people. We checked it out with Felipe and Becka, two of Cynthia's co-workers and got to see a part of Phoenix which is anxious and excited to create a culture for itself in this booming and very new city.

After the art walk, Mare and I got back onto our bikes on Saturday and spent the better part of our cycling hours getting through Phoenix. We stayed in Circle City for the night before heading towards Wickenburg the next day. While we thought we would surely make it past Wickenburg, fate had other plans for Team Ontario, or the Anne's as we were lovingly named by our hosts in Phoenix.

About 10 miles past Wickenburg, Mare broke a spoke on the drive side of her rear wheel. This meant that without a special tool (which we did not have) we could not continue biking. Luckily, we were picked up by Jana, who was driving into Wickenburg to work. She was able to put us up at her parents house and Jim, her dad, very kindly drove us back towards Phoenix about 40 miles to the nearest bike shop where we could get the wheel fixed! So, what could have been a very complex ordeal became a single day setback thanks to Jim and Jana... We owe you guys!

Our last night in this state was spent in a beautiful back garden in Salome, Arizona. When we inquired about camping at the local high school, Sheri, the school's administrator offered us her empty property to camp in. The place had orange and grapefruit trees which we grazed on for the evening and for breakfast. It was very peaceful and relaxing place to spend the night and catch up on some reading and writing.

At this point, you are probably wondering what will happen next. Well, there's only one way to find out. Stay tuned for the next chapter of Team Ontariannes adventures where they enter yet another state (it begins with a C and it's not Colorado) and have a close encounter with another sprinkler system...

Arizona, Part 1

2008-03-01T21:08:00.001-08:00

...in which Team Ontario learnes the difference between the artificial and natural features of the Senoran Desert.

Leaving Silver City, Marianne and I were both pumped and energized from having spend time with a bunch of super awesome cyclists. While the plan was to cycle to Mule Creek, we made it about 12 miles further to the top of a 6200 pass and just into Arizona! We camped at the Blackjack Campground just off the side of the road in a beautiful pine forest. We woke up a bit on the chilly side, our water having frozen, ate a quick breakfast and descended the awesome 14 miles into Three Way...

We rode swiftly into Safford, then 9 miles further to Pima where we hung out in the park with four girls who had a million and one questions about our trip, our bikes, our gear and our food. They all had pretty awesome bikes themselves and raced around the park as we prepared noodles. That night we decided to pitch our tent on the emerald green lawn between the fire station and library.

"It will be much easier to drive our tent pegs into the soft turf than it would in the crispy yellow grass of the municipal park a few meters away." we thought. It certainly was easier and at 4:00am, we found out why... The sprinkler system didn't get us wet but it did make a ridiculous racket as it splashed against the walls of our tent, startling us both out of a deep sleep. So, remember folks: when the grass is green in Arizona, always ask why.

The following day began slowly as we had plans to cycle about forty miles to Peridot. A tailwind and shining sun made us decide to go a bit further to Globe, where we met up with Larry and Susan Hansen. These fine folks cycled from Arizona up to Canada with four of their eight children back in 1999 and we saw the video to prove it.

The following day was possibly one of the most beautiful cycling days we have experienced. After an arduous climb out of Globe, we thouroughly enjoyed the 14 mile descent into Superior... We cycled through canyons and saw Hudus.

We also biked through a short but frightening tunnel just before getting into Superior. Going down does not last as long as going up but some of those moments are certainly worth the climb...

After this awesome day of cycling, we landed in Apache Junction in the stunning home of Kit, her husband John ( who turns 23 years old today! Happy Birthday John!) and their dog Sophie. Kit, Queen of the Desert, is a walking, talking encyclopedia about all the plants, insects, birds, snakes and everything else that grows and lives in the Senoran Desert. Like the saguaros which surround her home, we were soaking up every last little drop of cool information she had to share with us. We also did some bird watching and heard the yelping coyotes latter on that evening as we were watching the sun set...

From Kit's, we cycled through the beginnings of Phoenix towards Cynthia, Tom and Damon's house. To find out about that, you will have to wait for Arizona, Part 2...where Team Ontario visits the Grand Canyon, only to learn that, even in Arizona, it can get quite cold!

Striking gold in Silver City

2008-02-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. Here we are in New Mexico, land of enchantment, Bob Dylan movies, large mountains to climb and puppets! No complaints though, all the folks here are treating us very, very well and we're having amazing adventures...

First off, we leave Chris in El Paso to cycle a lovely 50 miles of flat, wind-free pecan groves to Las Cruces. We arrive in Las Cruces for Marianne's 21st birthday! YAY! Our hosts there, Lee and Cindy show us around their really cool retro house, treat us to a lovely italian dinner and then we catch I'm not there, a film about Bob Dylan, at the Fountain Theatre in La Mesilla. A following day in Las Cruces included some trekking around town, finding used maps of all our next destinations and some really tasty dinner and birthday cake for Mare...

From Cruces, we battled ridiculous winds through Hatch to end up at Caballo State Park, where we camped for the night. While we were informed about an eclipse of the moon, the evening saw nothing but clouds over the shores of Caballo Lake which made it impossible to see the eclipse.

Then, comes the epic Emory Pass... 8828 feet of elevation and an intense climb from Caballo. We broke the ride up into two days stopping at the Black Range Inn, in Kingston, after more really intense wind. At the Black Range, we enjoyed a great nights sleep and a lovely breakfast. Then, the final eight miles of pure uphill intensity. When we reached the top of the pass, the wind was blowing very, very hard and the downhill was pretty great.

After the pass, we got the oportunity to stay with Pat, in Hanover. She made us a lovely dinner and we got to hang out with all her animals. Pat sent us off to Silver City with a batch and a half of her amazing cookies... definetly worth climbing for.

Upon arrival in Silver City, we stopped in at the bike shop for some tubes and recomendations on a good place to stay. We were promptly sent to the home of Jamie, Paul, Andrew, Gretta and Joel, their two chickens, dog, cat and room full of giant puppets. We enjoyed a birthday party for Erika, a friend, on Saturday night. Sunday, another friend, Christian, very, very kindly lent us his truck so that we could go check out the Gila Cliff Dwellings while a bunch of people biked up the Emory Pass and back.

While the Dwellings are only 44 miles

away from town, the drive took over an hour and a half as the road is very windy through the mountains. It was well worth it though, we were really excited to check out the old structures which were built and inhabited by the Mongollon between 1280 and 1300.

After spending what felt like a very, very long time in Texas, it was hard to believe that one or two days of biking would have us leaving the state of New Mexico. We spend one more day in Silver City to gear up for the next leg towards Phoenix.

Find out more when adventures from Team Ontario continue!

Two states down! With a trip to Mexico in the mix...

2008-02-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Okay, so... last you left the two remaining members of Team Ontario, they were in Alpine. But, for the sake of this amazing picture let us backtrack a bit. This is Eve's Garden in Marathon, where we stayed just before Alpine. The space was a very cool maze of paper crete construction including greenhouses, fountains and more beautiful vegetation than you could shake a fist at...especially in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert.

And now, we must stop in order to be in awe at a truly amazing woman. This is Liz Rogers with Marianne and I. You may remember hearing mention of Liz and thinking: "Wow, how cool that she let the girls stay at her place in Sanderson." Well, the story certainly did not end there. We crossed paths with Liz again in Alpine where she basically paved the way out of Texas with some of the coolest experiences we would have. During a 30 minute meeting in her office, Liz set us up with friends and family allong our way.

Happy Birthday Liz and thanks for all your help... You truly are a force of nature!

Our next stop from Alpine was Marfa. While we were scheduled to ride all the way to Valentine from Alpine, ridiculous winds and a cool scene in Marfa had us stopping to smell the falafel. By chance, we ran into Gary Oliver at the public library and he kindly invited us to stay in his very cool guest house...

This man who shared his home with a handful of cats and dogs cooked us a delicious vegan dinner and treated us to some of his original music in the morning, he plays both the accordion and guitar. He sent us off with a handful of cartoons and a wealth of knowledge about Texas and Mexico.

Our next stop: Valentine, Texas. For Valentine's day no less! This town recieves thousands of Valentines a year which are hand-postmarked on the 14th with Valentine's official stamp!

While in Valentine, Team Ontario stayed with Maralea and Albert Miller. Here, we got to accomplish one of our very important Texas goals... to visit a ranch. Not just any ranch, but a 33 000 acre cattle operation which has been in our hosts family for over 80 years. Maralea drove us over to her in-laws house in the afternoon where Albert's father told us all about the history of the fort which is located up in the mountains on the ranch. Later, Albert and Maralea took us over there so we could check out the fort and walk down to the creek that runs on their land. It was really really really cool! We left Valentine beaming and very excited about what we had experienced.

All that energy, some window shopping at Prada's west Texas location and the delicious brownies which Maralea baked us made the 71 mile ride into Sierra Blanca seem like a walk in the park. Okay, the tail wind for the first 38 miles into Van Horn did help as well. We wondered why the two cyclists coming the other way were moving so slowly.

After Sierra Blanca, we rode downhill to Fort Hancock where we stayed with Street and Melloy Rogers, Liz's brother and sister in-law. We toured around their cotton farm with Street and their dog Rags, met Melloy's mother and brothers and crossed a tiny foot bridge over the Rio Grande into Mexico!

After a lovely lunch in El Paso with Street and Melloy, we were delivered to the stunning old home of Chris Kelso, Liz's longtime friend. Our time in El Paso was fun filled and exciting. We both got to see our first basketball game, the UTEP Miners woman's team beating the RICE Owls. Yee haw! We also crossed into Mexico for the second time for a slightly more extended visit in Juarez. We toured a market and had drinks with Chris at the Kentucky Club. Later that evening, we cooked Chris dinner and took off the next morning for Las Cruces.

Stay tuned for tales of New Mexico, land of enchantment and the Emery Pass. Yikes! Hopefully it won't snow...

The bike man of Alpine!

2008-02-11T08:32:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Alpine, Texas. More specifically, Mare and I are currently at John's bike shop here in Alpine where he is re-packing her hubs and doing a bit of work on her bike. I am typing away here listening to Austin's public radio station and making friends with the cat.

The riding recently has been a bit tough with lots of headwinds. However, the extra work has definitely been worth it. West Texas is beautiful. We are enjoying sunshine, wide open skies, beautiful stars at night, lots of deer and javelina sightings and amazing mountains and desert terrain. Also, the folks we are meeting here are really cool and are showing us an awesome time!

After saying a sad goodbye to James in Del Rio, we cycled to Langtry where we had the privilege to enjoy a community dinner with about half the town. They happened to be meeting about the town's water at the community centre where we were staying. Thanks again for the brownies and pickles you folks sent us off with!

Sixty miles down the road, in Sanderson, we stayed at the luxurious home of Liz Rogers. Liz is an amazing woman who lives in Alpine but also has a home in Sanderson which is vacant some of the time. Liz stopped us on the side of the road days ago in Bracketville and gave us her address in Sanderson offering to let us stay there on our own. It was awesome! We slept like babies and enjoyed the use of the kitchen in the morning!

Since then, we enjoyed less wind into Marathon and finally a short day into Alpine which is beautiful, fun and filled with exciting and interesting characters.

Our hosts James and Julie have been amazing. We got picked up by James yesterday after brunch in town and were really happy not to be cycling the remaining eight miles south to their house straight up-hill. We had a relaxing afternoon and delicious dinner with them last night. This morning, we met with Liz who is very kindly hooking us up with more folks allong our route towards El Paso. This afternoon, we are are off to Marfa for lunch and to check out some Marfa hipsters and minimalist art. Can't wait!

Miss Cycle Del Rio 2008!

2008-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

Last you heard, Team Ontario was about to be chopped in half, Elissar returning to Montreal and Trish taking a bit of time in Mexico before returning to Bowmanville, via Los Angeles!?! All this took place about one week ago in Austin. We enjoyed our last night together watching Juno at the Alamo Draughthouse. We also got the chance to swim at Barton Springs with Elissar on our last day in Austin, which was chilly but fun... We will miss you Trish and Elissar!

Mare and I took off after a few lovely days with Kerry, an acupuncture student in Austin who cycled us around to some cool spots. We rode and rode for six days, camping in various parks, library yards (right), camp grounds etc. Over the past six days of travel, we covered about 310 miles and made it all the way to Del Rio.

The weather has been awesome, getting warmer and warmer but we did encounter some insane, INSANE winds. On day two out of Austin, while we had hoped to go to Enchanted Rock State Park, this was made totally impossible by a head wind clocked at thirty miles per hour! We were nearly being nocked off our saddles, needless to say! Also, for the most part, the terrain has been very, very hilly. I can't even remember if I was going up or down in this one! (Mare saying you were going down.)

We arrived in Del Rio yesterday and spent the afternoon and evening with Tim, who just finished his pilot training. He is the next door neighbor of James, who is our most excellent host here in Del Rio. We had lots of fun checking out the town, going out for dinner and meeting up with James after his play rehersal.

Our second day in Del Rio has been spent mostly shopping for camp stoves on the internet but I will spare you the boring details and skip straight to the good stuff: DRESSES!!!

After driving around with Tim yesterday and spying a rather exciting dress shop, I couldn't resist going back this afternoon to try on this particular number. We are told Del Rio is very big on beauty pagents, which is likely the reason a town of 33 ooo people can keep more than one shop like this in business... The shopkeeper only spoke spanish but it proved not to be a problem for me to try it on and take a couple pictures. Maybe I can strap this bad boy to the back of my trailer for any formal events I might encounter between here and San Francisco. If you can believe it, the dress was even pinker in real life.

After trying on the dress, we enjoyed ice cream, coffee and letter writting in the local soda fountain... Tonight, we will cook dinner and brownies for James when he gets home from work and play rehearsal.

On Thursday, we continue on our merry way towards Alpine and El Paso before we say goodbye to Texas and move towards New Mexico and Arizona.

So long for now!

Awesome Austin

2008-01-27T11:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, so this one goes out to any space geeks among you: Guess what we saw two days ago in Houston?

Rockets, Apollo Mission control rooms and bits and pieces of the current space station with training astronauts on it. We did a tour of NASA and saw all this neat stuff and were told cool stories and facts by Joe and Brian at NASA. I almost skipped out on this one but am very glad I didn't. Coolest fact of the day: all the Apollo missions were controlled on less memory space than there is in a modern cell phone or mp3 player. What? Crazy....

We latter ate delicious curry and went out with Kim and Doug to her favorite bar, McGonigel's Mucky Duck, to catch the Belleville Outfit. We then got a drive to Austin from Kim, our fairy-bike-mother from Houston...

After we arrived last week, she invited us to stay an extra day. She offered to take Friday off to come drive us to Austin and take the opportunity to visit friends in the area over this week end. We love Kim and will miss her tons!!!!

So, we arrived at DeWayne Wilson's house. He lives here in Austin with his wife Deana and their daughter April. They have a beautiful, beautiful home and two beautiful dogs in the north end of Austin. They also cooked us a great (gluten free!) dinner of white bean and chicken chili with corn bread and last night we all watched a sweet movie in their home theater system. DeWayne and his family have been awesome and have showed us all around Austin including different cool neighborhoods, awesome mountains and running trails as well as some fantastic restaurants. The weather is amazing and sunny and Mare and I look forward to riding on through West Texas in a couple of days... Trish plans to fly down to Mexico on Tuesday and Elissar is flying back to Canada at the end of the week...

We will be checking out Austin's music scene tonight and will report back with details...

Houston, we are doing just fine!

2008-01-23T07:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome friends to Team Ontario bikes the USA.

Though this happens to come about a month into our trip, better late than never right? Okay, so a brief update on what has been going on thus far in 200 words or less.

Elissar, Mare, Trish and I hop on multiple Greyhound busses from Toronto to New Orleans. 49 hours after leaving Ottawa, we arrive without our bicycles. Argh!!!!! We hang out with a house full of students from Tulane who are just about the most relaxed and easy going people I have ever met. After a couple of days and many phone calls to various bus stations, courtesy of Mare, our bikes when they finally arrive. Tearful reunion at the Greyhound station including Micheal from Bicycle Micheals saving our asses by delivering parts to the bus station for us. (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) Eventually, we hit the road towards Baton Rouge.

Three days, a crazy biker, six flats, a broken spoke and a bent rim latter, we land at Ryan, Jesse and Seth's place in Baton Rouge... Yee haw, we love crawfish, rollo bollo's and Dave's bike shop/backyard secret lair of touring cyclists dreams come true! From Baton Rouge, we get driven out of town by Jesse while listening to Snoop Dog and begin cycling from there.

Here are five post-Baton Rouge awesome moments for all y'all:

1 Staying with Henry and Geralyn in Simmesport. Eating Geralyn's amazing, amazing southern cooking and having a history/geography lesson from Henry.
2 NOT staying in the campground site which was surrounded with caution tape, a live wire and a tin roof with a really sketchy bar/tavern right next door in Washington. Oh yeah, and it was before a thunderstorm...
3 A really really cute cabin in Eunice where we slept in bunk beds and cooked french toast in the morning.
4 A sweet, sweet lunch at a restauraunt called Simply Country in Moss Hill, Texas. After chatting up locals and allowing them to be privy to our funny Canadian accents, we were treated to lunch by Melvin! Amazing!
5 Getting picked up in Dayton by our lovely Floridian host here in Houston. Kim, an aerospace engineer who works here in Houston, stuck two bike racks onto her car, all our paniers in her trunk and all of us in the car and drove us from Dayton to her beautiful apartment where we are staying for a couple of days. We will likely catch some live music, awesome food and fun times with her before heading towards Austin.

Stay tuned for more adventures and pictures from Team Ontario as we move further west...