It rained like crazy last night. Joe couldn’t fall asleep, and meanwhile Mimi slept like a baby with the rain hitting our tent. The rain continued to pour until we finally finished packing (2 hours) Thanks to our sunny dolls, the rain stopped as soon as we stepped on our bikes. We went out on a hunt for a grocery store in Madoc, but we had no luck, and ended up finding a timmys and had a good old ham and swiss sandwich, and maple dip donut with double double steeped tea. It just never gets old. Let me tell you, a good breakfast is essential for a good ride! We blasted through 40 km in 2 hours. We arrive at this werid little town called Kalador. We took out our chicken toasted club sandwich from Timmys and walked into Countrystyle. Thank god it wasn’t really a countrystyle. They only sold muffins and coffees. Right by the countrystyle was this awesome general store. In these small eastern Ontario towns, they treat it as a one stop shopping destination. They sold really nice moccasin, 5.99 canvas shoes, cheesy tshirts that says “trust me you can fix it”, “if you’re going to rehabs, you’re a quitter!”. They sell odd cowboy hats as well and a sweater with reflective stripes. They also sell worms, cards, appliances, headphones, cake mix, fishing rod,… you get the point. Anything you can think of. We left with a bag of two bite brownies, dibs and ice cream sandwich. The dibs were expired, or melted at one point, tasted like expired milk. The two bite brownies were flakey. We kept on biking, the scenery got better with each stroke of pedalling. Eastern Ontario has some really amazing lakes! On the side note, we kept seeing this “Blue berries, Home Baking” little huts, but every goddam one of them were closed. Some blueberry with ice cream would be a nice treat for our tiring legs and sore butts. The shoulder(not ours, the road’s) got smaller and smaller as we headed east. At first, small cracks started showing up, that didn’t bother us too much, thanks to our fatty tires. However it slowly became like the craters on the moon, patches missing here and there. We were dodging them like ninjas. Eventually we saw a sign of fresh cut fries, I saw mimi started sprinting up the hill, pushing down on those pedals like there is no tommorow. We went over the hill, and there was the “Shabot Lake Provincial Park” Turned out, it wasnt open. We were shocked, we were shocked. Not knowing  what to do, we asked the park staff where we can camp. He said, “Mcgowen Lake, it’s only 15 minutes driving!” I guessed he didnt see us in bike shorts and helmets. Dissapointed,we walked out and started pedaling again, we saw the fresh cut-fries place after 10 seconds. To further add to our dissapointment, it was also closed. By this time, we had ridden 80km. With some calculation, 15 mins of driving on highway 7 at a speed 100 KMH = 25 KM. We thought we couldn’t do it. We almost would stay at a motel if we saw one, but luckily we didnt. We passed by Maberly and saw a sign saying “Maple Syrup Capital of Ontario.” We wanted to get a fresh taste of the maple syrup, however no stores were nearby. We then saw free public internet access, we wanted to find a closer campgrounds. However, it was actually an employment agency, the receptionist was being difficult, providing us with no information. Thank god, a woman, appearing to be her supervisor walked out. After hearing our about our circumstances, she mentioned her brother has a lodge near the trans-canada trails. However, we will have to take a detour of at least 10 KM, so we decided to keep biking eastward. We passed by this amazing lake called Silver Lake. Words doesnt justify its beauty. I will let the pictures do the talking. (still no pictures =.=) we kept going and going without knowing where McGowan Lake was. Somehow, one hour passed by, we hit 100 km, celebrated with an uncheerful cheer. BTW, we bought a hot roasted chicken, I hided between my wool jerseys, and it was still warm after 1.5 hour. We finally arrived, quickly set up our tents. Joe went for a shower, first he couldn’t find the shower, then he came back the 2nd time asking for quarters. YOU HAVE TO PAY TO SHOWER?!?!?!?!  CHECK OUT THE PICTURES( that we don’t have for you yet) It’s an old school one, they didn’t even have a knob to control the temperature. One quarter, one temperature, 10 mins. Later, we dug into our lovely chicken

to be continued…….

This morning we left Brendan’s beautiful house with a full stomach filled with omelettes. The weather forecast said that there will be a thunder storm in the afternoon, and southwest blown wind at 36KM/H. This was good news for us as we were going on the tran-canada highway 7 heading towards northeast direction, so the wind was basically pushing on our back most of the time. However, we first had to go on county 28, and 38 to get to highway 7. 38 was a pain in the ass, it was again a rolling hill, plus we were going towards the wind. It got much better after we turn left on highway 7. It was a very well-paved highway, we got into the riding mode very quickly and started going at 30km/h. We learned that once we picked up the momentum all we have to do was to exert a tiny bit of power on the pedal to keep the bike going. We kept flying down the road. So we got to Norwood extremely fast with the benefit of having the tail wind, we decided to keep going for another 10km to get to Havelock. It was around 12:30 when we got there. Timmy’s appeared again, but last night we got pasta salad from Foodland, so we only took 2 ice caps and donuts. Quickly after, we got on the road again, a creep old man wished us Merry X’mas, because he thinks we are going to get to Halifax around X’mas time. We thanked him for the wish, and carried on. The weather was amazing, and by amazing, i mean tailwind. The scenery was spectacular as well. Eastern Ontario is really an amazing place to visit for people who lives in Toronto. If you get a chance, you should really come check out the cottage countryside. Aside from the scenery, highway 7 was not as scary as Brendan’s relatives said. Most drivers are rather courteou. They slow down or shift so much to the other lane, I sometimes worry if they would crash into the coming cars from the other direction. Some parts have extremely wide shoulders, some parts had no shoulder at all.

Crazy thing, we saw inferior mirage on the highway.We captured it on camera for you! Look! (sadly, we still can’t upload photos…) We padeled some more, saw a dead snake on the side of the road, eventually we got to Quality RV campground. We pulled in and picked a spot by the pond, which happened to be the windiest spot. Our tent went flying, started rolling. Somehow we put the tent together, had this sketchy shower in the tiny RV. We cooked some spaghetti with Classica spanich and cheese sauce. Joe toasted some parmesan garlic buns and cut his finger. This is what I call gourmet food! Maybe we REALLY should read the gourmet cookbook we bought. 

We roasted some marshmellows and it started spitting. Joe tried to recreate the fried banana by toasting it. But it fell, and FAILED. Try again next time.

We went into the forest and collected crazy amount of wood like Carol and Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Mimi said that was her favorite part of the day, everyday that is. We look forward to it everyday. She secretly wishes she had a tail. We had some tea mixed with fresh raindrops then it started raining even harder. We packed everything and hide in our tent until now.

Now we go pee and brush our teeth. Good night all.

Joe and Mimi  May 5th, 2010

(Joe) means joe is writing (Mimi) means mimi is writing. We take turns writing the journal….

(Joe)

We woke up at 7 30 this morning. Packed the tent, sleeping bags and all the junk we had with us. We learned that if you hang clothes outsid eunder a tree, they actually dry since the leaves block the dew. We realized we didn’t have anything left for breakfast because Mimi (and Joe) ate it all yesterday.

We resorted to brownies and apples, it worked out rahter well, as we blasted through highway 21 into Millbrook in under 30 minutes. We discovered the beloved IGA had become Foodland. It’s actually pretty good! Even though we don’t know why the heck a small town would need a 24 hour grocery store. Not much had changed, but the sandwiches are pretty good, with cheap hotdog bread, Mimi liked it that way. After our breakfast with milk, which we hadnt drank in days, we cranked through another 25 k in under 1 hour, which led us to the town of Peterborough. Oh good old ptbr. Joe went for a haircut, the woman asked a lot of questions, seems like everyone knows each other here. Later we hit up Wild Rock, the local outdoor store.

(Mimi)

They offered 15 bucks to adjust Mimi’s shifting as it was making some wierd sounds. Turns out, nothing was wrong with the gears, but the large chainring’s shifting hook is too long and is interfering with the chain. There wasn’t too much we could do about it right then so we just left. Later we went across to Cosmic Charles to buy some mango cheese cake for Brendan, the couchsurfing host we are staying with tonight. Yet apparently they didn’t sell them in big amounts because they only make 1 or 2 a week, so Joe and I just sat down to have the precious heavenly cheesecake. Mangooocheeesecake. “Most expensive cheesecake I’ve ever had.” said Joe. Afterwards we start to ride towards Lakefield on Water street. A pickup truck guy waved at me from his rear side mirror. He offered us a ride, we gently refused but he really wanted to help and started looking around in his car for something to give us. He dug up some boar’s teeth from New Zealand and feather (which flew away so I biked after it for 1 block) and Moose skin from Canada for good luck. He told us about the story when he met a Japanese guy biking in Yukon and around the world. He heard that we are heading for Gaspe, and described the beautiful sceneries and we should definitly check our this place that smokes fish. We said goodbye to him and he left us with a quote, “once a traveller, always a traveller.”

We finally went on the road again and it seemed like it was going to rain. Yet the wind was actually helping us today by blowing the heavy grey clouds away from us.

(Joe)

We got to Lakefield eventually. It’s all the same, other than Foodland(formally known as IGA). Joe really needed to go the washroom, so we pulled up to McDonald. As soon as Joe came out, it started raining like mad, the odd part is, the sun was out at the same time. We tried to find highway 28, but no one seem to know where it was, so we went on a directionaless hunt. When we eventually found it we reliazed we were way off. Brendan’s house was south of the village, and we were in the north part of the village. We eventually arrived. We were greeted warmly by the Quigleys, had some fun conversation about bikes, touring, and Brendan’s crazy trans-Australia trip. We had a delicioius cranberries filled chicken dinner on their back porch(patio) overlooking their farm with 2 little cows. Kane(our highschool buddy) dropped by and we caught up for all the lost time and reflected on all the fun memories of highschool. We went to Lakefield College School and checked out the new gym. Everything is so different, its really a posh private school now, not the lakefield we used to know. Joe went down to Rashleigh and found out his old sofa is sitting outside of the house. The familar smell, touch, and the squeaking sound were all still there. Joe talked to head of house(AJ) forever, after we went up to Joe’s old room, it brings back a lot of memories. The kids still have the same set up. After his emotional moments, we went up to Wads, mimi’s old house(residence).

(Mimi)

Ms Watson wasn’t on duty today so the new don greeted us. Claire jumped on us and went to see Angela and Rebekah. Everything is pretty much the same. In the exact same place. Later we went back home, and said bye to Lakefield College School, at least for a few decades. Joe played some guitar with Brendan, learned some really cool chords on the alternate tuning Brendan got. We are OUT, mimi’s dead.

GOod night.

Tmr, Modac.

East bound, 70km

Joe & Mimi

5/4/2010

Thank you triple chainring.

(Joe)

Today, our host Joe went to work early to drive elementary school kids to school. He got home at 9 and escorted us out of the house.

We went to the local grocery store for some lunch/dinner ingredients. We wanted to bring the whole place on our bike, but we ended buying some buns for lunch and marshmellow/chocolate/graham crackers for smores. After the short layout, we started pedaling north. The first 10 km was absolutely miserable as I was still struggling to get my legs in good shapes. My carpel tunnel syndrome were acting again, my pinky started to get numb again. Luckily I quickly realized the problem, my handlebar was slightly set up too much to the left, causing more stress on my left hand, after a 30 second adjustment, the pain went away. 2 hours into the ride, we decided to eat our lunch because we couldn’t find a timmys, we found this freshly mown lawn by this huge house with huge tree in front of it. It looked like the owner wasn’t home so we pulled in naturally and started our little picnic. The pizza bun tasted like burnt cheese. After we took a nice little nap and continued on with our ride,

(Mimi)

without knowing the troubles we’re getting ourselves into. A bit into Best road, we’ve experienced a few of the ‘hills’ in the beautiful backcountry. we met a woman on the road, she seemed really worried about us riding on that road with trucks going at 120 km/h. Half way up my knees started hurting like shit. So I pushed the bike up…the woman quickly caught up with her speedy hike and turned into this road of nowhere, maybe she was a vampire or something. Then the real shit starts, everytime we see a big hill, we thought itd be the end, but it never did. my knee just hurts more and more I felt like crying at the bottom of each valley. This kept going on for 10k. It took us 1 and 1/2 hour to get through. Why do we torture ourselves?

We saw these huge sand monster trucks delivering rock and soil. They all stopped for us. How nice. Once we saw the road that goes in east-west direction, I felt Im saved. That was the worst 10 k of my life!!!! There was gravel everywhere, making the speed slow slow slowww…..

Somehow we biked around 8k in less that 35 minutes later. Gotta love paved roads, even though there were cars next to us all the time, it’s so much faster. We got to the Sandaraska Park, where we are to camp tonight. Nice girl greeted us, but when we were going to pay, we realized we don’t have any cash with us. They didn’t take debit or visa! The next town to get money is 8k away. I suddenly remembered I got US bills with me!! They gladly accepted the money, THANK GOD! I wasn’t about to go on another 8k ride…

It’s now 3:45, we bought our daily ice cream sandwich and it’s good as always. We started unloading our stuff and building our tent. Just when we finished washing our clothes, about to hang them up, grey clouds started. Of course, after 5 minutes, it started raining cats and dogs. We hid in the tent and luckily after 15 minutes the rain stopped.

We cooked sidekicks and korean instant noodles for dinner. We really gotta start using some recipes from the gourmet camping cookbook we bought. We had some relaxation tea and started making a fire.

(Joe)

Ms. Sally would be so proud of us, we quickly put up the fire and the old woman living across came down to say hi. She was from New Brunswick and just got a new laptop, and she was so surprised that we are biking all the way to Halifax.  We had a nice little chat, and we started roasting some marshmellows. Mimi was very good at burning her marshmellow. Joe’s were always perfectly toasted in Golden brown colour. We tried to slap on the chocolate and cracker to make the good old smores, but the chocolate didn’t want to melt. I think it was too thick. We tried to set a baking system with 1 thick logs, but the plan failed , our crackers went on fire. FAIL. so we had some more relaxation tea.

Now we are sitting in our tent streching and writing journal, hoping tomorrow will be a good day, no rain, and no pain.

Good night and see you tomorrow Lakefield!!

May 3rd ,2010

(cannot upload photos now… because we are using big ass computers from the 90s in Trois Rivieres…)

Herro all, 

After 6 hours of non-stop cycling, we have made it Joe’s place in Oshawa. It feels good to finally have a warm shower, as we were sweating like pigs with the 25 degree weather. Actually we were pretty lucky, the overly excited weatherman proclaimed that there will be mega thunder storms in the GTA area. But as we rode on through scarborough and whitby, the sun came out. 

ok start from the beginning. 

we woke up in the comfortable beds in super 8 chinatown. Had some decent continental breakfast with rowdy old people beside us, probably having a high school reunion. We packed up and left for MEC. It was closed. So we kept riding, and had our last starbucks, marking our departure from civilization.

As we were really starting to leave Toronto, Joe realized that his gloved were gone, turned out mimi left it in super 8. After returning to super 8, we finally REALLY start to ride. Biking in downtown Toronto was actually pretty alright, guess the cars are used to crazy fixies everywhere. 

We came to the woodbine beach area, what a nice neighborhood. Even though there are some big ass hills, there were nice houses and funky shops. I’d totally live there if I work in Toronto. Then we headed towards high way 2, kingston rd. 

Just

keep

going

going

going

….

took us forever. and finally we realized that we are near Toronto Zoo. Saw a Timmys and had the good old usual toasted chicken club and timmbits. 

Pickering is big. We rode forever, and we are still in the pickering VILLAGE. ….

then ajax

then whitby. nice little city centre with cute stores. 

then we finally saw the oshawa sign!!

YEAAAAA by this time it was 4pm…. the time we were supposed to meet Joe, our first couch surfer host.

so we kept riding and riding, some points look like we were about to go on the highway 401.

most of the time we had to ride in between the right turn lane and regular lanes. We knew we should ride on the left of the right turn lane, yet it was scary as shit. the cars were almost brushing against us on both sides. 

no scenery

to conclude the ride of today, lots of mega stores. but nice to have timmys around. 

We finally arrived at Joe’s neighbourhood. There are about 10 roads starting with ‘south’. southdown southridge southport southdale southgate south everything. 

As we pull up Joe’s driveway, he was opening his garage. We were so happy to be here. Overjoyed, as joe yang described it.  Joe our host cooked us a fantastic dinner and we had some fun conversations. the whole idea of couch surfing shows the bright side of man kind. its so refreshing to see somebody would open their doors to strangers.

Now we have a nice rest. 

goodbye, 

tomorrow easy ride 40k. hope no rain.

camping no computer.

bye all

Arriving in Union Station in Toronto

We are at our hotel in Toronto chinatown right now. Pretty swell, huge suite with jacuzzi 2 bedrooms for 2 of us.

Plan to leave tomorrow at 10, big trip is about to commence!!!!

More to come.

Stay tune,

Mimi and Joe cheerio