Neil across Canada

So much to tell Part II.

2010-06-02T03:55:00.002-03:00

I woke up to Claire trying to get into the bathroom, lol. She waited a long time! It was nearly 1:00pm before I woke up. We got some breakfast into us and headed to the book fair.

We got there pretty late, but it was lots of fun running into everyone, but a lot of the people I wanted to see had already left. The book fair for me isn't so much about the books, it's about showing my solidarity for the dissent toward the state, authority, and capitalism. I go to get myself charged up and ready to take my passion home to help make Halifax a better place for political radicals.

After the book fair I went back to Claire's place to grab my stuff, and I deposited it at the Whale Factory since I was to be sleeping there that night. I then made a phone call to my lovely, and made my way over to the Death Church, which was where that night's show was happening.

Great show, and I finally got to run into Shawn Ralson who was a person I really was looking forward to seeing. He had just gotten home from India, and told me many amazing stories. One of the bands who played was called "Kalashnikov" from Italy, and I really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I missed "Preying Hands" which I really wanted to hear.

After the show we headed back to the Whale Factory to make some food and go to sleep.

On the second day of the book fair, I woke up and everyone was already gone, so I made some bread, called ladyface, and headed out. This time I spent more time checking out the tables and such, it's not as busy on the second day. I went to a workshop on Pirates which was pretty awesome, and then I bought a patch. Nearing the end of the day the kitchen put out all of the food for anyone who wanted it, so I ate a hearty meal and headed back to the Whale Factory.

That night I went to a show at the Squalor, which was alright. I don't really like punk too much usually, but "Know Hope for the Skids" played, and I really like them a lot.

The rest is pretty boring, a lot of nothing really...I was supposed to get a ride home this morning (Tuesday) but it got postponed until tomorrow. Bleh. So I've been waiting around and spending too much time on the internet.

So much to tell Part I.

2010-06-01T15:16:00.002-03:00

Oh man, I have the entire Montreal experience to write about, how daunting.

I guess I'll just start at the beginning and do it in parts if I have to.

The first day that we got into Montreal, Brendan and I stayed at our friend Carolyne's place. That was nice and relaxing. Buy Nothing Kyle and Andy were there when I got there which was a pleasant surprise, they were printing patches to trade at the book fair. They made some pretty awesome patches! Everyone but Carolyne and I took off somewhere...I don't remember where. I updated my blog and went to bed.

Ugh, this is what I get when I wait too long to update, I start forgetting stuff...

After we woke up I got my things together and trekked downtown toward McGill which was where volunteers were congregating to cook for the book fair. I showed up an hour late and the Hali punks weren't there yet (Hali punk time represent). Cooking en-masse with lots of people for lots of people is a lot of fun! I also took apart and fixed their coffee maker, which I'm super proud of. Coffee makers is actually really simple, I was surprised.

All of the east coasters left at the same time, after being there for about 4 or 5 hours and stuffing ourselves with lots of great food. I went to the Whale Factory which is where my friend Rachel lives, I really like the atmosphere there and I always lots of fun. I had trouble prying myself away to go and sleep at Claire and Jeff's place which is where Brendan was.

I got to Claire and Jeff's and everyone was drinking or drunk or both, it was pretty awesome, Claire offered me a shot of rum and dragged us out the door to go to the Cabaret for the book fair. We got there quite late but we caught the last act which was an anarchist marching band. When the band was just about done, they started marching out into the street, and they played a few songs while the entire bar full of people blocked a four lane street with dancing and singing. It was beautiful. At one point a car pushed its way through the crowd dangerously and I refused to move out of the way so he accelerated and I ended up on his hood careening down the street. Others noticed what had happened and a few people jumped onto the hood as well. I was actually having fun in this situation, but the guy was being an asshole and it was beginning to get really dangerous because he wasn't slowing. I was about two seconds away from taking my utility tool out and cracking his windshield when he slowed enough that I was able to get off. Shortly after that the police showed up to break up the crowd, it took them a long time and the resistance was admirable. They all left after a short while, and then something happened that I completely missed across the street between a guy with a camera and the one cop who stuck around, it became a pushing match and then it became a cop beating a dude with a billy stick. Lots of the crowd ran across the street to observe/yell at the cop and the next thing you know there were eleven police vehicles, one assaulted cop, three arrests, a few pepper sprayed people, and a few beaten people. Brendan, Sarah, and I got separated from Claire and we waited for her to meet us by the metro, but the cops forced her into an alternate route which left her walking alone and being harassed by strange men. While waiting for Claire I found some fruit and veggies that were in the garbage across the street, and when we were all together again we were on our way.

A while into walking we started hearing some really great dance music, we looked up and saw what appeared to be an amazing dance party, so we went into the apartment to find out what was going on. The apartment was a huge flat and there was a projection screen and a DJ spinning on decks. It was a fairly ritzy party, but it was populated by young people, so we didn't look incredibly out of place. We danced for a while, and then Claire and I decided to dance in the HUGE KIDDY POOL FULL OF WATER. We got blissfully wet and met some nice folks who were also dancing there with us. At about 4:00am we decided it might be time to move along.

The walk back to Claire's place was loooong, we got in at 5:45am, my feet were killing me.

What a familiar feeling, Montreal never ceases to push my poor feet to the limit, everything worth going to is all on opposite ends of the city, if you can't afford public transportation and if you don't have a bike you're kind of screwed here.

I laid down to sleep, but the kittens were using my body as a wrestling ring, which was cute for about five seconds. I moved my sleeping area into the bathroom, the only place I could find where I could close the door behind me. I've never felt so happy to crash on the bathroom floor.

End of Part One

2010-05-28T03:30:00.001-03:00

Vid of the pillow fight, pretty awesome!

2010-05-28T03:19:00.005-03:00

The squat food cooking setup.

Riding the tall bike

Sushi galore

Me in front of the pillow fight

Brendan in front of the pillow fight

Trains, trains, and automobiles (Out-take).

2010-05-28T01:06:00.003-03:00

Originally I had written this in as part of the Trains, trains, and automobiles posts, but I figured it deserved a post of its own, I'm sure you'll see why.

I knew there would be a point to this trip besides fun and stories. A lot of it actually hasn't been that fun, many times I've thought to myself that I never should have left because I'm still healing, and I'm not strong enough to handle strife. I see it as a learning experience.

I've also helped at least a few people along the way learn important things about themselves. Nikki, I helped her to see that she deserves respect as a woman, and that things she's dealt with in the past are not, and have never been her fault; Todd, I helped him to see that his life is a routine, and when I left him he was ready to go home and make love to his wife and ride his motorcycle on the weekend which he bought a year ago and hasn't touched yet; Jack, I haven't mentioned him here, but we had a long conversation in which he confided to me that he was alone, afraid he'd never find another partner after being left at the age of 60, and depressed to the point of turning to alcohol to self-medicate. All things he'd never told a soul before, and when we parted he was willing to go and speak to a therapist for help.

I'm not trying to say that I'm some kind of hero, or whatever, but I have a place in this world.

Trains, trains, and automobiles Pt II.

2010-05-28T00:31:00.002-03:00

The first thing I do when I wake up is try to find Brendan. I thought I knew where he was sleeping, but alas I did not. So I sent him a text and went to the highway to thumb.

I was there for a couple of hours before I got a text from Brendan, he started hitching about 3/4 of a km behind me.

After about a total of three hours of not getting any rides, I decided I wanted to go for a walk. I'd continue hitching while I walked. Something was off. As I passed Brendan I told him my plan and continued eastward on the trans Canada 11 highway. I walked for a while, and then I just started crying. Hard, loud, uncontrollable sobs. I don't really know where it came from, it just sort of snuck up on me. I started texting back and forth with Leann, I was feeling very hopeless and broken. I didn't want to get too heavy on here, but it's an important part of the story. I cried for about an hour, only doing my best to stop when a vehicle approached. I was alone with several kilometers of highway in front and behind me, and many many kilometers of forest to my sides, being eaten alive by bugs, wailing like I haven't done since my grandfather's funeral, and not since being a very young child before that.

When I was done crying, I felt better. I realized that I could overcome this obstacle, and that I wouldn't be stranded in Longlac, Ontario forever. It was also a moment of clarity, where I knew I could handle my life by myself. I'm very thankful for the friends and family that I have, as well as Leann; but I AM CAPABLE alone if I need to be.

That was a very important moment for me, and I think I'm probably stronger for it than I've been since before I started dealing with mental illness this winter.

Brendan texted me, and he suggested we go and check out bus prices to see if we could get out of Longlac. I walked back into town and found that I could get a train ticket for the next day straight to Montreal and it would cost me $175. That's a lot of money I didn't really have, but I decided to do it anyway, it just seemed like the right thing to do. So now we had tickets, but we were still marooned in Longlac for another 26 hours. The shopkeep suggested that we could hang out in the Via rail station waiting room.

When we got to the Via station, it was a building that I'm surprised hasn't been condemned, but it had some sort of air conditioning, and it was damn hot outside. We laid out all of our wet stuff to dry because there wasn't a person in sight. We basically squatted the place for the entire next day with the exception of heading to the beach for a couple of hours. It was kind of nice to have a place to kinda sorta call our own.

We played a lot of Nintendo DS and I slept a lot. I was feeling under the weather, and I hate getting sick, so I just make myself rest as much as humanly possible. The only people who came in was a woman to stock the toilet paper, a couple of CN employees from next door to use the washroom, and one woman in the middle of the night who was walking her dog and wanted to steal some hand towels. She was nice, and tried to sell us weed lol. We got so comfortable that we were cooking crude meals with my fuel and burner inside the building.

We caught the train outside our day-long squat, and we were officially on our way out of Longlac toward Montreal, our salvation.

The train ride was great, the employees were super nice, and we had outlets for our Nintendo DS's and to charge our cell phones. I spent most of the first night hanging out in the diner car trading stories with a few people who were having trouble sleeping.

In the morning we changed trains in Toronto and rode until supper time into Montreal. The Montreal-bound train had free Wi-Fi which I took advantage of for a while, but all in all it was uneventful.

Now we're in Montreal! We were surprise greeted by C and D at the train station! It was nice to see familiar faces. We walked toward Carolyne's place where we're staying tonight (correction, Brendan is off somewhere else now) and I've just been dickering on the internet for hours, I hope she doesn't mind too much that I've taken over her computer lol.

Tomorrow is a mystery to be unveiled!

Trains, trains, and automobiles Pt I.

2010-05-27T20:52:00.003-03:00

Wow, what a week.

So C, D, B, and I all left toward the hop-out spot on Sunday night. We grabbed some Reese's Peanut Butter cup coffee (I know!) from 7-Eleven and waited for about an hour and a half at the spot before our train came. I was super excited because every time I've waited for a train in the past, it either never came, or never stopped. I was starting to think I was cursed. Turns out that may still be true.

B and I grabbed the first ridable car while C and D went ahead to find another one. About thirty seconds later a passenger train came whizzing by at about 120kph. I spent a moment in horror when I realized that if C and D didn't see it coming, they wouldn't have had any way to avoid getting hit by it. I didn't check to see if anything happened, we assured ourselves that they were probably fine because the headlights are visible from a long distance, but it was coming from behind us.

We waited inside the train car being quiet as mice for about two hours before we decided that if we weren't caught yet, we wouldn't be caught. We took out our sleeping bags and got comfortable, and at about 4:30am the train started to move, but not until after some weird truck was driving around making ungodly smashing noises. Still not sure what that was all about.

We fell asleep, and as the sun was coming up we awoke again and had some train breakfast, and then some more train sleep. The next time we awoke, it was because we were soaked with rain.

We whipped out our tarps and tried to keep our already wet as hell things from getting more wet. We didn't notice it was raining right away because we were sleeping with our sleeping bags over our heads to keep the heat in. One really great thing about having a sub-zero winter sleeping bag is that it can get incredibly wet before it soaks through.

More sleep...nothing else to do on a moving train in the rain while it's cold outside.

The rain continued off and on all day long.

At about 1:00pm Brendan and I were quite surprised to be woken by Celeste! The train was stopped in the middle of the woods for a few minutes and she came to say hello. I was glad they weren't dead. They got on the next car up from us.

We continued sleeping and periodically eating and peeing over the side all day and into the night.

At about 2:00am I woke up to the sound of the train stopping quite suddenly, and I heard the bells of a train crossing. I remember thinking it was odd to be able to hear a train crossing bell while stopped being in the middle of the train. Then I heard the cops catch C and D, and in a moment they found us as well.

The O.P.P. officer was quite nice, and was actually quite intimidated by us. He asked us not to run away and held a flashlight for us to pack up our gear. We were continuously asked about whether we were carrying weapons or drugs, to which the true answers were no aside from a couple of utility knives. At one point the officer said "I'm sorry if I seem a little jittery, I've never dealt with you drifter types before". It felt strangely good to have so much power over the fear of a person who spent years training to be in a position of authority.

Once the ordeal was done with, we were driven to the highway, which ran through the middle of Longlac, Ontario. What a fucking hole. We tried hitching for a short period, C and D went to find a place to sleep right away. When we realized that there wasn't any traffic we retired as well.

I found a spot on the side of a ditch next to a swamp that for some reason I decided was the right place to fall asleep. I didn't even bother pulling out my sleeping bag, face to the dirt for about three hours, about twenty minutes of which was actual sleep. At one point in the night I was awoken by a rustle in the bushes, I opened my eyes and managed not to jostle when I was face to face with a fox. It was the cutest thing ever! It seemed pretty content just staring at me, but after a while I figured I'd be more comfortable if it was gone before I closed my eyes again, so I flailed my arms a bit and it ran off. It was a cool experience, I guess I had enough "nature" smell to not be offensive to woodland creatures.

I awoke at the crack of dawn, it was now Wednesday.

To be continued...

Short post

2010-05-23T20:36:00.002-03:00

Had a great time in Winnipeg!

Limited access to internet here, but here's a super quick update.

Winnipeg was full of east coasters when I got here, I was totally unaware! There was an awesome house show at the place we were staying (Celeste and Dandy's place) the night we got in, and I got to meet Ursula, who is the first folk punk band I was ever introduced to!

I rode a tall bike (photos to follow at some point) and chilled out a bunch. We helped prepare and serve for Food not Bombs today.

Tonight we'll hop a train to Montreal. Sorry to those in between who I said I'd visit, but we had to stay an extra day here due to a thunder storm last night and we need to make sure we get to Montreal in plenty of time for the book fair!

Leaving Saskatoon. Parties and hangovers.

2010-05-21T15:07:00.003-03:00

Saskatoon was fun! We stayed with Floyd and Jill, a couple of lovely ladies who we know from Halifax. Floyd is a radio personality at a radio station in Sask, and she gave us a tour of the station. It was pretty awesome. Their co-worker invited us all out to a backyard campfire/barbeque and we had some drinks. Good times, lots of food too!

In the morning Brendan and I walked to the highway and started our hitching portion of the trip.

The first drive we got was from a man who took us further out of town onto the actual highway to Regina, he decided to take us much further than he intended because the cops were doing spot checks on the highway heading back into Saskatoon, so he took an alternate route. In Saskatchewan every vehicle only needs to be safety inspected once, and then that vehicle is good for the rest of its Saskatchewan life. However, when the cops do highway spot checks, they have a mechanic do inspections on the spot, and they pull vehicles off the road if there's anything not up to code. I'd rather have to safety once every two years instead of have the extra stress.

The second drive we got was from a woman named Crystal I think? She was very nice, but also very nervous about picking us up. Her first words to us were "I don't usually pick up hitchhikers, so please don't kill me or steal from me okay?" We set her mind at ease pretty quickly by starting friendly conversation, she took us right to the Canadian Tire in Regina because we needed to grab a couple of supplies. She was great and had really good taste in music (some selections included Against Me, and Beastie Boys).

The third drive for the day was a man in a Cadillac, he took us about 30 minutes from where he picked us up, and said he'd take us all the way to Winnipeg if we were still on the highway after he was done his errands.

After halfheartedly hitching for an hour, and actually turning down a couple of short rides, we decided the Cadillac man might not be coming back for us, so we grabbed the next ride. Devon was his name, he had just picked up his sister to spend the weekend with her. They were really cool, twenty something, and his sister was 16, we drove at 160kph and he offered us warm beers which we drank in the back seat. After a while, he said "You know what would be funny, if I took you guys back to party with my friends back home." We kind of laughed about it a bit, and he continued to hint at inviting us back. Eventually we ended up deciding that we would go and stay with them and party for the night. Oh holy crap it was awesome. We drove 30 mins off the highway on a dirt road through a beautiful valley with a crazy winding river running alongside us. When we got to his place, he had a sweet stereo system, and we listened to loud music and drank all night. Brendan and I didn't pay a cent for anything, and we got severely hammered. Those people were SO GREAT. In the morning Devon drove us back to the highway and bid us adieu.

Yesterday was kind of a crappy day. I was hung over as hell and we weren't getting picked up. We took a nap in the grass after a bit of thumbing, and then we tried again. We spent from 10am 'til 6pm without getting a ride. I was taking periodic naps, but Brendan was hard at it the whole time. I went in to the diner nearby to make a phone call to Leann, and when I was done I came back to the road. Brendan had been picked up and taken right to Winnipeg. I got picked up shortly after waiting by a really nice 23ish year old girl named Amanda. She was super nice and had a box full of kittens 8^) She took me about a 45 min drive.

My last drive of the day was Todd. A 50ish year old boiler maker. He was really happy to pick me up because he was getting really tired and needed someone to keep him awake at the wheel, we were still a good three hour drive away from Winnipeg at this point. We had some very mind opening conversations, we were very interested in each other because we both have ADD and have been dealing with it in interesting ways for our whole lives. We related our ADD to our depression, which we both periodically suffer from. Really great conversations.

Once I got into Winnipeg I grabbed a bit of food, and after a very warm greeting from Celeste and Dandy, I went to sleep.

Saturday of Kings! Part II / Fast Food America!

2010-05-18T18:50:00.000-03:00

So I guess there wasn't actually that much left to mention after the all you can eat sushi on Saturday, but I'll finish it up anyway.

When we were blissfully full, we took the subway back to our bikes and went to Neko's place. We had some beer and good conversation before biking to a dance party that some of our friends were attending. The party had A BOUNCY CASTLE in the back yard. So I got drunk and bounced a lot with some cool folks from Toronto and the surrounding areas. Bouncy castles are awesome, but I feel bad for Brendan because he broke his awesome glasses while he was in it, I doubt they'll ever be the same after that fateful night.

Back to Neko's...sleep.

On Sunday morning Chriz was awesome and gave me some cash to pick up eggs and bacon, which I did happily. We then created a beautiful breakfast smorgasbord with omelettes, bacon, potatoes, the rest of the home made ketchup and avocado slices.

We said our goodbyes to Toronto and started heading out of the city at around 2pm, which was hell. The Gardiner Expressway was closed down, so I had no idea how to get out of the city westward, we got some directions and ended up taking nearly three hours to get as far as Hamilton.

When we got to the border, we were detained for an hour and a half, but we were cracking jokes and keeping in high spirits the whole time, the border guards loved us.

While driving in the States, our mission became to try crazy fast foods that we can't get in Canada. We got some White Castle, Hardee's, and we had the new Double Down from KFC which isn't in Canada. We also had some candy bars you can't get here like Payday, Hundred Grand, Butterfinger, and Chantal also had a Vanilla Coke.

Other than the terrible eating habits, the US was pretty uneventful. North Dakota is an interesting place, we pulled off for gas at one place where it was a person's driveway and there was a gas pump outside their front porch.

Getting back into Canada was easy as hell: “Passports please. What are you bringing from the States? Nothing? Cool, go ahead.”

Now we're in Saskatoon.

Saturday of kings!

2010-05-16T15:06:00.002-03:00

I'm time limited, but I want to talk about the most epic day ever.

Yesterday Brendan and I got TTC passes to allow us to take the public transit all day as many times as we wanted, and it was only $5 each (it's a $10 ticket that's good for a whole family, up to two adults and four children).

We went to Bike Pirates to fix up Neko's bike and do a bit of volunteering, and then we tried to find our friend Clayton, to no success.

We locked our bikes and got onto the subway to go and see the most epic pillow fight I've ever conceived. We showed up ten minutes late, but when we approached, we heard them all yell "FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE" and the entire square on Yonge and Eglinton erupted with violence and feathers. It was awesome to see. I have a video on my phone, maybe if I have the chance I'll upload it to youtube sometime soon.

Then we walked into a nearby mall and saw Iron Man 2. We just walked right in, easy peasy. It was a great movie. If you enjoyed the first Iron Man, you should definitely check this one out as well.

After the movie we were hungry, we tried to go to Buddha's because so many people have recommended it to me, but when we got there, the lineup was way out into the sidewalk. So we continued walking. Brendan and I talked eachother into finding all you can eat sushi. I'm so glad Brendan messaged his sister, because she recommended an amazing place called Sushi Island. There are three all you can eat menus, $13.99 for all you can eat maki, $16.99 for all you can eat maki, noodle dishes, tempura, and desserts, and then there's the $20.99 which includes everything plus sashimi. We opted for the second option, and we ate like gluttonous Japanese emperors. We tallied up everything we ate after the meal and priced it in our estimated Haligonian sushi dollars, and it came to $58 for me and $56 for Brendan. We were being modest though, I bet in reality it could have been a combined $130.

More later, it's only half done!

Toronto is flat

2010-05-15T01:45:00.004-03:00

I decided to keep a separate journal for very personal feelings so people who are interested in where I've been and how I did it can read this without hearing how much I'm missing people back home. I'll still post everything that's relevant, but I don't want to sound like a broken record.

Today I made a great breakfast with veggie hotdogs, eggs, and toast. Beautiful start to a beautiful day.

We had bikes to use today! Mine sucks, but it's a lender, can't really complain. Tomorrow I'm going to give it a tune up both to better my experience with it, and to extend a little thank you to Neko and Chriz for letting me use it.

Biking in Toronto is fucking awesome for so many reasons:

1. No helmet law
2. It's flat
3. Biking is always awesome
4. Probably more, jesus, leave me alone.

Got to play "Super Street Fighter 4" today for the first time. I've been waiting for months to do this! Unfortunately I can't play as well on PS3 controllers as I can on 360 controllers, but it was still a real treat!

Went to a "diner" for lunch. I put that in quotations because when I think diner, I think cheap shitty food with large portions. This place had really good expensive food with regular portions. They definitely fucked up when they called themselves a diner in my opinion. Where's my Westcliffe?

Hung out with a friend Sarah, and her friend Sarah from Guelph today. "Sarah one" is a friend from last year who I've kept in touch with, and she's an amazing person. "Sarah two" seems fantastic as well, but unfortunately we didn't have much time to chat.

The evening ended with some great conversation and juggling practice back at Neko (Brendan's sister) and Chriz's place.

Blood, sweat, and tears.

2010-05-13T23:34:00.003-03:00

So after I tore myself away from Leann's warm bed yesterday morning, I met up with Chantal and Brendan. We left Halifax after grabbing a coffee at about 8am.

I guess I should outline what's going on for people who aren't in the know. I'm helping out with driving on a road trip westward, ending for Brendan and I in Saskatoon. When we get to Saskatoon we're going to camp and hitch our way back eastward to Montreal for the book fair at the end of the month.

Chantal drove until we got to Moncton, I slept in the back seat. Smart lad that I am, I decided to sleep before we picked up two more people who were tagging along with us until Toronto, and I was able to sprawl out and get comfy. When we got to Moncton I met Tracy and Cory, our fourth and fifth to the car. Chantal has known them for years and years. Great people!

I took the driver's seat from Moncton, and we listened to some awesome music. I still have to get a list of the bands I really liked, but a few of them are "The Matadors", "The Riverdales", and "The Cave Warps".

Driving is boring, a lot of the time was spent with everyone sleeping while I drove and drove.

Everything gets better once you get through New Brunswick, soooo boooring. After the Quebec border we stopped for cheap beer and poutine.

Driving driving driving. I gave up my driver's seat outside of Montreal because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Brendan took over.

Montreal is a cool city to be in when the Canadians are playing an important game. It's really cool how dedicated the fans are, even when they're not at the game.

We got in to Toronto last night at about 4am. I was exhausted, I went straight to sleep, and I laid like a log in a deep sleep for six hours at Brendan's sister's awesome loft on her pull out couch.

Today we got up and went on a mission. I wanted new sunglasses (I bought some here last year and lost them) which was a long walk away, and we stopped at every bike shop on the way, and got into many long conversations shooting the shit about our two wheeled machine-friends.

We had two slices of pizza and a pop for $3.50 tax inc. for breakfast. Awesome. Then on the way home we got a shitload of broccoli, celery, tomatoes, potatoes, and other items to use for dinner. We made a veggie stirfry with homefries and homemade ketchup. So awesome.

I got to talk to Leann tonight. I got a calling card this afternoon. Those things are so annoying to use. I miss her.

All packed up and ready to go.

2010-05-10T16:11:00.002-03:00

So tonight I head to my parent's place with Leann. I'm pretty excited, I haven't been home in a while and I'm glad to be celebrating a belated mother's day as well as my leaving. Also Leann hasn't met my family yet.

I have everything on my list ready to go except for a couple of things:

Grocery bags, a lighter, water bottles, and multi-vitamins.

Very simple things to acquire, so I'm pretty much ready to go.

All of the rest of my worldly possessions are packed into boxes and ready for storage.

Hard to believe that in 48 hours I'll be in New Brunswick or Quebec.

Time keeps slip slip slipping away.

2010-05-06T21:10:00.004-03:00

Well it's now less than six days until I head out onto the road again.

That last update was pretty bleak sounding, but I've gone through the Day Treatment program at the QEII now (tomorrow is my last day) and I feel fantastic.

There are a lot of factors that have lead me back on track to happiness, removal of toxicity in my life, the return of the sun, and new companionship.

Part of me is super excited to travel, and another part of me wants to stay home and bask in this newfound relationship. She'll be here when I get back. I know, I know.

So, I'm gonna lay out everything that I'll be taking with me.

1. Large travel pack. Not sure how many litres, but it's huge.
2. Sleeping bag (need to try and find a summer worthy sleeping bag before I leave, the one I have is too warm and it's very awkward when it's damp)
3. Ham-tent/tent-mock
4. Therma-rest style sleeping surface
5. White fuel and burner
6. Travel pot/pan combo
7. One pair of pants (need new ones, overalls if I have to)
8. Two t-shirts
9. One pair of shoes
10. 3-5 pairs of socks
11. 3 pairs of underwear
12. Some instant oatmeal
13. Emergency food rations
14. Many sturdy grocery bags to keep clothes in, and for feet in case of rain.
15. Large poncho.
16. Small flashlight with extra batteries
17. Lighter
18. Passport
19. Wallet
20. Multi-tool/knife
21. Sunblock
22. Hat
23. Electrical tape
24. Cell phone
25. Two water bottles, one sealed and one with drinking nozzle (hm, I need to get these)
26. Juggling balls
27. Anti-bacterial water filter
28. Travel multi-spice shaker
29. Rice
30. Hoodie
31. Light jacket
32. Multi-vitamins
33. Poker chip and small ceramic bicycle for good luck
EDIT: I thought of more.
34. Hygiene bag (tooth brush, TP, etc.)

I obviously didn't have this list figured out ahead of time, it's kind of all over the place. Anything people would add/subtract?

Weakness and hopelessness.

2010-03-22T12:03:00.002-03:00

This post doesn't have anything to do with traveling, but I wanted to write something for the world to see, even if no one actually reads it, like I'm standing on the top of a cliff proclaiming to the hordes of trees below.

In the past year I've ascended to the highest of highs and descended to the lowest of lows. I've felt invincible and completely vulnerable.

I was at the pinnacle of happiness in July of 2009. I'd never felt so free and independent. I had just returned from a two month trip part way across Canada. I continued on this path until September, when all was great except for when I started feeling lonely. I longed for love, and I started keeping an eye out for signs of interest.

This is difficult. I should skip some of this, I was going to tell the whole story, but it's really not important. Everyone who should know it in detail know it already.

A girl came along and the relationship we had tested and broke through the limits of my sanity.

I never got better.

At the moment of this writing, I welcome death, but I wouldn't dare bring it onto myself, as tempting as it is sometimes. I would never wish hurt upon my friends or family, but sometimes that is the only thread left holding me from plummeting into the darkest of dark places.

I hear about people who have died and I'm secretly jealous. They made it out. They get to find out what's next. Consciously I spend most of my energy trying to break out of my psycho prison. Sub-consciously I spend the rest of my energy bracing myself, being afraid of everything because I can't handle the world. I'm left with no energy at all to do very basic things like eat, exercise, and live.

Anxiety attacks make me feel like everything important to me has been taken away, like someone sees my weakness and takes dark pleasure in removing any security I have left with some kind of terrible magic, tempting me to leave sanity forever. Physically, I feel like my body is shutting down, like I'm drowning, and I can't stop shaking, sweating, gritting my teeth, and grabbing for solid objects to reaffirm that I'm still a part of reality.

I lost one of my most important friends because I can't hold it together.

I don't dare write music when I'm like this, because the feelings get attached, and I can never listen to it again.

I spent five days and five nights in the mental health ward at the QEII recently, and I'm about to start a six week long intensive group therapy program called the Mental Heath Day Treatment program. I'm putting a lot of weight on it to help me get better. I can't feel like this forever. I won't make it.

When I feel like I'm slipping I try to remember what it was like to be happy. My memory has always been bad. I have pills to make the anxiety go away, but I was only given twelve of them, two of which I lost, and three of which I've taken. I'm down to seven. The dose of the pills is one quarter of what I was taking when I was in the hospital. They don't want me relying on them too heavily, so it's just a little bit to hold me over until I start the day treatment.

Hope is hard to find, but I'm still looking, it's probably around here somewhere.

I can smell it, can you?

2010-03-01T03:18:00.002-04:00

I've got the bug. The days are longer, the time changes in two weeks, the official beginning of spring is in three.

I've been having the hardest winter of my life. Almost didn't make it. I suffer from seasonal depression, and I've never felt it like I did over the past 4 months. I'm better now, and I'm so excited to be a homeless traveling bum again for the summer!

I'm most likely acquiring a touring bike tomorrow, and if that works out I'm going to go on a two week bike tour in the beginning of May to PEI. Then Brendan and I will be driving to Saskatoon with our friend Chantal. After Saskatoon we'll hitch back toward Montreal for the Anarchist Book Fair which takes place on the weekend of May 29th, and then the world is my oyster! I have basic plans, but they all hinge on other things working out so we'll see.

I just read all of my entries in this blog, and the memories flooded back to me so vividly. I'm really glad I made it and stuck with it. I wanted my friends and family to see what I was doing, but it became something bigger than that. It gave me a reason to really take in my surroundings and note my feelings so I could write them down later. I spent a lot of time on the road composing my thoughts in the form of english that other humans could understand which really helped me to solidify those moments in my mind.

Just a little bit longer.

Home for 2 1/2 months.

2009-09-14T00:20:00.002-03:00

I'm sorry that I didn't finish detailing my travels. In retrospect it's really interesting how much a mind can change over a period of time. When I left I was excited to let everyone know about all of the details that encompassed my travels, but the thing is, it wasn't all fun and games. Feeling trapped, unsafe, and homesick are not emotions that lend to making sure that I write home to Ma.

I made a major mistake when I left. I've come to realize that in order to make a trip like this one, you either have to start with zero money, or start with enough money to make it through the whole trip. The trip taught me a lot of things, many of which are very hard to explain, but the one major thing I learned could have benefited me a lot more if I'd come to certain conclusions earlier in the trip, but such is life.

I began my trip with $300, which was not enough to live on without massive supplement. I ran out of money after a couple of weeks and borrowed $500 from my boss, this was however mostly to buy a touring bike that I found on Kijiji in Montreal (which was promptly stolen). I bought the bike and ran out of money again in another couple of weeks. This time my parents sent me $200. I ran out of that money as well. At this point I knew I had no other way to get money, so I learned to find free food for all of my meals. Previously I was grabbing things here and there to supplement my budget, but I lived for a week in Toronto without spending any money on food at all.

The notion set in that I was capable of doing this and a calm came over me, I suddenly felt like I would be okay no matter what happened. I had the skills and knowhow to get by.

The reason I was prompted to write in this blog again after so long was because tonight was the first time since I've gotten home that I went dumpster diving. I didn't really need to, but a friend was going and I tagged along. It's weird, I never really considered the idea that the life I lived while I was travelling with nothing was a life that I can have in Halifax. There is food getting wasted here just as much as in every other city (per capita).

I'm inspired to be self sufficient.

I'm already planning to take another trip next summer, but this time I'm going to bike. I'll try to keep updating.

Hangin in Peterborough

2009-06-22T23:20:00.001-03:00

Fucking great city here! I'll probably leave tomorrow, but if not tomorrow, definitely on Wednesday.

Holy shit I suck at this.

2009-06-20T13:53:00.002-03:00

I have been informed that it's been two weeks since my last update. Sorry about that, I haven't really had a solid outlet for internet in a long time.

Here's another quiz! Only three of these statements are true!

a. My bike was stolen in Montreal

b. I went to New York City to get the new iPhone

c. I've been getting laid all over the damn place

d. I got a lesson walking on stilts, then I fell down and broke said stilts

e. I forgot my cellphone charger in Montreal

f. I'm depressed all of the time

Yeahh, so I left Montreal and hitchhiked to Peterborough which is a awesome little city that reminds me a lot of Halifax. They have about 12 pawn shops there and they're all full of the best shit.

Toronto followed after my one day in Peterborough after a pleasant bus ride since it's quite close to Toronto.

I LOVE TORONTO! I had sooo much fun there, best city in Canada to visit IMO, I ate for free, I slept for free, I basically lived for completely free. We stayed at an apartment that Brendan's sister is subletting with Clayton, Liat, and Amy. I really enjoyed hanging out with Clayton and Liat a lot! Amy seems nice but we didn't really spend any time together. I practiced the shit out of Street Fighter 4, anyone who's interested in playing me had better get their game on because I'm going to own all your asses when I get home.

Vince and I built bikes at a co-op when we got into the city under the stipulation that we would return the bikes when we were doen with them, which we did. It was a really cool and fun city to bike in.

Vince left to start heading home a few days before we left Toronto, I hope he's doing well!

I'm in Guelph currently, Brendan and I got here yesterday and I'm really enjoying it here so far, the city's full of Haligonian radicals! Really fun!

I'm leaving to head east on Sunday or Monday, I'll hit Montreal to grab the things I left there, send a care package home of things I do't need and will weigh me down, and then I'll be Halifax bound, hopefully I'll be home by Thursday.

Someone should have a party on Friday! I'll be there with bells on!

Multiple choice quiz

2009-06-07T22:30:00.003-03:00

Man, have I been busy. Only one of these things aren't true, guess which one!

a. I bought two bikes.

b. I've been biking a shitload.

c. I made some money playing bucket drums on St. Catharine St.

d. We're going to leave on Tuesday morning to head to Peterborough and then Toronto, and then back to Montreal sometime before the 19th.

e. I borrowed $500 from my boss.

f. I saved $452.56 on car insurance.

g. I went to the Isis concert.

h. I went to the TV on the Radio concert.

i. I sang "A Whole New World" from the movie "Aladdin" in the middle of the ghetto.

j. I camped in a tent on a 45 degree angle 20m from a major road in the heart of Montreal.

k. I stripped to my undies with the intent to jump into a crazy river but chickened out.

l. I almost died at least 6 times.

m. I reaffirmed that I really enjoy doing dangerous things.

n. I was officially declared "Excellent Tank Operator".

o. I spent a night with a famous rap superstar.

p. Watched an old jewish man learn to ride a bicycle. It was glorious.

q. I plan to bike 1200km from Montreal to Halifax.

r. I met a man who is quite possibly the craziest punk in the world, he goes by "Dica" which is "Acid" backwards.

s. I participated in in a bike tour with 30000 other people.

t. I missed my friends and family a lot.

Still in Montreal

2009-05-31T13:05:00.002-03:00

Jamieson and I went out to the hop out spot at 4:30am on Friday night (Saturday morning). The place is really cool, it's perfect for what it is, there's an overpass which keeps you dry if it rains, and there's a hole in the fence, so you can hang out on the legal side until the train comes and you don't get hassled by the police.

We waited until 1pm on Saturday for the train, it came, we got super excited, grabbed all of our stuff and then we watched it fly by without stopping. Why it didn't stop, I'll never know.

We went back to Jamieson's with the intentions of going out again the next night, but when we checked the weather there were storms, thundershowers, and low temperatures the whole way. So we decided not to grab the train, and instead we will wait for Brendan and Vince in Montreal.

On another note, the bio-dome is free today. Hey buuuuuuuddy!

Rain, rain, go away

2009-05-30T00:56:00.002-03:00

So I travelled all day Wednesday in the pouring rain.

People don't like to pick up sopping wet people.

I made it almost to Montreal in one very long day, I camped just outside of Montreal between two commuter train tracks in a tiny little grove. I thought this was genious because the commuter trains had stopped running for the day, and I was going to wake up in plenty of time before the first train ran the next morning. Well, it turned out that I wasn't so smart. They use those tracks for a billion other things when the commuter trains aren't running. I was woken up by the sound of trains clammering by every 15 minutes or so. It was a very jarring and alarming sound. I kept having dreams that I was about to get hit by a train all night.

In the morning I took the commuter into Montreal without paying for it. I've been on six different commuter trains and I've never been asked if I had a ticket.

When I got into Montreal I started looking for exit routes. I checked commuter trains, which didn't start leaving eastward till 12:30 (this was at about 7:30) and the bus station wasn't very nearby. I was very drained at this point and I decided to go back to Cazalais to sleep. I had spoken to Jamieson about ways to hitch out of Montreal eastward and he said he could show me the hop out spot for trains that night and I could leave early the next morning, I would still be around in time for everything I wanted to do out east so that was my plan.

I slept until 4pm at Cazalais. Thanks again ladies, I owe you so much.

When I headed over to Jamieson's place I was delighted to hear that he had decided to come with me, so we went off to Walmart to acquire some rain gear. We later learned that due to some complications he wouldn't be able to come with me that night, but that he could come with me if I waited one more day. Cool. It was raining terribly outside and I wasn't feeling that whole thing anyway. The problem was that now I had to miss the Three Sheet show. I'm dissapointed that I'll be missing it, but this also made me feel less rushed, which is always nice.

I slept at Jamieson's and had Indian food with Josie and Randee in the morning after Jamieson went to work. It was awkward hanging out with Josie, but I resolved to forgive and forget, and start over. I apologized for any trouble I'd caused her and I hope that we can be friends. In retrospect I can't believe things got so out of hand. Josie grabbed a ride share to Ottawa and I continued with Randee. I had a lot of fun even though we just went shopping and I didn't buy anything.

The rest of the day has consisted of getting ready physically and mentally for our train trip to Halifax.

Wooopeeee!

2009-05-27T00:46:00.002-03:00

I leave in 7 hours to go east, the forecasts show rain the whole damn way.

So many homes away from home

2009-05-26T01:04:00.002-03:00

Hamilton has been a real treat (I owe Cory Herc royalties for that statement). I've gotten to see most everyone I planned to see, and many I didn't expect to.

It's been awesome spending time with Katie, and I'm glad that her current boyfriend Aaron isn't finding having me around too weird.

Seeing Rachel and Jeff was great too. I'm really glad to know that Rachel and I can get along well so long as we're not dating each other's best friends.

Hamilton has however made me lazy, I've been playing video games the whole time, buuut I needed a bit of a rest. My feet needed a rest.

Tomorrow I'll see a few more people I've been meaning to see, and then Wednesday morning I'm getting a ride to the other side of Toronto to start my trek eastward toward St. John for the Ruby Jean/Three Sheet show.

When I left Hamilton three years ago, I never thought I'd come back. I'm glad I have, I've experienced a bit more of the city than I was exposed to before, and having spent so much time in Montreal, the people in Hamilton seem only average crazy now.

Hamilton Bound

2009-05-22T01:41:00.002-03:00

Last I mentioned was that I was waiting for the last commuter train out of Montreal after a day of hardship.

I successfully took the proper train this time, and I rode it till the end of the line.

When I got off of the train, I made eye contact with a cute girl wearing a pack almost as large as my own (which is quite large if I do say so myself). I said "Hello" and she replied "I bet you're going to Toronto", and I said "Yep!". She motioned for me to follow her, and that's how my friendship with Ezzy began.

She liked to talk, but that's ok because I like to listen. We set out toward the highway 20 being lead by some drug dealer Ezzy had met on the train.

Once we hit the highway, we hitched and talked for about an hour and a half, and the one ride we got took us about 20 minutes closer to our destination.

She seemed very glad to have a travel partner, which is understandable because she's an attractive young female. I'm perfectly fine with hitching by myself, but I liked her, so I decided to stick it through.

We camped on the side of the road at about midnight and set the alarm for 4:45am. She had some reason to be back in Toronto by 1pm so she wanted to get going at sun-up.

The night was a tad bit cold but we kept each other warm.

In the morning we heated up a can of vegetable soup and hit the road again.

We had a bit of trouble from the cops today, we were spoken to twice, once in Quebec and once in Ontario. Both of them were just trying to keep us off of the highway but said we could hitchhike from the onramps or the offramps. Pretty cool that we didn't get any tickets or much hassle.

First ride was a 30ish year old guy who lives in New York State and crosses the border to Canada often. About a 20 min ride.

Second ride was a 55ish year old man who we learned was a Special Victims Unit officer in Ontario. He had some interesting stories to tell, but his most notable statement was "you can learn a lot more out there on the road than you could ever learn anywhere else". I believe this statement to be true, and it seems pretty cool to be told such a statement from a man who has been a police officer for 30 years and has had extensive post secondary education.

After the second ride we waited for about 2 hours before we got picked up again, there were subtle tones of animosity growing within both of us as we secretly blamed the other for not getting rides.

Just as we were about to give up hope and split up we were picked up by a guy heading right into Toronto. Yay!

One cool thing about traveling in pairs is that I sat in the back and slept the whole time (3 1/2 hoursish) while the driver and Ezzy talked. What I picked up from their conversation was that he was from Russia and is a recovering drug and alcohol addict, but he was a really nice guy.

I got into Toronto, said my goodbyes to Ezzy and took a bus to Hamilton.

Montreal thanks

2009-05-22T01:32:00.002-03:00

The first, fourth, and fifth, nights I was in Montreal I stayed with Danielle, Marina, and Devo at the Cazalais apt. I was introduced to these people by Cory Herc who had been staying with them for a while before I'd gotten into town. I really enjoyed my time there, and I've never felt so at home without being at home. I fed myself with free food from their kitchen many times, and I'm extremely grateful.

The second and third nights I was in Montreal I stayed with Louis-Philip. I'd known him since December when he stayed on Larch with Celeste and I'd spent quite a bit of time with him. He had made a documentary about traveling across Canada which I'd seen before I met him, and it had inspired me among other things to plan the trip that I'm on currently. He fed me several times, took me out to a movie and showed me lots of sights including the top of Mont Royal.

Thanks to everyone who hosted me, and I'll be sure to visit again soon!

I fucked up

2009-05-20T21:07:00.004-03:00

So, I'd planned for a couple of days that I would hitch out of Montreal today.

I woke up to my alarm today at 7am. Then I fell back to sleep and got up at noon. Great start. So I proceded to feed myself and get my things ready to go, then it was 1:30pm. I checked to see what time I would be able to grab the commuter train to start my trek outside of Montreal. The site said 3:15. So I waited around some more.

I show up at the train station at 3:05ish, get my ticket, and get on the train. It leaves about 10 mins late and I doze off. When the train got to the end of the line I got off and walked around a bit and checked my location with Trackr.

I was over an hour in the wrong direction.

I still don't understand how it happened. I bought the right ticket (well actually I bought the wrong ticket but the one I bought cost more and the info lady said it was fine, and I knew when I left which one I was supposed to have boughten.) and I got on the train that was outside the door numbered after the proper ticket.

Whatever.

So I bus back to Montreal and have to start all over again. I miss the 6:30 bus, so now I'm at square one. I've spent $20 on public transportation, and I have to wait till 9:30 to catch the next train.

Ah well.

An inside view of Anarchy.

2009-05-19T13:10:00.000-03:00

I've been spending my time in Montreal in the shoes of a political radical, which isn't extremely far from how I've been living in Halifax, but in Montreal it's a lot easier to do things like get fresh(ish) fruit from a dumpster, or steal some cheese from an incorporated grocery store or three.

One of the places I've been spending a lot of time in has been hosting many people for the Anarchist Book fair which happened this Saturday and Sunday. Droves of mostly young dirty folk covered in patches that exclaim the poor state of today's society.

The fridge is always full and no one has much money, so we cook and share meals using whatever's available. I contributed a crate of mostly good asparagus to the collection of food, and I'm proud of that.

It's an entire sub-culture that thrives using the bits and pieces that are thrown away or poorly guarded by the people who have too much for themselves.

I'm inspired.

Into the wild world of Montreal

2009-05-17T12:15:00.000-03:00

I got dropped at a bus stop which I was told is not far from downtown Montreal and that I could take any bus and get to centre-ville.

I wait.

The first bus that comes along is a number 22. I step into the bus, pay the fair, get my pack situated and then I approach the driver for a transfer, just in case I need one. The driver responds to me saying this route doesn`t connect with any other buses, and asks where I`m heading. I explain that I`m on my way to downtown Montreal. He stopped the bus immediately and tells me I`m going the wrong direction and I need to cross the road and take the same bus in the opposite direction which would be coming any second. He gives me a transfer and I cross the street.

It`s raining. I wait.

After 20 minutes I pick up my stuff and find a stop further down the street with a shelter because I`m beginning to get cold. 45 minutes passed since I stepped off of the 22 and I finally see a bus coming. It`s the same driver who told me to wait in the rain. He apologized and went on about forgetting what time it was etc. I got on the bus with the transfer I was given, and he passed me another. I got to the end of this bus` line and the driver instructed me to take the 9, so I did. The 9 was uneventful. It took me to a subway station.

I was now at the most northern possible subway stop, and I rode it for 20 minutes to get downtown.

It took me about 2 hours in total to finally meet up with Celeste who was waiting for me.

There`s so much I can write about in Montreal, but I`m going to sum it up.

Montreal is huge, it has cheap beer, you can buy the cheap beer more places than you can buy potato chips, and it`s huge.

It`s nothing for it to take you an hour and a half to walk somewhere,

My feet are full of blisters.

I`ve met some of the greatest people here in Montreal who either live here or came for the Anarchist Bookfair. I feel very welcome and at home here, but that could also be because sooo many of my friends from Halifax are here. Shore kids represent!

The first couple of days here were so beautiful. As I travel more, I`ve come to really appreciate nice weather, especially while hitchhiking or camping.

There are a lot of places here who are taking in 10+ people at a time since people are in town for the book fair, so I really wanted to find a place a little off the beaten path to leave space for people with less options. The first night I stayed at a place on Cazalay(sp?) because I wasn`t able to get ahold of my other contacts. the next two nights I`ve been spending at my friend Louis-Phillip`s place who is one of the major inspiring factors to wanting to take this trip in the first place.

I`ve been having an awesome time, and the book fair was really interesting. I`m hoping things will calm down a bit now that it`s over though. I`d like to just relax for a day or two.

Wasted

2009-05-15T10:51:00.000-03:00

So I made it to Montreal...I never thought I'd see the day I could get shitfaced for under $10.

I left Kristen's in Quebec City yesterday at about 7:30am. Thanks for letting me stay Kristen, I really had a great time and I miss you already.

I walked to route 40 from her place which was about an hour and a half. Once I pulled out mon pouce the first car who saw me stopped and gave me a ride. He didn't speak any english but at this point I'd been speaking french for four days, so I was feeling pretty confident, we had a few discussions about QC and how he'd visited Halifax in the summer of 2000. Short ride, he took me to a better hitching spot.

Next ride was a young guy who was late for work and still stopped for me, that was nice. 20 min ride, he was bumpin' sweet tunes the whole time, sometimes it's nice to not have to talk.

Third was a guy in a white delivery truck, I actually thought I was going to become a statistic for a minute with this guy. He said he had a delivery to make but then he'd take me right to the other side of Trois Rivieres. The delivery took us 20 minutes out of the way in the middle of the woods, but he made his delivery and took me where he said he would. He was quite nice, and even though his english was terrible, he wanted to speak in english to practice, and I gave him a few lessons.

Ride four took me to the outskirts of Montreal, a bus stop. What a convoluted situation that was, but I'll save it for later, many things to do!

I almost forgot!

2009-05-13T16:13:00.000-03:00

http://www.trackr.eu/user/neil.isenor/live

Here's a link to my GPS position. I update it a lot when I'm on the move. I've shared it with a few people already and they've really liked it. Enjoy!

MuseOvelo rocks!

2009-05-13T13:05:00.000-03:00

So I head over to MuseOvelo, the sweet bike shop I had previously mentioned and inquired about renting a bike in my newly patented flavour of franglais. Pierre, the owner of the shop offered a hybrid. I was obviously uninterested, so he asked what kind of bike I'd like to use. I said that I was hoping to find a road bike and he told me to come back later.

When I returned he had a beautiful Motobecane with almost everything original on it. I rode it like the wind for five hours. The bike lanes are great here, and riding helmetless is so fucking awesome.

When I returned the bike Pierre said that I was his guest, and that his guests don't pay to borrow bikes.

Here's a pic!

Found one!

2009-05-11T23:34:00.000-03:00

I found a nice bike shop today called Muse O Velo. They have a really nice hole-in-the-wall setup that's awesome to me for some reason. They even have a little museum in the back of the shop with a lot of sweet classic hardware and other random bike stuff.

Have some pics!

This'll be a long one.

2009-05-11T11:33:00.000-03:00

The first night I camped out was pretty good at first, I was dropped off at dusk which is when I wrote my last entry.

I crawled into my hammock/tent and laid staring at the stars through my very effective bug net and closed my eyes, when I opened my eyes again it was five hours later and I was getting drenched with rain. So at this point it's 4am (maybe 3, not sure which time zone I was in) and I had to hop out of bed and install my tarp above the hammock/tent.

Neil was not pleased.

The next time I awoke it was so cold outside that I decided in my sleep-drunk stupor that it would be smartest to wait out the cold by going back to sleep.

I began my next day at 11:30am(ish).

Within 5 minutes of walking on the road I saw a Tim Horton's which I thought would have an outlet I could take advantage of for a little bit...untrue...so I used the bathroom and left, and as I left I stepped into a watery pit that has left my left shoe stained greenish brown. Great start to a day.

First driver was a shaved bald thirty-something man with a spider web tattooed on the crown of his skull. He was drinking a rediculously large can of Budweiser and remarked "It's a great day to drink and drive!" to which I smiled and put on my seatbelt. Short ride, maybe 10 mins.

Next driver was a sporty dude wearing a wetsuit of sorts with two dogs in the car. Nice guy, we shot the shit about bikes for a while, and he dropped me off about 15 mins away from where we began.

Driver number three was a older couple, early 50's I'd guess. Drive was no longer than 5 mins.

There was a long wait before the fourth person picked me up. In this period I slathered on my sunscreen and stood, sat, laid down, did stretches, and walked around in circles to pass time.

The fourth driver was an older french man, about 55 or 60, heading to Campbellton to see his grandson perform at a talent show. This drive lasted about 45 minutes and he took me across to Point-de-la-croix Quebec so he could grab a 2-4 of beer for cheap.

This town was a little weird, I bought a snack and started walking toward the next highway and I had a man stop and offer me a ride without me having to extend my weary thumb. He would be my fifth driver for the day, and he took me no more than a 3 min drive to the highway and bid me adieu.

I was now in the native reserve called Listuguj. This was one of the most beautiful little towns I've ever seen, children playing everywhere with a picturesque backdrop of the Appalachian mountains one direction and the large river that separates New Brunswick from Quebec in the other. Hitchhiking here was like hitching in Musquodoboit Harbour. Even though I was on a "major" highway, there were few cars, and the odd thing I noticed was that most of the cars were completely full with people. I don't mind not getting picked up if the whole area carpools wherever they go, good on ya!

I got picked up eventually by a young dude who spoke english well, but claimed he wasn't very good at it. 20 minute ride.

It begins to downpour like crazy, the heaviest rain I've seen this year and here I am flailing on the side of the road to get my poncho over myself as well as my bag. Not as easy as it sounds, so I give up on covering my bag and continue walking. Around the corner was a cafe, so I stopped and took advantage of an outlet and some authentic Quebec poutine. I took my good time here and when I left it was barely raining which actually made me upset because while I was in the cafe I had fashioned an ingenious method to put my poncho on properly and easily. I put the poncho on anyway and continued walking.

This part of my day took me through a valley amongst the Appalachians with a winding river following alongside the winding road. I walked for a long while barely attempting to find a ride because I was so content with my surroundings, my bag felt like five pounds and I was skipping along. After an hour or two I started to flick out my great thumb again and I was picked up by my seventh and last driver for the day.

This was about 7pm so I was prepared to go camp for the night after this ride, and I'd basically considered this day to be a writeoff for the purposes of travel because at this point I'd only travelled about 150kms compared to the several hundred travelled the day before.

Mani was the name of this driver, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts surrounded by maps and a GPS, toothbrush and toothpaste crammed in the door handle. I had found my long haul. Mani is 29ish, heading to Montreal, and a very insteresting fellow. He comes from Iran and is finishing his PhD, we had many loooong conversations about anything and everything, we drove until 11pm and then we camped at a rest stop along the 132 highway. In the early morning (5am, yeesh) we continued to travel onward to Quebec City. Mani offered me food and supplies, and I have his e-mail address, I hope our paths will meet again someday.

I got into Quebec at about 8:30am and began walking toward the tall buildings that usually characterize downtown areas. I was near Laval university, but the area was not unlike Burnside (NS) and there were no sidewalks or public transporation that I could see, finally I found someone and asked them in my broken french if they knew where I could find a bus to downtown. They were helpful and I found my way to Kristen's place which is where I'm currently staying. We were awesome friends in school and haven't seen eachother since graduation.

I took most of the day yesterday just walking around, and actually I was trying to find a bike shop with a bit of character...I haven't found one yet. The thing that strikes me as odd here is that none of the bike shops know about the other bike shops, and they don't know what I'm talking about when I say "cycling cap" even after I pull up a picture of one on my phone. Lots of people cycle here, but they're all roadies. No culture, no appreciation for cycling history. In Halifax, everyone who works at a bike shop knows all of the other bike shops in the area, and they know most of the staff at all of the other bike shops in the area. I'll continue my search today, I have a hard time believing that all of the bike shops suck here.

-Neil

Night one

2009-05-08T21:59:00.000-03:00

Battery's dying...

4 Rides today taking me to Bathurst.

1. Never made eye contact...short ride

2. Hal. Phenominal guy. 52 year old grade 1 teacher. Great meaningful conversations, long ride, and he bought me some Timmy's.

3. Couple from Belgium. Not really interested in talking much...didn't care that I love Eddy Merckx. Listened to NOFX the whole time. Short ride.

4. Guy (the french name). Great conversationalist but all the wrong topics. Advocates christianity, creationism, capitalism, and the oil business. Bought me supper at Burger King. Longest ride of the day.

More tomorrow.

It has begun

2009-05-08T12:26:00.000-03:00

So I'm on the 185 Link to Sackville where I'll hit the highway.

Some people might say that I'm leaving too late in the day, but quite frankly I'm getting kind of excited to use some of the camping gear I got at MEC.

Bus is moving, I get car sick. Until later.

For those who don't know

2009-05-05T18:44:00.000-03:00

I'm going to be travelling for about 2 months with a small break at the end of May, so that's what's up!

Post one

2009-05-05T17:47:00.000-03:00

So I got a new phone/crazy device called the Samsung Omnia for my trip, it allows me to take pretty nice photos and videos as well as edit them on the go, so I don't need to bring my laptop!

I'll be updating whenever I hit WiFi spots along the way and I've got some megs of free data usage in case I don't get to one for a few days.

I'll be dealing in texts while I'm gone instead of phone calls, so if you call, and I don't answer, I'll probably be hitting you back with a text to see what you wanted.

I took a long bike ride today near my parent's place which is where I took the photo above. Pretty nice quality I think.

I'll be officially kicking off my trip on Friday (the 8th) so keep track here and I'll hopefully keep you informed and maybe even entertained.

-Neil