Viera and Justin hurried to Edmonton, with the news last Wednesday that Kristi and Garrett were past Medicine Hat. Aiming to improve organization, Viera spent hours immediately called all the tv stations, radio stations, and newspapers in the city. However, the success rate was low, as only one radio station (630 ched) and one tv station (global news) interviewed, and the global news clip (which can be seen by googling edmonton global news, going to the second tap of video, clicking on September 17, were at about 11:11 into it), which didn't even mention the website! So maybe next time it would be more useful to spend a bit less time on it. Viera found an Amnesty International Building Bridges Conference going on at the university, so her and Justin attended that and learned some things about prisoners of conscience around the world and local aboriginal issues and wrote a couple of letters to the prime minister of China. In the evening they visited with Viera's brother and aunt and uncle. They also biked around town, got some donations. Especially Viera is looking at bike shops for donations of bike pedals and clip in shoes, which she now requires since her knees started hurting. They also watched the Sound of Music (it was Justin's first time seeing it). They are really enjoying Viera's mom's wonderful cooking, including leco and plum potato dumplings and poppy seed roll and lots of other stuff :). Today is Sunday and many stores will be closed so we will go to a concert and then tomorrow check out stores for donations. Oh, this morning Garrett called and said they had just arrived in Medicine Hat. Like Viera suspected, somewhere there was a miscommunication before, and their hurry and skipping of meeting wonderful couchsurfers was for nothing, but oh well now there is more time to do things. We will head to Calgary after this, originally there was a plan to climb Mount Robson with Viera's brother but it was determined to be too expensive, as well as a bit impractical with timing.
An update on Garrett and Kristi, they are staying in Medicine Hat through warmshowers (a hospitality service like couchsurfing, except by cyclists for cyclists), which was arranged by a fellow they met on the road, who is cycling from Waterloo to Vancouver. Hopefully we can bicycle with him, although he might not want to stay in Calgary for a few days so we'll have to see. It's Garrett's birthday tomorrow! Unfortunately he did not make it to Calgary to celebrate it with his mom but the celebration will just have to be postponed to later.
Do you guys know about http://www.warmshowers.org ? That could be a great way to meet people, find places to stay and get route information.
ReplyDeleteHere's something I emailed c/o of Kristi (chosen more or less at random among your bios) the other day:
I’ve ridden several large chunks of your route, and I’m wondering how you’ll deal with winter. It looks like you won’t even be starting your ride down the West Coast until late October, and you could start hitting winter storms by the time you get into Oregon (and maybe even some snow in the mountains before you get to the coast). The Oregon and California coasts are fabulous in good weather – wonderful state parks -- but could be brutal in cold, wind, rain and fog. My biggest concern is your route across northern Arizona and New Mexico. They have real winter at the higher elevations. Last year I left Santa Fe in mid-October, en route to Houston, and ran into a snowstorm on the second day. If you’re planning to cross those states before March, I think you should look at a lower-elevation southern route. A lot of the ride from California to Texas is arduous whichever route you take, with some long hauls between water and services, so plan carefully. But the Hill Country – roughly 100-mile radius around Austin – really makes up for it, and Austin is one of the most progressive and bike-friendly places you’ll find south of Boulder.
My Oregon-California 2008 photos are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/robert.d.bott/OregonCaliforniaCoastBikeTourAugSept2008#
Santa Fe-Houston 2009:
http://picasaweb.google.com/robert.d.bott/NewMexicoTexasBikeTourOctNov2009#
Anyway, have a great time and keep blogging,
Biker Bob