Hello P.E.D.A.L. friends and supporters,
Garrett here. Long time no type! You'll likely have noticed that Steve's been the big blog celebrity these days... and rightfully so! Our intrepid friend Steve has been carrying the project solo for two months now (go, go, go, Steve!). In early January, Kristi and I returned by train (on our own dollar, not our donors') from L.A., California to our home in southern Ontario.
We haven't broken the news until now, because at first I was considering turning right around and re-joining Steve. I was feeling quite distraught at the prospect of "taking a break." When I decided to remain in Ontario with Kristi, I wanted to determine what the future plans for P.E.D.A.L. would be. In retrospect, we should have put up even a small notice (haha, Kristi told me so!), but I felt a bit silly writing something along the lines of, "We're back in Ontario... maybe not for long... at least not me... but maybe for a while... not sure until when... but here we are! Stay tuned!"
The decision to return was very, very difficult (as I recall, it took Kristi and I about three weeks of steady discussion to decide!). Ultimately, though, the consistent emotional, psychological, and logistical challenges of a semi-long-term transient lifestyle were taking their toll on our emotional well-being. Furthermore, the number of riders had decreased to a point where we were finding it impossible to keep the website up to date, while dealing with the day to day realities of riding and life on the road. We were feeling road weary and finding it difficult to put our full enthusiasm into the tour.
We will still assert that traveling by bicycle is, without a doubt, the way to go -- in fact, my conviction in this is stronger than ever, as I've been pining to get back on my bike to run my errands and make my commutes ever since the day we returned to the snow and cold (I've seen many winter cyclists about, but I've been spoiled by southern California's smiling sunshine! I just hopped on my bike yesterday, actually, spurred by the promise of 6 degrees Celsius, for a two-hour jaunt to Guelph, and discovered I'm already so out of shape!) I want to be clear that the difficulties we faced were not a product of traveling by bicycle, but of traveling by any means. Without trying to make any excuses, I'll just say that not having a place to call home altogether tuckered us out... a lot more than we expected!
Now the part where we try to save face :) We're committed to turning this into an opportunity to strengthen P.E.D.A.L. Across the Americas! It seems we were naive to think that we could keep the website at all up-to-date while on the road, particularly while running (well, cycling) away from Canada's impending icy winter and the Pacific Northwest's full-on soggy celebration of a winter. Despite our sometimes hectic schedule, we scheduled numerous workdays, during which we'd plunk down at the local library and work on getting our videos, photos, interviews, and articles into shape for uploading to the website. Unfortunately, every library but one had a 1-hour-per-person limit on internet use, so only the team member using our laptop was able to make any significant headway during any of these work sessions.
But enough of the retrospect! The point is that now that Kristi and I are home with consistent computer and internet access, we can finally turn the mish-mash of information on our little laptop into real content for the website. That's our goal; working in concert with veteran tour members Lucas Karn and Justin Pape, we're going to turn www.PedalAcrossTheAmericas.com into a delicious cornucopia of gettin'-it-done sustainability success stories. All the content for Canada and the U.S. will be up in preparation for P.E.D.A.L. Part II: Mexico (and a little bit of California, still) to Costa Rica. Promise! You shan't be disappointed.
Hopefully we'll also have the chance to introduce some new team members for P.E.D.A.L. Part II (this is your cue to contact us if you are interested! info@PedalAcrossTheAmericas.com!). Hm, that Part II is sounding pretty good... like Lord of the Rings, right? A trilogy? Except... more of a twology.
In the meantime, all donations are being held in their own credit union account. Rest assured that it will all go toward the continuation of the tour and the website. If anyone has questions about this, please feel free to contact us. We want to be totally transparent about what we plan to do with P.E.D.A.L. funds, especially with our generous donors, friends and family!
Phewsh! That's all for now. Thanks for all your support and understanding!
And now, enjoy a small montage of some my personal highlights from the tour.
Bottom brackets and flapping jackets,
Garrett, on behalf of the P.E.D.A.L. crew
Garrett here. Long time no type! You'll likely have noticed that Steve's been the big blog celebrity these days... and rightfully so! Our intrepid friend Steve has been carrying the project solo for two months now (go, go, go, Steve!). In early January, Kristi and I returned by train (on our own dollar, not our donors') from L.A., California to our home in southern Ontario.
We haven't broken the news until now, because at first I was considering turning right around and re-joining Steve. I was feeling quite distraught at the prospect of "taking a break." When I decided to remain in Ontario with Kristi, I wanted to determine what the future plans for P.E.D.A.L. would be. In retrospect, we should have put up even a small notice (haha, Kristi told me so!), but I felt a bit silly writing something along the lines of, "We're back in Ontario... maybe not for long... at least not me... but maybe for a while... not sure until when... but here we are! Stay tuned!"
The decision to return was very, very difficult (as I recall, it took Kristi and I about three weeks of steady discussion to decide!). Ultimately, though, the consistent emotional, psychological, and logistical challenges of a semi-long-term transient lifestyle were taking their toll on our emotional well-being. Furthermore, the number of riders had decreased to a point where we were finding it impossible to keep the website up to date, while dealing with the day to day realities of riding and life on the road. We were feeling road weary and finding it difficult to put our full enthusiasm into the tour.
We will still assert that traveling by bicycle is, without a doubt, the way to go -- in fact, my conviction in this is stronger than ever, as I've been pining to get back on my bike to run my errands and make my commutes ever since the day we returned to the snow and cold (I've seen many winter cyclists about, but I've been spoiled by southern California's smiling sunshine! I just hopped on my bike yesterday, actually, spurred by the promise of 6 degrees Celsius, for a two-hour jaunt to Guelph, and discovered I'm already so out of shape!) I want to be clear that the difficulties we faced were not a product of traveling by bicycle, but of traveling by any means. Without trying to make any excuses, I'll just say that not having a place to call home altogether tuckered us out... a lot more than we expected!
Now the part where we try to save face :) We're committed to turning this into an opportunity to strengthen P.E.D.A.L. Across the Americas! It seems we were naive to think that we could keep the website at all up-to-date while on the road, particularly while running (well, cycling) away from Canada's impending icy winter and the Pacific Northwest's full-on soggy celebration of a winter. Despite our sometimes hectic schedule, we scheduled numerous workdays, during which we'd plunk down at the local library and work on getting our videos, photos, interviews, and articles into shape for uploading to the website. Unfortunately, every library but one had a 1-hour-per-person limit on internet use, so only the team member using our laptop was able to make any significant headway during any of these work sessions.
But enough of the retrospect! The point is that now that Kristi and I are home with consistent computer and internet access, we can finally turn the mish-mash of information on our little laptop into real content for the website. That's our goal; working in concert with veteran tour members Lucas Karn and Justin Pape, we're going to turn www.PedalAcrossTheAmericas.com into a delicious cornucopia of gettin'-it-done sustainability success stories. All the content for Canada and the U.S. will be up in preparation for P.E.D.A.L. Part II: Mexico (and a little bit of California, still) to Costa Rica. Promise! You shan't be disappointed.
Hopefully we'll also have the chance to introduce some new team members for P.E.D.A.L. Part II (this is your cue to contact us if you are interested! info@PedalAcrossTheAmericas.com!). Hm, that Part II is sounding pretty good... like Lord of the Rings, right? A trilogy? Except... more of a twology.
In the meantime, all donations are being held in their own credit union account. Rest assured that it will all go toward the continuation of the tour and the website. If anyone has questions about this, please feel free to contact us. We want to be totally transparent about what we plan to do with P.E.D.A.L. funds, especially with our generous donors, friends and family!
Phewsh! That's all for now. Thanks for all your support and understanding!
And now, enjoy a small montage of some my personal highlights from the tour.
Bottom brackets and flapping jackets,
Garrett, on behalf of the P.E.D.A.L. crew
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| The Whole Dang Shebang! Also, leftmost, a delightful French fellow named Cedrique (spelling?). |
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| I don't think we made more adjustments and tune-ups during the whole rest of the trip combined than we did during the first week! |
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| My bike! All packed and ready to ride :D |
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| The Bruce Peninsula, Ontario |
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| Yep, we're in northern Ontario now. |
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| The tres beau Mink Falls in northern Ontario. |
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| A classic scene in rural Canada. |
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| P.E.D.A.L. and friends build our very own solar water heater for HELP International. |
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| Can you guess where we are now? Hint: Extend this scene 360 degrees.) |
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| Thank you friendly farmers for a place to set up camp! |
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| We're almost at the Rockies! |
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| We're at the Rockies! Best appreciated over a chug of grape juice. |
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| One of many summits... |
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| How did we ever make it to Vancouver?! |
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| Stanley Park, Vancouver |
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| Partying to peanut butter chocolate cake in Victoria, with our super swell Warm Showers hosts Mike and Josee (not pictured, unfortunately). |
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| The snow finally flies in Washington. A nice cold bottle of water is just what we need for refreshment! |
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| Kitchens: The most important room in the house! This particular kitchen belongs to the Aprovecho Envrionmental Learning Centre in Oregon. |
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| Quite possibly the world's most hydrodynamic gazebo? Home-built by hand out of "cob," a simple mixture of sand, clay, and straw. |
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| The Cob Cottage Company, nestled amongst the hills and forests of Oregon. |
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| It's Minnowan! We rescued him from an abandoned campsite at Lake Minnowan in northern Ontairo, and he's enjoyed the ride ever since. (You can see what colour he started out as on the underside of his arm.) |
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| Along the windswept (headwind-swept!) shores of Oregon. |
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| The Oregon shore on an overcast day. |
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| Lovely... |
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| Camping on the coast of Oregon. |
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| Got a bit stormy that evening... colourful! |
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| Ahh, daybreak! |
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