Across Canada For Your Heart

In denial…

acrosscanada — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:44:14 +0000

So…. we made it!!! Kelowna, British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Two bikes, two very tired girls, and a heck of a lot of support from friends, family and strangers alike. We arrived in Halifax right on time on July 20th…and had the most insane ride of our entire trek coming into our final destination. It was extremely illegal for us to be on the highway we were on…but in order for us to go else where we would have had to back track a lot…with our panniers that had grown exponentially as we cycled, and we were not up for that at all! Sooo we risked our lives, cycling on this insane passage of life threatening madness with horns blaring the whole way and menacing fists shaking at us out of several windows. But honestly, nothing that day could have taken the smile off of our faces. We just cycled across Canada!! Not a lot of people can say that and our pride was immeasurable. Celebration was in order. This was the day we had been working towards for 75 days, over 2.5 months, our entire summer. And now we were here…..both Lisa and I looked at each other at the end and had the same moment of panic….Now What?

I’d like to say it was a moment. But it turned into a week, and then a month….most of which we sat there, unsure of what we were suppose to do, or say, or post on our blog. And then we were thrown back into our “regular lives”. I was back at school, teaching spin classes…basking in memories and Lisa was back in Montreal working a big girl job, doing every kind of physical activity she could think of besides biking. Time was and is flying by, as if this incredible accomplishment was just a small blip in the span that is our lives. Which, realistically, it was. We worked so hard for this and now…its over.

In saying this, amongst our confusion we both came to appreciate that those 2 and a half months were to be the highlight of our lives for a long time. It was the most incredible thing we had ever done and the amount of memories, experiences and learnings that we went through are much much more than just a small blip. We found ourselves over those 75 days. We learnt about our most daunting shortcomings, our strengths, our passions and Lisa even learnt how to cook. Sort of.

There is no way to thank every single person that had a part in this trip. It was absolutely overwhelming the amount of kindness that we came across. From people donating to the heart and stroke foundation on the side of the road to the many RV sites that allowed us to stay for free…to the amazing community of cyclists we came across who offered more than advice about the next couple cities…but who offered their support and encouragement in a way that no one else could. We had endless amounts of family, friends and friends of friends of friends who helped us accomplish this dream. Once you go through something of this magnitude, you gain such an appreciation for the amount of work that goes into accomplishing your goals and for the amount of help you need to do so.

So from the bottom of my heart; thank you. Thank you to the truckers who moved to the other lane to give us space. Thank you to all the construction workers for cheering us on…in their own way. Thank you to the prairies for having such amazing shoulders for us to ride on. To Ontario for teaching us so much about ourselves and offering a limitless supply of beauty. To Quebec for the most beautiful back highways I have ever seen. Thank you to all the people that donated money to the Heart and Stroke foundation, you have made a difference in so many lives. Thank you to my wonderful friends who came out to events to show their support. Thank you to my amazing family who did more to make this trip happen than I could have ever imagined. Thank you to John for sharing this experience with me, dedicating your time to help make my dreams come true and teaching Lisa how to cook. Thank you to Lisa’s family for taking part in this insane endeavor. Thank you to everyone who had a part in this journey, you have truly touched my life and so many others. Most of all, thank you to Lisa. You are such an amazing person and I am so glad that we could share this experience together. You made this trip achievable for me, by providing support and encouragement and by being my partner in this. No one will ever know exactly what we went through, but I have gained so much respect for you and your ability to conquer your fears and achieve your goals (daily and long-term!), I love you and I miss you so much!

Until next time….

Truro today, Halifax tomorrow…

acrosscanada — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:42:08 +0000

Yesterday we rode from Moncton, NB to Sackville, NB…only a 50km ride, but Lisa came down with some combination of heat stroke/flu. Of course one of us would get sick with two riding days left!! This is going to make for a challenging last couple of days, but we are very determined to be in Halifax tomorrow afternoon. Two months and 12 days. Wow. Its almost time to face reality and we do not feel ready at all! I feel like we need some more time to think……

124km today, 94.5km tomorrow.

For those of you who thought we couldn’t make it, get your butts online and donate to Heart and Stroke!! We are soo close!

1000km Remaining.

acrosscanada — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:34:08 +0000

So far we have cycled 4500km. From Kelowna BC to Quebec City. Lisa has literally cycled home from British Columbia. We have 1000km left which equals roughly about 10 biking days depending on this heat…Crazy!!

We are now carrying Paniers on our bikes and are completely on our own! Very exciting. And scary. But its definitely an empowering feeling and has completely changed the dynamic of the trip. Instead of having a campsite in mind, as John always would, we arrive at the city borders and have to ride through insane traffic to get to city center and then attempt to find somewhere affordable to stay. Yesterday we witnessed another group of cyclists escape death in Quebec City by a couple of inches. At the end of 8 hours in 45 degree heat plus humidity…you have to try and stay on the ball to get through the city! Scary stuff.

All is well though…Quebec city is the last big city we will hit until Halifax. We cannot believe that there are only 10 more days left to this insane endeavor!! Wish us luck and pray for rain…we need it!!

Uncle Fred

acrosscanada — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:22:56 +0000

Lisa and I knew as soon as we got our bikes that we would have to name them. I immediately knew who I was going to name mine after. My uncle Fred.

Some of you may have known Uncle Fred and some of you may have just heard stories. I remember Fred being extravagant, full of life, stupidly spontaneous and extremely kind hearted. This was a man who worked hard for what he had and lived his life to the very fullest…to say the least. He played a huge role in my mom’s childhood and of course ours as well. Uncle Fred passed away from a heart attack not too long ago and is a big reason we chose the Heart and Stroke foundation to raise money for.

Many of my memories of Uncle Fred were from the cottage. I remember him feeding all the fish hot dogs from the dock. I remember catching frogs to show him and he would put them in his beer to get them drunk and watch them hop sideways. These are very tame stories, but you never knew what kind of adventure you could get into when you were with Fred.

He used to fall asleep on the couch all the time and we would take this opportunity to paint his toenails and fingernails obnoxious pinks and reds. Usually he wouldn’t notice until we were somewhere public, and even then he didn’t care, as long as we had fun. When my Uncle Fred passed away, we all flew to Toronto for his funeral. It was more of a party than a funeral, which was exactly what Fred would have wanted. I remember walking into the wake to say goodbye to Uncle Fred and being overwhelmed with sadness. Until I walked up to him and saw, that yes his toenails were painted and yes he was going to buried that way. It made us cry and then laugh until we cried more. Only Uncle Fred.

His spirit has been with me throughout my ride across Canada. There have been many, many situations when I should have fallen into traffic or at the very least get extremely hurt…and somehow, I managed to pull out of it. Yesterday we got our bikes tuned up and I thought that I should paint Fred’s toenails pink. With what I had to work with, I did the next best thing…

Beautiful Pink handle bars!! Just for you Uncle Fred.

Thank you Ottawa!!

acrosscanada — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:37:12 +0000

We just wanted to send out a huuuuuge thank you to Steph, Sean and Nisha for hosting an incredible Canada Day celebration/Heart and Stroke Fundraiser!! We had an AMAZING time in Ottawa and raised a ton of money for Heart and Stroke. Thanks to everyone for coming out and showing their support! Thanks Tanya for sharing your birthday with our fundraiser! We had 4 kegs and 140 people. Everyone drank responsibly and had a great time…only the kitchen sink got hurt…. It was incredible to be in our Nations capital on Canada day, what an experience. Sean, Steph & Nisha…we cannot thank you enough. You guys are amazing.

Here are a couple of pics from the party…

Nisha, Steph and Sean...you guys rock!

Back to reality…

acrosscanada — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:24:49 +0000

Long time no chat! Apologies for the lack of blogging in the past little while…we have literally been torn away from internet access all throughout northern Ontario.

Well, for those of you who said it would be all downhill from the Rockies…welcome to Ontario. Ontario was special in its own unique way. First of all it took us the same amount of time to cross Ontario as it did to cross BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. That is a long time to be in one province. A province who’s shoulders on the highway are literally 30cm wide. 30cm of crumbling asphalt, plagued with massive potholes. Try riding on that with semi trucks flying by at 120km/hour, only inches from your shoulder. Not to mention the terrain is 100% harder than the Rockies…if you have never been around lake superior, take my word for it, it is far from flat.

Secondly, we really got to see first hand how much our economy has crashed. The highway was littered with abandoned shops, from gas stations and truck stops to gift shops and salons. It became really clear to us that although we may seem to be immune to it in places like Kelowna and Calgary, people across Canada are struggling big time. If you don’t believe me, just go on a little 6000km bike ride and check it out.

Thirdly, this was our last stretch with a support vehicle and more importantly we had to say goodbye to my other father, John.

John had an incredible impact on us and our journey. We honestly couldn’t have done it without him. Our daily routine consisted of this…5am..John is rustling around, making coffee, attempting to wake us up as subtly as possible. We curse him under our breath because its 5am and who actually wakes up at that time?! I get up first and make the first attempt at waking Lisa. She rolls over. I gather clothes, get dressed, put toast on, make tea, make a second attempt to wake Lisa. She grunts and rolls over again. John and I have a full conversation and start eating breakfast. Lisa grunts and mumbles about the 5am wake up call as she stumbles out and nestles in for breakfast. Lisa isn’t really a morning person. We eat breakfast as John packs up the entire trailer…which is not an easy task. Clean up time and on the road for 6am. After riding around 2 hours, we pull into the trailer where the door is usually open allowing the delicious aromas of the feast John has created to waft out. Every day was different, he always kept us on our toes, trying new creations (not recipes, he never ever uses recipes…just spices!). He got super creative feeding me as I am a vegetarian and all the while would cook Lisa bacon to keep her happy. We eat constantly and he was always trying to keep us happy in this domain.

Once and a while we would stop at the trailer to go on an adventure and see what John had discovered while waiting for us. A lot of the time it was different sparkly rocks, disguised clear cutting and wild life. One time we stopped to find 2 dead moose in the middle of the forest. How he found them I will never know. We got to see some really amazing things because of John’s curiosity.

From time to time we would be followed or heckled by some inquisitive characters…but John was always there with the trailer and binoculars making sure we were safe.

We made it into Ottawa a few days early so we got to spend some time up at my families cottage. It was a really nice last couple of days with John and it was definitely a tearful goodbye. John, thank you for everything you have done for us. You kept us on track when we got distracted, you were incredibly patient with all of our questions and antics, and most importantly you helped make my dream a reality and that is something that will stick with me forever. You are truly the only person who knows exactly what we went through and how incredibly hard this journey has been. We love you and we miss you terribly!

Don’t Stress.

acrosscanada — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:59:10 +0000

Most people view heart disease as a man’s disease. One of the reasons we chose to raise awareness for the Heart and Stroke Foundation was to bring attention to the fact that heart disease is the leading killer for women in Canada. Men or women, there are so many lifestyle factors that we have complete control over in attempting to prevent heart disease and stroke. Choices that are clearly bad for your heart, such as smoking and drinking can have obvious damaging affects on your heart. Lack of exercise can be devastating for your mind, spirit and of course your heart. But what about stress? Can you believe that we can live a lifestyle that is so stressful it causes our bodies to just stop working? Take a moment and think about everything you have going on in your life. Is it really that crucial for you to stress over each and every minor detail? To get complete anxiety over the million and 1 things you have to do today? Breathe deeply and refocus on your priorities. Your loved ones. Your health. Your happiness. What more is there to life? Everything will work out as it should. Just don’t stress. Your heart is depending on it.

Yesterday we had an extremely inspirational moment. A lovely couple, Leigh and Edo, stopped on the highway to talk to us, after playing leap-frog with the trailer for most of the morning. This beautiful, fit woman (Leigh) gets out of the car and starts gushing over us, telling us what an amazing thing it is that we are doing. She then adds that it is very touching to her because she had a heart attack in February. Lisa and I were shocked. There was no way this tiny fit woman could possibly have had a heart attack 5 months ago. “It was from stress” she tells us. Here she is telling us how amazing we are, when she has survived a heart attack and has changed her life completely.
Leigh, we just want to say thank you for your support. You are the reason we are doing what we are doing. You have survived and are an inspiration to us to keep riding. Thank you for taking the time to stop and chat, you turned our day around and reminded us of why we are doing this. All the best to you and Edo.
We also would like to extend a huge thank you to Lino and Lupo for extending such incredible hospitality to us in Thunder Bay. We were so excited to go to the YMCA and have a steam and a swim…only to find out that it had been shut down that year! Lino calmly told us that he has a sauna and we could use it no problem…we were so happy. We had an amazing steam and a lovely shower (so nice after 3 days of not showering)… He then made us spaghetti and salad with red wine…Lino, you will always hold a loving place in our hearts! We miss you and Lupo! Thank you!
Again, please do not stress! Take time for yourself and enjoy the moment. Love your hearts!

Happy Fathers Day! We love you John…you have been so incredible to us this trip. You are amazing. xoxo

Leigh and Edo

French People Rock

acrosscanada — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:16:57 +0000

Ayla and I knew before leaving on this trip that we would definitely have some “wow, what a beautiful country” moments. They happened through the Rockies. When the landscape dramatically changed after Calgary, we immediately realized how breathtaking the Prairies were as well. Lately, we’ve been having some incredible days through Ontario; rolling hills and lazy afternoons on the beaches of Lake Superior. But like I said, we were expecting this.

What we weren’t expecting was being part of a community this summer. When we imagined biking across the country, sleeping in a new place every night, we assumed we would be the only ones on the road. Wrong. Turns out that this winter, all over the place, there were kids our age sitting down and thinking how great a trip like this would be. While we decided to do it on bikes, others on tandem quad bikes (http://thetandemtour.com), others rollerblades, or on longboards, we are all going in the same direction. Bumping in to these people and getting to laugh about and compare our hard days, and best days, have made this trip even more memorable.

Two days ago, somewhere in Ontario, we met a man named Frederic. Hailing from France, this guy was legit. He had started his round the world trip a couple years ago, sailing from the USA to Central America, across the Pacific to Australia and New Zealand, grabbed his bike off the boat and continued up into Asia. In a couple months he will be in San Francisco and officially will have gotten himself all around the world. We were also really impressed by his attire; khakis, a button up, and a fleece. We usually look pretty sweaty and disheveled. The French, they always manage to look good. Anyway, lesson of the day: if you do cool stuff, you meet cool people.

Tomorrow we take off for Sault Ste Marie, which is going to be a pretty grueling ride. We are motivated to see some great friends in Ottawa, family in Montreal, and starting the ride into the Maritimes. Big THANKS goes out to the Good Sam Club campground in Wawa, Ontario, who let us crash for free for the night, and is also apparently the only place in Wawa with wireless…

Cheers!

Lisa & Ayla

Wunderbay

acrosscanada — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:49:11 +0000

Yesterday we rolled into Thunderbay unsure of what to expect. At that point, we hadn’t showered in days, had been camping on the side of the road with no lights or much power in the RV as one battery was dead and the other was barely holding on for life. We were covered in bug bites from the mossies getting in at night and nipping away at our legs. All of our riding clothes were soaked from the rain and then the humidity. It was seriously unpleasant. But Thunder Bay welcomed us with open arms and a kind heart.

Petries Bike shop treated us to an amazing tune up along with tons of tips. Everyone there was so friendly and knowledgeable, we figure we found the best bike shop in Thunder Bay. Tucked away behind a knocked down YMCA that Neil Young used to live at, Petries is a family run business with an incredibly hard working staff that treated us fantastic. Thank you so much Petries!! http://petries.ca/

We also went out for an incredible Greek dinner at Naxos bar and grille. Fabulous food, amazing people and just a really fun time. We got to dance and break plates and eat saganaki!! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thunder-Bay-ON/NAXOS-Grille-Bar/12466715198

The scenery here is also amazing…we are loving it here! Thank you Thunder Bay for being so fabulous to us!

Our next fundraiser is being planned for Ottawa on July 1st. We will be having a big party for a great cause so stay tuned!!

Today we are heading towards the Nippigon area. Apparently the scenery here is unreal, and the hills mimic the Rockies…hooray!

Kakabeka Falls, just outside of Thunder Bay

More videos coming soon! Thanks for all of your support and make sure you click on the DONATE tab to give some funds to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.

acrosscanada — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:34:24 +0000