Final Details

Wow! This weekend was super busy. First off I do not make my living on this blog so I do have a full time job and part of that job is "on-call". One week every month I have the honor of carrying a phone and if something breaks while I have the phone I have to go in and try to fix it. Most of the time it works out and I get the machine running again. Anyhow, I was on-call this weekend, thankfully nothing critical broke.

We had to go shopping for the last few things that we need for the Whitehorse trip. We are getting close to the deadline and it still feels like we have miles to go to get ready. I did manage to get my tent seam sealed and waterproofed. I checked both our sleeping pads for leaks (none) and added some small items to the chuck box. (I will try to get a video posted after the trip about it). I also managed to get the sleeping bags packed and ready, the tent packed smaller and found our camp stools. They are surprisingly comfortable and very compact.

So, while on this trip we are trying something new, I mean other then driving for 4000 km. We are going to try out some freezer bag cooking. If you have been into a camping store in the last few years you will have noticed a section of freeze dried meals. FBC is the same idea just home made. So, healthier and tastier (I hope). Anyhow, tonight after supper we are going to be putting meals together for the trip. Just a few for this trip as we will have almost no weight restriction we can take a cooler with frozen steaks too. When we go on our PEI trip we will need a lot of light, tasty, filling food that hopefully doesn't take up too much room. So this will be a dry run so to speak.

I still need to get an oil change done, rotate the tires and wash our trusty chariot. I also need to figure out how to charge camera batteries with out power but, we will have to figure that out later. Too late for this trip I fear.

Weekly Post

It's the August long weekend! We are in Alix, Alberta population of 830 (2011). There is a beautiful little lake and of course, my folks. We try to come up here at least once a month to spend some much needed time with my family  and to get away from the normal rut that seems to creep into our lives.

We spent some time in Red Deer yesterday looking to purchase a new GPS. Apparently no-one in Red Deer sells any of the "entry models" that I am willing to pay for. I did find a few that were well over my budget of $200. I even found one that was close to $1000!

Why do I want a GPS you ask? Well, to get back into geocaching. Many years ago we found a nice Magellan Color GPS and started caching it served us well until someone broke into my truck and stole the unit. They left the change in the ashtray but got the GPS and my air freshener. I don't get that one either. Anyhow, we stopped caching for a bit but eventually tried again with a smart phone. It works but it's no where near accurate enough. The phone gets us into the right area but when you are hunting for a small container you need to be with in a few feet. So, we haven't really done any caching for a couple years. Now with a couple big trips coming up in the next couple years I think it would be kinda neat to find a few caches not in Alberta.

We also stopped by an outdoor store that I have never gone into before; Atmosphere. They seem to have about the same selection as MEC but the prices seem to be a bit cheaper. Which I found a bit odd. They gave me 10% off my first purchase and a coupon for 10% off in the next month. Also I am supposed to be getting another coupon e-mailed to me in a month. So, just by giving them my e-mail address I get 30% off of purchases.

I'm going to let you get back to living your lives and I will talk to you next week.

Short trip

So, I haven’t been on here in a while and for that I am sorry. I figured I should post an update where we are in this adventure and lay out a slight change in this blog.

First, the update, I have sourced most of the parts for the two trikes and fabrication is slowly progressing, I am at a point with one trike that I now need suspension parts and those prove to be very expensive or hard to locate. I did manage to find two old mountain bikes with suspension parts but neither one is beefy enough for our purposes. I can however use these parts to mock up the trikes. I have also found a place that sells parts for electric scooters and the suspension parts from them seem to be a better price. I am also waiting for a local machine shop to finish the hubs for these trikes so I can carry on. So, both frames are welded up and now I am just waiting for a few little things to happen so I can properly measure and assemble other parts of the frames.

Now a slight change in direction for this blog. I know that you will get tired of the updates eventually; although if I only post once a month that may not happen. However you would lose interest and stop reading so... Big news! We live lives outside of this trip! I am going to start posting once a week, hopfully on Sunday afternoons. I will be laying out all kinds of stuff, don’t worry I will keep the private parts of our lives just that.

Here is the first bit of news that only a few people know. My lovely wife told me a few months back that she has never been to Whitehorse, Yukon (I drove through in 1999) and she really wants to go. So, in a couple weeks we will be packing up the tent, sleeping bags, chuck box and a bit of food and running off (sans kids) to the Yukon Territories for a week.

Over the next couple weeks I will be prepping all the camping gear and purchasing the consumables (propane, spices etc.) I will make a video of our chuck box so you all can see how ultra organized we are! (Okay, just a wish -- the ultra orginized part anyhow.) I will then put it on YouTube and try to link it to this blog so it will be a one stop shop. I am also going to build a camera mount for the car so I can do a time lapse video of our drive. Then I will have to test out the camera mount and live shooting so, get ready for some videos about that too.

When we are not planning trips and exciting stuff I will just update you all on our lives and other more mudane things. I hopefully will not bore you guys into running away. We do have a few plans for our backyard and such so maybe I will talk more about that in the future.

Quick update

So, for those of you who missed the first installment you can read it here.

Just to keep all of you up to date, I have managed to get the majority of both trike frames built. Some of my welds look like a giant metallic bird pooped on the tubing but that is what they invented grinders for. I can only hope that there will be enough strength in the welds to hold these trikes together. Another reason I am building them so far ahead of the actual trip. I am not positive but I think it could hurt to have the frame crack while we are riding across PEI, both physically and financially. If they break closer to home it will only hurt physically.


Route planning is still ongoing but I have learened of Confederation Trail. When Prince Edward Island’s railway was abandoned in 1989 Islanders were quick to notice a unique opportunity. The idea of a tip-to-tip shared use walking and cycling trail in the summer and a snowmobile trail in the winter was born. With beautiful rolling hill scenery , quaint villages and broad bay seascapes, the Confederation Trail is PEI's portion of the Trans Canada Trail.

The 410 kilometers of rolled stone trail has gentle gradients which never exceed 2%. This Island wide exploration corridor is ideal for visitors of all ages and fitness levels. The main trail starts in Tigerish at kilometre 0 and ends in Elmira at kilometer 273. Branch trails extend into the heart of Charlottetown and to the waterside communities of Souris, Georgetown, Montague, Wood Islands, Murray River and Murray Harbour plus the link to the Confederation Bridge in Borden-Carleton. {Shamelessly plagerized from a Confederation Trail brochure.}

I am also going to have to locate a shipping company that will be willing to move our trikes across this fine country for us with  out using our whole budget. I found one that claimes to be able to move bikes for $150 but only if they fit in a specific size box. So, that search continues. Right now I am thinking that Air Canada Cargo might be the best way to go. They seem to have a reasonable rate and we can actually rent a half container from them and they will ship it to our destination and store it for upto six days with no extra cost. So, we could fit both trikes and most; if not all; of our gear in the container and ship it out almost a full week before we go.

New Adventure

Here we go a new adventure has begun. I am not going to try to tell you that I will keep this blog loaded with information and update it every week but I will try to post a few thoughts from time to time. Esspecially with big news and milestones about this adventure.

Dea and me a couple years ago. 

The year was 1996, the location; 21 Woodland Drive, Lacombe, Alberta. The event: the day I promised to love and honour, cherish and care for, in sickness and health, through richer or poorer for better or worse until death do us part, the most beautiful woman in my world. Since then, our lives have brought riches and poverty, sickness and health, good times and bad times but through it all we are still married. We are quickly crowding up onto 25 years of wedded bliss and we thought it would be cool to do something special to commemorate the event. We thought of a tropical vacation but, all of those are really expensive. We thought of going out for a nice meal but, that doesn't seem special enough. We thought about renewing our vows but, that has been done to death.

The adventure we have setteled upon is a tour of one of our fair provinces. Now we are not talking of your average tour, that would be far to pedestrian for a 25th wedding anniversary. No, we are planning a bicycle tour of our island province; Prince Edward Island. Well, actually, a recumbent trike tour to be specific. I know what you are thinking, "Don't recumbent trikes cost almost $5,000 each? So, it would be cheaper to go on that tropical vacation." Well, yes the trikes do cost a lot but only if you are not will to really make this an adventure! I am currently in the process of building our trikes! That's right I am fabricating our trikes from steel and scrap bikes!

Did I come up with the plan on my own? Nope, I have Atomic Zombie bikes to thank for the plans. So, right now, including the plans and steel; thus far I have invested almost $200 for two trikes.

This is the plan I am working from, I have a small suitcase MIG welder and I have built most of the frame of the first trike and am well on the way to the second one as well. I will be adding a large cargo box on each trike as well as batteries for lights and charging phones and my laptop. I am hoping to be finished the trikes early this summer so we can start training for the two weeks we will be in PEI. I have also decided to start this blog to keep you guys up to date with the build process and planning of our little adventure.

As you may well imagine there are a million details we need to work out. You know minor things like; food, shipping the trikes to PEI, shelter and of course the route we will ride.