Theo's Blog

sorry but that's life

2008-12-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

ok so i haven't blogged in like a decade or something, and unfortunatly, despite my best intentions over the past week or so to do one more big one, it just isn't going to happen, i'm sorry to dissapoint you all but will see some of you soon so i'll fill you in then. enjoy for now. theo

i've got nothin this time.

2008-11-13T20:34:00.000-08:00

melbourne is just Sydney all over again, as a result, we don't really find it that attractive, in fact it is even more sydneyish than sydney itself. by that i mean, sydney is all about it's culture, arts, museums, cool looking buildings. i think melbourne has even more of it. we checked out an art gallery here and were bored out of our mind within 2 mintues, we are officially sight seeinged out. don't get me wrong, it is a sweet place and has a great downtown with lots of pubs, cafe's and jawdropping scenery, we're just over it. federation square is pretty cool, used to be an old rail yard that has been converted into this uber modern array of abstract steel structured buildings that house, you guessed it, galleries, museums and cinema. last night darcy and i just chilled in one of the covered promenades over a good beer (pepsi for darcy) check fbook for pics. right now we're staying with this guy called PUD, he's a big aussie dude, lives an alternate lifestyle but is a sweet dude. bin good to get some free accomodation and have a house to chill in. the other night we had a bbq which was awesome, something we haven't done since byron bay. he also took us out in the fishin boat for a quick spin the other night as he just got it fixed and needed to test run it. let darcy and i run it for a bit, not too difficult but still good times.

before this (sorry, i'm a terrible backwards storyteller) we spent a couple days on the Oz experience bus again with our ADD driver forest. this took us from sydney down to melboure, we got dropped off in canberra to visit a couple guys we met in surfers, canberra is not hightly regarded in australia although i must say it is a really nice city, it is primarily a university and government town and was actually designed completely before hand by an american guy. as a result the town feels like seattle with wide streets, lots of green space etc. i think that's why we liiked it. although it is true that it is a pretty quiet city, despite being 300,000 strong. sydney and melbourne hate it cuz they were both competing to be the capital and so parliament just decided to build a brand new city and had a competition to design one, thus canberra was born. k so back to our mates, we crashed at their dorm for a couple nights and i just relived my uni days during exams for a bit. was a good feeling not to have the stress everyone else had though. checked out the war memorial in canberra which is huge and elaborate. had some great cafeteria food and hung out there chattin for hours, just like the old days. after canberra we got picked up again and bussed the rest of the way, stopping at Mt. Kosiosko. This is where the skiing is done in australia, we did an amazing hike that took us to the highest point in australia, i even used the highest toilet in australia, which was on the mountain, yup cool story i know. being on the mountain and chairlifts made darcy and i really homesick for snowboarding and can't wait for the season back home. the next day on the trip we stopped at Wilson's promontory national park, but darcy and i and forest just went for a surf session rather than checking things out, the waves were big though so it was tough.

so yah anyway before that we were in sydney, like i said before, just a lot of site seeing, we did go up the sydney tower and had some fun taking pictures through the telescope, we also bought ourselves a pair of australian boxer breifs while we were up there. we've kind of been on a bit of a binge lately on concerts and shows, in 5 days we went to two concerts and a cirque du soleil performance, we went to a seether concert that darcy wanted, basically just spent the whole time in the mosh pit, pushing and shoving for position, i didn't really focus on the music much but it was a fun little challenge to try and stay close to the front of the stage. the other concert was Xavier Rudd, a local australian artist who uses lots of local instruments in his music, was a good concert but more chill for sure, then in Canberra (i hop around again, sorry) we went to the cirque performance, paid $120 for our seats, ouch, but it was amazing and a great time. anyway there's a ton more but we have to go back to pud's we're gonna have another bbq and then go out on the town once, we haven't gone out for a while so it should be fun. enjoy and like i said, check fb for some new pics, still missing there are our skydiving pics and those from the seether concert.

pining for a simpler time.

2008-11-03T01:48:00.000-08:00

Alright, we've just made it to Sydney last night, however this does not feel like anything significant for any reason regarding momentus occasions in our travels. It's great but nothing special...if that makes any sense. anyway part of what's great is the hostel we're currently staying at. The Sydney YHA central is more of a hotel than a hostel, as such it charges like one too, we're now up to $36/night. which is a far cry from the 20-22 we used to pay up in cairns. it is really nice though, 7 floors, hundreds of rooms, great facilities, modern design and spaces. and very central (in case you didn't figure that out) i think my conception of a hostel is somewhat false, i always thought they were just previoulsly built accomodations that were purchased second or third or... hand and then just converted. but in our travels today we a sign for a new yha that is being built just a few blocks from us...a brand new high rise(ish) building in downtown sydney! i think they're charging us backpackers too much if they can afford to do that. any that is just my opinion. that obviously was not the best thing we saw today. darcy and i walked around for a good 5 or 6 hours today and checked out various buildings and monuments, including the sydney opera house and the sydney harbour bridge. the opera house was good to see however i must say that there was more satisfaction in acknowledging that i had now been to sydney and seen it, rather than satisfaction from actually gazing at it. we did do the tour inside although we had to debate it for a bit. it was really cool inside and i got some fairly decent pictures, even though our tour guide said we weren't allowed in certain areas, screw that, i paid 28 bucks to get in so i took pictures. i just always stood or sat behind her so she didn't see. anyway still not sure if it was worth it but i think i would've regretted not doing it as i'm not gonna be here often. from there, after meeting friends from past travels on two occasions, we checked out the sydney harbor bridge. the bridge was cool but once again for me more of a "check off the list" than a real desire to see it. Don't get me wrong, it's all great and i love the fact that i'm here, it's just i found myself pining for the relaxed beaches of byron as soon as we got to our hostel in sydney last night.

speakin of coming to sydney, our bus driver for the past couple days has been a riot, i swear he has ADD, but he has been a lot of fun and made the bus ride fly by. he has been informative and inspiring believe it or not about the area, really helpful, and really freindly and inclusive to everyone on the bus, this i guess wasn't too diffifult as there were only 10 of us on a 37 seater. on this journey from byron bay we had a one day stop at surf camp which is some random town between the two. darcy and i have our own boards and have surfed a bit now so instead of the lesson we just threw on some wetsuits and headed out with our bus driver for a session, the waves that day were a lot of fun and we also got a few pointers on how to do better, was a great day and i ended up staying out for over 5 hours, outlasting to surf lessons that came and went. the only reason why i could do this though was cuz of the wetsuit, and as such it is goint be something i will have to look more seriously into as normally i get frozen out of the water after an hour or so. that night the camp had another halloween party (i'm going backwards in time here, sorry, i'll get to the first one shortly) but we were too tired to really participate, a group ended up sitting around the fire (which i've really missed in our travels)and listening to a fellow canadian who worked at the camp play us a number of songs, some covers but also a bunch of originals, he was really good and made the fire that much more enjoyable, even if he was dressed up in a diaper and a green wig as one of the cabbage patch kids.

ok so now the day before, it was quite an eventful day, we were up at 6am just because we thought we should stop wasting mornings here in australia...yah ok you're right, that's a bold faced lie, no we got up cuz we were going skydiving!! the reason we were out so early was because the winds were going to be strong that day. anyway it was amazing, we got to the site, geared up, hopped in a plane with 3 other canadians (from calgary), sprialed our way up to 14,000ft, jumped out with our instructors (it was a tandem dive) 70 seconds of free fall, deploy the shoot, cruise to base, picture, high fives all round, pictures again, and all finished by 8:30am. i couldn't believe how quick it went, and how surprisingly unscary it was. i've had worse jitters and sickness on rollercoasters. but that feeling of sitting in the open door of a plane is something, escpecially getting to watch your brother jump out right before you! lol. was great. nuff of that. anyway after that we crashed for a bit till noon and then caught up with a couple friends we met on our whitsunday's sailing trip a month or so ago. we've met them on a few occasions and they've become our coffee buddies. so we went out for coffee again. splendid (that one's for cheryl) after that we spent the afternoon costume hunting, darcy found some items to become a magician and i found the sherlock holmes hat and a pipe and moustache to become...well yah i just said it. anyway was a great night, darcy called er in a bit early but i unfortunately had to stay on the clock all night as there were just so many clues coming in. lol k not really but i did stay out till 3, good times.

ok so now that's all, the rest of byron was a pretty normal, awesome routine of sleeping in, surfing in the morn, chillin in the aft. surfin in the early eve. supper in the late eve. and some hangin with our friends at night. i want that back. but for now we're here in sydney for a week, gonna check out a couple concerts, (Seether - darcy's choice, and Xavier Rudd - my choice) and do some sight seeing. then we'll hit up canberra for a couple days and bunk with a couple guys we met in surfer's paradise who are doing a semester abroad in canberra. from there down to melbourne for a few days, tazmania for a couple, the Great Ocean Road for 3-4, and then back up to surfer's for our resort time. woot! if you're wondering what happened to the job situation, we decided we didn't want one, so we're not getting one, it all adds up. can you tell i'm going to be an accountant? alrighty then, i best be off to make some supper, it is twenty to 10 after all. goodnight.

a rare rush amid a lazy lifestyle

2008-10-26T01:04:00.000-07:00

ok so its been a bit, kind of skippin stuff in between as well. right now we're in beautiful byron bay, loving it here despite the dodgy weather, been surfing everyday for that last week and not much better to show for it. when i say dodgy weather, maybe i should say, we'ver been dodging the weather, as couple days ago there was a hailstorm here in byron, apparently it made international news, any this storm came in while we were surfing but the surf was really good that day so a bunch of us tried to get every wave in we could. there was a massive black cloud that was coming, i swear when i was paddling out i thought it was night well into dusk. anyway when it started raining we started coming in, it then turned to little hail and then golf ball hail within seconds, the few of us stranded on the beach bunkered down with our surboards for cover, looked like a scene out of a war movie. couple bruises on my arms so not bad though. apparantly the cars in town were getting hammered, a few taped up windows today and a ton of insurance claims on the way. pretty cool in hindsight to be a part of. othere than that we've been dining off really cheap meals provided by one of the local bars here, of course they're trying to get us to stay and party, works some of the time. either that or we've been bbq'n at another hostel with some friends we've made along our travels. went to church again today at the local presbyterian church, hung out with the pastors family last week and today went to the beach with a couple of them and the travelling freinds we've made. crap surf today but that's ok, in case you're wondering why i'm rushing this it's cuz i'm logging off in the next minutes as i don't want to have my time role over into the next 15 mintue block, besides its quarter after seven and i'm starving, gonna make our first meal in like a week. more to come, enjoy.

your exclusive viewing session.

2008-10-17T21:57:00.000-07:00

ok so there are still a few of you...and what is this about the brighton independent doing articles on the lost australian brethren? sounds like a sequel series to the hardy boys if you ask me. cool. glad i made the paper on both sides of the country. i tell yah my PR ratings must be through the roof. did you know aussies would never say "put another shrimp on the barbie"? yah i know, my whole vision was shattered too. unfortunately its not being replaced by anything else as i really haven't met too many australians yet. i lie though as in fact the other day in surfer's paradise we met the most australian australian i think you can find. i'll try to get a pic up before my time runs out. you blog readers should feel priveleged as these photos are first releases...before facebook even. just part of your VIP access package. i haven't figured out the rest of the package yet. enjoy!

white water world. the day darcy was sick. this here be the tornado, a swashbuckling adventure of epic proportions, although i admit at first i thought it would actually fling us all the way around, then i thought about it and how that would not make sense. look around and you can see some of the other rides we went on.

one of the rides in whitewater world, good one for racing.i'm third from the right

the group of freinds i went to whitewater world with the day darcy was sick.

PUD, as in Pudding, our roommate for one night. of course that's his nickname but we never got his real name. this guy is the most australian dude we've met. he told us stories for like 3 hours, which were hard to understand cuz of his slang and accent but we got em. he also showed us how to wax our surfboards properly. pretty cool guy.

in the black slide in Wetnwild (for a macro view see next pic) the slide was not completely dark though so we tried to just close our eyes to make it real. this photo is a result of that attempt...i had to open them a sec to take the picture.

this is the WetnWild water park, the slide in the foreground (ie the one we're about to go down) is the one that made our backs look like we had wounds where our wings once were attached.(hypothetical of course, we are angels but we're conservative)

darcy and i starting off our pub crawl. this is a club with a bowling alley in it. i felt bad for the lanes cuz they got hammered by bowling balls held by people likewise hammered. i got a strike...no big deal.

this is later on in the pub crawl. the asian looking one in the middle is one of the vancouverites (go figure) who we met in noosa and watched the hockey game with.

do you really read this?

2008-10-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

hey everyone, who ever that is, i have this weird hunch that there are only like 2 or three ppl who read this thing anymore but w/e, i've started it, so i'll finish it. as you are aware i don't update this very often and that i assure you is cuz it takes forever and we have the opposite of forever for computer time, no because we don't care about all you invisible readers out there, the government probably has some one reading this, just to get information for whatever it is they need info for...and NASA too. anyway i have no idea what i wrote about before and i don't want to go back and read it. as of the last few days we've been hangin out in surfer's paradise doing, you guessed it, no surfing at all. the weather has been crap for the last week so we really haven't been out much. what we did do is go to some theme parks around the area. don't worry, they were ridiculously expensive so we're stickin to our guns on our budget out the door theory. darcy has been sick lately so he missed out on one of the parks. that day i went to white water world with some of the freinds we met in noosa. the ones with whom we watched a canucks game live online. was awesome and we even got through to dreamworld (the other park by the same company) for free and went on one of the rides, we then left to grab our shirts and tried to get back in, but this time they stopped us. I'm not sure whether i should have mad that we could've just stayed and went on all the other rides, or glad that we got through once and did a ride for free. hmmm, i'll get back to you...no i won't but w/e. the other two days darcy and i went to another set of water and ride parks, Wet n' Wild and Movieworld. Movie world had a couple sweet rides and wet n wild was good too but the slides were harsh on our backs. terrible construction. today we're wating for the bus to take us to byron bay where i think we will most likely have to get jobs to help us pay for our spending habits. darcy and i have been reading a lot lately too as it is cheaper than drinking and that can only be done so many times a week ;) right now i am reading 'The Age of Turbulence' by Alan Greespan, so far a good read.
So maroochydore was one of the worst parts of the last week and a half that have been kind of slow, disjointed and dull at times (besides the theme parks of course), in part i think due to the weather. anyway the YHA there was a terrible hostel with a really weird asshole of a manager (i would say it differently but i don't know what else would describe him)the hostel was in the middle of nowhere in a residential area and the free shuttle into town was unrliable, on the way back the manager forgot to pick us up so we waited at the pickup zone for an hour. good show. while there we checked out the underwater world, an aquarium you walk under in a glass tunnel. then we just chilled with a coffee and read some local papers. the next day we left, a day ahead of schedule as we didn't want to be there anymore, although the other hostellers there were pretty good and we went out that night which was a good time. couldn't take our surfboards to maroochydore cuz the bus driver wouldn't let us (this was a local transit system), didn't matter though as the weather was too cold anyway. k sorry for all the bad news, i really can't complain about travelling australia, we are still having fun, just a bit of a lull lately, that's all. even darcy was bored the other day. as mentioned i'm getting into reading which is helping a lot to get through it. surfer's paradise has also been eye candy for me in that i love looking at all the high rises, how impressive they are and how each one tries so hard to be unique. the V8 supercar indy is getting ready to start so all the streets are lined with cement barriers and grandstands, pretty cool, wish i could be here for that. anyway i have like 2 minutes left so i'm gonna wrap it up...if you really want more just email me and i'll tell you what you need to know. cheers.

moving away from home

2008-10-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

hey people, well today darcy and i have decided to leave our lovely home of noosa, we're off to the tiny town of maroochadyre (or something like that) for a couple days, mostly because i was reading about the area on one of the nights when i was clinically insane bored. i found this place and found a couple things we could do down there, namely a couple museums that darcy may be interested in, and a tunnel aquarium where we'll get to see all the fish we didn't get to while diving. also we'll check out the surfing scene down there. on that note there's an update on our board situation...amazingly, on the way home after my last post, with one surf board in hand, i decided to drop in this one little surf shop that we had been in earlier but hadn't found anything, anyway i saw another board, same brand and look as the one we had, jus a little shorter, which was exactly what we wanted. so i did a little bartering and for another $460 we came out with our second board of the day!!! all in all it was a $1000+ day with hostels, food, etc. so yah we're doing well sticking to our $65/day budget. unfortunately we still have to come back for the board bag though so we might be back in noosa later. the receptionists at our hostel here know us by name now so when we checked out this morning they were all surprised that we were leaving. earlier this week i forgot my key in my room and i told the receptionist and she didn't bat an eye or ask a question before giving me another key for the room. she knew my name and my room number already. anyway yah so now we're leaving our celebrity status, although when we said we were going to maroochadyre they said we'd be back cuz "its shit there" lol. so we'll see. k welli was going to upload some pictures but its not working right now, perhaps cuz i'm loading them all onto facebook. so if you can check em out there otherwise i'll try again later. oh dad i just bought John Grisham's 'the broker' to help pass time when i have nothing to do. i know you own it so i couldn't stand that i was buying it again but oh well, done the first 5 chapters already. Oh and to all people out there, never, ever watch "the duchess" worst movie ever. enjoy

its job huntin season shortly.

2008-10-05T19:17:00.000-07:00

k guys, i realize i have only done one picture post but lately we haven't been taking any pics as we're really not doing anything worth taking pictures of. our routine seems to be that we promise ourselves we're gettin up early then actually get up around 10am, from there we have our awesome breakfast of pb and choco spread on toast, from there we borrow one of the surf boards from the hostel...that's right they're free for those who are staying in the hostel, so that's been saving us like $30 a day. that's probably the main reason we haven't moved. its such a good deal. we are trying to wean ourselves though and will likely move on by the end of this week lol. part of that process is finding surf boards for ourselves...which we've partially completed, just this morning darcy and i are are the proud owners of our first 8'1 mini mau surfbaord. $470 later. pretty good price though we figure as it is including a brand new board bag and leash. the guy who sold it to us was really cool. anyway after surfing in the mornings we usually go for a 15 minute walk up to sunshine beach road which has some cheaper alternatives to the ritzy hastings street our hostel is close to. here we get free internet again...woot. and reasonably priced groceries. after that its usually some down time and then supper making time, which can take up to 2 hours including shopping, cooking and eating. after that...i'm bored out of my freaking mind. unless i want to go out to a club there is nothing to do here. and i would do that but it's way to expensive, so i sit in my room and listen to music, sooooo boring. now you say why not hang out with all the people i know from the way? unfortunatley we've lost them all as we've decided to hang out in noosa for so long and no one else is really that into surfing compared to us. there's a couple people we know but it's hard to connect with different locations and schedules. that's why i think if i stay here for any length of time i'm going to need to find a night time job so i don't go insane. darcy can just chill out doing nothing at night sometime but i cannot handle it. speaking of work, its definitely a must at this point so we are going to have to decide when and where we want to sit put for a few weeks. also whether we want to do harvesting work or local work (ie hostels, restaurants) so yah its gonna happen. yesterday we met a pretty cute couple who are from taiwan and go travelling for one month every year. the husband is looking at retiring soon as he loves to travel so much, they were giving us advice on how to cook our rice and even insisted on me sharing a beer with them! i can't pass up free beer. darcy could though :( our hostel is pretty good but i think it is missing the traveller's vibe as it is more of cheap accomodation than a hostel. that's why i think i'm not meeting people either as it seems to be less communal and more resortty (as odd as it sounds for a hostel) we tried to find a church to go to on sunday but after looking through yellow pages, internet sources, newspapers, asking locals and phoning churches, i could not find anything, i know they're out there but i wanted to know where i was going so we didn't end up at some spiritualist assembly of scientism church...no joke, they're around here. anyway as for our plans for the next while, we really don't know, it kind of slowly gets formulated through talking about it like every hour. we'll see what happens enjoy for now.

throwin the book at you.

2008-09-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

so this past week has been quite the gong show i must admit, a very fun one but a gongshow none the less. i think the last thing i wrote about was the whitsundays sailing. after airlie beach we hopped on the oz bus down to kroombit which is more of a natinoal park/farm than a town, actually where we stayed it was just a ranch designed for our group specifically. we are so bad at booking our busses that i think on every occasion we have either only booked in one person on the bus (as i don't have darcy's ID, booked us like an hour before the bus leaves, or just not booked at all and asked the driver that morning if he has room. oh well, its all part of us making plans as we go, lately we have also been making plans that align with the group we've hung out with quite a bit lately, you'll probably see them a few times in the facebook pictures. i swear that by the time we get to sydney we'll just be one big group of southgoers. we leap frog eachother all the time but seem to always meet up. pretty sweet. anyways the cattle station was a blast despite it pouring rain for an hour or so in the middle of the evening. the highlight of the night of course was the bull riding, during my Sea to Sea tour i didn't dare as i didn't want to injure myself. so i kind of had a chance at the ranch, althouh i admit it was a lot easier than a real bull. I judge that from the fact that i was able to ride the bull backwards, spin my self around and then surf on it for a couple seconds. doubt the boys on the real bull would have tried that, although it was pretty hilarious to see most people get thrown forward off the bull on the first buck. there should be a good fb picture of a couple of them. we tried to get a couple drinkin games going but no one was really into it so it ended up being an early, night. fine enough as the next day we had a little mini rodeo with goats, team Canada (ie darcy and i) plus one got second. we had to lassoo a goat, flip it on its side and brand it for 3 seconds (fake branding...too bad) anyway it seems i've been second a lot lately, we also stopped during our bus ride at this lawn bowls club and tried our hand at it, was a good time again, and i was second closest behind tom so i just lost the $25 prize pot. oh well me and darcy got a free nights accomadation once when the receptionist in airlie beach thought we had already paid for our night. sweet. although now i'm gonna need another three of those breaks to make up for the $100 cash i just lost yesterday...woot. i almost lost our camera the other day when i left it somewhere. thankfully someone was honest an returned it to the front desk.
the language barrier can be pretty confusing at times, it seems all of england comes to australia at some point in their life as that's all we've met basically, plus a couple swedes. one day we were discussing what to make for supper and darcy and i suggested our past meal of pasta and hamburger with pasta sauce. they thought it was the most outrageous idea and made fun of it for a good five mintues. it wasn't until we figured out they thought actual patties with pasta that there was a misreading. they call it mince meat, makes sense but hamburger works too i think, anyway that night we just had pizza instead as it was all you could eat dominoes for $10 at our hostel, including drinks, i think i've had pizza about 7 times in the last week and a half, its just always such a good deal.
anyway so now onto our gong show of a fraser island trip. at six am we were up for our safety briefing where like every other safety movie, we killed ourselves laughing at the video. the highlight was "in case of a dingo, back away, then attack aggresively! we joked about that all weekend. after that it was time to go grocery shopping with our group of 10 for 3 days. actually went well considering we didn't really know each other too well and had to cooperate and shop together. we spent $20each for 3 days so we did well, one group spent $350 for 8 ppl. crazy. once we got to the island, i had the brainy idea of volunteering to drive first, it was a pretty steep learning curve i tell yah. i was smokin tires on the first boarded section and got us stuck a few times. to my credit though everyone got stuck as this was serious 4X4. they said i was a good driver so that's comforting. in the end i was glad i went first. it was so much fun and now i want to buy a hard core jeep so i can do it again in canada. our group gelled so well together that we ended up even getting irritated when the other 3 groups of 8-10 joined us at camp that night. terrible i know. as per the pictures you'll see there were so many cool sights on the island, at lake wabby we found a sweet dune with a steep slope down to a cool freshwater lake, we ran down, cartwheeled and even body boarding down the sand, flying into the water. so much fun. setting up camp was a gongshow too as we had a rain scare with a half hour shower so we were all running around trying to figure out tarps, tents, stoves, etc. it worked well though as everybody kind of took over certain areas and we were setup pretty quick. one of the guys, matt, took over the bbq and we had a awesome supper of smokies to start, bbq chicken skewers to follow, then hamburgers to finish it off, we didn't realize we bought so much. ate it all though. everything had a bit of a crunch to it though as you literally cannot help but getting sand in absolutely everything and everywhere. after dinner we chilled out over some beers and goon (baically any wine that comes in a bag or box, usually very cheap) because it get so dark out so quick we still ended up in bed before midnight, once again our drinking games were ruined because of the other groups joining our party (we did have a pretty happenin camp.)
the next morning we were up early and took down camp, we ended up sitting around for a couple hours though as a few had to go with the vehicle and get more water for us. our time was further lost as we got stopped by the cops at a check stop and they took like 45 mintues to get everything figured out there. after that it we rushed through everything but it was still amazing. we went to indian head lookout where you could go on dangerous cliffs n such, then off to champagne pools which are natural pools filled by the high tides. like swimming in a natural aquarium. then a quick stop at a huge ship wreck before rushing back to beat the other three groups back to our awesome camp site. its is such a sweet feeling to cruise at like 70km/hr down a sand beach, passing fishers, and basically making the lanes wherever the water washes up. oh yah and i had to be reminded to stay on the left when i drove as there aren't any markers obvi. on the way back to camp we got pulled over again and got fined for no one wearing their seatbelts, stupid cops just pull over the young guns, w/e we only got one fine between the 10 of us so we all payed 10% of it. for the second time we set up camp we were pros and ended up having dinner done by like 6pm, so naturally we popped the beers a little earlier. this night we just hung out on our own and had a blast just goofin around and listening to music. in bed again early.
the final day we packed up, i was the monkey who had get up in the top of the camper and put the tents and stuff in the back. sweat like a pig up there, had a waterfall off my back when i got out. so we did the same water routine but found out that there was a water location like 10 mintues away this whole time, saved an hour and a half. i drove again this morning which was awesome again. we started heading back to the terminal but got stuck behind some piddly SUV (i think it was a ford or some local brand) who was stuck, we had to dig and push him out as he was beached and had crap tires, he didn't even help himself or dig and didn't even say thands afterwards, w/e guess old people just think young people are at their disposal ;) (i don't actually mean that) anyway so then we went up to lake mckenzie for a quick dip which was also amazing, met a couple of our fellow bus goers there too. after that, a quick SANDwhich (man i'm funny) and then back to the terminal to go back to the mainland. all in all the trip was amazing and probably even beat the sailin trip.
now it's time to take few days here in noosa and surf, also gonna have to figure out how long we stay here. we might end up chillin for a while here to recover from how much has been gonig on. the YHA here is really nice but also very expensive. this morning we had our first bacon and eggs breakfast on the trip, nice fat bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, hash browns, baked beans and tomato. we're so screwed for money that we'll just deal with it when the time comes. could be washin dishes...woot...anyway this has been a book and had a publishing cost of about $10 so i hope its a best seller. i know the half of you won't even get to this line but for those who actually care i figured i owed you one. Enjoy.

i'll be back

2008-09-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

hey folks, literally and figuratively, it seems as though even on days when we're not doing anything i run out time anyway, i do mean to put some new info up but need a good block of time which i hope will come up in the next few days. cheers for now. sorry for the lack of juicy gossip ;)

your favorite title, picture time!

2008-09-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

hey folkily dolkilies, here are some pics, since it took a whole hour just to get these uploaded i don't really have time for a blog post but i will try for that in the near future. unfortunately we don't have too many pics yet as we just got our new camera going yesterday. enjoy, love from theo and darcy.

This is darcy and i's first night in Cairns and the first night of our trip as well, we were kind of surprised that we were in a room with 8 different people and no bathroom. lol we got used to it pretty quick, and even took the next shock of co-ed dorms pretty well too.

still our first night, just gettin into the groove of washing all our dishes and cleaning up after ourselves.

this is a pic darcy took when we were waiting for the computer in a travel agency/internet shop, pretty cool i think. i don't understand why there is an empty computer though as we should be on it if it was free at that moment...weird.

these are a bunch of people we met at our YHA in Cairns, instead of going out on the town we just brought the town to us and chilled out over some music and drinks, basically half the people here are from germany, lately though everyone we're meeting is from england. ps some of these pictures i made smaller so as to download quicker but usually the pics with more people i left original size so you can see them better ie how intoxicated they are lol. just click each picture to see if its a big one!

we took this picture cuz our boring tour bus guide went on for like 3 minutes about how we should be able to find some sandwhiches in this little town we stopped in (sorry about the lack of names, we don't really pay attention to what stuff is called.) but yeah so when this sign came up we were relieved cuz we thought he might just be lying ;)

this palm tree was so funny cuz it was the only one on the rocks, just doin its own thing, i engraved my name in the trunk as that seemed to be the thing to do, there were a lot of names on there.

as you can see it was kind of crappy weather for the first couple days while we were in australia, we actually had to wear our rain jackets in town, nice beach though where we just had a little while to chill out on our way up to cape tribulation

we had some time at a stop along the way so this is just a pic with some coral at low tide with some rainforest and lots of clouds (as that is where the rain comes from in case you were wondering.)

this is the river we did the croc tour up, was a really cool place and we saw crocs of all different sizes, no pics of them though cuz they're kind of far away so it isn't really worth seeing. we wished our boat guide was our bus guide cuz he was way more interesting.

this group is the one we sailed the whitsundays with, it was a really good group and we had a blast, its customary to meet at beaches (a hostel/bar)the evening you get back from sailing. they give you free beer and nibblies when you're with these reserved groups so that was sweet. we've been to this bar everynight since we've been in arlie beach...good fun.

while we've been in arlie beach we have not made supper once as this little pizza place has a special for a large cheese pizza for $8, at $4 per person that is the cheapest supper we've made so far. i figure only for like 4 days it shouldn't be too detrimental to our health.

time to chill, for darcy's sake.

2008-09-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

ait mates, it seems as though i'm starting to talk like whoever i'm talking to. i only have 10 minutes now so i'm gonna be quick. as of the last time we wrote we were going to mission beach. anyway we got on the bus and found out you can't swim there cuz of the crocs, and besides that there is nothing to do there, so we just stayed on the bus and went right out to magnetic island, we're now staying at base backpackers hostel which is pretty sweet and we've just taken a few days to chill out and laze around a bit. we just went grocery shopping, layed on the beach, watched a movie etc. today we rented a couple bikes and are going around the island, which you can do in a day. we stopped in arcadia and found this net cafe (which still costs an arm and a leg)and also tried to use our stupid calling cards again. they are so frustrating. we chilled over a machiatto and will go up to do some popular walk up in the mountains. maybe see a koala and some old war base stuff from when japan was attacking everyone? darcy would probably know more about that stuff. its been good to chill for a couple days but me and darcy definitely have different ideas of what we want to do, he likes chillin while i feel like i'm wasting my time doing that. i've enjoyed these past couple days though. now its adventure time again. sailing the whitsundays bay bay. we haven't booked anything yet but we'll figure it out. apparently the whitsundays are named cuz some explorer named it after a certain sunday, i'll have to check into what whitsunday is. k well my computer is telling me my time is almost up, gotta go, mom we will get a camera asap but there's nothing on magnetic island, we've checked, found a cool bike repair shop though where the guy told me about where you can find the good mountain biking trails south of sydneym, might check that out. love you all

eh mate, just relax, its all good, cept for a few things.

2008-09-14T01:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we've already been in Cairns for five days, even though at times it seemed like i was bored out of my mind, it's been a pretty action packed last few days. today we went on our dive trip which was really cool. its not like in the commercials but for our first dive it was excellent. the only problem is that me and darcy both have crappy ears and so we couldn't equalize very well, as a result of going 11metres under water, my left ear is in serious dissrepair, but after a few days it should be good to go again. the first time we dove i have to say i didn't even really look at the coral or fish as i was just focusing on keeping everything together, paddling, breathing, etc. the second dive was a better and besides my throbbing ear was an awesome experience. the rest of the day was sweet too as we just sunbathed on the front of the boat when we weren't diving, they had a really good lunch and got a complimentary ride in a glass bottom boat as well as champagne and a live guitar performance from one of the crew members. on a crappier note, darcy's camera also tanked when we took it diving the first time, as a result we now do not have a camera and we have no pictures to show for the whole day of diving. and a new camera really isn't in the cards. cards aren't even in the cards.
We are officially blowing any chance at a budget out of the water, it seems like we're forking out money at every turn. even though we constantly are aware of trying to keep things cheap it just adds up so fast.
back to the happy notes, we have met a lot of cool people lately as we start to get into the swing of things, lots of people from germany, a few crazy hollanders, a canadian, and a bunch more on a lesser basis. i'm beginning to just go with the flow a bit more, which everyone says is what you have to do, in fact our hamburger is sitting on the floor right now getting warm as we decided to pop a squat here and do our interweb shannanigans again.
tomorrow darcy and i are takin off on the bus to mission beach, i think we're gonna have to skip a lot of stuff as there is so much to do and so little time, even though lots of one's time is taken by just figurin things out, checkin out the town, etc. i feel like we've finally made cairns a bit of a home and we know a few people. oh well, last night was a good time as we went out with a few people, apparently there were a bunch of horse races somewhere in cairns and so everyone was dressed up all fancy and out on the town. oh and my jeans got stolen, sweet i know, i had them hangin off my bed a few nights ago and the next morning they weren't there, i thought i had just packed them already and forgot about it, now three days later, when i wanted to wear them when we went out, i could not find them...they were my favy babies too. my back pack is working really well though, thanks mom and dad, very good choice.
the past couple days before today we took a bus tour up to Cape tribulation to check out the rainforests, turns out it didn't quite hit the adventure rating me and darcy were expecting, but it was still cool though, we made fun of the bus driver to get by the boring parts and other wise had a good swim (our first one) at myall beach, saw some crocodiles in all their different growth stages. they're really lazy animals but impressive nonetheless. we had a good river guide for that so that made it better as well. and did i tell you how much i love peanut butter and nutella toasted sandwhiches right now? so good. sorry, that was a far aside. for more details on the cape tribulation trip, become friends with darcy on facebook and read his note. this little nut cafe is closing and we're hungry, so its time to go make some sups and call some recent aquaintances to see what we do with the night. enjoy
tomorrow wer're

we made it...thankfully

2008-09-10T21:22:00.000-07:00

I just read a bit of my last blog post and its crazy to even think about me getting up to bike anymore, i'm now chillin at a net cafe in Cairns, Australia. After a semi-relaxing week at home where i did not get near as much stuff done as i should of, me and darcy are now here in aussie land, learning all the ropes for the first time, we spent like an hour this morning buying our groceries for the day as we checked out prices, discussed what to buy, planned our meals, and decided how many days to buy for.
As for our travels the other day, they were also a bit of an adventure, when we arrived in Sydney we had an hour to transfer, and between that we had to go through customs, claim our bags, re-check them in, shuttle between terminals and otherwise figure out what the heck we were doing. we didn't have a chance at making our next flight so we got bumped. in the end it wasn't a big deal, when we got to cairns our shuttle to ended up bringing us to the wrong hostel, we then went to the hostel she thought we were at, which also was the wrong hostel, the lady there though figured out what hostel we were supposed to be at and pointed us in the right direction, its actually not to bad as everything is within a few blocks of each other.
last night we basically just walked around and checked out the town, today we spent some time at a info center where a really helpful lady helped us plan out our next few days, (albeit and expensive few days) we're going to bus it up to to cape tribulation which apparently has a lot of cool things to see, then on sunday we're taking advantage of a dive trip for a couple introductory dives, we're blowing our $60/day limit for the next bit but whatever. we're in australia baby!

as for darcy's perspective, if you're friends with him on facebook you can check out his latest notes where he bascially said what i said here. he may at some point also do the blog post on here. we will try to put some pics up at some point, we may do a pay as you go system, for every $10 transferred to our account, we'll post a picture and say sponsored by so-and-so ;)

anyway that's all for now, wish us well as we figure out this whole travelling thing, we both miss you all, and some more than others ;) out.

a big sigh, for all the right reasons.

2008-08-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

with 3 days left now i am perfectly content with where i am, i'm almost sick of riding my bike (just a little bit) but still enjoying my time here. a lot of things are going to change very quickly and it will be tough to transition but also nice to break out of the routine. today we finally hit some hills, which i have kind of forgotten about, i didn't like them, the NY roads have been great but there is a lot of debris on the sides so i have still had 2 flats in the last couple days. this week has been great overall, on friday i woke up real early to book it to a Blue Jays game. i had back pack of my clothes but forgot it at one of the many lunch stops so i had to get a ride back to pick it up as i didn't have time time to bike back, i bike the hardest i have in a long time just to make it to camp on time to catch our ride. Brad Geerlinks parents were the ones taking us to the game and they were unbelievable this weekend. first they drove out 2 hrs to pick us up, then drove 2 hours to bring us to the game, then parked the vans while we watched the game, after the game they drove us back to their house and served us supper, the next morning they made us bacon and eggs and had two vehicles going different places as we cyclists are stubborn and don't concede anymore to the group plan. we changed our plans during the morning and they still went with it. as for me and a group, we were driven my Mrs. Geerlinks (Diane) to Niagra falls where she went with us on the maid of Mist (nice work Diane) even though she didn't really want to, another hour and a half of driving to get us to our rally. another super host for the record books. as well, thank you mom for the care package with more new clothes, no more though k as i need to pack it all home, oh and do you mind if i throw away the sleeping bag and mattress? the bag is more ripped and gross, the mattress leaks a lot and the pump has to be held together to work, i'm definitely chucking my tent as there is more duct tape on it than even red green would recommend, the poles are all split, the pegs are bent, and it wreaks to high heavens. Thank you to the Telkwa CRC for your letters of support on the tour, the last one was quite humorous even though i don't know who's faces were photoshopped on the 4 seat bike lol. k my battery is dieing so i gotta be quick. the hospitality on the tour continues as the other day when we were on sweep we stopped at the cozy kitchen restaurant for a second breakfast (we do that a lot these days) we all ordered our sizable meals and then were informed by our waittress that a fella named Pat at the other table was paying for our entire meal! he was retired but originally lived in Spokane Washington, which on this tour actually is close to home. this was after we recieved $10 towards our breaky from a lady who followed us to the restaurant after we had asked her where the best place was for breakfast. we gave the money towards the tour of course. In other news, i am now a full fledged celebrity as i had a minute long interview with "the Whale" radio station in Binghampton, Kaitlyn and I are also the subjects in this weeks caption photo in the Sea to Sea letter, feel free to submit your finest captions. as for those who surround me and make me feel better about my inperfections, Denise crashed again and now her bike is barely gonna make it to Jersey, Lawrence has been busy as the bike tech dude spending the hours on Denise's bike required to keep it running. When we crossed the border the first major stop was timmies, as we saw it in the states and knew we had to, the great part was that some people (like lawrence) who had gotten seperated from our riding group knew that we were there as soon as they caught up and saw it. it was a good day. I've had a couple top speed events lately. the other day we dropped down to the lake level on a 12% grade and i hit 86km/hr, as well a couple days ago i drafted a camper vehicle for like 8km at 70-80km/hr until he saw me and honked me off. last night the computer i was using died so i am now finishing and posting today sorry, today was an awesome ride even though there was over 7000ft of climbing. they were rollers so we coasted up most of the incline, we were 25km awasy from camp and then took 3 1/2 hrs to finish from there, we found a DQ and ended up sitting there cheering on all the bikers who passed and gave them cups of water from DQ on there way up the hill we were on, that was fun, in general everybody is in a pretty happy mood and just can't contain it. we're all yelling at each other in jest and laughing and feeling energized (at least my group anyway) This will be my last blog post for sea to sea tour so i hope you all enjoyed it. I am going to miss everybody soooo much in a couple days and am already feeling a little glum (i know its sounds oxymoronic) in some ways. ok i have to go, this last day is packed and is going by way too fast, i feel like its flying by me and i'm just trying to grasp at a couple of the hundreds of memories that are developing at the end here. love you all, thanks for reading, this has been one of the greatest experiences anyone could ever participate in. out.

your favorite title: picture time!

2008-08-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

dad here's the plymouth superbird. we'll go through more later.

had to cross these tracks to take pictures by the indiana/michigan signs, got caught so they tied us up and left us for dead, they were nice enough to take a picture though, then we mggivered our way out with rocks and clif bars, don't ask me how we did it.

just a cool shot i thought of the dew on the tent in the morning.

yah us dutch boys are really tall, but seriously this is probably how tall stretch (mark) is, thus the name, he is not in this picture though, alex is the head and john V is the legs.

this was at the 5/3rds ball park for our Grand Rapids Celebration Rally, we were about to do our walkin entrance here.

we went to Peter's friends hobby farm where one of the guys had a warm room with all kind's of cool reptiles and such, my face is funny cuz he was getting close so i was smiling but pulling my head away.

also from our bullriding adventure, (i did not ride one as i kinda wanted to finish the tour for sure) this is alex getting slammed to the ground, he did well though, bit of a sore ride the next day.

posing with some excellent Canadian staples.
Well here i sit at 11:20 in the evening at my Aunt Diane and Uncle Nick's house. they fed me a really great meal (which i took forever to eat) and then we checked out my tour photo's (which they were gracious enough to sit through, all in all i had a great visit with them. since they live in ingersoll i rode an extra 27km past london with unlce nick to get there, so now i have even less to do tomorrow, sweet. today was pretty tiring though as i did a century ride in the end and 40km of that was a time trial 25 of us did which was organized by Bill Wybenga. Cool experience as it was a learning experience on how hard you can push yourself and still endure the ride. had my first experience with aerobars, didn't like em at all. so this morning i found out that ants will find anything. when i woke up at 6:15 (yes it's true) i was excited to eat the plate of desserts i saved from yesterday's awesome potluck dinner, last night i put the plate on a chair and figured it'd be safe...wrong, when i looked at it there were hundreds of ants who obviously climbed all the way up and were enjoying my desserts, oh well, lesson learned i guess. the good news is that i got cinnamon raisin bagel cuz i was up early enough! I'm not sure what to think right now about the fact we barely have over a week left. part of me is content to leave this physically demanding routine with very little downtime, while the other is sad that this beautiful bikeride packed with action is almost over. overall though i'm still in regular tour mode and just thinking about the day at hand. the hospitality has been amazing still and keeps going on into Canada. when we crossed the border we had a huge reception with all the canadian goodies we've been missing, such as sweetened ice tea and tim horton's coffee, in addition they had king mints, dropjes, canday, cupcakes, timbits etc. almost daily we've had lunch stops, to the point where its almost not necessary to pack a lunch, and i guess the kitchen ladies don't have many suppers to make as churches are doing a lot of that these days. way to go Canada! Guess what?! this saturday i am getting a white tire for the front of my bike, doug schoon ordered it on ebay and got it sent to St. Catherines for me, i'm so pumped. speakin of schoons, Jeff, doug's brother decided to get caught on the railroad tracks and got thrown down, injuring his shoulder, he's a tropper though and kept on biking...them schoons. anyway there is a lot more that's been going on but i'm wiped. if you're looking for a vacation, the seatosea bike tour is not your ticket, it's a great experience but not a relaxing holiday. i'm glad i know how to type with out looking at the keyboard or the screen as i am now typing with my eyes closed. i will post some pics though before i go to bed. here yah go. i know they're never biking pics, but really, riding a bike is only so interesting on a picture.

the nestea plunge

2008-08-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

bloggeria, everybody's got it.

2008-08-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

right now i'm sitting in the hotel lobby of the Prince Conference Center at Calvin, this University is also loaded. Our whole correspondence with calvin seems slightly dissjointed however, kind of like the community wanted us here but Calvin really sees us a nuissance. i'm not entirely sure why but a few other people have felt the smae way, just really minor things that hint at it i guess.
Yesterday was great as it was a really short day with 5 or so refreshment stops. Doug and I also proved the merit of sleeping in as we missed breakfast but then caught the free pancake breakfast that the CRC campground hosts (at a more reasonable hour), thus, behold we got an extra hour of sleep and a better breakfast (i believe it was just porridge, today) chalk another one up for they late risers. the ride was easy and without much effort most people (including the 130ish extra riders for today) made it in for the mass entrance into Calvin. Once we got in the gear truck was unloaded and then camp became desserted with all the people staying with friends, family and billets. in a way it was nice though as i just hung out, caught up on some interweb shannanigans, had a nap, and otherwise had a nice change of pace from the normal hyper socializing that is 140 ppl living together. this morning i tried to sleep in but got baked and steamed out of my tent so now i'm blogging and relaxing a bit more as we don't have lunch till 12 and then a celebration rally at 2pm, it breaks the day up poorly but i've enjoyed the morning time.
I'm beginning to realize that the east does have something to offer, i've really enjoyed passing through many of the towns lately as they just seem to have more charm. their midsized towns often have great downtown areas with lots of unique shops and cafes. perhaps this becomes less important once you live there but i think it makes a town. lots of character that seems to be lacking in many western cities i think of. I've already said to people on three different occasions that i could live in this place, Boise was one of them, Denver another, and now Holland Michigan. (although Boise and Denver are Central to West. dad maybe you can look at investing here ;)
In other news, dad i hate to make you more jealous than you are already with me being on tour, but the other day i was biking and in a window i caught a glimpse of the yellow fin of a plymouth superbird, thus i turned around and checked it out. full story later but after knocking on the door of this guys private garage, i saw a $1M purple Hemi Cuda (that's what it sold for at the Barrett Jackson a couple years ago, a 528k orange Hemi Cuda, the yellow superbird and more. i have pics of the specs too so you can tell me the stories when i get home.
well we've crossed another two state lines in the past week, i believe it is because we are so in shape that we just cruise through terrain at mach speeds. what can i say, we're amazing. Kevin pasma and i took some time at lake michigan however to do the Nestea plunge. if you don't know the commercial you won't get it but it was funny. pics later. The reason we have Nestea, and a lot of it, is that we recieved a ton of bottled juices and drinks from some organization and so the tour is trying to get rid of it at every possible turn as storage is an issue. thus we have had a plethora of drinks whenever we want. and with all the food that is coming out of the cracks in the east, combined with much easier days, we may all be obese luggards by the time jersey city hits. we may need a 2011 tour to work it off. i have not gained or lost a single pound though, and that story hasn't changed since about grade 11.
anyway i realize that when i have time i write way too much about not a lot, i apologize. uncle nick and aunt diane, i will try to get a hold of you as we're pretty close to ingersoll. if you wouln't mind emailing me your phone# (or dad, if you know it)I would really, really, like to see you guys, and maybe even ride with uncle nick for a day. enjoy for now.

a career as a tv tent setter upper.

2008-08-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

this morning something happened, it was unbelievable, somethat that does not happen often, sorry what's that? a meteor shower? oh yah that too, but more importantly, i got up before 7am!!! unlike yesterday where i woke up at 7:20 considered sleeping in and getting breakfast on the route, finally jumped out of my tent at 7:30 and mad dashed it to the breakfast table to pick up some scraps. as a result of today's early rising i got the privilege of riding with John Vanderveen, Brad and others that i have not seen lately on the dusty trail. now i say dusty as today we rode a bike path for over 60k that was mainly packed dirt. we also got a ton of tarry oil on our tires from new pavement. my bike is filthy, but i will not clean it, no, i will wait till later. a bunch of us also did an extra 38k as we took a wrong turn on the bike path and had to get back onto the correct route. another century day for us. It seems as though a lot of weird stuff happened today, the traffic here is crazy and they don't seem to care about bikers, they don't stop ever and they run you off the road, just ask Heidi and Denise, Heidi likes to get in front of cars so they halt and cause the younger sister to crash into the back of the car. someone needs to seperate those two before someone gets hurt. by the way Bernice, thank you very much for doing our laundry on saturday, much appreciated. the skeeters here are starting to come back pretty harshly, just like home, i am not homesick. The days are really becoming more enjoyable again as there is more to see in shorter distances and we are starting to get into the CRC belt, apparently we have 11 CRC refreshment stops on saturday, but that's fine with me as i no longer seem to have the drive to push myself hard in pacelines or keep high averages. oh and did you know we're in chicago? the only thing i remember of chicago is that it took us 3 hours to get through one year on vacation. i remember looking at the people in the cars next to us in our motorhome in standstill traffic, woot. we're going to miss the downtown area though which is dissapointing. k so i'm bagged, again, quick journal entry and then bed. i may be on the news tomorrow setting up my tent, the news caster was getting some pretty intense footage of me putting the poles through the sliders. i've been on the news for this before too. i'm trying to brand my tv identity right now and i figure the tent setter upper is a great niche that hasn't really been tapped into yet. night

its been a week! time for pictures

2008-08-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

wow i didn't realize it has been a week since my last post...i was actually informed of this little detail by Heidi and Denise's mom who surprised them with a visit and apparantly also reads my blog as it is conveniently at the top of the list...although i'm sure she likes my blog more than the rest. a lot has happened i guess, we've crossed two state lines, we've peddled our rear ends off, and we've even had a little fun along the way (say it in your children's broadcast voice). the few century days we had were long but the weather has been pretty favorable and so it has been bearable...although it poured last night and drenched everything, this week has been our first real experience with it...we made it half way without it. i've been doing pretty well as far as flats as i haven't had one in over a week and a half i don't think. Today Kevin pasma had one though and we had to use a $1 bill to keep the new tube from ripping open the tire further, we had to search for it though as we didn't want to use a five or 20. good ol american $1 bills. this week we also stayed at dordt for a night which and got to sleep in the dorms their, funny how while in college they seemed ghetto but that night they were a luxury. unlike college though our food on this trip has been amazing, i was saying to some of the guys that i could eat like this for the rest of my life and i'd be happy. Dordt sure seems to have a ton of cash though as it is a beautiful campus with some pretty nice buildings. the next morning we got to take whole roles of King peppermints for lunch, i may have taken four...but i figure that normally the early birds get great seletion but can only take a little bit, so by the end us normal people have nothing to choose from but a lot of it, so we get quantity over quality, that's how i justify it, and i share so its all good. my butt has been killing me still even with the new seat. oh well. i have also not been gettig near enough sleep (this blog isn't helping so be very thankful lol) and it is starting to show as i am a little more lethargic these days. still searching for that evasive white tire for the front, will keep you posted. lately it seems like we have been getting a lot more free food as well which has been awesome, refreshment stops including donuts, gatorade's and coffee, great pizza supper donated by dordt food services and dessert baked by local families, so good, and apprantly it is gonna get better as we go up into ontario...i hope they're right (wink - that's for you ontarians out there). k well i'm just going to load some pictures up now and then call it a week if that's ok, pretty tired. hope you passed your course mom lol, hope you're little rascal campers behaved and that work is going well darcy (remember you need money for australia when i get back) and i hope the cars are selling and the fish are biting dad. love you lots.

you're right mom, sharon did visit, and it was great, sharon i forgot to put it in my blog, here is a picture to make up for it!

Denise, Heidi, Kaitlyn and I watched a couple movies at the lutheran church across from our camp as they let us invade the church for the afternoon, this was the day it was like 104 degrees and crazy humidity. so nice.

this is the second refreshment stop after it had rained on us, we were all huddled drinking coffee under the covering, still all smiles though, it takes a lot to get this group to frown.

ah yes a great pose, this is the first time this trip i've worn my leg and arm warmers and my rain coat, apparantly everyone liked the way i had my jacket lifted around my waist. i realize this picture is wrong on so many levels lol.

ok so this is still at the refreshment stop, i guess the raind just does things to people, kevin and eric are crazy drivers.

this picture was meant to show a pace line in a cross wind as everyone was in formation, then eric moved, oh well, this is when lawrence and i were tagging along on the the Stehouwer(sp?) express (up front is larry with mark in tow, then lawrence at the back and eric on the left, larry mark and eric are father and two sons, father larry had many sons, many sons had father larry, mark is one of them, and so is eric, so let's all praise the lord.

just a cool pic of all our bikes in front of an old style main street building

hittin up wisconsin, the sign needs a bit of work, a few coats of solid stain would do the trick. "good thing Kaitlyn was there to BRIGHTON it up." - says kaitlyn

on our third century day everyone was feeling pretty good about the last two, so we stopped for an hour and a half at the simply cafe for an amazing lunch (although they ran out of their special and then out of turkey so i finally got an order in on my third try)right next door was the Prairie Peddler, a little bike shop where the girls picked up a t-shirt.

dad, this one's for you, we saw a car show today and i had to stop, there were only 10 cars at the time but then this 1972 Plymouth Cuda 340 (E body, Pistol Grip 4 Speed) just rolled in as we did so that was sweet. apparently there were gonna be like 75 cars there and the guy there said there are a ton of shows this time of year and if its raining one morning you just wait till later on in the day and go to another one, or the next day. figured you'd like that.

2008-08-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

today is sunday and we have finally hit humidity. i cannot believe how much it makes you sweat. thankfully the luthern church right next door found out about our group and have been unbelievably hospitable. they've let us sleep in the church which is air conditioned and have been freshly making so many baked goods and snacks. they also let us use the gym for peleton. one of the ladies even specially made bowls of popcorn and snacks for a small group of us who were watching a movie inside. there have been some great memories from the last couple days. doug and i were riding together (as we were both unbelievably late in leaving) and came across a little turtle that was sunbathing on the side of the road. at first it was scared but did eventually poke its head out and walk around a bit. we asked others who had left earlier if they had seen it but unfortunately there eagerness left them without this great experience :) Yesterday we also had the great opportunity to lace up the skates as we stayed at the YMCA in Fremont which has a rink which we were allowed to use...it was amazing how fast all of us canadian boys grabbed a pair of skates and got a game going. there was one american on the ice...erik stehouwer...and it was obvious lol. he had red legwarmers underneath his tiny running shorts, combined with a toque under his bike helmet...so funny, so awesome. there were also a couple guys who had just rode in after 154km, before anything else they laced up and jumped on the ice in their spandex shorts and jersey, complete with bike helmet. i sustained my worst injuries on the tour so far on the ice though. lawrence got the puck and shot it at the net, unfortunately i was in the way and he can't keep the puck on the ice. shin meet puck...oh well i wasn't the only one and it was all worth it. this week is going to be crazy...if you've looked ahead in the devotional you'll see we have 2 180k days and other long ones...and it will be hot and humid. i think i'm ready for anything now though and the biking is no longer really taking any tolls, i feel like i am as conditioned as i'll get. could start having a few problems though with my knees. etc. we've been passing through some funny named towns lately, Max, Funk, Waco, Wahoo, and even Gresham, who is one of the guys on the tour (elegible bachelor anyone?) k well i need to get a good nights sleep. i will do another picture upload sometime, with my bombproof camera, a while ago in the tour i was going to take a picture of a group of riders in front of me and i crossed lanes to get a good angle...i hit the middle rumble strip and dropped my camera at 30km/hr. it smashed on the pavement and skidded off the road and got a big dent in the casing...still works like a charm...great camera. enjoy...oh and lawrence fell again...love that guy.

yawn

2008-08-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

wow i can't believe the last time i blogged was last saturday...i would say time is flying by but this week has been long, hot and boring again. despite that though i have still been having good days, perhaps i'm more conditioned so these 150k days through the heat aren't so bad. on thursday lawrence and i killed it and cleared 153k in 4hrs and 26 minutes, avging 36.11km/hr haven't worked that hard in a while. as a result the first 70k today were terrible. we stopped in at a little cafe though and talked with a few groups of ppl, a biker even was going down the street and then turned around to talk to us. in the cafe a local baker was havin lunch and was so impressed with what we were doing that he went back and brought us two fresh round loaves of bread. we gave one to Walter, one of the SAG drivers. this week has been crazy with accidents. it seems everyday people are having serious falls, i think in the last week and a half there have been like 9 pretty major falls. wednesday was a sad day as i realized i forgot my favorite pair of shorts at the Wray community pool on monday...i've probably worn them like 8 times...(sigh). Kaitlyn fell...again...but her ego never seems to take a hit.(lol) lawrence fell, twice, his first one was going 10km/hr while looking back and yelling hi to someone, at which point he went over his handle bars into a ditch, his second one was doing about the same speed at which point he got hit my a car...or should i say he hit it...it was a parked SUV...lawrence is ok, although he has been having a rough week as tonight doug fell into lawrence and sat on his plate of food in his lap. you may wonder why i'm talking about others, i think its cuz not much has happened this week. i guess i did get politely asked 5 times to dismount the bronze horses in front of the invesco stadium in Denver (the bronco's home field) well i guess my life is pretty boring right now. that is not meant to offend all you people working hard out there...well maybe i am rubbing it in a little. Enjoy!

picture time

2008-07-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday it was our team to sweep on the ride. once again we had our awesome group of folks (see pictures)

and had a great breakfast at sharky's grill a couple miles after we left camp.

kaitlyn and i ended up sleeping on the couches the night before in the YMCA lobby as they were so comfortable and the lobby is open 24/7! we got through the climbs together which weren't as bad as we thought and then enjoyed an incredible sixty mile descent down into Denver, It was the most fun on the bike i've had so far, doing 50km/hr around endless tight corners in beautiful canyon country, unfortunately i had to stay focused and really didn't get any pictures down it, i'll have to get em off of flickr. still that day we stopped again in morrison for some milkshakes at the blue cow eatery before finally getting into denver way too late for supper.

thus after a shower and some organization we all went out to a "bar" (its in quotations as people here seem to have different ideas of bars and clubs, this bar was a fifties style diner, which was cool, but not what we really wanted.) for supper, there were like 30 of us there and like always at the end there was a huge deal about figuring out who paid what with one person ending up paying the difference...i really don't understand how these things happen, there must be some people who just don't pitch in and sneak away, i don't know, ticks me off though. anyway after that a few of us spent an hour and a bit trying to find a place to go dancing but we once again ran into the problem of the locals thinking a club is an empty diner...weird. sunday started with sleeping in which was great and then a great celebration service in a football field, we all rode our bikes around the track before hand which was cool.

afterwards we took the rail to downtown Denver which was sweet, really cool lookin buildings and a great smoothie place (jamba juice) where we went back for seconds on our way back up the street.

I also bought a sweet beanie cap today which should be pictured below.

well spirits are high right now as the tough week is over and everyone is full of great visual memories and great food. apparently this weeks is easy riding but could start getting plain again...see my last post for what i think of this. The Denver community has been incredible making our stay enjoyable in so many ways, great facility use (including this computer lab), continuous shuttles for laundry and downtown, great meals, great celebration service and much more. anyway this is pretty long so i'll sign out for now. Happy 28th Anniversary mom and dad, (thanks for the reminder dad, and the package with some clothes) and to all enjoy for now.

roller coaster days (geographically and mentally)

2008-07-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

well my opinion of Colorado has completely changed. today we biked from Kremling to Snow Mtn. Ranch (a YMCA park, its so big) we biked along the Colorado River and through some Canyons. yesterday when we biked into Kremling it was amazing as we biked up this hill which opend up to a great view of the mountains which were beginning to storm. i can handle virtually any ride as long as there is something to see. after that i'd like overcast skies, a tailwind and finally good pavement. the last couple days have been so awesome as there has been a ton of places to stop as well, we've stopped in every town along the way at various cafes and bike shops. in steam boat springs we found this sweet bike shop in a building that looks like a termite mound. they were so helpful and i bought a blue tire as i begin to start color coordinating parts of my bike, Jenna already thinks i'm chochy and me pimpin out my bike is also chochy, apparantly Kaitlyn agrees but i really don't care...i love it. we also stopped at a sweet bagel shop where i'm pretty sure i bought the most expensive and delicious bagel ever. we also had a cool chance to chat with a family in the shop who were so stoked about our tour and were going to donate as they thought this was so much better than people just asking for money. i bet we've raised thousands more on this trip just from people hearing about us along the way. yesterday i was so late that i thought i was going to be riding by myself again but then lawrence walked by and wasn't even close to being ready either so we decided to ride together...just like old times, it was a great morning as we bs'd the first 20k away until we found out that we would get ticketed if we continued to ride side by side (not just us, the whole group). we're on sweep again right now and so tonight i was serving apple sauce like no else (except the other lady right next to me serving the second line, but she had a better scooper so i think i did better) and tomorrow we're riding last which i'm looking so forward to too...i love sweeping, its so relaxing, and our group is a lot of fun. it'll be sad to part with marty though as he leaves the tour tomorrow. k well that's enough for now. oh and the other day when i was complaining about my spoke i forgot to mention the fact that John Vandersteen was a life saver and found a new spoke and put it on for me too, otherwise i would have had much more serious problems. Uncle Nick apparantly you know him (he told me that you said he was supposed to take care of me, lol, and he is) he's awesome. k tomorrow is almost here so its bed time. thanks for reading folks. and i will try to get a couple more pics up. it just takes soooo long. out

colorful colorado...all lies

2008-07-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

this week has and is a pretty tough week, these 150k days are just a little too long, and the freakin straight hot chipseal no scenery roads are really starting to tick me off. my bike is continuing to fall apart as the other day one of my spokes broke going 70km/hr plus down the backside of our unmapped 50km climb day (150k total). i did get my seat replaced though which has been a lot more comfortable. the ride from Wallard bay to Salt lake city the other day was awesome as it was 100k of urban sprawl so the roads were pretty good and there was always something to look at. we also checked out the mormon temple which was pretty sweet, there were like 7 weddings going on there. the foyer for the joseph smith memorial building was unbelievable with a huge chandelier and 4 ft diameter green marble pillars etc. Salt lake is a pretty wealthy city and i have a picture of a 500k rolls royce to prove it. a few people are starting to get sick (little lawrence just got a cold this morning) so i am trying to stay clean. (just for you mom) dynamics are still pretty smooth but there's a little more gossip starting to arise as people learn each others quirks (i am guilty of it as well). I'm spending a little too much money i think but i just found out i have a $3000 of unkown funds as i received a gst income tax credit so i think i can do it without too much guilt. nothing too exciting overall though, i'll try to keep you posted.

a bit of reality.

2008-07-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

sorry for the delay but it has been a long few days. i've been in late for the last three nites as i went on sweep duty for all of them even though i only was scheduled for one, i was just having so much fun in the mornings on sweep that i wanted to do it again. the ends of the days get really long though, i just love getting up late and watching everybody else scurry around while i relax and then take an hour break at the local cafe to start of my day. i am feeling pretty fatigued over all though and tomorrow is going to be in the top two hardest besides stephens pass supposedly. couple events, Brad, Nick and I took the pizza challenge in Malta the other day which was you had to eat a 15" pizza and drink a 1l pop in an hour and then it would be free. i copped out after 8 pieces but Brad and Nick did the whole thing. then they went out and threw a bunch up. oh yah did i mention this was before we had another 80 km to ride in the blistering sun...yah, not fun times. right now i'm gettin eatin alive at Wallard Bay state park in utah. nice refreshing swim it was but unfortunately water means bugs. it has been pretty good so far though as the heat has kept them away i believe. I am definitely starting to hate this terrain though, when a road goes straight for 50k and you can't even see the end cuz it mirages...that's not cool. i vow myself every day that i will not ever live in this kind of country. i really don't know why God made so much of this stuff. my bike is starting to show a few signs of dissrepair and i had to replace my tire today. this sunday will be a serious maintenance day (as well as sleep in...woot) no more pics as i don't have time for now. dale and i figured out tonight that we have about 250k worth of bikes with us right now...crazy. the early and late morning crowd at this point seem to be spreading farther and farther apart right now and i think that eventually something might give. oh well that's the joy of living in community. six and a bit weeks to go. goodnight. oh and mom i did not recieve a care package if you sent one, just fyi. Enjoy!

ice blocking and river floating...aka awesome.

2008-07-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

from left to right at supper (kaitlyn, Peter, Kevin, Eric, Jodi, Emily, Me)
Wow what an incredible weekend, after yesterdays easy ride (as i went slow) we have a day off. one of jodi's friends invited a bunch of us over to her house for a good meal and a nice sleep. our host Emily has been a superhost extraordinaire, i haven't seen anyone with this much get up and go since cheryl tromp. first her parents made us a delicious bbq rib dinner, then it was off to the recently deceased j.r. simplot's grass hill (i guess the guy owned potatoe farms and sold his taters to micky d's and was incredibly rich, but then gave the property to the state of Idaho) where we went ice blocking, a wonderful sport where you buy a big ice block, put a towel on it to sit and slide down the hill, and cruise. today we had a celebration rally that discussed peace (i just learned each week is supposed to focus on one of the fruits of the spirit) then it was off to Boise river where we floated down on inner tubes, with little rapids and everything, was an incredible two hour ride. i am burning through the money a lot faster than i planned which worries me...but just a little bit. as far as riding, i have felt a little fatigued and weak lately but i think that may be the 180k i just had, plus my lack of training starting to catch up. but the biking is really only such a small part of the tour, each day just brings me to new highs and i know that the tide will turn soon. hopefully i'm ready. if any of you would like me to focus on different elements in my blog posts let me know and i'll empahsize those areas, after all, this blog is for you guys. thanks for reading! enjoy

century ride

2008-07-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

right now i sit in mcdonalds on someone elses computer as the one i was using just died. its been such a trip to do anything online. today's ride was a welcome easy ride with only about 50k, yesterday was only supposed to be 74k but ended up being 180k with over 4000ft of total ascent. 17 of us decided to take on a challenge and do a mountain ride before the days ride. it was only supposed be a 15k ride that hooked back up. we ended up getting down the other side of the mountain only to exhaust all the roads and realize that the only way to our route was back up the mountain. in the end our little detour was 100k and 4000ft of ascent. i was not a happy camper, just ask john vanderveen. overall spirits are high though and i'm really enjoying the laughs and good times with all the other people here. today i was so happy as they started breakfast an hour later as we had a short day. i finally got to get up on my schedule AND get breakfast. i only think i've had the breakfast 3 times this tour. otherwise i just eat bananas and granola bars. on a sadder note i got my first flat a couple days ago which was very dissapointing as i had visions of making it all the way without a flat. its funny because everytime someone gets their first flat they're hopes are dashed. right after my flat lawrence got two and in turns out we were like 2 minutes from the camp. sweet anyway this computer is in hight demand and i have to go. to the banks, i'm sorry for not making my payments, to my parents, sorry for not calling, and to the rest of the world, sorry, im just having too much fun to talk to anyone esle...enjoy!

feeling good today

2008-07-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

k so first biking day of the second week, today was a great day, challenging ride that kept you focused but i felt great and really pulled hard up against the hills, rode with laurence again today and i like his pace. we all hit up a dq afterards and it was a glorious occasion. then it was off to walmart where the three of us were walking around in our sweet spandex shorts and everyone was looking at us. we were pretty good natured though and people were having some fun with it. two little girls just couldn't help it and were constantly peaking around the isles and then running back killing themselves laughing. its been nice to hang out with a few new people this week and i'd like to get to know even more. we stopped by a large grainery today where one of the workers was just hangin out talkin with the people who stopped by, apparantly they have on government owned grainery tank that is filled up and then left to sit for seven years, this is the eigth so its been emptied and will be refilled again. kinda cool as that is a biblical principal, the farmer knew the story well too and fit the american wheat farmer description to a t. i know how to get pics up now so hopefully i'll have some time later. thanks for reading and your comments. time for peleton meeting.

what a day

2008-07-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

well after 15 minutes i'm finally connected, the connection here has been sporadic at best. pretty frustrating but the communication people have been trying to keep it up. i guess this was a similar problem in the 2005 tour. the last few days of riding have been pretty easy which means we've taken some time to find some distracions. the other day we found a 40ft cliff to jump off of into the river in the canyon. have some pics will hopefully someday get them up. that day we also found a bridge to jump off of. apparently its illegal to be nude in public but we didn't know that yet when we decided to sqeeze out our biking gear naked on the side of the highway after the jump. then yesterday we swam across a river but when coming back me and one of the guys ended up in a thick section of over head height thorn bushes that we had to bush wack through in just our shoes and shorts (brad didn't even have his shoes, once again pics later) anyway that was stupid. My legs and arms are very cut up. today we had a celebration service then got taken out wakeboarding for a while which was sweet. its been nice to have a day off and i kinda like this just camping for a bit. anyway its peleton meeting time so i better go, i really wish we had internet more constantly so i could do this stuff easier, i haven't paid bills in a while. oops.

ok so

2008-07-02T22:58:00.000-07:00

ok so, there is a lot to say. unfortunately my little machine has stopped working and so i have not been able to access internet for a while. right now i sit at the end of day three and it has been some intense riding, the weather has been beautiful but that means heat heat heat. closer to 40 degrees at some points. the second two days have been really tough climbs. it has been really cool to see how different groups form and break throughout the day and all the dynamics the arise. yesterday coming down stevens pass was a great experience as i rode in a pace line for the first time. its amazing how much easier and faster one can bike when even just paired up. going up stevens pass on day two i had one rider that teamed up with me to tackle the 4000ft ascent and it was cool experiencing how quickly you can create bonds when teaming with others to get through adversity. this whole operation is truly impressive when you look at all the vehicles and personnel that are involved. the kitchen staff and the food have been incredible, working long days (11 hrs) and preparing some excellent food. this morning i slept in pretty late and was the last person to get my stuff on the gear truck which didn't please the sweep team so i will have to be up earlier tomorrow, its ten to twelve now though so i don't think i'be quite learned my lesson. It has been great meeting all the new people and starting to be able to get past the initial introduction stages which can be somewhat exhausting at times. i will try to put up some pictures eventually but it may take a while to figure out how to get my machine repaired and how to put them up on this blog, for now hopefully text will do. Enjoy!

2008-06-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

well its been a whirlwind start but in a good way. its been great meeting up with all my kings friends and also meeting a ton of new people. i dont think ive hit any more dutch bingos in my life. and youll have to forgive me for my terrible punct. as i will be writing my blog updates from my little video player that also has the internet. ill attach a picture later so you can see what i mean. right now therexis definitely an excitment or euphoria of sorts as all the prep and training happens. the weather has been some of the best seattle has had this summer but now well see what its like to bike in the heat. actually my smithers mentality is pretty obvious as i only brought one pair of shorts in my attempt to pack light but thankfully dad was willing and the same size(ish) so i nowxhave two so im set. well rhats it for today as this post hastaken me about 20minutes although iwill hopefully get qicker on this thing. check flickr.com and search seatosea08 for tour related photos.

enjoy. theo

Here it goes

2008-06-20T11:45:00.001-07:00

Well Here goes my first blog post ever. Only a week before the tour! i really should be doing my Accounting correspondence course as i have my final exam on monday but i thought this would be a great distraction for now.
As i write this i am for the first time starting to grasp how real this will be in only a few days. With this course taking up literally all my time (11-12hrs/day) i have not trained for nearly two weeks now and so i know my first week on the tour will not be pleasant. ouch.
Thank you to all who have donated towards this cause on my behalf. as a result i have now raised over 3/4 of my goal of $10,000. Please consider still donating on behalf if you haven't to help make this fundraiser a success.
Anyway i must get back to this course so that after my exam on monday i can completely focus on getting ready to bike from SEA TO SHINING SEA! Enjoy