My blogs from the THUMBS OUT trip

July 7, 2006 -
In TO and ready to go.
ok.. so were sleeep deprived.. so this is going to be short, incoherant, and ya..lol
The last 7 days have been a sleep deprived, beer filled, moltov of crazyness. I met this really awsome girl july 1st that was to be my partner and within a 48 hour period I got drunk with her, had my parents fall in love with her, drove 16 hours in a car (with a 90 min back track to pick up a lost wallet)with her, introduced her to my sister in New Brunswick, hitched through nova scotia, went to the keiths brewery, got drunk in Halifax.. all to finally starty the race and hitch to Vancouver.
The first day we made it all the way to edmonston with 3 rides. The last of the 3 stopped occationally to give us history lessons and visit historical sites (World's longest covered bridge, grand falls, etc) and then gave us a free hotel room for the night and gave us a bottle of cider to share.
The next day we Made it to Montreal in 1 ride.. problem was, there was only 1 seat to hold both our bags and both our bodies...after 5 hours I was feeling like a dirty sock.
Montreal was great and the beer was cheap.
Now were in TO. We actually went to much on demand for the free publicity..lolAnyway, so were off o Thunder Bay tomorrow.. wish us luck!

July 10, 2006 -
Half way and i'm not dead and only slightly bruised.
A late start due to my own blondness. We throw our belongings into the trunk of the car of our first ride just in time to feel it all crash down. Or rather for me to feel it all crash down, and by all crash down i mean the trunk lid on my head. It seems that Megan thought I had cleared the lid and had proceeded to slam it shut... problem is, I have a big head. And of course, now I have a big head with a even bigger bumb on the top of it. But all is well, it must be payback for awkwardly singing the same songs, or rather parts of songs, over and over again to keep me occupied. Im sure hearing the same wrong lyrics to the same songs over and over again is enough to make anyone want to close a trunk on someones head..hehe
lol.. anyway, we made it to Thunder bay in about 37 hours... about 8 hours later then the team before us. We were picked up by the most amazing people with the biggest hearts. Though i'm too tired to give alot of details, lets just say that my theory That Canadians are generally good people has definatly been proven true. Even though we didn't have rides going the distance every ride was one that was memerable and left us feeling like we had been truely cared for. Thanks to everyone who picked us up! On a side.. a special thanks goes to the 2 guys who were going in the opposite direction, but found us passed out in a hotel lobby in the middle of nowhere and decided to drive us 4 hours out of their way to finally get us to Thunder Bay because you felt that God had landed you at the hotel for a reason. Props to your good heart. Also thanks to the couple who bought us dinner, the couple that gave us 20 bucks, the guy who gave me beer, the truck stop guy who let us come out of the mesquito massare at 3 am to sleep in the closed dinning room for a few hours, the guy straight out of the dazed and confused movie who drove us to the truck stop to some decent tunes when we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, the police officer who drove us to the tim hortins when we thought we were getting arrested, the couple that saved us from the rain, and of course the guy that worked at the hotel that let us stay in the lobby and gave us food when he could have gotten in trouble... and to everyone else who has been awsome to us or shared stories to us.. thanks
PS... the water of Lake Superior was glorious on my feet!
See ya in the next town... Winnepeg.

July 14, 2006 - Calgary
Say hello to all them cowboys
Winnipeg was alot of fun! We took a day off to rest a little... or atleast that was what was supposed to happen...lol. Instead we made friends with people from all over the world who were staying at the hostel and shared travel stories and drinking songs over beer and rum the first night and wine and beer the second.
Our luck continues to grow! We made it to Calgary in 1st place taking us out of last place and into 4th for the last stretch of the race. Anything can happen now in that last leg, and though Megan is convinced were out of the race I think there is always hope. We made it to Calgary in 4 rides and it seems that our bad luck with truckers picking us up has finally ended. That and the fact that the only car that picked us up was driving 165 km/h the entire time we were in the car placed us 5 min ahead the 2nd team.
Our only snag I think is that spending 24 hours a day for 14 days and counting with someone, no matter how cool they might be, will definatly lead to the need for a break. The littlest things that might have been cute at one point annoy each of us about the other. I'm sure after a break we will be great friends... but right now i think that a boot to the rear is what both of us are thinking of...lol. At the sourse of some conlflict is my duties as the founder of the race combined with the internal need to make sure all teams are on the same page, taken care of, and happy. This is the source because my increased stress levels are bound to affect my own team dynamic. That and well.. when i'm on the side of the highway and tired i tend to sing songs songs i know.. but I don't really know any full songs.. so its more parts of songs.. and sang badly.. coupled with the fact that I can't sing and yet i sing often (were often really tired on this race) i understand how i can be annoying...hehe. There are things that drive me nutz about her as well... which as I said, is understandble based on the amount of time we have been together..lol.
Added to the stress is a music festival that one of us wants to attend that places us in conflict with the actual sceduale of the race. It is now both a race with the other teams and a race to make it to Vancouver before one of us has to leave.
All said and done though, my partner is a great girl and I am lucky to have her as a partner. We are alike in alot of areas and not in alot of others. Our conversational styles and the way we relate to people is definatly in the latter while our stuburness and ways we carry on about certain things are of the former. Either way, with only one leg of the race left to go and only a few days left till we part ways and till i can find a beach to sleep on and an ocean to swim in, i can honestly say that i'll miss her when shes gone.
There have been great stories.. many of which I havn't put on here and which will have to be pub talk sometime in the future. But for now I leave you with a prayer for the road.
May God prepare the road before you,
May you walk is safety and know no fear
May each stranger you meet be guided by a love for all and,
May each moment be worthy for the story.
See you in Vancouver.

July 18, 2006 - Vancouver
The living end
Done and done. So were in Vancouver and its about time.hehe. Alot of stuff has happened and we have had alot of cool rides .but i'll let megan fill that in. All the teams arrived early in Vancouver and so in order to ensure all the girls had a place to stay Rob and I spent the night on the streets of Vancouver walking, walking, walking into sketchy territory, and then deciding an all ngiht afe was the better idea. This being the case, I am on about 1 hour sleep plus a few small naps in trucks yesterday on the way here.. so ya, this is not going to to long.
Before I go i would like to address something.. but only briefly as though it must be mentioned, this is not the venue to express what has happened. Unfortunately, for those who have read other teams blogs one will find a very negative blog by one of the more dramatic teams. Though these are her opinions of what happened, and she has the right ot have them, with the exception of 1 claim, all are fact-less and disprovable. I believe that those who have met me on this trip for the first time can attest to my good intent and my trying to keep everyone on the same page and happy. Some of said that this was impossible, others said if I try to fix things I am not letting them grow, and others have said that by trying to play both sides while still trying to enjoy myself, I was headed for disaster since conflicting interests existed.
Regardless, the damage is done and the words cannot be erased. Though I can say a am hurt by what was said, I regret that any one racer would end this race on a sour note with the organizers. It is unfortunate that she has deciphered the facts in such a erroneous way and has taken a negative spin on this trip. The thought is coming forward that I was never meant to be a leader and that my days of organizing trips for friends and strangers are over. I do hope that despite her views of me and my first go at organizing something of this magnitude that she will walk away from his trip with good memories. When all else fades Im sure she will be left with the glorious tale of crossing this amazing country with nothing but luck and a smile. I know I will. The good nature and friendliness of strangers in this country has left me speechless. Forget all the free stuff we have gotten, or the rides that have gone out of their way the thing I will remember is the moment of contact. Each time a driver picked me up they were taking a chance and stepping out side of their comfort zone, Each time I took a new ride I was doing the same. The moment of contact between strangers is a moment of great interest since it represents the moment of connection or repulsion. It is the moment where you either become a person or are turned to an object. The continued tension is that after 30 some rides with the same conversation starters the object subject tension returns again until the moment when you decide to be real.. when you decide to drop your gimic and useless gabber and say something meaningful and connected to your heart. This later tension is something hard to transcend I think, but I have a feeling that on this trip each team has been able to do it. Each team has managed at one point or another to be real and to connect with people beyond the gabber and to connect with ones fellow person long enough to enlarge ones loyalties as Rorty would say. To create common feeling with ones fellow Canadian, and even beyond that, ones fellow human being. Real Justice is just this(well maybe): seeing more and more people as being part of a greater set of loyalties an dless as the other. There is SO much good in this world, so many good people, and even if some of them don’t like me or dont respect me, thats ok.. they are good people still the same and I have been lucky enough to know them.
Ok so I thought this was going to be short lolIm not sure if you managed to get anything out of what I just said.. its hard to makes sense of anything when so much stuff has gone one and is going on and your bed is so far away. hehe
Anyway, I hope you guys have like following us across Im sure youve gotten the hint by now that were not perfect, nor are we angels but in general I can say of al the racers even the ones I might need a break form for a while, that all the racers are good people and Ive been happy to play this game with them Blessings