Escaping Niagara

On Friday May 11 we finally escaped the clutches of the Niagara Region and were open road bound in our basically brand new RV! That morning we woke up in Jordans orchard, where we had camped out. This was our poor attempt at finding adventure in Niagara. 

This past week was pretty stressful since we wanted to leave on the 5th, and because all of us had stopped working, we felt fairly useless and unproductive. Leave it to Rudy Enns to fix that problem. I love my dad a lot, and have learned a bunch from how helpful and generous he is. His project this week was to fix the private road that we and the 15+ neighbouring houses live on. Without going into too much detail, our road has always had a pot hole problem and it's usually a topic of conversation among neighbours. Continuing on, the four of us helped my dad all afternoon sweeping, shoveling and raking asphalt into the holes. Calvin made a good analogy about the afternoon.

Rudy was this dude we met in Nova Scotia. He helped us fix our RV and fed us all kinds of free food, and we got to help him fix his road. All of his neighbors were super stoked because their suspensions were saved from the dreadful potholes. It was really a win-win-win situation (I pursue these types of solutions wherever I can). Thinking of our time in Niagara in this way really helped us understand what it was okay that we were still in Niagara, and that we could still be kind and help others.

(As a side note, due to our successful and efficient afternoon with my dad, I have decided to use my new business education to start up College Pro Paving, a new pyramid scheme where I enjoy being at the top)

We had a refresher course on patience this week, an important lesson to learn in such a fast paced, getwhatyouwantwhenyouwantit society. We packed up the RV at Jordans place and had a nice last meal with his parents. Also a huge thanks goes out to Mr. D for our first tank of gas! That night, we made it to Kingston and when we woke up, we went to Jacklyn and Phil's (friends of Calvins). This young married couple has an awesome apartment close to Queens University and we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast. On the menu was fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, fresh hommade muffins, coffee AND orange juice and toast.

In return for breakfast we washed some of their windows with our handy dandy squeegee and bucket. It was a great first stop and we enjoyed their company thoroughly! We continued on, venturing into the possibilities of the open road...
 

And We're Off!

The Open Road Project has finally left the Niagara region!

More updates to come, internet is scarce!

An Unexpected Beginning: The Open Boat Project

As you may have realized by this point in time, we didn’t made it out of Niagara on May 5th. The Open Road Project has been stranded before, that’s for sure, but never in our own city. Thankfully we knew that we wouldn’t have a roadworthy RV for our intended date of departure, so we decided to get creative with our time to prepare for the trip.

We hopped in the car and headed for Calvin’s cottage for a couple of days of relaxation. Our friend, Ethan, was also picked up along the way to spend the time with us because after all, the saying holds true, the more the merrier. We picked him up from Canada's Wonderland in shorts and flip flops, attire that would prove to be not nearly enough for the journey up north. He also left his girlfriend and her sister at the park, so we were grateful that he dropped everything to spend some time with the boys.  On the way up Highway 11, we stopped at the Highway Recyclers (basically a roadside flea market) and took a look around. It was too bad that they were closed or we could have purchased some sweet new add ons for Lily including; a new toilet, neon signs, a new basketball rim, a sliding door, a tetherball pole and any rusty tool that could ever be needed.

When we got to Dorset, we took the small tin boat to the secluded island where the cottage is located. After kicking on a fire, we enjoyed some good company and delicious hotdogs with maple smoked beans (a good meal in cheap Open Road fasion). Purchasing food for the first time as a group was a good experience as we left the chips and candy on the shelf, spending an average of $2 per meal per person for the whole weekend. 

The rest of our time was spent enjoying good conversation, playing monopoly deal and planning out a route for our trip to the east coast. Thankfully, we are much closer to the Atlantic than the Pacific and should be able to quickly acquire the lobster and oysters our taste buds have been craving.

When Tuesday morning arrived, we packed up our things and headed home. This is when we encountered our first sketchy situation of the trip. There was a thick fog blanketing the entirety of Lake Kawagama when we woke up. We packed up and trekked out, following the shore, but soon had to enter the abyss to cross the lake. When we couldn't see 20 feet ahead of the boat, we thought it would be wise to re-evaluate our situation. Life Lesson: you don't really want the blind to lead the blind. This lesson was learned when we hit some wake on the lake and were curious to which other boat was also crazy enough to head out in the fog. As we looked behind us, we saw that it was our wake, and that we were slowly going in circles. We were pretty nervous.

That's when we realized that we may have come closer to the cell tower and might finally have phone service for the first time in the weekend. Thankfully, Mr. Apple and his fancy cellular devices located our position and pointed out all the islands to avoid. Life Lesson: look for signs that tell you that you are going in the right direction. By this point, the fog had lifted slightly, and we could make out islands on each side. Calvin was able to use some of his instincts and knowledge of the body of water to locate our position and guide us safely into the marina.

All in all, it was an excellent, and unexpected beginning to our trip. Dylan and Jordan were able to get to know Calvin better and we all were able to take our team dynamic for a test run. Also, Lily is doing much better and should finally be ready to hit the open road tomorrow. As we get our last things together, we are getting very excited.

A Visit To The Hostpital

So I went to visit Lily in the hospital and to be perfectly honest, the news was less than comforting. As I walked into the shop, and saw her organs strewn about the various work benches, I braced myself for the news. 

The mechanic was completely amazed that we made it out to Vancouver, and back again, with as few problems as we had. This was partially due to the fact that our engine had parts meant for a smaller motor. However, our main issue is that basically every major component of the motor is seriously worn out.

In the washing machine!

Parts for a 305, not a 350!

Singed to oblivion!

Empty hearted...

Every Monday night, my dads side of the family gathers for a family dinner. Oma, Opa, cousins, aunts and uncles all gather to share a meal and eachothers company. I am incredibly blessed to have such a great family, and these Monday nights are greatly cherished. My Oma has recently been honing her computer skills and has become quite good at navigating her new laptop. She is also one of the most active readers of this blog, which is awesome. After we had enjoyed yet another amazing feast (meals that I have missed greatly since being away at school), Oma said that she had a present, not for me but for Lily.  She had read the last post, and gathered some beautiful flowers, bleeding hearts, for Lily. These are the most appropriate flowers that she could have given her for a few reasons. Right now the heart of this RV has basically been removed her chest cavity, and, before this unfortunate event, she leaked oil, brake fluid and coolant from every orifice. Somehow my Oma knows just how to joke around in a most witty, yet gentle manner.

So friends, I do not know if we will be leaving on Saturday, but I do know that very soon we will have an RV that is ready for the many adventures to come. Thank you Oma for the flowers! I love you, and if Lily could wake up from her coma, I'm sure she would thank you too!

On The Table

Lily is set to undergo surgery early this coming week. Since it's too expensive to use a tow truck (also known as a car ambulance) my dad and I decided to slowly nurse the old girl to the hospital. We drove slowly through the entire city of St. Catharines, from the north end to Thorold.

Now I haven't gone into incredible detail as to what exactly is wrong with our trusty RV, and I don't especially intend to, as I know I could lose a few readers with boring motor talk. However, I will let you know, that the exhaust manifold has a gap which causes her to be EXTREMELY LOUD. Now, when you have an RV that was built in the 70's with graffiti all over and a basketball net on the side, you are bound to turn a few heads.  But now, she also sounds like a monster truck revving up to jump 10 school busses, even though she is barely going over 30km/h.

Let me tell you, the people were staring.

I have also come to realize that I thrive when I drive Lily. It's one of the places I feel most at home. Her sturdy, yet zesty steering wheel with the tractor steering knob from Bolivia, her worn in seats that hug all the right places, the way she barrels down the street demanding love and attention from everyone around, the old sound system from my VW Jetta (RIP), simply put: she's the best.  Limping her across town was just another adventure as I would shout at her over the deafening engine to encourage her up that tiny hill, or quietly reassure her at every red light that she could make it.

That's why we took her to the right guy, who will fix her up properly. She deserves to have life and have it to the full. I just know she has a few more years (and a lot more adventures) left in her. But as time runs out leading up to when we want to leave, we're still unsure if she will be ready for the weekend. We have faith.

If you can, send flowers. I'm sure she would appreciate it.

An Exciting Announcement!

You may have heard the rumours...
You may have heard the word on the street...
You may have seen some pictures on various social networking sites around the internet...
You may have even seen our posters on lampposts in the city you live in...
Well dear friends, I am happy to confirm that The Open Road Project IS DOING THE EAST COAST!

Starting May 5th, myself and some fine young gentleman you would not have read about before, are going to begin a new journey. Recently, we decided that The Open Road Project didn't need to be a specific group, but rather, something that could be shared and experienced by different people. Spreading kindness and love while touring in an ancient RV doesn't have to be a one time thing! Dylan Hamm, Jordan Duerrstein, Calvin Berry and myself are going to be taking the themes and values that were exhibited during last years trip out west, and bring them to the rest of this great country!

While this is a really exciting time for us, what would an adventure be without a road block before we even leave the driveway? To put it simply, Lily (our trusty RV) is ill, and by ill I mean basically on her death bed. Very kaput.

We are in serious need of an organ donor and also a capable (yet cheap) surgeon in order to get her back on the road for the long haul to the beautiful maritime provinces. Also, as I am sure you are realizing by now, May 5th is less than 2 weeks away. We don't have a lot of time.

However, we are going out east no matter what. We are determined to find a solution, and believe in the age old saying "Where there's a will there's a way." There is bound to be some drama in regards to how this trip will begin, and although it's stressful for us right now, we know it will tell a good story.

In the meantime, we would appreciate your prayers as we get ready to go, and start to locate places we want to stop, and organizations we want to work with to help spread kindness and hope.

 I don't want to give away too much so stay tuned....

THE OPEN ROAD PROJECT IS BACK!

A Long Overdue Update!

Hello friends! It's Jeremy here and I just wanted to give you a quick update on what has been going on! I'm sure you have noticed the serious lack of blogging from Jamie and I during the past school year, and for this we apologize. Not too many crazy things have happened during the year, but we are gearing up for some exciting summer plans!

First of all, thank you for your continued support of this blog! We recently reached 100,000 pageviews and we are so blessed to have such great readers! I promise that you will soon have something exciting to read again, so don't go anywhere!

Also, I wrote a few posts about my missions trip to Bolivia this February on this blog but, for the time being, have moved those posts over to www.boliviatrivia.blogspot.com. There are still a few posts I want to write, but just haven't found the time. I'll remind you if I post on that blog again, but for now feel free to explore over there if you haven't read about the trip yet!

A wise Doug Coupland once said "Adventure without risk is Disneyland." and I don't really plan to visit Disneyland anytime soon.

Stay tuned!
Jeremy
P.S. Here's a pic of me. On a mountain.

Closing the Open Road.

It has been over 4 months since we made it home from our incredible adventure. Although we still like to reminisce and retell the many stories, we are now back in school mode. This means that things are a little different for us now. "Closing" our Open Road adventure is not something we do happily, regardless of however exciting our immediate futures appear to be. However, with an impending co-op term and Jers new radio show, we will not be at a loss for antics or stories. They will just be of a different nature. The passion for adventure will still be here too, not to worry, it just may be some months before we can unleash it again the way we did this summer.

Also we want to thank you for caring. YOU reading right now, are the reason Jer and I LOVE to do this so much. Although we love to have this blog for ourselves to look back on, hearing from one of you (that you liked something you've read on our blog) is the true reason we write.

If this is your first time checking out this blog, please enjoy. If you were directed here specifically to check out stories from our trip: Start Here. It makes a heck of a lot more sense when you read it from the beginning.

A sincere and final Cheers,
Adam, Charles, Jamie, Jeremy and Josh
AKA: The Boys

75,000!

Thank you guys so much for sticking with us over the past two months! We just hit 75,000 pageviews! This is something that Jamie and I never could have dreamed of when we started this thing in September of 2010. We promise we will have some more posts coming soon, midterms are done after this week. Then, that excuse can't be used until 2 weeks from now when we have to start studying for finals :( Anyways, thank you guys so much for your continued support! You mean a lot to us! If you have Twitter, Jamie and I recently got it and you can find us @cavemanjer and @jamesgrantis. We will be finding our inner Blogger again soon, we can only go so long without it.

We love you all!
Jeremy, Jamie and the boys.

By The Numbers

10,271km : Total distance traveled
19 : Number of sunglasses in our collection
$2,417.37: Dollars spent on repairs
11: Number of Value Villages experienced
$1.49: Highest price paid per liter of fuel
$1.12: Lowest price paid per liter of fuel
120 : Litres per tank of fuel
51ft: Distance worth of Subway subs consumed
4: How many times we stalled on a mountain slope
$239: Amount Adam Epp spent on ostrich products
2,658 : Estimated number of pretzels in our 2kg bag
883 : Number of weeds pulled from gardens
$1000: Number of Dollars won for daring antics
$140: Amount of money in Jamie's wallet when he lost it
0: Amount of money in Jamie's wallet when it was returned the next day
$12.95: Cost of our cheapest, most disgusting meal at a pitstop in Montana (fed the 5)
8: Number of nights spent in Wal-Mart parking lots
0: Number of speeding tickets or negative interactions with "the man" (possibly the most surprising number of the entire trip)
15: Number of provinces/states we visited
1: Number of mountains climbed
2: Number of "physical" challenges
1:1: Ratio of tanks of fuel to quarts of oil consumed.
20: Number of mechanical/structural parts that broke on Lily
95%: Percentage of time that at least one of us was shirtless
50/50: Chance that Lily would start on the first try

1: Trip of a lifetime

Cheers, The Boys

Thanks for waiting!

Blog update coming this Thanksgiving weekend! Sorry for the delay!

In the meantime, you can read an article that was written about our trip by Emily Loewen for the Canadian Mennonite magazine.

Click Here!

Cheers, The Boys

Stranded

It's here!!!

CLICK THIS

Cheers, The Boys

We are working on a new video right now! "Stranded" to hit the world wide web this weekend! Check out our other videos if you haven't yet. www.youtube.com/user/TheOpenRoadProject 

Thanks for your patience as we start school!

Cheers, The Boys

2/3

List #2

This is a list of things that busted. Not so much fun as it is funny.

Blown Transmission

Dead Battery

Alternator

Brake Lights

Turn Signals

Stereo

Guages

Lights

Horn

Busted drive shaft

Brake fluid housing

Right side wall outlet

Pull out bed

Curtain rods

Leaky gas lines

Leaky oil lines

Leaky coolant housing

Leaky break lines

Steering wheel cover plate

3 Cupboard doors (the would swing open at will while driving)

mysterious puck sized dents in the panelling

Oh, and we blew 2 speakers jamming to Cinema by Skrillex. But thats our own fault. We can hardly blame Lily for that.


Cheers,The Boys

Chicago To Home.

After Iowa we encountered a strech of driving that was quite possibly the best of the whole trip. With the engine and brakes now working like it was 1979 and only 20 measly hours until home, we were loving Lily. Chicago traffic was embraced by blowing bubbles out the side window and loud music. With fresh tattoos, 5 happy campers inside, and bubbles flying out the window, Lily was a hilarious spectacle for onlookers. Eventually we made it to Jeremy's Aunt Linda north of Chicago and got to stay with her for the night. She prepared us a delicious meal and gave us a small work project in the community garden and after only 24 hours we were on our way. We were extremely thankful for real food, showers and real beds. We had one more stop in Chicago before we could set our sights on home. Our friend Anna Moriarty is in school at Judson University so we set up a meeting. The campus seemed like a good enough place... except the second we rolled onto the property we had campus security on our tail under concerns of a "suspicious vehicle." Eventually we straighten it all out, found our dear Anna and had some lunch together (in 2006, an RV run on barrels of vegetable oil spawned a terrorist alert on the campus, so security was on us instantly). The visit was brief, but great none the less. Now finally our next destination was not a Walmart lot, a distant relatives house, a long lost friends crib or the side of a mountain highway. Finally our destination was home. We got Lil ready for the last thousand kilometers and headed for the border. We made it to Sarnia at about 2 am, and made it home around noon the following day. Before the trip could be officially concluded we had one final order of business. We started our trip at Butterballs Diner in Jordan 5 weeks ago, so it was only fitting to end our trip here. We ate a delicious breakfast and with money still left in the blessing pot we thought what the heck, lets cover everyone's meal in the dining room. The waitress was more than helpful in this endeavor and we thought it fitting that our last deed (at least in terms of the trip) was at home. It was also nice because we received a great response and had a short but great conversation from each of the tables that were added to our tab. It was a quiet, yet perfect way to end the trip.

S0 that's about that! We made it home with everything intact, which is a miracle in and of itself. People would have lost money on the bet that our RV truly would make it home. We did.

Thank you so much for following the Open Road Project. We are so thankful that we are back home safe and sound. We couldn't have done this trip without the generous support of many of you and we want to thank you for that as well.

Please continue to follow this blog, as we have several more posts to come. Lists and reflections as well as some more video footage.
You guys are the best,The Boys

Iowa: The greatest state on earth*

Legend

* = Subject to the opinion of its residents.

** = Subject to the opinion of its visitors.

After the repairs, and 23 hours of driving that Jer just spoke of in the last post we were actually on our way to a planned destination: Iowa. After having lily's ailments repaired, and even improved in some ways we hit the road with purpose. I messaged my good friend, (an American whom I met while living in Australia) that I potentially maybe able to come by and visit him. Justifiably, this is about as much certainty as I could give him due to our style of travel and fussy engine issues.

However, we clocked over a dozen straight drive hours and made it to Cedar Falls, Iowa on Monday. While attempts to yell out the RV window at anyone and everyone "HEY, DO YOU KNOW JORDAN MILANO?!?" did not produce promising enough results. Lily was in dire need of fuel so we stopped at a gas station, and I borrowed a phone for a local call by dialing a number that I was about 85% sure was Jordans.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

...no answer.

too bad.

...

10 seconds later, gas station lady's phone rings.

"Uhh, she thinks its for me?"

Jordan skeptically: "Hello?"

Me: "Hey dude, its me, Jamie. Im with 4 other buds in our RV, were in your town"

Jordo: GET OUT (in an excited Jordan voice that sadly cant be relayed via blog channels, yet is so distinct that anyone who has met him has likely heard it)

Jordo still: "Im on my bike now, I was going to the university to people watch, but instead, ill be there soon."

Click.

5 minutes later I saw my friend.

Then we did a few really fun things.

We went to this thrift shop called St. Vincent De Paul, that was super cool and super cheap.

and THEN we went for dinner at this Mexican place called Pablo's that was super duper cool and just as super cheap. We then drove back to his and Ian's (his roommate) house. These dudes live in the most insanely fun house of all time*. I should add that Jordan pays $100 dollars monthly rent, but then again this is the fantastic perk of having your mattress on the living room floor. No one will ever tell these guys how to live, because they do it pretty well. It was a Monday, so naturally we were going to Cypress for free pool. That was also awesome. Jeremy and Adam also caught a local show at a cool but sketchy venue. Perhaps though, the two most awesome events of all didn't happen until the following day. The first was Lily's new Tattoo's. I was almost sure that Jordan, an avid tattoo and spray painting enthusiast would love to leave his mark on our trip somehow. S0, we gave him the canvas (our RV) and virtually unlimited freedom. He went to town.

The final product is, as you will see, great.

This is our friendly monster, The Gobbler and on the opposite side, in classic graffiti style essentially cementing the arbitrary name that was given to our RV over 5 weeks ago, The word "Lily"

Also this morning, even prior to the spay painting and a delicious 5 egg breakfast, we set out for our "act of blessing" here in Iowa. I warned Jordan a few days prior, that if we did show up, we'd love his help finding someone that could use ours. The hardest things for us (since we move from place to place so quickly) is having the time to settle in a find someone that truly could use help. We have come to learn that try as we might, always the best interactions were the ones that fall on our lap. That's what we asked Jordan for, and that's what he did. He got talking to his mom asking if she knew of anybody in a difficult situation and what she offered fit our mission exactly. I will spare most details, but because of a difficult home life situation, Mrs. Milano's friend (who lives with an alias) and her two kids, were now living at a near by hotel. Despite her alias, we still managed to track her down by describing her to one of the workers, and it ended up being the best case scenario. After we explained to Corrie (the lovely staff member) our idea, and with bags and bags of grocerices in our hands, she told us that actually the woman we were looking for had just left and even let us into the now vacant room. This was great because now, we got to unload the grocieries, putting them away into the fridge and cupboards. Almost hidding them in a way that she wouldn't immediately notice all at once, but slowly realized what she has. We left the kids a few school supplies on the table, along with a brief note and our best wishes.

This was a pretty cool stop. We never even met the family, but that almost made it all the better.

Cheers,The Boys

Lists Part 1/3

When Jamie wrote the post W.A.L.T he listed all the names that family and friends have called this trip. After reading it, I realized just how great lists were. The more I thought about it, the more I decided you would like to see a few lists. So, three lists will be coming your way, in the next few day pertaining to things we have reflected on during our trip. Enjoy!

List #1: Essential Items for a 5 Week Road Trip

Several times over the course of the trip people that we have met have told us that they like the way we travel. We have heard more than once that we travel in style. The following are the bare necessities that can be found in our RV, that are crucial to traveling in style:

Lint Roller

Painting of “The Last Supper”

Hockey sticks

Basketball net

Chrome

Longboards

Bicycles

3 piece Suits

Wetsuits

Microwave

5 Lawnchairs

Cajon (Box drum, table, chair combo)

Guitar

20 Pairs of Sunglasses

6 way speaker system and 10” sub

A dozen pillows

20 different hats

Gas powered generator

Chrome

Portable stereo (or “boombox” if you will)
5 man tent
2 coolers
Giant bag of pretzels (2kg)
Bolivian Steering knob

Chrome

Plexyglass window
Multiple multi-tools
Graffiti tattoo's
this is all just off the top, but if you remember just a few of these you should be ok.

Cheers,The Boys

How We Got Here

We would like to apologize that we have kept you in the dark regarding our situation over the past week. We do however, have a pretty good explanation. Since approximately August 18th at 11:00pm Mountain Standard time, the fate of our trip was taken... nay, yanked completely out of our hands. As you likely know, we have been experiencing minor technical difficulties since departure. However, as we approached the final mountain range of the trip in Wyoming, USA we could tell that Lily was not going to cooperate.

We knew the problems started when we pushed our RV into a no camping zone at dusk. Why push? Because she stalled. Why at dusk? Because she wouldn't start and even if she did, no alternator=no lights. While we were nervous about the NO CAMPING sign with fine print saying "Punishable with $2000 fine or 6 months prison," we felt that we had a legitimate excuse (also how are $2000 and 6 months in the clink similar punishments?). We woke up in the morning to a State Trooper who thankfully called a tow truck instead of locking us up.
West Yellowstone is right on the border of Yellowstone National Park and this is where we spent the day. We decided to finally treat Lily to a new alternator, so while she was in the shop, we set up a base camp at a laundromat that had free wifi. Our first order of business was cashing in a few $20's for quarters and officially making it "Free Laundry Day." We befriended many patrons, mostly families travelling through to see Old Faithful (the same reason that we were there).After a long day waiting and $200 later, we were on our way. By now it was almost 18:00 so we decided to try to drive through the night to make up for lost time. We stopped at Old Faithful and enjoyed the spectacle.
Now it was time to get some serious miles behind us. To this day, I question why we thought that our only problem was the alternator. We all knew that it couldn't be that easy. The next stretch of road proved us right. Words will not begin to describe how we all felt at 01:00, while we got out to push Lily up the mountain. The cold Wyoming air chilled our bones and the high altitude sucked the air out of our lungs as we ran desperately behind a finally rolling Lily. Josh, not wanting to lose momentum was last seen driving into the night up the hill as the four of us were left only to watch the now working lights fade off into the distance. We were going to die out here.

After two miles of walking, we finally caught up to Josh (who thankfully didn't roll off the cliff), once again stalled on a hill. This is where we would sleep. On the side of the most isolated Interstate in the country.

We awoke in the morning groggy and sad. We hadn't miraculously made it to civilization. With the closest towns almost 100km in either direction and no cell phone service, we could do nothing but hope that someone would care enough to stop. And thankfully people did! We sent for a tow truck in both directions, one East and one back West. However, we had no idea if the people we sent would have any luck, so we sent Josh and Adam to hitchhike to a payphone. While Charles Jamie and I hung back at the RV, we tried to pass the time as best we could and not worry about the situation. However, as we ran out of things to do and with our friends who knows where, we almost started to worry. Then a State Trooper showed up and told us that help was on the way! Ted's Towing out of Sheridan should be around in an hour. Now we were hoping that our friends would make it back from their adventure.
Funny how things work out. Where we stopped was almost at the top of the mountain, and if we would have made it, we would have obviously decided to go down. We would surely have forgotten that our brakes were less than reliable. We would have very likely ended up going through a guardrail. After all, it was the steepest grade we had seen to date, almost 10%. Josh and Adam arrived back at almost the exact same time as the tow truck. We piled in to the little cab of the big truck and made our way to Sheridan where there was a 24 hour mechanic. Our time with this shop was most interesting and I can say that Lily was driven harder than perhaps any time in her life while they were trying to diagnose her sickness, but thankfully, they solved all of our issues by Sunday morning, and at a shockingly reasonable cost.

Once we finally got on the road, it was smooth sailing. With the mountains behind us and the prairies in front of us, we were once again feeling rejuvenated and as we like to say, morale was up. Whether our issue was being stopped in the middle of the road to having no breaks or lights, we are truly thankful that we are safe and sound. Next stop, Cedar Falls Iowa. If you read this whole post, congratulations and thank you. It was a long one.

Cheers,The Boys
JE

CURRENTLY STUCK IN MONTANA

Our machine is in the shop at the moment.

We're treating her to a tasty new alternator.

While we wait, please enjoy a new video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOpenRoadProject

Cheers,The Boys

Hello Seattle

After a brief sleep in the Ferry parking lot (why not take full advantage of our $16 overnight parking?) we awoke to a days drive into the United States. We got up and running pretty early in the morning, but as it turns out (from the border wait time) it wasn't early enough. We normally wouldn't get too worked up over a few hours of waiting in line to cross the border, but when the line before the booth was taking forever, we feared the entire afternoon was lost. Weeks ago, when we crossed over into Minnesota we experienced an extensive search. With a dreaded driver, no front window and 4 other scruffy hooligans on board, we expected no different this time around. We certainly were reasonable suspects and we were preparing for the imminent interrogation. In Minnesota, it took over 45 minutes as they used giant dentist mirrors, dogs, the whole deal. So we were fairly anxious, anticipating our Washington investigation so far from home. As we creeped along, we finally made it to the border guard. "Here we go again" we thought to ourselves as Jer spoke through the crack in our makeshift plexiglasswindow. After barely a peak into the back window, and a few questions about drug use, he sent us on our way.

....wait just a second, WHAT!? He was just going to let 5 unshowered, groggy, 20 year olds driving a barely legal Winnebago older than himself into his country, with not even a second look? Not cool. We could have had anything in there!? I must say we felt a bit ripped off, violated even.

But not to worry friends, the feeling faded quickly since we were now on our way to Wally Martins in Seattle. Here we met up with Dana, a friend of Jeremy, Josh and Charles from their time is Isreal last May. She is a super cool chick and stories were traded as we bussed our way downtown. As it turns out, our hometown MLB team, the Toronto Blue Jays were in Seattle for a series! So we picked up some cheap tickets for the game, and then caught a train down to the market, where we couldn't resist checking out the world's first Starbucks considering how often we steal their internet.

From here we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The waitresses were friendly and the food worked wonders for our stomachs that had been empty since breakfast. From there we gave away a few tickets to the baseball game (which proved to be harder than we thought as most people had evening plans) and then headed back to the stadium for the opening pitch. It was an exciting game, with the Jays scoring 6 runs in the first inning, and going on to win 13-7.

Another really cool and random thing happened while in Seattle. Tia, a friend of Jer and I from Laurier was in Seattle as well, so we connected and watched the game together. It's always nice to see a familiar face in a new city. We traded stories about our most recent adventures and snapped a few pics as per usual.

We got back to the RV fairly late and after some interesting encounters on the city bus we played some President (it's been our go-to card game) and then hit the hay. Now we have a bunch of long hauls ahead. The long journey home has begun.

Officially homeward bound.

Cheers,The Boys
JG

BC's best kept Secret: Victoria.

On Monday we awoke quite literally at the crack of dawn to drive to the ferry terminal for the first departing cruise onto the island. We prefer to call our 1.5 hour ferry ride a cruise, because honestly, it was pretty easy going. Cubicles for laptop users offering free wifi are pretty enticing to the internet depraved traveler much like ourselves. Still, it is hard for us to stay put in these cubicles when the strong sent of the coffee shop or full breakfast buffet reaches our nostrils. I could really go on and on about our cruise, but really it served it's purpose when it brought us to Victoria- perks or no perks. Arriving at Schwartz Bay, we caught a bus that took us right into the city centre. We made our lunch stop at Subway, but not only did we enjoy a delicious meal. Along with chatting and story telling with the lovely staff, we armed ourselves with some gift cards to be used on the unsuspecting strangers we were sure to meet during our day in the beautiful city. Lately we have loved the invention of a gift card. Now that we are finally at the coast, and without any contacts to pave our way, it is purely up to us to do something of purpose (opposed to our previous stops that usually involved work projects made ready for us). Lately we have been making a push at this random acts of kindness scheme. Gift cards are perfect for several reasons. It avoids the awkward exchange of trying to hand someone cash, but still holds the same value. It sends the nice message that: we went out to buy this, with you, a perfect stranger in mind. We also enjoy the cards because we can bless a new homeless friend with a meal at a restaurant and avoid the offer of cash that could be alternatively used for who knows what.

Jer here for a sec. For part of the afternoon in Victoria, we rented scooters to cruise along the coast (a passion ignited back home, see our E-Scoot post which some of you hardcore readers may remember from our blog before it became The Open Road Project). It was a beautiful ride and these gas powered Honda's really did the trick. Much to our surprise, when we got down to the pier, we had some serious dejavu when we saw what appeared to be our RV parked by the water. Turns out, someone didn't steal our RV and ferry it to the island. Rather, a really sweet woman (also a lead singer of a local band) had the same make and model as us only just about three times more pristine. We got to see what our baby would look like if she wasn't all modified with new cupboards, new seats and a gutted bathroom. Anyway, we snapped a nice pic and then continued on our way.

Jamie again. After the scootering was said and done- we saw some more sights, met some rad fellow travellers, and then were spoiled with a fancy dinner. We were enticed by this illustrious place downtown called the Bard & Banker. With its recent 3 million dollar reno’s this Scottish pub is potentially the nicest of its kind in Victoria. It’s so nice we were surprised they didn’t have a dress code. This explains why when we walked in with our backward baseball caps, value village attire, wiry facial hair and massive hikers pack, we basically gave them no choice to walk us past the nice business meetings, men really trying to impress their new girlfriends, and other well dressed customers to sit us hidden away in the back corner. All in all it was a great meal and the 2 for 1 fish and chips deal that our server gave us really saved the bank. Our Day in Victoria was a good one, next it was off to Seattle to meet some friends and catch a Blue Jays game.

Cheers,The Boys

By Andrew.

Cheers,The Boys

VANcity

Yesterday was a huge day on the town. With our RV safely stowed at the Grandview Wal-Mart, we made our way to the train terminal to cruise into down town. From train to bus to other bus we made it into Stanley Park to visit the world famous Vancouver Aquarium. With intentions set on random acts of kindness- we brought along packs full of little treats to give to strangers. Gum, sweets and of course Goldfish Crackers (because seriously, what’s a better snack at the aquarium?)
We dished them out to families and tourist groups, and we generally got a positive response. We have come to realize that since in our world it is so unnatural to be nice to someone for no reason (which is what we wish to change if only slightly), there are things we can do to overcome the initial hesitation (or even sometimes opposition) and spawn good conversation, which at the end of the day is our true motive; to get people thinking. So after a day at the Aquarium, and when our packs were a little lighter, we departed Stanley Park and headed for downtown. We walked our way to the Olympic flame where we allowed a fellow tourist to take just an atrociously crooked photo of us and about ¾ of a Olympic monument (oh well).
Business continued as usual as we made our way to the Rogers Arena, Home of the Canucks. Unfortunately, John Legend was playing for a packed house which made our planned forced entry into the Vancouver dressing room more impossible than anticipated, none the less we did get a nice tour of the perimeter and good vibe of down town Vancouver. Beluga’s, dolphins and the sights of Vancouver made for a great day in the city. Then it was time to head back to our good friend Wally Martins place where we could set up lawn chairs and play some cards by the Coleman.

Cheers,The Boys

JG

Lake Country, BC: Home of Ogopogo

After our driving adventures through the mountains and a brief stop at Lake Louise, we made it to Lake Country B.C. home of Jamies mothers bridesmaids brother, Andy. Umm, yep, that is about as random as it gets. Our time with the Weathersons, who less than a week ago were complete strangers, was a huge blessing. They live in a cozy home in full view of Okonagan Lake (Home of Canada's favourite and most elusive sea monster Ogopogo. Also, we swear we saw him with those nice binoculars, it couldn't have just been a tin boat...)
Between all the wonderful food, laundry, showers and refreshing pool, it was very hard to leave the place. We got there on Wednesday night and enjoyed a nice dinner, met some of their kids (Luke and Lisa) and played some extreme boccee ball. Now as we all know, at all of our stops we like to get involved with the community. This time around, we were helping out with a VBS day camp that the Weathersons run at their church. Between the five of us we were running bouncy castles, making cement stepping stones to decorate, running group games and just hanging out with the kids. We had a great couple of days doing so and it was easy work for how much hospitality we were shown. We loved chatting with Andy. He's an interesting guy, who was a computer scientist right on the brink of our technological era (he invented some of the technology you are using right now!).

Since day camp only went until lunch, on Thursday we had an afternoon free. So, we replaced the beach balls, parachutes and screaming children with work gloves, tree trunks and a roaring log splitter. Andy's kind neighbout, Mr. Brian, needed some wood split as he heats his house with a wood furnace all winter. So we spent the afternoon helping him out. One thing we have learned is that it is hard to do a nice thing for someone without getting blessed in return. Mr. Brian ended up filling our tank with gas, and for that we are super thankful. We are also super thankful for Andy's mechanical abilities as he helped us fix the minor problems we were having with the RV. (minor problems Jer??...)Our stop in Lake Country would not have been complete without a brief stop at Jarome Iginlas place, to give him a card.

As we were leaving, we learned or at least remembered a great lesson. Some of the best encounters of a trip aren't planned, but rather fall right in your lap. After departing the Weatherson’s we were met by a particular section of the highway through the mountains that climbs for over 30 km. We love our RV, and we hate working her too hard, so as we climbed this stretch of highway, we found a rest stop to pull her over to giver her a break. Amidst the 18-wheelers at the "brake check" station we noticed two very full vehicles that were pulled off the highway. Watching from our mirror, we determined from the 10 litre jerry can that the first vehicle had run out of gas, and the second was just returning from town with some petrol. We watched as the friends from the car took out the tiny can and added it to the van. With a much larger jerry can of our own, and having literally just been given gas earlier that day, the opportunity was almost too obvious. We strolled over to determine that they did in fact run out of gas and then introduced ourselves and offered what we could. They were more than grateful! Big hugs were received from each and every one of them as we talked, and got to know somewhat of their tragic story. This group of friends from Vancouver were in Kelowna on rather unfortunate circumstances, only made worse by running out of gas on a long stretch of the highway. We were glad to help! After we told them about our trip and blog, we sent them off with a few bags of the chips. These spontaneous encounters are some of the most fulfilling, and we are thankful for them.

Now it is off to Vancouver. Thanks for reading!
(how did all those people fit into two cars?!)

Cheers, The Boys
Written By: JG & JE

W.A.L.T

Wilderness Adventure Learning Tour (or WALT) is a name for our trip that was given to us by Mr. Willms. While we decided to go with The Open Road Project®, the past few day of our trip could not have been more fitting for Mr. D Willms name. On Tuesday we drove through the mountains from Jasper to Lake Louise. This 4 hour drive was filled with some very neat, and very scary moments. In the short drive we: nearly hit a coyote crossing the road, stopped to snap some pictures of a black bear, and continued passed deer, mountain goats and gushing waterfalls. We saw the Athabasca Glacier from the RV, as we continued to putter into Banff. “Putter” is actually the correct word to use, and unfortunately also brings up one of our scarier moments. As we climbed the mountain roads, we can feel our dear girl going slower and slower, struggling to find the right gear to climb the hills even with (the transmission swap acting like a heart transplant). With the pedal to the floor, we could only hope. While climbing this hill, we were making quite a scene as the cars started to pile up behind us. At least she’s still driving... right?

Well, as we pull to the shoulder, to let the line of vehicles pass, suddenly the engine dies, our rig clearly mad at us for working her like a dog. Then we begin to roll backwards. Jer quickly tossed her into park and yanked the parking break and we all sat for a second. He then turned the key but alas, nothing happened. Battery’s dead. We are now stranded, helpless parked on a steep incline with nothing but our emergency break keeping us (and all of our belongings) from rolling down the mountainside, and essentially off the cliff.

(Now, I should mention that this battery issue is nothing new, for the past few days we have required a boost to get the engine firing, but today, parked vulnerably on a steep incline, on a mountainside road in jasper- the location was less than ideal.)

We hooked up the booster cables and Jer waved them at passers by. In no time we had a friendly man to our rescue. Rightfully so I suppose, he was slightly intimidated by the group of us, and justifiably asked if we would step away while he started his car (as if we were going to jump him). However, he did give us the juice we needed and wouldn’t even accept any cash as a thank you.

Jer here now. The morning after this escapade, we woke up at our camp site (this time our refuge was a rest stop off the Trans Can) and it was time for another adventure. How about no brakes? We were in the middle of no where, in the mountains no less, with barely any brakes and no sign of a gas station for some more fluid. Thank goodness I have years of experience with my Jetta (R.I.P) and leaky brake lines. Don't worry mothers, we ended up finding some brake fluid tucked away after about an hour of driving.

We’re now back on the road, with yet another interesting experience behind us.

Canada is beautiful.

Naming this post reminded us of several other names we have heard people say when asking about our trip:

• The Magic Tour Bus Across Canada Trip

• The Great Canadian Odyssey Trip

• The Hippy Wagon Boys Trip

• The You Won't Make It Past Grimsby Trip

• The Travelling Nice Guys Trip

• The Five Intrepid Adventurers Trip

• Sammy and the Shifty Boys

• and many many more that just will not come to my noggin at the moment.

Anyways, we remain thankful that we are safe. We are also starting to think that we are invincible. Probably not a good thing.

Cheers,The Boys