More Than A Feeling

One of the main reasons we wanted to go through the States was to see the city of Boston. When Lily pulled into town, we drove around to get a feel for the city. Well, we drove around looking for a parking space, but due to Harvard convocation, the streets were packed. So instead we got to use a quarter tank of gas, in traffic, looking out the window. Although this sounds annoying, we love watching people check out Lily, and we're always happy to be in good company with each other.

What was incredibly surprising to us was the number of post-secondary learning institutions in Boston. As we looked at our map, nearly every block had a school.

We couldn't have picked a better day to check out Harvard since most building were open due to the graduation ceremonies.

We felt like the classy members of society that we are when we used the ritzy facilities and drank Harvard water, supposedly the best water in all the land. Naturally, security caught up with us and asked us what we were doing. Since campus tours weren't being offered, we were asked to leave the premises. We did have a nice time at Harvard though, ask one of us about it in person sometime.

This was when Jordan, Dylan and I remembered that we have some friends who go to school in Boston, and they would still be around since they are varsity rowers. We called up Ryan and Steve, and caught them just as they were about to go out to practice. What luck! They told us when practice would be over and where to meet them. After using some free Dunkin Doughnuts WIFI, we headed to their residence and waited.

It wasn't long before we were greeted by our friends. It was awesome to see them in the city they have called home for the past few years. We also met their rowing buddies, and we all looked puny in comparison to these dudes. Colossal human specimens these guys are. Since it was around dinner time, we all went to the cafeteria and had an experience none of us were prepared for.

Not only were we in America, but we were with varsity rowers. We were informed that the meal cards we were given allowed us to eat unlimited everything. We were shown what it means to eat.

We're talking: fine sandwiches, gourmet pizza, burgers, stir fry, chicken fingers, sushi, MILK!!!, juice, soda pop, CHOCOLATE MILK!!, waffles, ice cream, COFFEE!

This list is by no means complete, and we delighted in the largest smorgasbord we have ever experienced.  We were also super thankful for their generosity, as they had to scrounge some extra cards for us.

We had a bed to sleep in!

We had showers!

We even chopped Dylan's flow into a mullet!

Ryan has one of the best mullets man has ever seen, and it was magical seeing someone with a mullet give another person a mullet. These guys took good care of us.

The next day we woke up and did some touring of the town while the guys were at practice. We saw a free organ concert at an old church, checked out the market and hung out by the famous reflecting pool.

We did some more touring and catching up when Steve and Ry finished practice. We also ate some more meals at the caf. We definitely left the city weighing more. Boston is a great place and it was so nice to see these dudes. Both parties to got a little taste of home, something we all were happy to have.

As the trip was winding down, we decided that we still had time to hit NYC, so we began the last leg of the journey that night!

The You Ehs of Eh.

Once we left Peticodiac it was time to embrace the last leg of our jouney. We knew that this part of the adventure would likely contain the most uncertainty, namely due to the always entertaining border crossing.

Our drive through the last bit of Canada was smooth and we had a nice McDonalds meal with a hitchhiker we picked up. We were very confused by our first interactions with this man, but quickly realized that he was deaf. It was cool conversing by writing back and forth, and showing each other maps on our iPhone to find out where he wanted to go. He was an interesting guy to say the least, and we left him some money for a hearing-eye dog. Yes, that is an actual thing, he had pledge papers and everything.

When we arrived at the border, there were no other patrons, so we knew they were going to have fun with us. Lily is a serious hippy-mobile and, especially with me on board, we're a bunch of hippies.  They asked us if we had any drugs on board more times than I can count, and even told us they were bringing in the dogs. I was excited to see them snoop around in there, but as it turns out, we called their bluff and no pups came sniffing. After we each had an airport style body search and a lot more questioning, we were happily on our way into the land of Dunkin Doughnuts and cheap petrol.

As we ventured into the unknown, we were surprised by some of the poverty we passed through in the northeastern states. You could tell that a lot of the towns we passed through had been abandoned ever since the factories left, and it was sort of eerie.

Despite the odd aura, Lily was happy to be drinking American gas and we were just as happy to be drinking classic nasty American coffee shop Joe.

After it started to rain, we picked up a really cool dude who doing a bike trip to various historic sites in the area.  I'm glad we stopped because although usually bikers are riding for a reason, this guy was really grateful we stopped. He also had some awesome stories. Just that morning he had been visiting hermits out in the wilderness. It was awesome for us to hear about how these hermits lived, and I totally forgot that such people actually existed. He told us about their life styles and attitudes and some of their stories. He also hadn't eaten since he shared some cornmeal, water and salt with one of the hermits that morning. The way he was describing this meal was even nastier than it sounds in writing, and we weren't surprised when he told us he couldn't keep it down. This gave us the chance to share a meal with him which was awesome. While we were in the grocery store, the folks must have felt pity on us since they tossed us a free BBQ chicken which was perfect for sharing!

Our coolest memory of our time with this humble, simple fellow was when he took us to he secret fishing spot deep in the woods. Since the alewives were spawning, there was a spot where the current would swirl the fish around and you could catch the little guys with your bare hands. Sadly, when we got there, the fish had left for the day, but we still had a sweet hike and saw some neat wildlife along the way.

We said farewell to our new friend and kept on towards our next destination, Boston Massachusetts. 

National Parks

On our way out of Canada, we stopped at the Bay of Fundy National Park and Rocks National Park. What would an Open Road adventure be without taking some time to enjoy the great outdoors? We spent the night parked outside of the gates of Rocks National Park, and cooked a delicious meal in the moonlight. We may have snuck into the park after dark to get an up close look at the flower pot rocks, but we won't post photo evidence of such activities on this public blog.

It was a beautiful and relaxing time.

Ten Thousand Adventures

Before we hit the road a few weeks ago, Jordan had been proactive in sending emails to people out east who might need a hand. He was able to find a good hook up with the Ten Thousand Villages store in Peticodiac New Brunswick.

If you are unfamiliar with Ten Thousand Villages, they are an organization that specializes in selling fair trade goods made by disadvantaged artisans. The products they sell are made by over 120 different people groups in 38 countries worldwide. Their Wikipedia page has some great info if you wanna learn more about this win-win-win organization.

The location in Peticodiac is special because it is not just a retail store, but also the warehouse that sends goods to all east coast locations. When we arrived, we were shown around, and learned quickly that it was a seriously slick operation. Mostly “pop-up stores” are sent to cities on the east coast, so we saw how they set these up and even helped build and stain some wooden jewelry displays

The people that are in charge of operations are given an apartment above the store and the cabinets needed painting, so we got to it. The work was a little tedious since all handles had to be removed and each section needed to be sanded, but we were happy to do it so someone else wouldn't have to. We also took up an old tile floor that was going to be replaced.

The time we spent there there flew by, especially due to the breaks we spent slurping fair trade coffee and chatting with the one worker Sarah.

When we went to lunch at Subway down the street, we passed a house where a man was doing some yard work. On our way back, Dylan and I stopped to see if he needed a hand. Sadly, he was almost done and could have used our help an hour earlier, but, we did help him with the last of the leaves and had a great chat with him. Bob McGrath heats his house with firewood and taught us all about how to stack wood properly. We also chatted about lifes adventures and he now drives tour bus part time in his retirement. We got to meet his wife and daughter and ended up trading a jar of homemade jam for a bottle of homemade wine plus the most delicious cookies that have graced our taste buds in years.

So Peticodiac NB turned out to be one of those towns that you would never expect to be so neat. From here we were headed to Fundy National Park to witness some classic east coast beauty.

Hanging out with some dudes in a metal band we met.

The Arborist

While we were chatting at our Victoria Day bonfire, Dan’s dad asked us if we had plans for the morning. He was in luck, because well, we hardly ever have plans. He is an arborist and had a tree that was cut up and in need of relocation. Easy peasy.

We woke up early, enjoyed some delicious coffee from a percolator, and headed over to the job site. If you haven't had percolated coffee in a tin, stovetop percolator, you really need to percolate some up, as the percolating is pleasant for the palate.

Anyway, there is an old German saying, 'viele hande macht schnelle ende!' which translates (with less rhyme) to 'many hands make light work.' It’s also likely that you have heard this saying, but it’s fun to pretend like I’m sharing wisdom. We had the whole tree in the trailer in a matter of minutes, and we were rewarded with some made in Sackville ginger snaps. They were delicious and the box was gone rather quickly.

This was also a cool job, because the tree was on the property of a small museum, and we were given an exclusive early morning tour. There was a really neat old book collection and some great models of what the town used to look like. History is cool, I promise.

After we had looked around, we took the wood from the museum to a farm just outside of town. But this isn’t your ordinary farm, no sir, this is a very interesting new project that some passionate folks are starting. Although in its infancy, the goal is to have people who have varying degrees of autism live on the farm.  These folks will learn to cultivate the land and live in community together. It was a fascinating project for us to hear about and it was encouraging to see an idea that looks to integrate, rather than segregate. It was also nice that since we helped with the job, the farm wasn't charged any money! Win-win-win, love when that happens.

Once we finished stacking the wood, it was time to say goodbye to Sackville. What a great town! Big thanks to everyone who welcomed us with open arms! It was also nice that it was only about 10:00 and we had already had a productive morning filled with learning and labour. Usually at 10, we would be just starting the day…

Also, just as a side note, The Arborist would make a cool band name, so dibs.

Lobstie Candids

Jer, Dyl, Calv, Jord

Calvin sees a big one!

The Legendary Lobster.

On The Farm

Here are some pictures from our time at Nature's Route Farm. Click to enlarge!

The road we started to build.

Dan rocking the tractor.

Wide Stance.

Incoming!

Nature's Route

Once the weekend was over, we started to head back towards home, which is always an odd thing. It was also comforting somehow, since it felt like we had been on the road for well over a week, so we knew there were many adventures to be had.

There was however, one elephant in the room that Dylan made sure to bring to our attention: we had to go back through New Brunswick. Our experience the first time around was rainy and uneventful, but I knew that the province just had to have something to offer us.

Blair had told us about this farm near his hometown and he had a friend who worked there. He told us to give Dan a call, since the extra hands are always nice. So we called Dan from 'Nature's Route Farm,' looking to finally do some labour for someone who needed a hand (Remember, when we were in PEI farmer MacDonald didn't need us at his slick potato operation and told us to enjoy the island. We were starting to feel pretty lazy).

A very chipper Dan answered the phone and gave us directions, "Pass the cattle ranch and then it's the farm with the white mailbox out front!" By now we were getting used to the directions that are given out, and we rolled into the long driveway just a few minutes later.

When we arrived, Dan was very excited to meet us and our RV felt right at home on the quaint farm lot. The farm is run by a couple (who lives on property) and Dan is the only employee. There was plenty to do, especially as the season is just starting.

To start, Dylan and I were prepping the onion seedlings to be planted, because the weather was supposed to be perfect for getting them in the ground. While this was going on, Jordan and Calvin were busy moving rocks that had been churned up during the installation of the new irrigation system.

By the time Dylan and I finished, the weather had changed and we wouldn't be able to plant today. It was neat learning about all of the different factors that effect how crops grow, and I can imagine it would be frustrating waiting for the unpredictable weather to be just right.

So for the rest of the afternoon, we all hauled rocks with Dan. Just as a side note, this guy was a machine. It was clear that he was not only good at what he does but has a passion for it as well.

The rocks that we picked and dug up were taken down to where the irrigation pond is, and we started to fashion a road with them. This reminded me of how annoying it would have been to build cobblestone roads back in the day, but it was very neat to see it take shape. It takes a lot of rocks!

Since we arrived at the farm in the middle of the afternoon, before we knew it, it was time for dinner. We were graciously invited to have dinner at the house. Our excitement peaked for one main reason: we were on a vegetable farm.  The stir fry was by far the most nutritional meal we had eaten in days. The veggies were delicious and the rhubarb crisp we had for dessert was absolutely top notch.

After dinner, Dan invited us to his place to a bonfire. This was perfect as we were looking for a nice way to spend Victoria Day. We knew all our friends would be back home at the Virgil Stampede enjoying fireworks, so it was nice that we could have a big fire and meet some great folks from Sackville. We played guitar, ate smores & candy and it was overall a great time.

Although he was still skeptical right until the very end of the day, Dylan's opinion of the province was finally redeemed when a  bunch of folks went for a midnight dip in Silver Lake. Apparently, the cold water was invigorating.

Oh, and don't worry mom, we got to shower at Dan's house after working all day.

Shower Count: 3 in 10 days. Not bad, not bad at all.

Pics to come.

Sailing on the Bluenose

When we woke up Sunday morning, we went to check out this church, Deep Water, which met in the local movie theatre. A few more small world moments occured during the walk over. As we were walking down the busy street, we heard someone say from behind us, "Excuse me, are you guys The Open Road Project?" Well that felt pretty cool. It was Keira! (Blair's friend who had offered to make us dinner while we were in Halifax) She remembered our faces from this here blog, so it was really neat that we were crossing paths and got to meet! She was running some errands, but we made dinner plans and then found the theatre. That was when we randomly saw Jenni, a girl who went to high school with Dylan, Jordan and I. We had planned on meeting up, but due to our lack of internet connection, hadn't set anything up. Somehow everything always works out!

After church, we decided to take a day trip to Lunenburg to visit the beloved Bluenose. For our readers who aren't Canadian (or who could care less about history), the Bluenose is the ship that is stamped onto every Candian 10 cent coin.

Although our visit to Lunenburg was not incredibly eventful, our experiences with the hitchhikers we picked up during the hour-long drive were enough to make the trip worthwhile. First we picked up Andre, a sweet dude who had just moved to Lunenburg. He ended up being our tour guide and although he hadn't lived there long, he showed us everything worth seeing. We went to the Bluenose, which was currently being restored and living under a giant dome. It would have been nice to board the ship or see it in the water, but we quickly realized that none of our adventurous plans for sailing on the Bluenose would become a reality. Then we checked out a wooden boat builders shop, which was neat to see, especially for Calvin who builds wooden boats himself.

Soon after Andre came aboard, we picked up another hitcher, Brad. He was without a doubt the most interesting person we met during our two week trip. We had an awesome time listening to his stories and philosophies. He left us with two things, the first being a four day supply of the seaweed that sustains him in an old ziploc freezer bag, the second being a challenge to turn Lily into a solar/ pedal powered vehicle.

We also met a lovely lady, Susan, at a small cafe on the main drag. Since she was closing up, and told us she had about two hours of close up to do, we offered to help her tidy the shop and do the dishes. However to our dismay, the only thing she let us do was have a free coffee and the best peanut butter nanaimo bars known to mankind. She said that was the way we could help her recover from a bad day, so how could we refuse? Thanks so much for your kindness Susan!

Next time you find yourself in Lunenburg, check it out!

We made it back to Halifax in time to have a lovely dinner with our new friend Keira whom we had met only that morning. Dinner was on the table, wow. Sometimes I feel like people are more kind to us than we are to them. That's also why I love the road so much, there are so many things we can learn from the people around us if we just take the time and effort to ask questions and get to know people.

We had a great night with Keira and her friend Pam who dropped in later to meet the "dudes from Ontario." Although we didn't make it any further east than Halifax, we were more than happy with the outcome.

So after our relaxing long weekend, we all felt it was time to break a sweat and get some work done.

Dylan doing what he does.

Halifax: The City of Dreams

While Halifax isn't actually the city of dreams (it's actually the City of Trees), the slogans of many of the small towns we passed during our journey were at least that bad. It was most entertaining reading these slogans and wondering who came up with them and how they were allowed to do so. So Calvin coined the term "The City of Dreams" as we passed town upon town.

When we arrived in the coastal city (also the largest in Atlantic Canada) it was already pretty late, so we found a nice church lot to sleep in. Across the way was a gas station which had bathrooms. Notice I don't say nice bathrooms, but we have seen much worse. However, before we found our lot, we were mistaken for a city bus, and found ourselves with an extra passenger. We then transformed into "Lily's Taxi Service" (a non-profit transportation organization), took our guest home and played some basketball in the student ghetto near Dalhousie University.

We woke up to a beautiful day, and spent the long weekend Saturday walking around the pier, the city and the historic citadel. One of our friends Sarah is living in Halifax and she showed us around. We also had a lot of fun re-distributing the moneys we had made while playing music in Ottawa. There were plenty of great musicians who were much more deserving of those twonies and loonies than we were.

At the end of the day, we went back to where we were parked by the water, and noticed that the wooden ship we had seen cruising the harbour was now parked in the dock adjacent to the RV. Naturally we wanted a tour of the beautiful ship, so we offered the crew a tour of Lily for a tour of the boat. They took the bait.

After checking out the 65 year old ship (which had crossed the ocean many times and at one point even had a cheetah and monkey living aboard), we ended up chatting with a sweet dude, T, from South Africa who was a crew member. He told us all kinds of crazy stories of his friends who had been attacked by sharks, sting rays and moray eels as they surfed and sailed the 7 seas. If we ever are in need of some extra dangerous adventures, we now know who to call.

Right before we went to sleep, we were all journalling pier side under the moon with our oil lamp. Suddenly a hand grabbed my shoulder. I swung around, and by golly, wouldn't you know it, it was Blair! Our friend who is living in PEI but from New Brunswick had landed up in Halifax with his girlfriend and noticed us by the water! We told him about the last couple of days, and he hooked us up with his friend Keira for dinner the next night. He also gave us more information for some people to hang with near his hometown of Sackville, NB.

It's a small world when you're on the road, and we love that.

P.S. Pictures to come.

The Hub of Nova Scotia

For anyone who has been to the east coast of Canada, they would know that one must pass through Truro, Nova Scotia to get to the rest of the province. We had not planned on spending much time there, but remember, spontaneity brings out the best stories.

After we left our friend Blair in PEI, he told us about an Aikido Master, Andrew who lived in Truro and that we should go and check out his dojo. We were curious about Aikido, so we asked Blair a little more about it. Let me tell you, it sounded like something worth checking out.

Aikido was founded by a Japanese man named Morihei Ueshiba who had a goal to create an art that people would use to defend themselves, while also protecting their attacker from injury. So for a bunch of guys who are pretty against the whole violence thing this world uses so much, this sounded like something cool to check out.

When we got to Truro, we went to the dojo, but no one was there. Blast. Next door was a hockey card shop, so we went in and asked if we could use the phone to call the numbers on the dojo window. After chatting to the kind shopkeep for a while, we asked if he had anything for us to do around his shop. He said he didn't, so we searched for a hockey card to buy as a memento. Since we couldn't agree on a player epic enough, the owner offered us a Gretzky card that we could just have! We thanked him and thought of what we could do for the rest of the afternoon while we waited for someone to show up at the dojo. Word on the street was that someone would be around at 6:30...

We passed a grocery store, and figured it was time to utilize the barbecue we had been carrying around with us. After picking up a bunch of hot dogs, buns and condiments, we went to Victoria Park, hoping there would be some folks around for a free barbecue.

The Master Chef himself!

Between the skate park, tennis courts, playground and general path traffic, we had an awesome time hanging out with the lovely people of Truro. We played basketball, had some music going and obviously enjoyed food together. A bunch of kids came from the skate park, and showed us some crazy tricks including front flipping 7 of us lying in a row.

It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon and another exciting moment was when our friends from the Truro Police Department showed up.  They asked us if we were "offering food to children" as they had received some calls. We had a great chat about what we were up to and they gladly let us proceed with our little party (and even signed our guest book!).

Wanna race?

We ended up back at the dojo for 6:30, not knowing what to expect. Looking for Sensei Andrew, we walked into the dojo and met one of his top students Shane. We told him what we were up to, and who sent us (Blair). We then proceeded to get a lesson in Aikido and started to learn more about its roots and philosophies.

After learning some hardcore rolling techniques, Sensei Andrew came through the door and greeted us with the most firm handshake any of us have ever experienced in our lives. He then demonstrated high level Aikido with Shane and it. was. awesome. As he subdued his fake enemy, he showed us how at any moment he could toss a powerful knee to the stomach, elbow to the face or even break an arm. It was fascinating that the art was about bringing the opponent peacefully down to the ground with no injury.

Here's a little blurb from wikipedia, "The term aiki (as in AIKIdo duh) refers to the martial arts principle or tactic of blending with an attacker's movements for the purpose of controlling their actions with minimal effort." And that's exactly what it looked like during their demonstratoin. It was so much easier to control the attacker than it was to just hit them back. It was very refreshing.

After the demonstration we chatted for almost an hour in the dojo about our trip, the world and our place in it. I could go on for a while about it, but will leave you with the quote that Sensei Andrew left in our guest book. 

"Life is a daring risk, or nothing at all." -Helen Keller

There is a lot of truth to that statement and think about what it would mean for a woman like Helen to say that! I guess I would encourage us all to take more risks in life, as I have found that the best stories and moments in life show themselves when there is something on the line.

Dylan, Jeremy, Shane, Sensei Andrew, Jordan, Calvin

If you want to learn more about Aikido, which I recommend, click here.

So Truro was unexpectedly awesome. Oh the joys of being on the road!

Pinchy

Once upon a time, four adventurous adventurers were on an adventure. Their travels brought them to a Lobster Shoppe, said to be the best shoppe in all the world. Since they were in the Land of the Lobster, or should I say, the Island of the Lobster, it was quite necessary to have the cultural experience of cracking open such a crustacean and enjoy the fresh ocean flavour.

Although they had not yet consumed breakfast, nor had hardly woken from their slumber from the previous night, there was one thing they had yet to accomplish before they left the island: to suckle on the delicious nectar and soft meat of an Atlantic lobster.

As they entered the shop, they were greeted by a lovely shopkeeper and a 19 pound MONSTER stuffed lobster, said to be the grandfather of all Atlantic lobsters. This beast had ruled the Atlantic since prehistoric times and had now found a home on the wall, after losing a week long battle with the most skilled fisherman in all the land in the early 18^th century.

Getting back to the story, the four asked for the largest lobster that the Atlantic was currently offering. The shopkeeps eyes widened and her expression was matched with four faces that meant business.

She went into the back room and after what sounded like a struggle, she opened the door and presented them with Pinchy.  This Ferrari red sea dweller was the alpha male in direct lineage with the monster from the wall, and this pleased the adventurers.

They plopped him down on the table in their epic vehicle of recreation and hauled out the tool box.

Within minutes, Pinchy’s limbs were strewn about and his innards spread across the table. Each man wielded a different instrument be it scissors, a hammer or a screwdriver. With each crack of the shell, savory juices squirted in every direction. As the adventurers chomped into the fresh flesh, they discovered Pinchy’s last meal in his stomach, and the stench proved that digestion was in process upon the time capture. The meaty claws and tail provided the four with enough nourishment to last them a week, and they were very satisfied.

Not a piece of meat was wasted, and in the end, the torso of Pinchy was the only part left in tact. After an intensive clean up of the juices and cracked shell strewn about the vehicle, it was time to give Pinchy a proper burial.

As the four men left the Island of the Lobster, they hucked his remains over the largest bridge in the world and into the ocean where he once dwelled. To this day, his remains make up a part of each Atlantic Lobster and his lineage and legacy remains.

What We Found in PEI

Very quickly we found out that Prince Edward is not with us anymore. He passed away on a cold winters eve in 1820.

However, we did meet some fantastic folks while hanging out in Charlottetown. Right after we parked our vehicle downtown, we walked through this nice little courtyard area with old buildings all around. We also noticed a few photographers and asked them what was going on. We were then informed that we were at the provincial parliament buildings and that legislation was just getting out. Then the nice lady let us know that the Premier of the province was right behind us!

We turned and he came to greet us.  With the polished grace and elegance of a young charismatic politician, he welcomed us to his province, asked us where we were from, shook our hands, told us not to drink too much, and if we did, he suggested that we park our RV close to the bar and not drive till the morning. This was also after farmer MacDonald told us that if we ended up in jail, he would bail us out. I guess it's fairly customary to have a good time (or too good a time) on the island.

We wandered down to the port and found the distribution center (retail store) for the world's supply of the famed DIRT SHIRTS.  These reddish-brown cotton garments are a true classic for any tourist visiting PEI, but since we try to refrain from most touristy activities, we saved our money for a nice dinner.  We set up the basketball net close to the water and started to play. This was when we started to meet the locals.

Among the many folks who came to chat and play ball, was a guy named Blair. This was the right guy to find. We ended up chatting for a while, and since he had nothing to do that night, went out for dinner with him. We quickly found out that Blair was the gateway to Atlantic Canada. Since he was from New Brunswick, living in PEI, with friends in Nova Scotia, he really helped us plan out the last week of our trip. He told us people to see and places that would need help, and even paid for part of our meal.

Feeling refreshed from our relaxing time on the island, we headed back to the cottage to sleep, excited for the adventures to come.

P.S. Our quest for McLobsters has been unsuccessful thus far...

Finding Prince Edward

Since New Brunswick had been a pretty serious bust, we decided to make the couple hours drive to Prince Edward Island that same day. Jordan remembered that his mom had a friend in PEI, and decided to give her a call. Needless to say, by the time we reached Confederation Bridge (rumoured among most Canadians to be the longest bridge in the world) Jordan's mom called back with some great news.

We seriously hit the jackpot, thanks to the Mackay's farmer MacDonald for letting us stay at their ocean side cottage while we were on the island. Talk about Atlantic Canadian hospitality! Our directions were as follows: "Turn left off the bridge, then you're gonna wanna head down the road until it turns to red dirt, then it's the blue cottage on the ocean."

When we arrived, we were ecstatic. We had such a beautiful place to ourselves and were very excited to meet farmer MacDonald in the morning.

After a great night chatting and a quick dip in the brisk ocean, we went to bed to prepare for the inevitable island exploration that would take place the next day.

Last year when we were passing through Thunder Bay, we picked up a hitchhiker who claimed to be the original Bob the Builder. So naturally we were very happy to meet another childhood hero, Old MacDonald who had a farm, this year.

When we woke up, farmer MacDonald gave us a warm island greeting and we asked him if we could help him on his potato farm. First of all, what a great man. He was so cheerful and welcoming and he made us feel right at home. After we chatted about our adventures, our occupations and our hobbies, he basically told us that it was a cold day and that we shouldn't have to work today. We should just enjoy our time on the island and eat lobster.

Wait what? Do nothing and just live in this beautiful cottage?

A few times now, people have shown so much kindness towards us that our best response is just to accept. So feeling blessed, we headed to Charlottetown, in search of the Prince.

The Drive Through Province

 Upon speaking with a certain number of individuals, we found out that New Brunswick is often referred to as the drive through province. AKA there is nothing to do there. When we entered the province, we spent the night in a parking lot and Jordan woke up nice and early to take us into Fredericton.  I guess our impression of the province wasn’t improved with the rain that was obstructing the fun times we were looking to have.

Our drive into the city however also provided us with our first set of hitchhikers.  The Open Road Project Rules and Regulations state in Chapter 4 Section 2 that, achem, “Every person and or persons and or living creature travelling with said person or persons looking for a ride on any set of 400 series, Trans Canada Series or any other series navigatable roadways must be offered a ride at least as far as the next planned destination.”

When we saw our two rainy friends hanging out by the side of the road, dripping wet with a dog, we almost looked for a loophole in the system. However, we quite enjoyed chatting with them, and the small dog was very well behaved. We also found it odd that they were the first hitchers we had seen thus far. We dropped them off and they gave us directions into the city.

Thanks to a kind receptionist at St. Thomas University, we were able to sneak into the showers without a student card or the $3 squash fee. That was a nice shower. Living on the road really shows you how unnecessary it is to shower everyday and to wash clothes after you wear have only worn them once. I mean heck, even socks and underwear can be recycled over and over. Just ask Dylan.

We gave Fredericton one last chance by walking down the main drag. We found a cool music store, but that was about it. In our travels we also talked to a few people who said that Fredericton was better than Moncton, automatically knocking that city off of our places to stop…

Nervous breakdown, Fredericton style.

There were 14 minutes on the parking meter when we arrived. More than enough time to see the town.

Next stop, the Prince's Island.

Mission Impossible

After Monreal, we nursed Lily to Quebec City and finally decided that it was time to get our little issue fixed so that she could run at full bore. So after going to a few differnt shops where no one spoke english, we ended up at a Canadian Tire, where our new friend Regene took great care of us. During this time, we found a church down the street that had a few things for us to do. We met some sweet people who, after we raked the grass and put up some freshly painted ceiling tiles, took us for an unreal lunch at Chez Ashton, arguably the best poutine place in Quebec. Once we said goodbye to these great folks we headed into the Old City in search of adventure.

Needless to say, when The Open Road Project looks for adventure, it presents itself. After we randomly saw two great folks we had met when jamming outside of Parliament, we started to tour the city. The rain that began to fall sort of put a damper on the afternoon but we didn't let that stop us from exploring. Our search for shelter then led us to the front lobby of the Chateau Frontenac.

 

If you don't know about this beautiful hotel, it's the ritz-de-la-ritz in Quebec, so it was awesome walking in there, soaking wet, unshowered and unkempt. For a while we pretended like we belonged, speaking in english accents to eachother while getting plenty of stares from the actual patrons of the place.

That was when we found the elevator.

The first elevator took us to the 6th floor, and when we got out, Calvin joked that we were going to get to the top, which was when the mission began. We found another elevator which took us up to the 17th floor and we were pretty stoked about rocking up on the penthouse. This was when we found an industrial stairwell. We took this up to a secret 18th floor and looked out the window over the city and the St. Lawrence river. This was when a maintenance man came out from the woodworks and we thought we were busted. "Well boys, it has been a good run," I thought to myself. Then as a last hope, I asked him if he had the keys to get higher.

When he said that he didn't we knew he probably did, but completely understood the situation, and it would sort of go against our whole kindness thing to get someone fired. However since he didn't kick us out, we continued to look out the window over the cloudy, rainy city and take some pictures.

Right as we were about to leave, we heard from behind us, "Pssttt!"

Our friend was shaking his keys smiling :) As he warned us about the security cameras nearby, we snuck along the walls and entered the locked door into the catacombs of the historic building. We could hardly contain our excitement as we ducked along this 5 foot corridor that led to a ladder that shot straight up into the dark. We were doing it.

After we got to this floor, we danced around, high fived and looked out of the small vents that overlooked the city. That was when our tour guide pointed to yet another ladder that shot up once again. We hadn't seen it until he pointed out, and even when we thought we couldn't get more excited we climbed this one to where the roof comes to it's final point. We had done it. On all of the walls were signatures of the workers who had made it to the highest point. We asked if we could sign our names and write The Open Road Project, and we were granted permission!

This was when our man showed us ONE LAST LADDER, which had a port hole at the very top. We each got to climb and lift off the heavy cover and poke our head out over the beautiful city. It was an incredible experience. We're sure few people can say they have stuck their head out of the gabel of Le Chateau Frontenac.

After we came down from our high, and snuck back past the cameras, we asked him to sign our guest book. (This was also after he let us out onto the scaffolding where he was working for another view)

So this post is a huge shout out to "Dan from the top!" as he wrote. We are super thankful for your kindness and risk-taking and now have a memory we will never forget!

Moe-Ray-Al. The City of Moe Ray and Al

Hey, Jordan here! Once Ottawa was behind us, we headed to Montreal, still travelling at a max. speed of 60km/h.  We ended up in the back parking lot of Bethel Baptist Church for a good sleep, about 20 minutes from downtown Montreal.  

When we woke up, the people heading into church were staring at the RV, obviously wondering what could possibly be contained inside. When four nicely dressed, civilized, slick, respectable young men came out of the hippymobile, people were pleasantly surprised and we were warmly welcomed. I guess we clean up nice.

We met some great people and were secretly hoping that someone would take us in for a nice mothers day lunch. That was when we met Irene. As we were discussing amongst ourselves about how we should ask if we could use the church kitchen to cook our lunch, Irene asked us if we wanted to come to her place for a bite to eat.  Instant answer to prayer!  Irene is a wonderful lady, so wonderful in fact, that she drives folks to and from church, gives meals to strangers like us, and even lets those strangers use her shower!

Irene invited a man from church named Constant, his wife, and their friend's three-year-old child, Oulda to lunch with us. Constant and his wife came to Canada 8 months ago from West Africa.  He studied computer science and has been working in IT for over 20 years now. Currently they are waiting for their three children to be approved to come to Canada.

We had some awesome conversations with Constant, his wisdom was much appreciated. He does translating at the Church, so his English is very good and I taught him some guitar.  Oulda had an awesome time playing with Dylan and when she attempted to teach him french, it proved to be quite comical, as almost all of Dylan's responses were: "Je ne sais pas!"

Irene was so happy at how friendly a bunch of young 20 year-olds were, and how much we wanted to talk.  I hope we made her mothers day a little extra special.

After our much needed showers, we said our "au-revoirs" and headed downtown to visit our friends Emily and Katie.

The hills in Montreal proved to be just gradual enough for Lily in her weakened state and she pulled through when we needed her most.  We met Emily and Katie at their church, Initiative 22, just after 6 o'clock.  The service was great: Dwight's message, the worship, and I personally found the communion to be a very centering time of reflection.  The church is right downtown in a retail space and just started in September, their focus on the gospel, community, and mission was inspiring work.

We then headed to 1900 Tupper, Emily and Katie's place, for a meal. Their beautiful 4th floor apartment proved to be a great spot to relax.  Jer, Dylan, and myself know Emily from High School, and Calvin and Jer know Kinsey (Emily and Katie's roommate who was out of town) from Camp Mini-Yo-We, no one knew Katie, but we got to know her. Great conversation, delicious spaghetti prepared by Katie, and a Skype conversation with Kinsey completed our evening.  Check out their blog here.

Now it's off to Quebec City!

- Jordan

The Nations Capital

Sorry for slacking in regards to posting, we have been really busy for the past few days. As we look back at what we have done thus far, it’s hard to believe we only left on Friday!

After we rolled out of Kingston, we ran into some small motor troubles which slowed our vehicle to a max speed of 60-70km. (We just fixed the RV in Quebec City and found that our problem was no ones fault, but it’s cool to now see how our slow down helped us to meet a lot of really cool people) We made the slow trek to Ottawa and arrived in our nations capital in the early afternoon.

We have had a running joke that Lily demands respect wherever she goes, and that she will receive it. As we drove along the Rideau Canal with our vuvuzela honking out the window, she was getting some serious respect. It’s actually one of our favourite things turning heads and making people smile while driving this rig around. As we pulled in front of the parliament buildings, we parked in the most prime parking spot available, usually exclusive to tour busses. Once we took a survey of the area, we started to unpack our magical music closet and make sweet music for the masses. 

Since we all know something about music, we chose to pack our magical closet with musical instruments. As the afternoon wore on, we jammed with people who were passing with instruments and chatted with others about where we were from and what we were up to.

After playing songs for about an hour, Jordan had the wonderful idea to rock only percussion and get some real funky beats bouncing around Parliament.We brought a huge bag of shakers, tambourines and other percussive instruments, placed them out front and invited people to jam with us. We also have a snare drum, cajon (box drum) and a djembe with us so needless to say we were rocking.

This is when the real fun started to happen. As the sounds of our drums reverberated off of the buildings, kids and adults of all ages came out and grabbed instruments and jammed with us. This was also when the change started rolling into our guitar case. By the end of it all, we had an amazing time and had made a tasty $62.24. This cash will be used to buy coffees and other small things for people that we meet.

All in all, we had a very successful stop in Ottawa, and even though we didn’t take a tour, swim in the Rideau or talk to our buddy Stephen, we had a fantastic time.

On our way out, we had a wonderful dinner with Dylans friend from school Amelioooooo Johnston. It was a great lasagna, and we are again so thankful for all the hospitality that we have been shown. Next stop, Montreal!

Jeremy

Help...

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!