And Then We Were Gone

[Archimedes]

On two BMW's with a food budget of 5 bucks a day for both of us we started in Vancouver and headed North, our intended destination....South.
We both quit good jobs and sold all our personal belongings, we've overpacked the bikes and said goodbye for the last time. With no home, no material stuff left we headed out to find people and places and interesting things.

That was June 1st 2010 and we've covered over 30000 kms so far, met other travelers and managed to stay... almost on budget.

Our goal is not and will not be to hammer from point to point since we effectively have no time limit the golden rule applies, you either have time or money, and so with time there is less expense in the now. Stopping to smell the proverbial roses becomes a necessity and people met are simply amazing and without an honest way of describing.

This wasn't intended as a trip of self discovery but it's turning out that way. With one odd coincidence after another our ideas of the world are changing and being solidfied, I can only hope that the great fortune we've found so far follows us deeper into the Americas. In the end, we'll get what we need, good or bad.

It's a little late in the game to start posting on ADV but if folks want to hang out with us then I can do my best to post here, we could probably use the input and advice as we slip south past the bandito's and corrupt officials. Let me know.

[Archimedes]

"All the worlds a stage and the men and women,the players" W. Shakespear

The greatest threat we have isnt the drug cartels in Mexico, the Rebels in Colombia or the grizzly bears in Alaska, it's the general driving traffic.

It's interesting, from one who's broken many bones and suffered a goodly amount of pain that I'm much more cautious about the small injuries. You know the cuts on the hand from opening a can of tuna, or failing to care for your feet. When riding these are a major inconvienence and I find I'm accutly more aware of simple things that otherwise would not be a big deal.

I wonder if any other distance riders have noticed the same things? Are you cautious not to have a swollen toe in your boot for 3000 kms, riding with a gouged knuckles because of a stupid slip of the wrench on the oil filter? Stuff like that.

We're heading into Guatemala in the next couple of weeks and working through customs and other nonsense. We have a couple little tricks up our sleeves that we'll detail later of which we hope not to have to use.

Originally we had planned to visit the Yucatan and head to Cuba to ride the island but due to our complications we've been seriously delayed in veracruz and our Visas are running out.

[yamalama]

You guys OK? That pic is a bit worrisome.

[Archimedes]

Originally Posted by yamalama

You guys OK? That pic is a bit worrisome.

Thanks, it's old news by now but had an important effect on the decision to head towards South America for a couple of years.

[chokozip]

Looking forward to your story.

Sean

[Archimedes]

After we left Vancouver and headed to Vancouver Island our route would be the ferry to Rupert then onwards to Alaska. It started raining fifteen minutes into our journey and never really stopped for almost 6 weeks.


If you´ve heard others talk about the Alaskan highway on the Canadian side being total crap they are right. Some folks on a Harley were thrown right off the road by the frost heaves. You can pick them apart for the lack of coution or the overloaded trailer but at the end of the day the road is still brutal.

We made the decision not to go all the way to the top (Deadhorse), it´s been done by everybody and there were too many cool things to check out in Alaska Like Hatcher Pass versus a long boring truck route. Besides the Dempster is much nicer, I recommend that if you must choose. Hatcher Pass is definately a must do, not too long but a beautiful ride.

After leaving Alaska through the Top of the World, one day before it was closed due to slides, we headed through the Yukon towards Faro and south on the Canol road. Simply amazing. On our exit we had various adventures along the Alaskan Highway and back down to southern BC before heading North again. Our intent was to cross Canada further north if possible. Unfortunaely time kept constraining us, this blew me away because having set two years aside I thought we´d have plenty of time. It doesnt work like that.


Our destination was the east coast, Newfoundland and Labradour. We seemed to be racing against weather despite the rain having stopped we needed to get to where the lobsters live and the snow comes early.

p.s. I´m buringing throught this report to get caught up to our status in Mexico.

[Skrow]

[Abenteuerfahrer]

subscriped....

[job3-14]

Hey guys, we just got your message. You guys must be having the time of your lives. Keep the dream alive!

A&W

[Archimedes]

Originally Posted by job3-14

Hey guys, we just got your message. You guys must be having the time of your lives. Keep the dream alive!

A&W

Just thinking about you two , hope all is well and your not working too hard...lol....

[Archimedes]

I noticed something disturbing, the difference between the mountain provinces and the prairie provinces. While we tavelled through the mountains and the north we bush camped pretty easily, filtered water from the streams and enjoyed the smell of various flora. The prairies was much different though, very beautiful, good people and amazing views. But when it came to camping we struggled, it seemed every square inch of land was being used for human purposes and with it every stream seemed to filled with oozing fertalizers and pesticides. We coudnt bring ourselves to filter or boil it. It´s a mass, vast land of chemical treatment.


The corn in Ontario is fantastic (off track), I say this as a fond memory of it vaguely lurks in my mind at the moment. I´m tourmented by this corn (good for tortilla´s and cattle) they have in Mexico. But I digress.

We got into London Ontario (the Budgie story) to stay with a friend and drop our TKC80s. We were mostly on paved road now and we were getting tired of carrying the extra tires. We had the TKC80s since Smithers and had over 12000 kms on them. Even though we could have gotten another 2-3k we decided it would be better to change them there.

We had inteneded to go north into Labradour and ferry our way into the south through Newfoundland but due to many small events including weather forecast, Ferry schedules and other midless stuff we decided to spend the time touring the Maritimes instead.

But first we intended to head into northern Quebec a bit, not too far as to lose time east but far enough to miss Montreal. We would spend the night in Quebec City for Deya´s birthday compliments of friends back in Vancouver.

I was distrurbed by the all the homes, bikes, trucks and kids for sale in the front yards. We hadnt seen any of that kind of reccession damage anywhere else in Canada, I hope they can recover in time not to vote themselves out of their own country!

Anyways, we headed into the Maritimes and our very first stop we were welcomed by the Maritime greating party. I´ll post a short video of Deya wiping out in a little sand which is awesome because she´s full of excuses, but not this time.....oh no.....not this time, I have video!

[Backcountryboy]

Great start! Keep it coming.

[Archimedes]

So we rolled into New Brunswick looking for a place to camp, so friendly folks there pointed us to some crown land on the beach. I riding was beautiful and the weather spectacular. We got out to the beach and started slowly down a sandy road. Deya messed up, but her Egor doesnt like to admit it. This time though I had gotten some video and finally I could get her to admit she made an amatuer mistake...haha


(cant seem to get it to stick, 3 min.) its about half way down the post http://andthenweweregone.blogspot.co...foundland.html


After the dump a crew of drunk Maritimers came along in a truck. they pulled up and started greating us, beer was a plenty and invitations to stay at their camps (RV´s) on the beach were generously extended. I´m the designated drinker (somebodies got to do it) so I shared a few beers but we politely refused the offer to camp, this was our first time on the Atlantic coast of Canada and the beach we had picked to camp on was outstanding.

After that it just kept getting better as we met more and more friedly and hospitable folks. in the effort to find places to camp we ended up staying with many people, on sailboats, in backyards, frontyards, etc. We toured around PEI and finally headed over to Newfoundland we´re we intended to saty for a few weeks.

Newfoundland was good and bad for us, we cut it short and went back to the Maritimes were things got awesome again. Newfoundland in summary, Lobster season ended the day we got there, all across Canada I dreamed of Newfy lobsters but no luck. The weather sucked and our tent was destroyed by hurricain Earl
The Newfy drivers were the most brutal we had encountered to date and in 80kmph winds while trying to stay on the road long enough to find shelter one of them road raged on Deya, until I get to them then he took off. Deya was a little broken up at this point.
The Island seemed to be a bit of a tourist trap and in two days we had blown our budget for camping of 9 days.

The positive was the team of 14 ATVérs that were riding the old train tracks a 1000 kms across the island. We would, by coincidence, end up taking two ferries with these guys and spending several weeks with
them and their families all across the Maritimes. Special thanks to Arch and his cabin in the woods.

We hit the Cabot Trail and the weather was mostly good, the trail for whomever is thinking about it is probably one of the best all around areas for riding you can get. You´ve probably heard this before so I wont get into the details now but you wont be dissapointed with spending time around there.

The good times continued and we we´re super lucky to meet fantastic people who took us in fed us and again, the Maritimes is simply fantastic.


For the Canadians reading this, the day we exited Canada we stopped for one last coffee and breakfast at Tim Horton´s. Tim´s gave it to us for free, it was a good omen for the journey going forward.

[West Isles Foo Foo]

Wish I'd had more time to talk with you that morning at Tim's in St. George.
Keep the reports coming, and enjoy your adventure!

[Archimedes]

Next time, we´ll go back to your neck of the wood, we absolutely loved it there. I´d like to do a lot more exploring around the whole region actually but first this trip.