The trip route is planned!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. I've been enjoying a few days away from computers to celebrate the holidays but now it's time to get back at it.

We have finished planning our trip route. If you click on the map, it might take you to a larger version... (maybe).



The summary goes a little like this....

Start in Calgary, Canada... head East till we hit the coast at either Halifax, Nova Scotia, or St. John's Newfoundland - Flights will determine what city we leave Canada from as we want direct flights only to ensure our bikes stay with us.

Next we hop on a plane, landing in London, UK. We'll ride North to Liverpool and grab a ferry to the Isle of Man to check out the Isle of Man TT race. From there we'll grab another ferry over to Dublin, then up Ireland to Scotland (with yet another ferry in there) and then down to the channel tunnel to France.

While in Europe we will head northeast though Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. Germany has much to offer in our minds so we'll head south for a while and zig-zag through Germany to Switzerland. Next it's off to Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, then back southeast to Slovakia and Hungary.

Eastern Europe is an area I'm extremely excited about (having lived in London, and done some travel, western Europe isn't as appealing for this sort of adventure, but then again, it's still going to be an amazing section of the journey - I digress).

We will track from Hungary to Ukraine where we will visit Chernobyl. Then, heading north we will go to the very Soviet-style Belarus and further to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia where it is rumoured that Dylan and I have ancestry.

Once in Russia we will tackle St. Petersburg and head to Moscow - a place that has always left me in awe since I was a little boy. In fact, I still have a soviet flag that I bought when the Olympic games were in Calgary in 1988. I was in fourth grade and did a report on the Soviet Union. It continues to fascinate me to this day.

From Moscow we will travel southeast to Samara, Russia. Then we'll be taking the plunge and heading into Kazakhstan. We will visit what's left of the Aral Sea - one of the greatest natural disasters ever created at the hand of man. Onward we will travel across Kazakhstan and then into the Altai region of Russia to get into Mongolia.

Mongolia is my new fascination. Since seeing Ewan and Charlie ride it in "Long Way Round", I've definitely wanted to try my hand at riding through such a mystical and beautiful land. It's going to kick our butts but I think it will be completely worth it.

Hopefully by 2008 the trans-Siberia / trans-Russia is completed. That will make the journey from Ulan-Ude to Vladivostock easier and safer. We've scheduled a couple of weeks for this section of the journey.

Our Russian section will draw to a close at Vladivostock with a two-day ferry ride to Japan. We'll ride from the ferry on the west coast of Japan to Tokyo. From there we grab a trans-Pacific flight to Vancouver, Canada - the homeward stretch.

Earlier this year I rode from Vancouver to Calgary in one day. I never want to do that again. So we've scheduled more time for this beautiful trek of 600 miles (1,000km).

Finally, after four months and an estimated 20,000 miles (32,000km) we will arrive home in Calgary. We will have gone from Here to Here.

Dylan's V-Strom gets a makeover

Dylan and I both bought "silver" V-Stroms. In 2006, "Silver", according to Suzuki meant more like, "Dodge Caravan baby blue champagne metallic".

I bought it in this colour to differentiate my bike from all the sport bikes out there. Since the V-strom is not another crotch rocket, I didn't want it to look like one.

Dylan hated it.

So, after he picked up his bike, using his professional painting skills (no sarcasm here, he is actually does paint aircraft) he decided on a flat black for his V-strom. Here it is in his garage, not yet assembled. He already has the Pat Walsh Crash plate on the bike as it came with it when he bought it.

Take the plunge - or the epi-lasik

I have tried out my last pair of contact lenses and they are not good enough for me to read with. I've tentatively decided that I'm going to take the plunge and get the epi-lasik eye surgery done at Mitchel Eye Centre.

I'm nervous as all heck about it but think it's probably the best option for me. One of the main reasons for it - besides the trip, is that my girlfriend has a couple of dogs and one of them likes to get quite rowdy. I get my glasses licked, booted, knocked, smudged and otherwise messed up at least 10 times in a weekend. It would be great to be able to "fight back" against the dog and be able to see at the same time. Maybe she's just smarter than me and is able to play dirty by knocking my glasses off.

In the meantime

While I'm waiting on deciding whether or not to take the plunge and do the laser eye surgery, I'm trying out some new contact lenses. So far the results are mixed.

For the past few years my contact lenses have been ok for sports but not for anything else. My vision just hasn't been sharp enough with them in. So I tried a new pair called "Pro Clear" - a brand I had never heard of.

These ProClear Contact lenses were nice, but I tore my sample pair taking them out on just the first use. I'm waiting now a couple of weeks to get another sample pair to see how they work.

Dylan and I are nearly finished our route and we'll be giving more details about it soon. We also have a new fundraising / partnership idea that I think might help the trip and make a difference in the community too. Stay tuned.

More to come...

A different angle on laser eye surgery

A week after my experience at Gimbel Eye Centre, I had an assesment appointment at Mitchel Eye Centre, also in Calgary.

The experience was like night and day. I went with a friend who was also having an assesment and we both agreed that Mitchel, or Mitchel's staff and processes are far more thorough and comforting for the prospective patient. The only problem was when I met with Dr. Mitchel to go over my results.

I want to throw the question out there for people, what does 15 percent risk mean to you?
My situation (the scaled-down version) is that I'm far sighted. The proceedure for far sightedness involves steepening the cornea. I have a "steep" cornea already, so there is a risk (15 percent according to Mitchel) that I would develop as he described, "oil drop vision" basically my vision could turn into what you see in the reflection of a drop of oil. It's correctable with another procedure, but it puts me back in my glasses.

I've spent the last couple of weeks thinking about it and I have a new set of contact lenses on order. If I could get away with contacts on the trip, and in life, I think that would be ok. However, contacts have never made my vision clear enough and so I only wear them for sports.

More to come... sooner rather than later this time!