Helmets: pain or pleasure?

For the past year and a half, Dylan has been upset about his helmet.

We both subscribe to the notion that the best helmet is the one that fits you comfortably.

For five years Dylan has owned an Arai Quantum F. He loved that helmet. It was a significant investment for someone who was just starting to ride but it fit him really well.

Then the time came for him to get a new one and Arai replaced the Quantum F with the Quantum II. Dylan ended up with an Arai Astral-X instead and has never been happy about it.

"It just doesn't fit like the Quantum F" he'd say. Then, at every opportunity, at every motorcycle show or shop he would explain (I was going to write complain, but Dylan isn't much of a complainer) that they need to bring back the Quantum F and that Arai has made a big mistake.

For a year I would get a kick out of Dylan taking up the time of salespeople to explain how unhappy he was and how an Arai Quantum F would change all that once again. The Astral-X just wasn't quite right and I thought Dylan was being overly picky.

I was lucky, my first helmet was an HJC CL-SP. A great helmet with lots of useful features and a really great price. Snell-approved too! I rode with that helmet all last summer and it felt great.

Then my helmet packed in. Dylan and I both have fairly small heads - we like to make efficient use of our brains, no need to waste space - so I was wearing an extra small (XS) sized helmet. My HJC packed in so badly that I couldn't open my visor on the highway for I'd risk pulling my helmet right off if if wasn't for the chin strap.

So I've spend some time over the past few weeks at different shops trying on helmets.

Wow, was Dylan right about this one. I think I've spent 6 hours and have tried on 40 or more different helmets ranging from XXS to Small. I've tried Arai, KBC, HJC, Icon, Shoei and Shark. I suspect my head would also have fit a Quantum F very well as the Astral-X and Vector (new version of the Astral-X) feel good, but not meant for my noggin. All I want is an HJC CL-SP that won't pack in.

So I'm going to settle on an Astral-X or a Vector, right after my new cheekpads for my CL-SP pack in.

More to come...

Yet another eye update

Who knew that eye surgery would continue to be so much fun?!

I was at the clinic last week for another checkup on my eyeballs.

My left eye is stable and has been for a while at -0.25. Nearly perfect. I'll take it!

My other eye, on the other hand, is swinging like a pendulum still, albiet one that's losing it's energy a bit.

Let's recap this eye...


Before surgery was +3.25
Four days after surgery -4.00
eight days after that, -1.50
two weeks after that -1.00
three weeks or so after that +0.50 back on the drops!
two weeks after that, -1.00
two weeks after that -0.50

Phew, that's about it for now. It continues to be a crazy ride but fortunately one that is slowing down. I'm on the steroid drops once every two days now and hope to come to a soft landing with this. I'm back to Dr. Mitchell's office in three weeks.

more to come...

What's the deal with Ted Simon?

A few posts back I wrote that Ted Simon was one of the coolest guys ever. Both Dylan and I would like to take that statement back. Dylan never actually said it, but I know he agrees with me.

I painfully read his adventure, starting with Africa. All the while I was reading this I was thinking, "what a boring trip and he has no good stories to tell at all." I was hoping for there to be some event or activity that would draw me in as a reader. Nope. The worst thing that happened to him is that he lost his wallet and then didn't ask for it back when someone else found it and left with it. That's not cool.

I'm sure Mr. Simon's adventure was wrought with challenge and adversity. He just can't write about it in a way that's worth reading. Both Dylan and I stopped reading the book less than halfway through. Am I missing something here with this book?

More to come...

Finally, the headphone arrives!

Way back in early January at the Calgary Motorcycle Show, I ordered a custom headphone system and some custom ear plugs. Dylan also picked up some custom plugs as well. He seems to be content letting me be the equipment testing guinea pig. Fair enough.

The challenge for me was that I am deaf in one ear so listening to music on headphones -until the MP3 format came to be and I could convert my music properly - has been a complete waste of my time. For those of you "full hearers", just try listening to some good 'ol Led Zepplin or something with only one headphone in. You'll soon get my point after listening to Robert Plant whailing for a couple of minutes with only a set of drums behind him. Listen to the other headphone and that's where Jimmy Page is hanging out. Short story long, stereo sound sucks.

Back to the story, E.A.R. Inc sells a dual-driver, sound blocking (earplug) custom headphone system where the headphone is made of a mold of your ear canal. It blocks most ambient sound, thereby allowing one to listen to music at reduced volumes and protecting ones hearing at the same time. After talking to the Canadian distributor, she agreed to sell me a custom, custom set for half price. The headphone would go only to my good ear and would be wired for both the left and right channels. It would be ready in 10 business days; the end of January. Wooo!

After a dozen phone calls and lots of talk, the headphone arrived just this week - the 16th of March.

Now, I don't mind for a second that they took this long to come in - it's one of the reasons Dylan and I are planning way ahead for the trip. However, the greatest customer service lesson I learned back when I sold high-end menswear in university is to under promise, over deliver. E.A.R. Inc. needs to learn this.

Now having vented about the delay, I have to say that I think this headphone system has got to be one of the greatest equipment buys for the trip. The sound quality is unlike anything I have ever imagined and I can listen to my music comfortably with my MP3 player on its minimum volume!

Now all I need is to learn to play pinball. I have the deaf and blind part down pat already.

More eye problems

During my last appointment down at the Mitchell Eye Centre, the tech said that I should book an appointment right away if I noticed I was having trouble with my vision.

At that appointment my vision was -0.5 in each eye. Roughly translated to pretty good and getting better! We booked an appointment for a month later (March 22).

Fast forward to this week, I noticed on Wednesday that I was struggling to focus on both near and far items. I could do it, but the process was similar to an old auto focus camera lens that is struggling to know what it should be focusing on. So I called.

Fortunately I managed to get in the next morning bright and early - after taking my car to the shop for some warranty work.

A different person handled my tests this time and she went through a slightly different process.
She asked how my vision was and all I could really say to her is that I knew it wasn't right, but couldn't tell why.

It turns out that my dominant eye, my right eye that I had epi-lasik on, is now at +0.5 and my left, LASEK eye is still progressing properly at -.25, nearly perfect.

So now I'm left with a right eye that's far-sighted and a left that's nearsighted (for the short term). She put me back on Maxidex, a steroid drop that I was taken off of at the beginning of this "adventure" at two drops per day. I still go back on March 22 for another followup.

To be completely frank about things, the thought of being far sighted again after all of this is both heartbreaking and expensive. This surgery wasn't cheap and because I had steep corneas in the first place, I doubt they will be able to do an "enhancement" surgery on me. The drops are not likely to revert me back into a 0.00 or slightly nearsighted world - that's my assessment.

I'm just glad I caught this when I did and managed to get in right away to prevent it from getting worse. I thought this chapter of my life and planning for our trip was coming to a close.

More to come...

First ride of 2007

Yesterday I took my very dusty V-Strom out to the car wash to wake it up from its winter slumber. It had been more than four months since I'd ridden and I was a little nervous. Fortunately the skills came back right away and I had far less trouble than I had been anticipating.

What a wonderful feeling to be back in the saddle after a long winter. It's still cold here in Calgary, but Spring is in the air.

Houston, we have luggage!

Now with my eyes doing a billion times better (still not perfect by any stretch), it's time to get focused on the trip once again.

A while back, Dylan and I discussed the age old motorcycle adventure question: what type of luggage do we use with the bikes?

We settled on a heavier choice, but one that will afford me tipping my bike a few times with minimal damage. The debate was among soft cases and hard cases made from either aluminum or plastic. We agreed on plastic.

So with Dylan's contacts in the aircraft parts industry, we managed to snag a great deal on four Pelican 1550 cases. Better yet, Dylan and his wife gave me my cases to me for my birthday.

I think these cases are easily the best choice for the trip, however, Dylan is concered they will be too large and will stick out too far on the bikes, affecting aerodynamics and fuel economy. He's probably right, but I'm just happy to have something new and tangible that we'll be living out of for four months.

On another random note, the motorcycle adventurer's spiritual guide, Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon is back in print. If you haven't heard of it yet, Ted rode around the world for four years in the 1970s. Now in his 70s, he's finished re-tracing his ride, again by motorcycle. That guy is cool.

More to come...

Eyeball update

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to the Mitchell Eye Centre once again to check on the progress of my eyes. The funny thing is that you need to tell them how you see for them to tell you how you see. I digress.

I've been back at work for a few weeks now and it's been ok. Some dry eye and I'm definitely pooped out by the end of the day.

The appointment went well. I'm now seeing with about -0.5 in both eyes and if I recall correctly, the tech said that it was about 20/25. Not too shabby, but not good enough for me yet. I have some persistent double vision in my right eye that he said was likely due to uneven healing of my epithelium. Basically my eyelid will fix that by blinking to make it even again.

My next appointment is in another month when they expect I'll be pretty much at 0.0.

It's an amazing feeling and I'm quite proud of myself, although I had nothing to do with the quality of my own vision, to be able to see the charts. I'm even more excited for next month's visit now with their expectation that I will continue to improve.

Most of all right now I'm enjoying being able to drive right now. I'd love to be riding but it's been in the -20 degrees Celsius these days with snow and gravel and chaos on the roads. The car will do for now.

More to come...

Laser eye surgery

First off, my apologies for taking so long to post again. Here is the story of my laser eye surgery. Settle in – it’s going to be a long post.

From my previous post it was clear that I had some anxiety about having the Epi-LASIK procedure. I don’t like things touching my eyes.

Diane picked me up and we headed to the Mitchell Eye Centre a little bit early for my appointment. When we arrived we went over to the consultant’s desk and she gave an overview again of their basic "risks" and we cleared up payment for the surgery. Then I asked for the chill pill to calm my nerves. I was fairly calm, but under the skin I could tell my heart was beating harder than if I was sleeping in on a Sunday morning. It gave me a distinct thumping feeling throughout my body. My pulse was fine but my heart was working hard.

About 20 minutes later, there I was: laying on the operating table waiting for the surgeon. The tech put some numbing drops in my eyes and I waited for what felt like an hour and must have been about 15 minutes. The surgeon tapped my leg when he entered the room and greeted me. With a patch on one eye and bright lights in the other, the touch was calming but my heart was still trying to bash through my ribs make a quick getaway.

My right eye was clamped open – quite uncomfortably and I let out a little noise to let the doctor know how I felt. He sorted it out and then placed a device over my eye.

"You will feel some pressure, your eye will black out and you will hear a noise." The surgeon said.

I got a little more than I had bargained for.

My vision, staring up at the bright white and green lights turned into a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And then from the outside in, it blacked out as if pulling the plug on an old black and white TV. Now with only my thoughts to keep me calm, the vibrating noise started. Watching the Epi-LASIK procedure on the Internet, there was no sound. I hadn’t expected a vibrating sound like a beard trimmer.

"Keep calm C.J. – everything will be ok." I thought to myself.

Then I could feel a bit of a grinding feeling on my eye.

"Keep calm C.J. – everything will be ok." It was all I could think of. That is, until my thoughts shifted altogether.

While still trying to look for the lights, longing for the spaceship lights, my thoughts began to wander to other things. "Orange is a totally underrated colour" I thought. "Yeah, orange is a good colour."

And then I felt like Winston at the end of his re-integration in George Orwell’s Nineteeneightyfour:

Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved big brother.

The light returned and I heard a voice. It was Dr. Mitchell, "Have you ever fainted before?" he asked. I replied with a question of my own. "Are you finished?"

Unfortunately the answer was no. "We couldn’t continue until you regained consciousness."

I was pissed. Never having fainted before, I then asked, "What? I fainted? What are you talking about?" Someone then lifted one of my legs back on to the operating table. That’s when I realized that orange may not be so underrated and I had my very own visit with my ‘happy place’.

"Take your time, we’ll get you some juice." Dr. Mitchell said, "We’ll continue in a few minutes once you’ve gathered yourself."

I got some juice but couldn’t drink it because I couldn’t hold myself up. In fact, I couldn’t hold the juice either. My hands were completely numb. I tried to move them and couldn’t. I just stared at my hands trying to will them to move and nothing worked.

After a couple of minutes, I could move my hands again. "I need to go to the bathroom. Now." I told the tech.

I made my way to the bathroom with the help of the tech and my body decided it didn’t like anything that was inside of it – so it had a hellfire clearance sale. Nausea began to swell in my stomach but I didn’t throw up.

Over the next 20 minutes, I repeated that exercise three times. Just when I thought I was empty, my body found more to get rid of. "Normally we continue the procedure after about 10 minutes" the surgeon said, "I’ve never seen this before. Sometimes young athletic men faint, but not like this."

Great. This surgeon has been practicing since 1984 (coincidentally) and has never seen someone react so strongly to this procedure. Not a good way to feel special.

The surgeon put a protective lens in my eye and I stayed in an examination room with Diane for about three hours trying to will myself back to a state where I could continue with the procedure. It wouldn’t happen today.

The bright spot for me was the kindness of everyone in the office that day. I never felt rushed to continue the procedure. We got a garbage bag for the drive home – I knew I’d need it.

The pain in my eye was annoying but not intense on the way home. My nausea was the focus of my discomfort. Diane drove as smoothly as possible for the 20-minute trek back to my condo downtown. About halfway I filled the garbage bag. She didn’t flinch or say anything. I didn’t want her to say anything, I just wanted to turn my stomach inside out and leave it in the bag.
After vomiting I felt a billion times better. Arriving home I set my alarm for two hours later and went to bed. Every two hours I would have to get up to put drops in my eye to keep it moist.
Waking up every two hours means you spend a lot of time trying to sleep and actually spending the time thinking. My thoughts ranged from never going back to convincing myself by the morning that the hard part was over and the laser was just a formality.

The next morning I called Dr. Mitchell’s office to find out when I could go back in. Fortunately it was by 11:00 AM. I wanted to get this over with.

Arriving at the clinic I didn’t have the same pounding heart as I did the day before. I was far more relaxed and ready to handle what was to come my way.

This time the surgeon came in shortly after I did into the operating room. He asked how I was feeling and I felt good. The tech was a woman this time and I found that to be more calming than the man the day before. "Yeah, way more people faint when he is the tech," the woman said. "We’ve been bugging him about it ever since he started here."

I got a stress ball and we continued the procedure starting with removing the protective lens and lasering my right eye.

The lights were like a Pink Floyd show and it was difficult to focus on the laser. There was a breeze and the smell of hair burning for about 30 seconds. No problem.

My left eye was completed with a procedure that doesn’t involve putting any pressure on it but that takes longer to heal called LASEK. With LASEK, an alcohol solution is used to soften the outer layer of one’s eye. I could smell the alcohol and see the liquid on my eye but it didn’t bother me. I would get through this.

The procedure was complete and I felt fine. Fine except for the burning and stinging feeling that was starting to swell in my eyes. I wanted a cinnamon roll and Diane and I stopped to grab one before heading home.

By the time I got home I couldn’t open my eyes because of the stinging. Once again I would set my alarm for every two hours to put drops in and I headed to bed right away. The pain was becoming intense and my eyes were gushing tears like a Las Vegas water fountain. I took a painkiller to help me sleep.

The next day I spent in bed and didn’t do much of anything, I could see a bit about six feet in front of me.

Day two after the surgery was by far the most painful. On Saturday night my eyes were sealing themselves shut with my eyelid sticking to the protective lens. The pain was sharp and sudden when I attempted to open my eyes to put the drops in. Suddenly the burning and stinging feeling seemed like a warm cup of cocoa compared to the sharpness of opening my eyes. I poked myself in the eyes a couple of times trying to get the drops in.

I stayed in bed all day on Sunday and struggled to open my eyes much at all. The guide I was given said that my vision would seem clear at first and would go downhill until the protective lenses were removed five days later. Downhill was an understatement.

For the next three days I kept myself busy by sweeping my floor, vacuuming and listening to a book on CD. By the end of the third day most of the pain had subsided but I could only see shapes and colours. I could focus on nothing. My vision was downright bad.

Those who know me well know that I struggle with doing nothing. I get bored easily and laying in bed blind for four days was driving me nuts. I looked forward to my appointment to have the protective lenses removed. My ugly duckling vision would be transformed into a beautiful swan view of the world.

To say I was excited to have the lenses removed is an understatement. Diane picked me up and we headed to the clinic. A woman I had never met before took me into a room with eye examination equipment and turned an eye chart on.

"Look over there," she said, "Tell me what the letters are."

I replied, "I don’t know. I can’t see them."

She moved the line up to a bigger one and asked again. Still nothing. Next line up on the chart, nothing. One more line up with the letters getting bigger yet. Nothing.

Finally she moved the chart up one more line. I couldn’t read it and told her so.

"What do you mean you can’t read it?!" she asked.

I responded, "I know it’s an "E" because it’s the biggest letter on the chart but I can’t read it."

That’s when I got angry and scared. Within a minute I was in to see the surgeon in another examination room. He put a machine up to my eyes, examined them and pulled the contacts out of my eyes.

"Your vision will be a bit blurry while your eyelid smoothes the surface of your eye." He said.

"What, are you kidding? I asked. "I can’t see a damn thing!"

He started writing on my chart as we talked for a minute and I told him that I couldn’t see much of anything. Then I remembered that I could see a couple of inches in front of my nose. I put my hand up to my face and said, "I can see here but that’s it!"

Dr. Mitchell’s response was not what I expected, nor did it inspire much confidence.

"Oh." He said and began crossing out his notes on my chart. His response was in a tone that showed some surprise, some disappointment and a sigh that reeked of complexity.

"You are seeing about a –4.00 right now." He continued after a significant pause. "You need to take the drops only once a day instead of three times a day."

For context, I was seeing with a +3.25 prescription prior to the surgery. I swung across the pendulum of vision from one extreme to the other. According to the schedule, I was supposed to be able to see by now. I was scheduled to return to work the next day. How quickly those plans changed. My vision didn’t turn into a beautiful swan as I had hoped. Worse, I went from an ugly ducking to feeling like a sitting duck.

The surgeon asked me to book an appointment for the next week indicating that a follow-up usually takes place a month later. I was special and wishing I wasn’t.

Over the course of the next week my emotions would fluctuate far more than my vision which made slow progress. Every day I’d take a rough measurement of my focal length. It went from about three inches to just over a foot in a week. This would be a slow go.

I tried to stay as positive and optimistic as possible. A gift basket was delivered from work. They were very supportive and the basket was a pleasant surprise for me. Another colleague sent me some Big Turk candy bars, which became my comfort food. I spent a lot of time contemplating my future, the future of the trip and what my world would look like if my vision didn’t recover. The fear was intimidating but my energy needed to be focused on healing.

On Wednesday, eight days after registering –4.00 (ish) on the eye chart I went back to the clinic for another exam. This time I could see much better and could read part of the chart. Progress! It was blurry, but I could still read it. I had double vision but at least I could see. The tech told me my prescription had changed to about –1.50. The tech said this recovery still seemed slow and he told me that I was likely having a reaction to the steroid drops. He asked me to stop using them altogether and said that I should see a significant improvement over the next four or five days. Thank goodness he would be right.

When your vision is messed up as badly as mine had become, you start to wonder if your progress is real or imagined. Over the next few days I know there was real progress. It was still blurry, but at least I could focus on things that were across the room.

On Monday (February 5) I decided to return to work. My double vision was still a problem but I hope it will continue to heal and improve over the next few months. It was nice to be back in a place where I could start to function again and have some mental stimulation. There are days at the beginning where I had not even left my condo and now I was able to spend some time at the office.

I pushed it too hard the first day back and headed home in the afternoon and had a long nap.
Today I headed back to work and my vision seems a little worse than yesterday. Double vision has killed the sharpness of my vision but I realize I have come an enormous way since having the surgery nearly thee weeks ago. The fear is beginning to subside and I have an enormous empathy for those with vision problems that cannot be corrected.

These have been the hardest three weeks of my adult life.

More to come...

...and we're back...

Just a quick post for now to let people know that I'm back from the laser surgery. I won't go into any details just yet, but will write a detailed post when I have a chance and can write for a little while.

more to come...

T-minus five hours...

I'm going in for laser eye surgery in five hours.

It's been 10 years of wearing glasses and waking up to grab them. All I can hope is that there are no complications today and that I'll be able to see clearly.

There are certain people I trust more than myself when driving. There are people I trust more to fly planes when I'm on one. I don't know how to trust someone with my eyes.

Here's an example of what epi-lasik looks like. I made the mistake of watching it.

Good thing they have chill pills there.

New plug and four days till laser surgery

Yesterday I headed out to the Shooting Edge where EarInc has their Calgary location. I was surprised to see how large the showroom was and how many gadgets there now are available for hunters and folks with firearms. I also didn't realize that a Pelican Flashlight could cost $223.00!

So I got my second earplug made and it sounds pretty good. I'm really pleased that I went back to go and get it after the motorcycle show last week. I also saw a few gadgets at the Shooting Edge that might be worthwhile to bring on the trip.

All of this is to distract me from the fact that I've got my surgery on Thursday. I'm still nervous as all heck about it.

More to come...

What?

.... I can't hear you!

I'm busy wearing my new ear plugs! Ok, so I only have one so far. But it's so comfortable once it's up to body temperature that I've ordered another one for my good ear. I'll be going in on Saturday to get injected with silicone once again.

All this earplug talk is a nice distraction from my eye surgery which is one week away.

More to come...

A great motorcycle show

My hat goes off to everyone who put in long hours at the Calgary Motorcycle Show. It was a great event and was well attended.

The news of the weekend for me is that I got a custom earphone manufactured. I'm completely deaf in one ear so stereo sound is lost on me. In fact it's annoying to only hear a guitar and wonder, "What happened to Mick Jagger? I was certain he sang in this part of the song." Then, upon switching earphones asking, "Hey Mick, where'd Keith go?"

EarInc.ca is where I got them done. Linda did a great job, but I have to say, it's an odd feeling having silicone injected into your ear. I bought the deluxe, custom molded model and got it for half the show price because they only need to make one! The plug is being wired for mono sound as well so I get both channels in one ear. The great news about it is that the earphone also acts as an earplug, blocking sound to make riding more comfortable.

It wasn't that comfortable for Dylan though when we went back to the booth to pick up our plugs after they dried. He got a custom pair of earplugs done in a two colour swirl pattern; orange and black.

He tried them on when we picked them up and claimed they didn't fit well at all. Odd for a custom plug that's molded to your exact ear.

"Oh" the woman proclaimed, "that was you. I'm glad we got that sorted out!"

Apparently another person (with larger ears, purchased the same plugs in the same colour combination. They forgot to write one of them down and then didn't know which plugs belonged to who. So they guessed and guessed wrong!

It was a little gross. The woman said that at least Dylan was the first person to come back and try them. What she failed to appreciate is that they came out of the other man's ears in the first place!

More to come...

A fun weekend ahead

I'm pretty excited about the weekend.

Last year at this time I could care less about motorcycles, motorcycling, "adventure travel", and I'd never given a thought to going around the world on a bike. It wasn't until a week from now last year that the idea for a RTW trip came up. As such, I didn't even think about going to the Calgary Motorcycle Show.

This year is another story. I'm definitely looking forward to meeting some of the folks at the show, seeing what products might work well for the trip. So far I've learned that there is a company that makes custom earphones and earplugs there. Normally I wouldn't be thinking this is one of the best booths at the show, but I'm completely deaf in one ear. Protecting my hearing is critical and if I choose to use headphones, one of them is absolutely no use to me and it just gets in the way and transfers static energy into my good ear - giving it a nice electrical shock every few seconds.

There you have it. I'm excited about earplugs.

More to come...

Biting the Bullet

In a previous post I mentioned that I was going to go in for laser eye surgery. Since that time I have been waiting for confirmation of a few facts from Dr. Mitchell's office. Now that I have those facts, I've decided that I will in fact have it done.

Before I waffle again and change my mind, I have the surgery booked for January 18th - Two weeks away!

I asked the patient councillor about my anxiety and how to handle it. Fortunately if I'm too freaked by the whole thing (I watched an epi-lasik surgery online once and nearly lost my lunch onto my keyboard) they have pills to fix that. I'm certainly not big on drug use - I had two shoulder surgeries with no painkillers after the initial doses - but this is a little different.

Until five years ago I had never, ever touched my eye. I decided I wanted contacts and it took more than an hour to get the first one in. Times have changed for me since then, but I still am anxious when I think about touching or messing with my eye.

I've been reassured and comforted and know it's the best thing to do for this trip and to get me out of glasses. I just hope I can chill out enough to let them do it.

More to come...

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...