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I stuck my fanny pack under my coat to protect its contents and tada, a new look was created. august 11 2009

august 10 2009
16 blog posts updated today, maybe a record for me.  This is why taking time off is kinda pointless: you gotta do the work sometime and it just piles up if you don’t do it daily.  Also, I can’t beLEIVE it’s already mid-August.  I don’t even wanna talk about it.

august 9 2009

Well I should say what a successful test.  From these hypothesis, the conclusions:

– moving every night will be too much.  Plan on two nights in one place, then move
– I did a not bad job packing… really I need just one pair of jeans, one T-shirt, a sweatshirt, a dress I can roll up very little, a suit jacket and an outfit to run around in the woods.  Toiletries, my laptop and camera, a book, I’m done
– yes bringing my bike is key, and I think it’ll work if I keep it in the backseat and use my trunk for my crap
– blogging remotely is totally possible… the internet access at the resort was fast, free and stable.  Still gotta look into a Turbo stick from Bell
– still have to test out CouchSurfing.com too
– eating reasonably well should be doable, provided I try; that’ll be the hard part
– some tools need to be added to my trunk… a crowbar, a screwdriver, a bigger flashlight, a flare gun
– I can cover and explore less in 2 days than I thought, and that’s just on my blog nevermind video too.  More work, design and thought has to go into that
– I tagged this post with ‘scientific method’

august 8 2009

There’s golf, skiing and snowboarding here and a treetop canopy tour I won’t have time to do but would’ve liked to.  This test is really helping in designing my cross-country trip.

Here’s an old Keri trick for you when traveling alone: because most people at such a place have come with friends or family, befriend the staff who live and work in the area.  They’ll be insightful as to what local things you should be seeing before you leave, and they are usually good at partying too.  

And you can’t beat fun for a good time.  

august 7 2009

En route I passed that building top right… that’s the OPP Headquarters.  Two quick facts – the OPP is one of three provincial police forces (what happens in the other provinces then?) and two, on the cover art for the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album you can see Paul wearing an OPP patch on his arm, click here to see.  Also, Orillia was the first city in North America to institute daylight savings time.

Rode my bike around downtown, found the Orillia Opera House (bottom left) then went back down to the water and that’s me there upon the realization I’m totally effed; there’s no way I’m gonna be able to explore a city in a day.  Like, between all the people / places / things I could easily spend a week here, with two whole days spent searching for the underground tunnels rumoured to be everywhere below the city.  And look for the ghosts in the Opera House.  And and and.  I’d figured a month/province.  

Moreover, I’m trying to promote these places not kick them in the teeth, but looking at it from the city’s citizens perspective it’d be like, “hmph… how can this girl think she can see everything there is to see here in a couple days? How rude”.  And they’d be right.

Then dinner on a patio where the older gentleman I sat next to at the tiki bar wanted to talk about… how much he loves Canada.  We put the world to rights over my club sandwich. He’d been to every province / territory and driven the Arctic ice bridge three times.  So where’s the photo of us?  Didn’t take one, didn’t mention this show, it’s my week off, maybe shoulda sucked it up, didn’t.