Happy New Year!

Heather and I decided to spend New Year's Eve at home. We thought of going to Sudbury but since we both worked, we thought we'd spend the weekend at home. We even woke up on New Year's Day with no intention of leaving home and started watching movies in bed.

But as soon as the movie ended (we watched "Heartbreak Kid" with Ben Stiller), we quickly packed some clothes and were on the road to Sudbury by 11am. We encountered some snow fall around Barrie but otherwise the traffic moved well.

We almost didn't make it as in my usual style, I pushed ahead until the gas tank was near empty. This being a holiday we had to drive right to Sudbury where I filled up at Canadian Tire after driving for more than twenty minutes with the gas light on.

The first order of business when we arrived was to find a pharmacy since Heather forgot her medication. Like I mentioned, not a lot of planning went into this trip.

We spent the weekend mostly indoors with a quick visit to see Heather's grandparents. The weather was quite cold as we walked with temperatures hovering around -25C throughout the weekend.

The ride home was a bit more white but still uneventful.

Braving the cold.

December Reflections

It has been a very busy time for Heather and myself since our wedding day in October. It has also been a time of many more milestones.

On November 23rd, I started a new job in Cambridge after leaving my old position some seven weeks ago. At least I managed to get at least one more ride in on Friday, which was my last weekday of unemployment. It was also around that time when one of our fellow VROCers generously gave us a set of highway pegs. Now, thanks to Kim and Mike's wedding gift getting the second set will be that much easier.

December was a month of birthdays. The most special ones were of course the 1st birthdays of our niece and nephew.

Jolene's party was first and it was full two weeks before her actual birthday. The family gathered on December 6th at a Cambridge community centre for this very special occasion.

Our niece Jolene.

The following Sunday, it was Adrian's turn and again it was a family-only function at his parents' home.

Our nephew Adrian.

Christmas Eve was spent, as always, with my family. It was held at my parents' home this year as we ate well and exchanged gifts.

Back on Two Wheels

It took over two months but we finally managed to ride today on what turned out to be a beautiful day. With a lot of things happenings in the past couple of months, like the wedding, plus sketchy weather, we've been unable to ride since Labour Day Monday.

Today's forecast called for 16+ degrees and we knew that this would be the best opportunity for one last ride this season. We waited until noon before starting our ride in best possible conditions.

The ride was short as it covered some 150km in 3 hours and took us through Erin and Fergus. We stopped in Erin for gas and for food in Fergus. The food stop was at Dairy Queen where we shared chicken strips and a blizzard. As we were leaving Dairy Queen we witnessed a lady back her van into a Honda Civic leaving a 6-inch gash on the Honda's rear fender. Surprisingly, the lady drove away without giving it much thought. The other exciting part of the ride came later as I went really low into a turn and scraped a floorboard. Seeing how it was my first time doing that, even Heather noticed that I was somewhat startled by that occurrence.

We returned from the ride at 3:30, just in time for supper with a few guests, namely my cousin from Poland and his brother (with his wife) who's visiting from New Jersey. While it was a short ride it will make the wait for next season that much shorter. Overall, we finished the season short of our goal but we still rode more than last year and considering other things going on this year, the season was fulfilling.

Heather with my cousin, Greg.

SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 147 km - 91 miles
2009 to date: 7,584 km - 4,713 miles (89.2%)
2009 goal: 8,500 km - 5,282 miles
To obtain goal: 916 km - 569 miles


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WATER TOWERS

Honeymoon - Day 8

We took our time getting up this morning as today's drive was going to be significantly shorter. We even had time to go out for breakfast, although after seeing the crowd at Gonga's, we ended up at Trevi's. Once we came back home, it wasn't until almost 1pm when we left Sudbury.

As with previous trips, we only stopped once, this time in Nobel for gas. We arrived in Waterloo at 5:30 and first visited my parents before finally going home. At home, we unpacked the car, which took several trips before settling in and relaxing for the rest of the evening.

It was a great trip and we've already discussing the possibility of going back to Stowe next summer. Until then, we'll have a lot of pictures to look back on.