DAY 1: FREDERICTON TO HARVEY STATION, 47 KM

1 June 2011

Set to go in Riiko's backyard!

I suppose I should begin by telling you about this trip: why we’re doing it, where we’re going and how it came to be.  Michael is a friend of mine from grad school who has been thinking about doing a long cycling trip for quite some time.  When we found out that the annual meeting for our academic society (CSHPS) was going to be held in Fredericton, NB we thought, “we should go to the conference and then do a cycling trip!”  In my head, this trip would only be about three weeks – I do have a thesis to write, after all!  But when Michael and I met to talk about it, it turned out that he had something bigger in mind.  I’m all for long bike trips, but I’m also all for finishing my thesis on time (or at least trying to).  So I proposed that we go on the trip, but bring our work with us and work for two or three hours everyday.  I’d contemplated this idea before and now I had a chance to make it a reality.  Michael was totally on board and we decided to do it!  After all, when else might we get the chance to take such a trip?  We consider ourselves so unbelievably lucky to be doing the kind of work that is so portable.

We had no destination in particular in mind, but eventually decided we’d head south into the States, stay with our friend Isaac in Maine and then do the Transamerica trail (or just part of it, depending on time) starting in Virginia and heading west towards Oregon.  We’ll see where we end up!

After conferencing for a few days, today we finally set off on our first day of cycling.  It was a late start, since we took the time to get all of our stuff together and we’re really in no hurry.  It was warm and sunny, but we had the worst headwind all day, making for extremely tough cycling. We were exhausted when we finally decided to stop at village of Harvey Station around 7, where we ate dinner and set up camp.  I’m writing this from inside the tent – what a strange juxtaposition!

The forecast calls for rain for the next few days.  Hopefully the wind gods will bring us a lovely tailwind to carry us across the border into the States!