Get ready for 25% more fun!

No I'm not the saboteur, though I will admit to some minor hacking to gain access to this wonderful little adventure story.

No, I'm not going to make any drastic new changes around here (except maybe wake-up times sleepy-heads!)

No, I'm not going to lighten your loads to let you zoom even faster away across the Prairies...

No, all I'm going to do is guarantee that as of June 9th, your trip is going to be at least 25% better, because that's when I - Shane Warner - will be joining the WarPoTay Bike Brigade!

They've all been through the questions: What are you doing? Why don't you drive/fly/motorbike instead? Are you sane? Do you know what you're getting into? Can you really sleep in a tent for 3 months straight? etc.

Me however, I've been off gallivanting around India for the past 5 months and have thus been able to avoid all these important questions - until now...

So the story goes - I'm on a 6 month tourist visa to India, arrive in Jan, get kicked out in early June, and so I need to find somewhere else to go for a minimum of 2 months before I can go back (stupid new visa regulations!) No problem, I'll just head home to good old NS and spend some time there working in the forest/garden etc.

But wait, there is a problem... It's good old NS, it's home, but at the moment I'm missing several important things here: 1) a house, 2) a family, 3) a car/transport, 4) Chaiti (too sentimental? Maybe, but it is true)

So what's a guy to do - despite having lots of offers of assistance in anyway I could imagine (thanks so much everyone!), the obvious answer is to fly out to Regina and join the Bike Brigade - it's only about 4000km back to NS and should put me here at the perfect time to go back to India. And along the way I'll have an awesome adventure, see more of this amazing country (I've been to every province/territory already, but since I technically slept through all of SK while on the train I feel it's a little bit of a cheat that needs to be fixed) and spend lots of time with some amazing people (the family). Besides, every journal we've read online about the trip ends in "If you're at all considering doing this, GO, it's the best trip you'll ever do!" How can you ignore advice like that.

So 8 days ago, I was standing on top of a 4500m pass in the Himalaya, 4 days ago I was in the 45 degree inferno called Delhi, 2 days ago I spent far more money on "gear" than I have ever before (and that's saying something), today I get on a bicycle for only the second time in 16 months and in 2 days from now I head off to start my adventure - biking 100km to Halifax so I can catch the plane out to Regina (sure it's cheating a little bit, I am missing all the Rockies, but as the team will attest, cycling lore says a Prairie headwind is worse than any mountain, and it's supposed to be pretty hilly around the north shore of Lake Superior, so I'm not taking it too easy, and besides, they've got 4 weeks extra training so I need to be cut a little slack).

From:

To:

Going To:

So enough of this typing nonsense, I've got some cycling to do. But make sure you all keep tuning in because the adventure is about to get a bit more exciting ;)

Shane

PS. As a sample: An analogy question: Warner + Point = WarPo as Warner + Taylor = ??? Hint, think a British-speaking witch... ;) (Love you E&L)

Distance: 0 km

Average speed: hopefully fast enough to keep up
Distance from Team: ≈ 5000 km
Start time: June 6th

End time: August 15th (?)0 km
Time on bikes: 0 hr 0 min (so far)