Bulgaria Update

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It is getting colder in Bulgaria, but even though the leaves are all starting to fall to the ground it is still just as beautiful as colorful trees. The rolling hills, trees, villages, and back roads have Chris and I driving and driving, just wanting to see more. Each village has such an individual personality, and the houses vary in slight ways from village to village. We are now staying in a village about 6 km from the last village we were staying at. It is a very small village named Osikovo, with a single road in and out. Every morning at exactly 8:30 one of the villagers walks the goats of the village that he 'nannies' past our door and into the hills for food, water, and roaming space. It is a simple, yet very foreign way of life compared to anything we have seen in the states. As winter closes in huge piles of wood appear in front of houses and slowly you see more and more people out cutting and storing away wood for the winter. Many houses go through anywhere from 5-10 tons of wood a winter, and wood stoves are all that is used aside from a rare electric heater in a house that can afford it. Villages thrive on supplying themselves and the nearby villages with what everyone needs. Bulgaria itself is very proud of the fact that it does not import much, if anything, and is much more involved with exporting goods as well as supplying itself with its own goods. Springs are clattered all over the country side as well as in ALL the villages. And the natural water springs are never barren of people! It is a gorgeous site, we love the springs here.
Almost every house has its own garden and animals that provide them with the bulk of their food, and what people don't have they trade among themselves for. Bartering is very huge in the villages, trading your home grown tomatoes for a bit of cnpnhe (pronounced "Seer-i-neigh") which is goats cheese, is much more common then paying for it. Walnuts are in abundance everywhere, and every tree that is not on personal property (and sometimes even the ones that are) is free game for anyone gathering walnuts, which is most of all the villages. There is a tree right outside from the land we are watching over and about twice maybe three times a day people come by with bags searching for fallen walnuts. Here in the villages the residents collect walnuts and sell them for 1-2 Lev (Bulgarian Dollar) a kilo, which works out to equalling roughly 50 cents to a dollar U.S. money. A friend of ours who also lives in Osikovo takes care of his Baba (Grandma) and his cousin by collecting walnuts, finding odd jobs around the village, and cutting and stacking wood for people. He comes by regularly and gives us Bulgarian “lessons”, drinks beer, and teaches us little things about the nearby villages and villagers.
Chris and I have enjoys the local wine and beer, home made and store bought. Beer here is dirt cheap and rather good so we have had to restrain ourselves and practice self-control :D.
As for the kids Soeren is loving all the animals that he sees EVERYWHERE and is learning Bulgarian as well as expanding his ever growing english, the Bulgarians and English folks that know him call his language 'Soerenski'. Ave is growing like crazy and took three steps on her own the other day! She is loving all the friendly Babas and guys the love to pick her up, give her massive amounts of attention, and talk nonsense to her.

I will update more as soon as we have a more steady supply of internet. Which will be within the next month or so, fingers crossed!Photos on Facebook!

As Promised..

PICTURES!!! Facebook is much easier and quicker when it comes to photos so here is the link.


Sorry no big update right now, I am having a beer called Kamenitza at the local pub, with some great people! :)

Culture Shockish

Our family journeys across Europe have begun, first stop Bulgaria!!

I had an advantage in terms of Bulgarian culture shock since I lived 4+ years in Puerto Rico with my family. Upon our arrival to Bulgaria I kept saying “wow...this looks familiar”, of course Bulgaria isn't Puerto Rico, this was mainly just an easy way for me to adjust to such a different environment. Chris had a bit more “Culture Shock” then me, which I think has to do with this Puerto Rico advantage I held. After jet lag and adjusting passed we had a fun couple days at a first annual music festival in the Village of Voditsa, where we met many travelers, foreigners, and locals alike. I think Soeren-Raedek came close to meeting as many, if not more people then we did, as he was constantly high fiving people I had merely smiled in passing to. Our email contact list is much fuller then it was a week and a half ago when we arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria I can say that much. Even on our train ride from Sofia to Voditsa we met a wonderful guy named Angel whom certainly lived up to his name. Angel told us quite a bit about the area and helped welcome us to Bulgaria with tips and first person info. (It was a 5 hour train ride and Angel was riding with us for 4 of those hours...so you can only imagine how much we all talked!)

Even though we haven't been here but a week and a half it feels like 3 or more! We have been taking in so much of the culture, the language and getting to know our hosts better. So far our work has contained of husking walnuts (which we will be doing more of the rest of our time here), relocating mud bricks, taking down the festival site, removing a vegetative menace simply called “creeper”, piling firewood, gathering vegetables, cleaning and preparing a future “rocket stove” site, and more. In the following days and weeks we will be doing much of the same things and more, this rocket stove is the big project ahead of us, it is an L shaped mud brick oven about 2+ feet or so high, that has a channel down the center of it where the smoke passes through, thus if sat on will also double as a warm bench to sit on. I will of course know MUCH more about it by the end of the week. I will also be taking pictures of the progress to post here on my blog.

One thing every single Gendron family member loves so far about Bulgaria is the farmers/shepherds, that walk their cows, sheep, or goats, up our street every day. Most of them take their herd to the field on a hill nearby (where the festival site was located) to let the animals graze and get fresh spring water for awhile. It is awesome to see and hear the shepherds yelling and guiding their large herds around! I get a kick out of it every time, I love it!

As for our communication with the world outside of the Village of Voditsa we will be trying to make posts or at least small updates every couple weeks (give or take), all depending on how busy we are and how motivated we are on our non-volunteering days (days off, if you will). Even though we haven't been here long our days off have been spent going to the nearby larger city of Popovo, spelled in Bulgarian as; Попово.

We will try to be updating at our earliest convenience! We have internet available to us, it just all depends on when we get around to getting on the interweb! 

Thanks for wanting to keep updated as well as reading!! I am going to need to resize the pictures because they are all to big to be uploaded quick enough - I will do a follow up post with pictures as soon as they are ready! Sorry! :( Here is the one picture that uploaded:

Soeren getting walnuts out of a barrel.

Well...gosh summer...just FLY by why don't you...

So I have been so wrapped up in this summer, and the kids, and the changes, and the fun, and the me time, and the not-me time, and a little biking, and a lot of swimming, and seeing Canada, and eating, and people, and waterfalls, and rivers, and lakes, and work, and gardening, and gosh....

I haven't posted even half as much as I had wanted to.....which then just makes posting even harder because of ALL the updating!

Nevertheless, our summer in Maine is coming to an end, there have been so many ups and downs and ALMOST a whole revamping of what we were doing. Big questions are bound to come at us though, and their happening just affirms and reaffirms what we really want to do, and we are certainly doing just that!!

We are leaving in September as has been the long awaited plan for our overseas adventure! We will be participating in organic farming, as well as participating in festivals, and hopefully helping and lending our hands to more then just a couple people. This summer of 2012 has been packed with constant correspondence with our hosts as well as preparing for our upcoming journey. We are taking our bikes, but won't be hauling and trekking like we were on our last trip. Most all of the trains in Europe are inexpensive and easy to load our bikes onto, So most biking will be done in the areas we are staying as well as hopping to nearby farms/homesteads.

Chris and I are excited to say the least, we love living our life rather minimalistic, and enjoy expanding upon experiences. As our world grows we hope to meet more and more people on the same path we are on, traveling simply, learning, and helping others. Traveling and going new places, seeing things you only see in pictures, has always been farfetched and unrealistic, which is just a story lots of people can't see through.
(Fines, fugitives, and other legal issues that would stop you from getting a visa or passport aside...) If you TRULY want to travel, you can. If you really want to live your life a certain way, do it. There my very mini-soapbox moment.

On another note, I take SO MANY pictures, so sifting through them to find the ones I want for Facebook, or the blog is work. Here are just a couple of the kids this summer, it is so hard to correctly document how much they have grown without uploading like 50!

Ave is in the beginnings of crawling and coasting, Soeren-Raedek is talking like no other and already counting, and while Rion was here we couldn't get him out of the water (mind you when he arrived he didn't want anything to do with it).

We will be super busy packing and seeing people this next two weeks, but I will try to post a blog update before we go.

At it again!

Last weekend Chris and I hit the road for our longest ride in awhile. It has gotten crazy since summertime hit us, and now that both our bikes have been back from the shop and all tuned, aligned, and working we needed to go for a ride. We went unloaded which was a change from our days on the tour, we always love that. Next time we would like to have a SAG wagon, and already have a couple willing people :).  I will put the statistics for the ride at the bottom of the blog, and if that doesn't work I will post a link for our ride!

It was a beautiful, awesome, wonderfully perfect ride!! The weather could not have been better, it was overcast and nice and cool outside. It had rained the day before, and looked like it would rain that day too, but we didn't get any rain on our ride. We finished in under 3 hours, as well as stopped at a corner store for some curly fries about a mile or 2 from the house! Both Chris and I as well as the kids were hungry! Unfortunately for you guys I did not bring my camera to capture our ride, I went hands free, bringing nothing but my water bottles! There were some amazing view I will have to capture another day.

Here is the link to our route, along with elevation and hill data!


The site is Ridewithgps, we used this quite a number of times on our cross-country trip. The site would give us a heads up on what could be expected for the different routes and roads we would be planning to take. Some days however, we just liked to wing it, and manage the hills as they came.


I am going to be blogging on here a bit more again, as I get the time to. There are pictures I want to share as well. I hope everyone is having a good summer so far!

OH - and if you run your mouse over the hills on the bottom of the map you can see the elevation, and grade percentage of the road we took!

From Long Beach, Ca to Carroll, IA

Necessity is making me write a blog post. Everyone is wondering what happened, and what is going on, and I have been dragging my feet. Sorry SORRY.

First off, the kids are fine, I am fine and Chris is doing well.

Here is our catastrophic ending.

It was the first day we had actually ridden IN rain (April, 12th), and with the rain came more wind, but we trekked on in the weather for the last 20 of our 45 miles to Carroll. We biked through some beautiful trails on the Sauk Trail, starting in Lake View going all the way to Carroll. As we turned the last turn of the day, at an intersection in the town of Carroll, I heard a huge 'crack' come from behind me, followed by a grating sound. I got a crazy adrenaline rush just imagining what could have just happened, as Chris and I automatically got into the grass on the side of the road. Profanities were coming from both of us as we stood over his bike and saw that his derailleur was on the opposite side of the bike as it was supposed to be, jammed into his cassette. Due to a stupid little bungie cord. We immediately found help from some very kind individuals to the nearest hotel - which began our search of how to go about fixing this catastrophe.

Even though these don't even begin to capture the damage...they are better then nothing. Here are some pictures.

After two days of searching, (with the help of the hotel, and bike shops in different towns in Iowa - who then called practically every bike shop in the Iowa/midwest area), and Chris' back pain throbbing from being jolted by his chain, things were looking grim. On closer inspection even more of his bike was broken then we had first seen on the side of the road, his rear fender, tire and spokes were looking bad, as well as possible hub damage. Our lodging and food costs plus the loss of days we would have to take on were adding up to to much. Crunching numbers we were finding that even a last minute jump to get from Iowa to Maine was cheaper then staying for another two days looking for parts, not to mention the actual assembly and labor charges! The amount of money, time, and resources we needed to get the bike fixed in Iowa didn't work with our money, time, and resources. We would rather see it all go to charity, or to helping people.  Such little response for such a huge charity drive had been rubbing Chris the wrong way. Since he was the one who had put so much effort in getting the word out through different venues many months before we set out on the journey, his spirit was downcast. Our adventure however was just that - our adventure. So ultimately we chose to do what we found best.

Carroll, wasn't our intended stop, but apparently it was where we were ending. We had a good ride and a wonderful experience (weather aside), but we were sad to see it end when it did. I am secretly planning a "tour 2.0" to revisit the areas we missed by having to come to Maine earlier then we planned.  

But here were are, in northern Maine. Planning and plotting our next adventure. I will be updating our day trips and multi-day adventures in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes these coming months.

Q/A

Here is a Q/A blog post! Thanks to Yaribeth for the awesome questions. Hope it is informative!

What prompted you to go on this trip?
Long answer: I have wanted to travel. I have wanted to experience different ways of life, see the world as it truly is, and go to places other people don't or won't. Ever since I had my baby boy, Soeren, I have wanted him to see everything possible, and not be limited by living how a single society sees fit! Now that I have Ave this view still stands true! As long as we are all healthy and happy (which to me is partially reliant on what we do and how we do it!) I will keep bringing my children with me, and going on adventures of this magnitude. I discovered Charity: Water - which is the charity that we are riding cross country for, and it fell perfectly in place for a main reason for this trip. As the trip progresses our view of water is defining itself more and more, our personal intake of water is highlighted as we are on the road and have no regular source of water, and are much more conscious of when where and how we get water. We don't always know when we will be somewhere to shower, even just finding places to fill our 6 water bottles proves itself time consuming - imagine having to walk miles and miles to fill much more then 6 water bottles and carrying the water back over those same miles. (As well as not having handy bike bottle racks to place them in - let alone delicious clean water!) Luckily finding water in the U.S. this is not terribly hard for us.
Sorry about such a long answer! Short answer: This trip embodies what I strive for, for my children, my life and at the moment raising funds for Charity: Water.

Why now? having a baby and toddler in tow?
Why not? I mean really, there is no better time in my mind. We wanted this trip, and have been working toward it for plenty of time. Our children are still younger than school-age, which makes it easy in that aspect. I am no longer carrying Ave within my womb, so that right there is perfect to me! It is tough, I will not deny that, but it is a fun and rewarding tough - just like parenting itself. This is the way of life we want to embark on, so to me the question could be the same for anyone living the polar opposite of us.

How did you prepare for the journey?
Lots of talking, lots of research, and more; research. We researched many different routes, the perfect supplies to purchase, the safest carrier for the kids, the weather (which you can only take with a grain of salt), our charity, EVERYTHING! We also took quite a bit of time talking, planning, shopping, and working with the biking community in Seattle, they were behind our crazy adventure the whole time and knew what it was like to pursue something this large and important. The number one thing I suggest if anyone wants to bike, find a good bike shop, frequent it, and ask a million questions!!!! The Bicycle Repair Shop in Seattle was our savior on many occasions - for questions parts, ideas and more!

How did you prepare financially, and how is it working out?
Well we are still in the thick of it so this answer will be as complete as it can be with that in mind. Preparing was done by again, more research. Researching the right products to buy and finding exactly what we needed and nothing more. We already lived frugally, so saving enough for the trip just took patience, as well as executing the trip at the right time and place.
As for how it is working, we are doing well for how far into the trip we are. And I will give you this much; food is expensive no matter where you are, and on the road we need A LOT of it. :D

What did you do with all your things back in Washington?
We donated, donated, donated, donated, donated, donated, donated, and sold the rest. I emphasize the 'donated' because I cannot even count the amount of trips we (mostly Chris) took to the Goodwill Store. We also gave things to friends and family that were of very large sentimental value, as well as shipped a few flat rate boxes of items ahead to different spots on our route, and to our destination in Maine. Those boxes contained things like bigger clothes that were special for the kids to wear, important documents, items that belonged to Chris' parents, photographs that we wanted a physical copy of, a couple family heirlooms, and that is about all.

What did you pack?
OH wow. We originally packed the following in 6 bike saddlebags, two backpacks, and the chairot:
Sleep system: tent, tent footprint, double sleeping bag, sleeping bag liner, two inflatable sleeping pads, two foam sleeping pads, four blankets, and a pillow. (We were trying to be prepared for cold nights.)
Clothing: both Chris and I have two sets of biking pants, long john pants, two biking tee-shirts, and a long sleeve tee-shirt, a long sleeve water resistant under-jacket, a windproof/waterproof jacket, 3 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of underwear (Chris has just 2 boxer briefs), a pair of tennis shoes, and a pair of waterproof hiking shoes , two pairs of padded biking shorts, - the kids have roughly the same amount of clothes as us.
Cook system: a lightweight cook stove, a pot and frying pan, two cups and two plates, a small set of utensils, several bags of dried foods,
Misc.: books for Soeren, playing cards, four stuffed animals (2 are real small), reflectors, bike lights, my violin, Chris' guitar, backpack, stuff sacks, diapers, tool bag with assorted bike tools, extras of bike parts, bike locks, camera, phone, assorted charging devices, medical bag, a slim amount of toiletries.
I am probably leaving something (or two) out, if I remember I will edit it in.
 
Is there anything you wished you would have packed or packed more of?
Definitely didn't need to pack more. Even though it may not seem like we packed much it was/is quite a bit of weight and takes up space. Since we set out on March first we have sifted through our gear and bags many times, and up till now we have eliminated 50+ pounds of stuff we didn't need and didn't use! That is a lot of weight, especially on bicycle.

How often do you stop to breastfeed, change diapers, eat, etc?
We usually stop after 2-3 hours in the morning, because the kids are still sleepy they pass out in the morning for awhile. Then after our first stop it is roughly 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hours between stops. We don't have to go over 2 stops a day though, because we try not to plan out our days that long. We have had to take a couple weeks to get in a groove of what worked best for our family, now we have a good system down. The kids and us have adjusted and understand our limits better since we first started! Another thing we do is we group all the reasons for stopping into each stop, and we have gotten good at maximizing time on the road and during stops!

How are the kids on the ride?
They get better everyday. They have had to adjust a little bit to being on the road, but they are doing really well. Soeren understands that each time we stop he can raise hell and run wild, then when its time to get back on the road its time to get back on the road. We all have had to adjust to such a big trek, all morphing and adjusting to one others needs even more then if we are all just at home. On good days we are off the road by 2, in which case we can stroll, play, rest, eat, and whatever else we find to do together at the end of the road.

When you do stop, do you stay with family and friends?
Sometimes we do, but of course we don't have have family and friends evenly spread out every 50 miles for us. So we stay with them when and where we can, but we also camp at state parks, RV campgrounds, city parks that allow it (which is one nice thing about Kansas, it is allowed and is by donation only), inns, hotels, etc.


Do you miss home cooked meals? Being a Vegan is it hard to find food on the go?

Oh yes. We get home cooked meals anytime we stay with family and friends. As well as whenever we are staying places that have the amenities, and it is always a feast when we do! It is hard being vegan on the road, it is hard. We have to just grab whatever we can, and make sure we have enough to be eating constantly. It has been rough finding things in small town after small town, but we will be getting to bigger towns easier and faster the rest of the trip so that difficulty should ease up a little. Food is so important because it seems that is all we do on the road - eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. To quote a great guy, "calories, calories, calories,... water, water, water".

Is there an end date in sight?
Yes, and no. Yes, there is an end date to our current cross country tour; we are ending the first week of June in the city of Bar Harbor, ME, on the southeast side of Maine.
No, because we are planning out more adventures to keep us busy after we are done with this one.

Tell me about the things you guys are seeing/experiencing in regards to the world around you that you never thought about in that way (being on bikes on the open road).
This is something I have wanted to write about so many times. Sometimes I catch myself just talking and thinking and coming up with answers for problems I see in my head, and seeing light bulbs turn on in my mind. As we pedal through towns, land, trees, plains, etc. I wish that I had some type of recorder to record all the things I come up with "on the road" because they certainly are fleeting once we stop somewhere and have other things to do.
BUT anyway, it is amazing how real and stark differences are, that were not so noticeable before looking out from the seat of a bicycle. Like how lower class communities look grouped up and 'stuck' on the outer-sides of the towns or cities. Like how much litter is REALLY on the street sides, everywhere, every town, every street! Even though there are "Adopted highways/roads" signs for litter control, it is still all over.
On this trip we get to experience 20x more then just driving through. For example the other day while riding through Kansas we had a group of antelope running along side us for a mile or so! They would get further ahead then stop and watch us till we caught up, then start running again; it was beautiful, and just one of the many things we get to experience each day we are on the road. I feel like we get to see a little glimpse of what attracted people to the different places we go.
Another thing that just makes my heart throb, is when Soeren-Raedek wakes up from a nap somewhere new and the first thing he says is "OHHhhh WOOWWW!" and begins looking around. I love that even though he is 2 years old and may not retain long-term memory of the events he sees and the things he gets to experience on this trip - he is still interacting with it now, and it is affecting his responses and development, and smiles, and it is shaping his character. I love it. Ave on the other hand is just a bundle of love and smooches :D.

That is all for now, I didn't receive any additional questions for this post. I thought the questions were great though. Thanks for taking the time to read, please leave a comment - let me know what I should do for other posts! Or what you liked/didn't like. Love feedback.

Can't predict it all..

but we should have followed our guts...

maybe...

Our plans have changed quite a bit since we first arrived in Superior, AZ. We were going to spend a day off here in little Superior and hit the road again. Unfortunately it seems funky/bad weather is following us around, and Superior sucked us in and got us waiting out the storm instead of rushing out and beating it. We would have been one step ahead of it each day we were on the road, and by today we were projected to be in New Mexico (which is seeing some storms as well, not to mention Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas - all places on our route). Hindsight is 20/20, and now even though the worst of the storm is ending we are sitting, with our face in our hands, stuck between two snow covered mountains. Not ideal. Plus the threat of having the same storm get pushed back around and give Superior a second dose and us more off days, is even more disheartening.

So instead we are going to make a jump up north - out of the storms for now. Hopefully for good. That way we will be able to ride again, as well as make up for all these days off due to weather.

Chris and I have had to adjust to things we would never have perceived, that is part of the appeal to what we are doing and where we are going. However we do have kids and even though Chris and I would LOVE to bike through the storm, and roll on our intended path - its not so practical with the babies.

SO this is how it is...

We are hopping up north to Colorado Springs (via Avis) and rerouting to Omaha and back on our original track. Omaha is where we are going to see my AWESOME brother Zach (ONE of the greatest uncles of all time). That way we can slip out of this southern storm frenzy, and most importantly get back on our bikes!!! We have had a bunch of ups and downs here in Superior, but we are hoping the wind will be at our back in Colorado Springs and the rest of our trip will be 'crazy weather' free!!!

BTW

I totally have awesome Superior Arizona hail footage, and adorable pictures of the little ones to upload so keep checking back!!!!!! In the meantime here is a picture of Soeren-Raedek having some dessert!

Gulp gulp

Huh...you are taking a picture...what...

 

lazy

Note to self;

blog...more.

So much to say, not enough energy.

74.6 day! Wow! As insane as that was, we like 45 better lol.
I am going to update with a bunch of pictures today to get you up to speed. We have been to quite a few places since my last real blog post. We have ridden over 400 miles now!!! I was going to be all cool and figure out a percentage of the trip that we have covered thus far - but the internet we are using is SO slow and I am on the verge of just trashing all the pictures I am attempting to upload right now.

Make sure to read the captions, it will get you updated on what I haven't been able to post.
Well we are off to bed after today and the pounding our rumps took :D

Here are the pictures.

We've had...

Orange groves, and beautiful desert mountains.

Crazy hills, and wonderful weather.

Great people, and not so great people.

Missing roads, and amazing downhills.

Lakes, camping, old schoolhouses, and lots of trains!

More info coming soon...

Of course lots of awesome pictures too...

Sunny California

So I was going to write out a whole detailed and elaborate blog about the last week and the last couple days, but instead I will do a short recap.
Our family had quite the hectic last week in Seattle, getting ready, fine tuning our bags, and what we were taking, boxing up our bikes, planning out our riding, and so on. That aside, we are off on the road now!! We flew from Seatac to Long Beach Airport on March first, the plane ride went really well. It was just a short 2 hour flight, Soeren-Raedek and Ave did great. The LBA is just a tiny airport, so we walked around a corner or two and were outside at baggage claim in sunny beautiful Cali, where I organized our panniers, Chris assembled our bikes, Soeren ran around in the sun and made friends with security guards, and Ave slept like a little angel. We of course were full of the excitement of the day!
Once we got everything assembled and ready, we headed out to our first destination, in Orange. The weather was perfect and we made a few stops along the way for the kids, and map checking to make sure we were on the right track, (we found out later that evening we could have taken a quicker much simpler route, haha..oh well). As for how we rode it was a mix of both bike lane riding, bike/jogging trail riding, and back roads.
We stayed the evening with a beautiful, and incredible couple, David and Maria. We ate, ate, and drank, drank, and went to bed early! The next day we were lucky enough to be accompanied by David most of the way on our day number two. He is one tough rider, he has a huge kind heart that shows in his face!! We certainly enjoyed our time together, Dave even asked to carry some of our weight for us. We were spoiled by him from the first minute to the last, he even pointed out the sites and gave us some history facts!!
The second day of riding was not quite as easy breezy as the first day, it was a windy windy ride!! Head wind the entire way, (there was even a high wind report for the Santa Ana area). The route on day two was mostly on the Santa Ana River Trail, with the last couple miles on a road bike lane. The trail was nice and smooth riding -minus the pushy winds.
Here is the route we've taken so far:


View Larger Map

And here are some pictures of the journey the past couple days:

The last days, whittling down the stuff

Packing bikes

Long Beach Airport getting ready

Adorable lady waiting and watching us clean

Look! ducks!

Awesome Dave on his tandum bike

Snacking and changing diapers

Hi!!

Look at those shoes!

We arrived, and they are OUT!

We've been busy bikers!

 

The two cuties passed out a few miles into our ride to Alki Beach. They do real good, Soeren is pretty talkative and into the ride when he is awake! Ave is talkative too when she is awake, but its usually because she wants something - aka Mommy time! We have been working on balancing our mileage and our breaks and stops, making sure the kids are fine and happy, - I'd say we are doing well and off to a good start. Plus it helps that Chris and I have been spot on with our communication, biking has actually sharpened that for us so far. I think that it is because we are in the moment, riding, talking, pointing, following each other, and deciding together. Also having each other to look out for, as well as the kids, keeps us triply (haha) aware of what is happening, and where we are heading. (All in all I think we make an awesome team! Can't you tell?)

Here's our set up - minus my panniers. Aren't we cute? BTW the kids are in there...still asleep.

The views from our ride to Alki

Chris heard some seals! They were out by one of the boats, I couldn't get a good shot of them with my camera though.

 

 We also went to Whidbey and back! 31 miles on day one, and 49 miles on day two! For a total of 80 miles that weekend! Unfortunately we left much later then originally planned on our first day, so to make it to the park and set up our tent before it got to late we hopped a bus the last 18 miles to the park. Here is the route so you can check it out!!

View Larger Map

  Here are some pictures of the adventure as well!

A park we found just past Shoreline. Soeren was happy to walk around and go down the slide.

MMmmmm the glorious ferry! We finally made it!

Hello! Hello!

Sivananda and Daddy setting up the tent, at South Whidbey State Park.

 We found out on the way out of the park the next day that they actually have special biker/hiker campgrounds that are supposed to have a nice view overlooking the water. Too bad they weren't on the map...oh well.

Getting the kids all cozy for big day 2! And hilly Whidbey.

Stopped for lunch after that nice big hill coming up from the ferry docks! Whoooweee.

I have more fun rides to update the blog on! But they will have to wait for another day. My lovely Siva has been getting his baby canines in, and of course, the countdown has begun for our departure date so things have been busy busy busy!! We are very excited for the trip, and excited to share our adventures with you as well!! Keep checking back! I will try to post eack new blog to Facebook, so that it is a little easier to follow, but on the off chance I don't poke your head in ever once in awhile!

First Family Ride

Yesterday was our first family ride. I have been kind of swamped with things around the house lately, but I just wanted to show some pictures and update a little bit while I could.  The past couple days Chris and I have been riding solo when we could. However, yesterday and today we have been able to go on long rides all together, since Chris got all adjusted to feel of the chariot. Here are two pictures of the babies all cozy.

Tomorrow however...dun dun dun! Is the big trip to Whidbey and back!

And sorry, its late and I want to get this post up...so sideways pictures it is!

Let The Adventure Begin

So myself, along with my beautiful family, are finally hitting the road on the adventure of our lives. Something that has been in the works for a very long time, and it is finally beginning to take place. WELL, it is already taking place. We are leaving on a cross country tour, across the U.S.A.! Yes, a trans-America voyage. We have planned and researched, and prepared, and educated, and discussed, and found our local biking community, found our local biking peeps, and read, and read. Pros and cons flying left and right, but support has been consistent with everyone we have talked to. ESPECIALLY in the biking community here in Seattle.

We still have things to get, and items to prepare. But it feels good. We feel good! As well as prepared, aside from a few miniscule possessions we need to acquire. We are going into this with a clear head, willing to take criticism, as we know will come for such a trip. It is not something everyone is jumping up to do, although lots more people are riding bikes, as well as touring, not many tot their whole families along behind them (Though some are! I will be listing some of their blogs for your reading pleasure a little later!). That is why we are willing to listen and adapt important points into our adventure that were not brought to our attention or to the forefront of our attention before. Us traveling with the kids is a big question mark in alot of peoples minds. We wouldn't do it if we didn't feel secure with our decision, nor if felt we were endangering them. We would all have a large risk of getting in a car accident if we were to travel cross country in a vehicle - but no one would have as much to say concerning this mode of travel, since it is more widely accepted. We are taking the best gear to be seen, planning our days out to keep a health amount of time off the road/trail, and in our opinion bought the best trailer safety wise (here is just a little information on the chariot: http://www.chariotcarriers.com/english/html/safety_and_testing.php ), as well as many many many hours put into a route that will be safe and dependable. THEY are our first priority, period, dot, end of story. :D

Thank you for reading. I know this is kind of getting cut short, and there is so much more that I need to say and update the blog on. I will write another entry with more links and information on our trip plans, as well as the items we have purchased/received, and those we have yet to get!!!

Our Gorgeous Girl Is Here!

YES! It felt like FOREVER. Really, I thought I was going to be pregnant forever - time was passing so slowly and I kept thinking it would drag on till I died of misery. I exaggerate not. This little girly was heavy, my lower back was burning and pinching constantly, which meant that I certainly was not sleeping. Aside from the physical pain I was having this time around I was so mentally exhausting towards the end (both from feeling like I was stuck in a never-ending pregnancy, and from the horrendous amount of baby brain I had). Carrying a girl was so different from a boy, at least for me there was stark differences. I had heartburn after eating pretty much anything, and my swelling was worse then when I was carrying Soeren. My stomach was queasy and I tended to get nauseous if I smelled or tasted something that wasn't to my nose/stomachs liking. In the beginning of the pregnancy I was completely nauseous all the time, I never threw up, it was just that constant miserable nausea. Little Missy was quite a mover! She was moving a lot, all the way through my labor and delivery too.

As the last month was ticking away I was making sure to enjoy my last moments with Soeren-Raedek, the best that I could. Happily enjoying our time together before the little baby came. I took him to different places to play and explore while I could, in anticipation of the weeks where we wouldn't be getting out as much. It definitely helped the transition for me, because I was able to slow down and think about how things were going to [possibly] be (since I didn't know how it would be to have two little ones with me, I had to imagine to the best of my ability). He transitioned very well but that is for a different post. I am trying to briefly recap on a couple things and I will try to elaborate on a few later!



Wow, so I am just dragging on as well as being a little bit of a Negative-Nancy over here. SO on to the labor, which was a faster and easier scenario -- and quite an easy story to tell actually! My water broke at 8:30PM and I began steady contractions at roughly 10:00, they progressed evenly and nicely from 10 minutes apart, to 2-3 minutes apart by 12:00. I tried getting in the shower at that point, it felt nice, but I was so worried it would cut out my contractions like it had with Soeren-Raedek that I didn't like the feeling of my worry, so I hopped on out. That is when it started getting hard and they were coming quick so there was less time for me to recover in between. As the intensity rose I felt nauseous, but I didn't vomit like I had when I was at that point of intensity with Soerens labor. Then with quite a bit of support and a lot of people (Autumn, Chris and the birth assistant) to push and strain on. I was in a sitting position when she was born (same as when Soeren was born), at 2:45AM on the 26th of December 2011. She is so much more then I could have ever pictured or made up in my mind those months and months waiting to see her beautiful face. My heart bursts with the love I feel. I love my gorgeous baby girl so much.

So much is ahead of us, but also so much is with us and happening right now. I am in love with my babies, and in love with enjoying the time I have with them - the crazy and quiet moments equally. Even though quiet moments don't happen very often, they happen, and and that's all it takes for me to love the crazy moments just as much!

Where am I!?

This was originally supposed to be posted towards the end of October.. I don't remember the exact reason I never ended up posting it. As you can tell it kind of abruptly ends, so I probably had more to say and then forgot to come back and post it. Smart. Haha I will be writing a better update post here very very soon. To update on the lovely new baby :D !!!! 

***** 

SO two months seems like a long long time. Two months seems like an eternity at this point, to wait to get my brain back, my body back, and my life back to a semi-normal state. NOT saying I would want to go back on this pregnancy or anything like that in the slightest, it will just be nice to have a good long (possibly forever) break after baby #2. Beautiful baby #2, whom I am so anxious to meet that it is starting slow down time.
When you are pregnant your mind and brain function so differently, call it "baby brain", or "pregnancy brain", whatever you call it - it sucks. It doesn't go back to normal after birth either, it is definitely not the same, but you still will never have the same brain so to say. Which is kind of creepy, its like all the hormones and chemicals hijack your brain and swish it around however they please. Kind of like you went crazy and used a bunch of heavy drugs or something. Personally, this second round has been annoyingly worse, AND I know from experience that it will end, but it still has me stuck and 'dumb'founded.
Needless to say, this "baby brain" has me irritated. I want to debate and read and think through things clear headed, and in the same manner I used to. But my brain literally feels like mush, so you can imagine that does numbers on the ego. Mix this with my personality, and I find myself getting upset at people because they aren't interacting with me how I want them too - how they used to! I also am quite good at getting vibes from people, whether talking to them or not. During pregnancy however, I think I am cracking down hard on myself, because I have been feeling a lot of pregnant-ism, or stereotyping of the fact I am pregnant, or just flat out judging me as having nothing to say - 'cuz I'm just pregnant.

On other happier, not so self-pitying notes:
Soeren-Raedek is walking like a champ - EVERYWHERE. He jumped right out of the "I'll walk when I want to/crawling is faster" phase. Now he rarely crawls, unless he is playing by himself with toys, or if he for some odd reason wants to crawl on the wet sidewalks.
He is always hungry hehe, and has turned into quite the toddler attitude boy.
He has realized he can draw  -  he has been scribbling for quite some time, since he was about 12 months, but now he has been intentionally drawing things, coloring, writing, and the like. He has the best form to when holding writing utensils! It is quite astounding.