Canada Road Trip: The Pig's Town and Bug Hell

When we left Sudbury, the sun was going down. It didn't take too long before we were driving through complete darkness again. Even during the day, these drives were extremely monotonous. At night, it was hard to tell if you were actually moving or maybe just standing still in the middle of the road. Worried we would run out of gas before hitting Sault Ste. Marie, we stopped at a "trading post," which is what you get when you're no longer on the main highway. (That's a good indicator of how insignificant these towns were that we were visiting - we were relegated to secondary roads.) During our brief chat with the Canucks hat-wearing cashier, we learned that things like moose, bears and wolves crossed the road all willy-nilly round those parts. Which pretty much terrified me right before I was to take over driving duties.

But, we made it to our hotel in Sault Ste. Marie in one piece. But, sadly, it was a bit too late to go gallivanting around town. See, the reason we were in Sault Ste. Marie was to see if we could see Tyler Kennedy, aka Piggy.

TK - if you ever see this, I do truly enjoy you and cheer for you in earnest.

Okay. I'll admit to this only being my reason. Rob is just a good friend who goes along with my crazy sometimes. Our plan was to each wear TK t-shirts to a bar. Then magically TK would appear. But, by the time we pulled into the parking lot, I wasn't even willing to muster the energy to go out, even for some pig hunting.

Skip ahead to 1:10 to watch what made me choose Tyler Kennedy as my favorite Penguin. Adorable.

The next morning though, we did both don those Kennedy t-shirts and set out like a couple of real weirdos to explore a charming little stretch in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. After wandering for way too many blocks, I was starting to get hungry-cranky again. We passed the town's mall, and being that it had both an ATM and a Tim Horton's, we made our way inside. Apparently we were late to the party, because I think maybe all people from all of Sault Ste. Marie were already there.

I propose a change to this! Take out "naturally gifted"; sub in "where it's really nice."

There was a large table.

So we sat at it and drank our Tim Horton's.

Hello, America! (Our phones actually worked in Sault Ste. Marie cause we were so so close!)

We drove away from Sault Ste. Marie, where it's really nice, a little farther north, to Lake Ivanhoe, where we'd be camping that night. I love camping. I love sleeping in a tent. I love campfires. I love camp food. I like getting a little dirty and waking up with the sun. Rob...not so much. He was a real trooper though, especially when we learned that camping right next to a lake in northern Ontario would not be the most pleasant experience. There were more mosquitoes out than I have ever encountered. We had to retreat inside the tent well before the sun went down, because even with the fire and two citronella candles going, as well as bug spray reapplied an unhealthy number of times, we were getting attacked.

One of the trading posts we stopped into felt quite like home.

This is like Final Destination: Canada...

Here is Rob, in his "bug hell" attire, at Lake Ivanhoe.

Grilled cheese for dinner.

Beautiful, but also buggy as hell.

Why I love camping with Rob. Last year it was the Spaghetti Man dance, this year it was roasting two marshmallows on a candy stick. 

I woke up near 5:30 the next morning and forced Rob awake so we could escape bug hell. Our drive the next day was the opposite of exciting. We stopped in Timmins - Home of Shania Twain! - but mostly drove through (our only reason to be there was for only for coffee, donuts, free wifi, and gas - which would become a semi-ritual on this trip). We didn't bother stopping in Swastika, we just took pictures of the sign from the car. We found the World's Largest Hockey Puck. We set up camp at Algonquin Provincial Park, which had way fewer bugs.

Rough name, 'lil northern Canadian town.

We cannot be sure this is the world's largest, because it was quite underwhelming. The nickel was like four times this size.

We had another night of camping ahead, before it was back to civilization, onward to Ottawa.

2012: Definitely an Improvement

It's cliche, sure. But I cannot believe 2012 is already over. Tonight we usher in 2013, and I'm really excited. 2011 was a total bummer. I came into 2012 full of hope that it would be a better year, and it definitely was. (Truly though, the bar 2011 set was extraordinarily low.) I feel like the positive momentum of 2012 will carry into 2013 and whatever it has in store. As excited as I was for 2012, I'm just as excited for 2013.

In these final hours of the year, here's a look at some of my favorite moments and posts. 

I started the year by repeating a move that took me into the worse year of my life. I was a little anxious to kick 2012 off in the same way, but I figured I was more prepared and at that point mostly acting on gut decision.

Coming out of the Mon on New Year's Day. Love that this is becoming a tradition. Tomorrow will be my third jump in a row.

The brave souls who welcomed 2012 with an icy-cold dip in the river.

Ringing in 2012 with Rob and champagne and lots of dancing (and lots of '90s music).

Carrie and me at the river jump on New Year's Day.

There was hockey in 2012! Which, sadly, it seems like that may not be the case in the first half of 2013. I miss games! I miss my Pigman! I miss Tommy the Beer Vendor! I miss my hockey family!

Continued another good tradition of winter camping. I'm happy to have friends who thinking sleeping outside in the cold in a bag on the ground is terrific fun too.

Allie and I drove to Bethel Park, hometown of my youth, after Mitt Romney's Cookie-Gate broke, to pick up the most wonderful thing in the world: a Bethel Bakery cake. Oh, and we broke down and met a black pug named Petunia.

Hey, have you guys heard about how I like to bike and stuff?

My brother - my baby brother! - treated me to a night on the town. We went ate burgers. We saw a zombie musical. We went to a Halloween bar. It was pretty special.

My brother and me sitting in the splash zone in our ponchos at the zombie musical.

John took me on my first motorcycle ride. And I survived. (And I kinda loved it.)

Need a book to add to your list of things to read in 2013? I'd suggest a book about my new favorite Pittsburgher.

I may have missed out on the fireworks, but I think white-water rafting on the Fourth of July was a very American thing to do. (Beer on the river and jumping off a huge rock also seem that way too.)

Papa Rowland and me, at the Pirates Skyblast featuring Boyz II Men. 

I celebrated two years being back in the city. Is it weird that it's only now seeming permanent?

I. Rode. My Bike. To Washington D.C.

Dirty, scratched up legs on the C&O Canal.

Rode my bike to D.C., and then rode another bike past the White House.

I turned 29. I spent it in wonderful ways.

Celebrated my 29th birthday by going to an amusement park for kids.

I got to see and do some pretty super things because of biking this year. It's weird to think there was a time in my life when biking wasn't a huge part of it. Was I just bored all the time?

Trying to power up a blender to make margaritas at the Carrie Furnace. My long legs weren't long enough!

Made sure to sneak a trip up to The Hat this year too. Always a good thing. (Sneak Peek: There's a big adventure in the planning stages that combines two of my biggest loves.)

Found these dinos hiding up in Niagara Falls. (On the Canadian side, of course.)

My bloody knee after crashing my bike on Queen Street West in Toronto. (So embarrassing.)

Put my feet in Lake Ontario.

I stayed up all night riding bikes with a bunch of people I'd never really met! And it was a really really good experience. I can't wait to do it again next year.

Participants of the second leg of the DC-PGH 24-hour relay. (No one told me about the dress code!)

The Bloomfield Halloween Parade 2012.

We had a pretty epic fall this year. Thanks Mother Nature for the drought? Is that what happened? Whatever. It was so beautiful for so long.

Guys. This movie. This book.

Ross and I went to go see a Halloween laser show. It was not exactly what we expected.

I rode my bike 3,000 miles! (I was trying for 4,000 on a dare, but Australia and that whole lefthand-side of the road thing...)

Me and Corey at the Steelers-Eagles game. 

Someone thought it would be a good idea to put me on TV. Yeah. I know. I love hot dogs. (And I love WQED and Rick Sebak!!)

I went to Australia. And I had the best time.

Souvenir from a crazy night out in Melbourne.

And, finally, my biggest fans of 2012: baby Australian goats.

Happy (Belated!) Birthday, Blog!

Holy crap! The heat has definitely infected my brain, because I totally missed EverythingBetterPGH's birthday! I am not one to forget an anniversary (seriously, I celebrate the weirdest things every year because I can't forget the dates), so I feel kind of bad about this. Sorry, blog.

Let's celebrate!

I can't believe I've been doing this for a year now. It's been a very strange year for me personally. Only a handful of posts were published before my mom passed away, which means this blog exists in the shadow of that life-altering event. This was one of the hardest years of my life. For a long time there, nothing was going right. Every morning I woke up and wondered what horrible thing would happen that day. That's dramatic, I know. But seriously: In the span of a few weeks the following things happened to me: got in a bike accident with another biker and totally messed up my knee, was nearly assaulted (i.e., hit with an umbrella) when someone tried to steal my cellphone at a trolley stop in BETHEL PARK, and was the unfortunate person sitting next to the guy in the theater whose ladyfriend gave him a handy during Crazy Stupid Love.

I digress.

In order to survive the past year, I've had to live with a very "full throttle" attitude toward getting through the day to the next day to the next day until the day when I would stop being sad. I still don't know if I'm there yet, but I'm starting to really appreciate the present, which means I'm starting to slow down a bit. Living in the moment, and all other such sayings.

When I look back at these things I've written about or taken pictures of throughout the past year, I'm so so so glad I made myself keep this blog going. I have this awesome collection of memories now, and I can look at them and realize that through all the sad stuff, there was a heck of a lot of fun. In celebration of EverythingBetterPGH's first birthday, here are ten of those fun moments, ones that I would go back and relive in a heartbeat.

(In no particular order.)

Why Not? Biking Pittsburgh at Night with Flock of Cycles

Paddling Pittsburgh: Kayaking the Allegheny and the Ohio

Kennywood's Open (For Terror and Fun)

PGH's Best Night of the Year: The Bloomfield Halloween Parade

Halloween Miracle #2: STEELERS BEAT THE PATRIOTS

The Only Fear You Have to Overcome is Getting the Nerve to Do It

Malkamania: Penguins 8, Tampa Bay 1

Winter Camping Feels Like Spring to Me

Sitting in the Splash Zone: A Saturday Night on the South Side

My Idea of Vacation: The GAP and C&O - Days 3 & 4

Tonight, at midnight, I'm going to go see The Dark Knight Rises. I promised myself I would keep this blog going until I could write a post about seeing the movie that I watched being filmed on my streets.

I can't wait to write that post. And so many more after that.

Thank you for reading!

Winter Camping Feels Like Spring to Me

A couple weekends ago, I went camping. I tell people this, and they scoff. “Camping?! In this weather?!” Yes. Camping. In this weather, which ended up being cool and comfortable during our hike to camp on Saturday, and then beautiful, sunny, and pure springlike getting back to the car on Sunday. Overnight it was chilly, but we were equipped with cozy sleeping bags and a fire we kept going all night. You may recall that once Carrie and I started a fire that lasted into the morning with ONE MATCH on another camping excursion. This time around we didn’t even need a match at all. The embers were still going, and we were able to stoke it into a lovely blaze. Many smores were enjoyed.

All of the things I’m happy to be doing more of since I moved back, being more active in the outdoors is very near to the top of my list. Not that these sorts of activities weren’t available to me in Boston, but I take advantage of them far more here. With the Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail and the Great Allegheny Passage both fairly accessible, I’m in a nice little location where immersing myself in the woods for a couple days is totally possible. I’m routing my June bike trip to D.C. now and will continue to put sections of the LHHT behind me as the spring, summer and fall go on.

Here are some photos from the trip. You can see more on the Everything Better Pittsburgh Picasa page.

There’s something that clicks inside of me when I go camping. I get kicked into hyper-cleaning mode whenever I get home. I walked into the door of my place shortly before 6 p.m. that Sunday and scrubbed and swept and sorted. It was nice to sleep in my bed, but it was even nicer to wake up to a clean living room the next morning.