Iceland had been on my bucket list for a long time. After my reading and planning up front, it was still chock full of surprises. One mistake was hauling camping equipment, an extra 15 pounds that I used for one night, not out of necessity, but because it was a mild night. Rooms, although not in abundance, were available, even in remote areas. The weather was as expected, and I experienced some outrageous winds. The scenery exceeded my expectations as did the farm animals. If you do not want to read this extensive blog, my one recommendation is to at least view the photos of Iceland. I had a convenient direct flight from Iceland to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where my...

I wanted to do a bicycle tour in Europe and go through areas that I hadn’t been before. I looked at Norwegian Air’s schedule and picked a convenient place to fly into (Madrid, Spain) and to fly out of (Helsinki, Finland), and roughly measured the land distance along a probable route to be semi-confident that I could do it within a 3 month window. This was a no camping trip. Besides the flights in and out, my only other reservation pre-trip was my first few nights in Madrid. Talk about a wing and a prayer! This was a huge success. I ended up bicycling through 13 countries; Spain, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, Slovakia Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,...

DAY 1 - Jul 12th - Vancouver, British Columbia In case you haven't heard, I'm doing a bicycle tour. Left on July 11th, flew to Vancouver, BC with the help of two friends, Pete Simons and Tom Hanson. Initial plan was to bike over Whistler, head northeast, up the Alaska Highway, maybe reach Fairbanks, down to Anchorage, etc., etc. That plan has changed just a bit. A few days before I left, many inland areas of BC are on fire. Go to plan B. Biking up Vancouver Island to Port Hardy, ferry to Prince Rupert, then biking east toward Prince George and up the Stewart Cassiar Highway. Lucky I'm flexible. I arrived in Vancouver late at night, biked a little, took...

#1 My European bicycle tour has gotten off to an inauspicious start. With the help of two good friends, I got my large bicycle box, another slightly smaller box, myself, and two carry-ons up to LAX in plenty of time for the song and dance routine that the TSA puts you through and to board Norwegian Air's 787 Dreamliner. "Dream" would be the key word here. Things were going well as I boarded a pretty full plane and got a seat next to a comely Norwegian girl. I noticed the little hi-tech screen in front of me had a good selection of movies. Then we backed away from the gate. After maybe 200 yards, I began chewing some gum in order...