Monday, 24 December 2007

On the benefits of fuss-budgeting and maps

It is entirely possibly that I am something of a fuss-budget. However, I prefer to see it as active foresight. I mean, I know I could easily ship my bike back from Deer Lake without a bike box. However, if one has (as I do) a sister and her fiancé in the area, it makes sense to make inquiries about their willingness to support my crazy expedition. This blog is about thinking about the trip and I know some of my thoughts are niggly and petty concerns. However, writing about them helps me deal with my anxieties and even fears. A little fuss now, can save fuss later. Fuss-budgeting in a skewed sense of budgeting one's fuss. ;-)

And having fussed three weeks ago, or at least pondered the concern, I was able to deal with it by talking to my sister and her fiancé when they were here about two weeks ago. It seems that they are in Corner Brook fairly frequently and were very open to the idea of procuring me a bike box and hauling it back to their house. As for the pedal wrench issue, my sister said that the locals were only too pleased to lend tools and therefore getting a suitable tool wouldn't be an issue.

On another topic entirely, I believe I have worked out how I navigate on my trip. For the Québec portion of the trip, I will use the Guide de la Route Verte, suitably annotated, particularly with comments from my downstairs neighbour who has done much of what I intend to do in Québec. I am seriously thinking of mailing it home once I reach New Brunswick. For the Atlantic provinces, I think I will photocopy the relevant pages from my Atlantic Canada Backroad Atlas (or possibly remove them), annotate them, and then waterproof them. In this way, I will be able to fit the pages into my bike map holder. (The Guide de la Route Verte was designed to fit in such things.)

Part of the annotation process will involve comparing the planned route on the maps I will be taking with me, with the topographic maps available through the Map Source program on my Father's computer. While Map Source can indicate the presence of hills, it lacks many of the details I am interested in, at a useful scale.

Merry Christmas.

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