Departure Is At Hand

Yeehaw!!!

In a few hours we hope to get on the departure flight taking us to Montréal via Zurich. First though... it's time to hit the sack and catch a few hours of relaxing sleep. Just wanted to shout out to all holiday goers, whether you are still packing your stuff, waiting to go, on your way, or already experiencing life as it should be. So here are my best whishes to all of you out there and may you have a wonderful holiday!

Cheers,

Irwan

Vrij Actief Hurricaneseizoen

An article published by the Dutch weather website weer.nl, powered by MeteoConsult, conveys to us that the World Climate Service (WCS) expects a higher than average active hurricane season. The title of the article gloomingly states in Dutch:

"Vrij actief hurricaneseizoen"

Link to the article

An excerpt from the article (in Dutch):

World Climate Service (WCS) verwacht een bovennormaal actief hurricaneseizoen. Gemiddeld komen per seizoen 10 tropische stormen voor - met windsnelheden enigszins vergelijkbaar met tenminste windkracht 8, stormachtig, in Nederland - , 6 orkanen en 3 zware orkanen voor. De verwachting van WCS van iets voor het begin van juni koerst aan op 13-15 tropische stormen, 7-9 orkanen en 3-5 zware orkanen. Daarbij is er 84% kans dat een orkaan de Verenigde Staten bereikt, en 52% dat dit gebeurt met een zware orkaan.

World Climate Service is een samenwerking tussen de MeteoGroup (Meteo Consult met al haar zusterbedrijven), en de Amerikaanse ondernemingen Storm Exchange en ZedX.

Progress and something to look forward to

People have recovered some bit since the last blog post, the weather... not that much. After a few hot summer like weeks last month it looks like Mother Nature skipped a few months and brought back autumn instead.

A lot of progress have been made, we booked some accommodation, transportation, events, and each bought some more travel gear. More on this later... how much later you must find out for yourself :o).

For now here is something for the Dutch speaking people among us, below you will find two links that will lead you to a site containing travel videos per location of interest. Videos part of a well known Dutch TV travel program. You must have heard of it, if not under the name Yorin Travel then most probably when it changed it name under RTL Travel. Why not watch some videos concerning the destinations that are on our North American East Coast route. Or maybe you are interested in one of the other destinations around the world where they made a video of. Sometimes watching is more fun and above all faster than reading. Experiencing it we will save for the summer,... if she decides to not stay away that is.

The two links in order of our trip route. Have fun!

RTL Travel Canada
RTL Travel USA

Struck Down By Furious Chill And Horror Dental Treatment

Short update...

A group meeting was planned this week to casually talk about accommodation and activities to do in New York City. Unfortunately things did not go as planned. After having rescheduled two times already, we decided to postpone the meeting until further notice. Let's see how it goes. For today..., I got the message that Gary was struck by a furious chill, and Arjen has been knocked-out after having undergone dental surgery to remove one of his wisdom teeth. Not a nice treat. All I can say is... stay smart, take it easy, and get well soon.

It's cold for this time of year. Each year spring seems to arrive later and later. Winter times bring us chills, and dental surgery, so hang onto your winter coats a little bit longer, for the summer will be here soon!

Take care.

Urban Camping Fever

Today we experienced some kind of urban camping fever and decided to go look for some travel gear. 0930 hours we left for the camping shop. Both Arjen and Gary left the Kampeerwinkel [camping shop] with a backpack more than they went in with, to clarify...

...they went in with no backpacks.

I also found a nice brimmed hat, with just a wider brim than those boonies army and navy people wear. After trying it on, and emulating the look of a commando-slash-ninja-slash-I know what you did last summer fisherman, I decided to first check out some other shops and put the hat back where I found it.

Now all four of us has a backpack ready for the upcoming trip. I'll just use the same trusted Nomad backpack I used during my trip around Europe in 2006, which I also bought from the Kampeerwinkel [not the trip, the backpack]. Arjen's younger brother Erwin already found his perfect monster of a 100 liter backpack, which he bought on Marktplaats.nl, a Dutch eBay kind of shop acquired by eBay. So if we ever find out we need some extra carrying space we could always sneaky tug our luggage inside Erwin's backpack for him to carry...

We might come back here, to the Kampeerwinkel, to look for more gear. Other recommended shops in The Netherlands for the person who is in search for some good qualitative travel / camping / hiking gear are:

Bever Zwerfsport, Outdoor Innovators
Zwerfkei Outdoor & Travel Centre
Perry Sport + Outdoor
Decathlon