To make it easier to read all of our trip journals and blog posts, I have collected them all here. I have also uploaded all of the photos from this trip to the photo albums.

My posts from the trip

• Off to Spain
• The Trip to Spain
• Malaga to Almuñécar – 77 km
• Almuñécar to Orgiva – 57 km
• Orgiva to Lanjarón – 85km
• Lanjarón to Granada – 47 km
• Granada to Priego de Córdoba – 100kms
• Priego de Córdoba to Antequera – 82km
• Antequera to Malaga – 57km
• Malaga to Tolox – 58 km
• Tolox to Ronda – 55 km
• Ronda to Jimena de la Frontiera – 58 km
• Jimena de la Frontiera to Gibraltar – 49 km
• Gibraltar to Tangiers, Morocco – 35 km
• Tangiers, Morocco to Tariffa – 26 km
• Tarifa to Malaga
• Malaga to Toronto via Paris

Jen & Rich’s posts from the trip.

• Tour de Andalucia – Day One (and Zero)
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Two
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Three
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Four
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Five
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Six
• Tour de Andalucia – Day Seven

Dave & Mari’s posts from the trip.

• we are in spain!
• to the porkchops!!
• siesta time in spain
• the pasty white brit band
• some musings about our trip to spain (and gibraltar and morocco)

Juliette and I have been batting the idea of a second car around for months and with winter fast approaching, we decided it was finally time. Fuel efficiency is important to us and we don’t need too much room for cargo because we have the Mazda, so we have been looking pretty seriously at the Smart car.

I found a few online today, so I went out and test drove two. I was surprised how roomy they are inside and how well they drive. It is more comfortable than the Civic was and even has more pep. In the end, I bought a 2006 diesel convertible with only 37,700km. Hopefully the Mazda will still sit in the driveway most days, but at least we have alternatives now.

Luckily we are pretty much packed up and most of the boxes are already in the POD. We just have the heavy stuff like couches and appliances to take out and then we are done. I must say, a POD is a very civilized way to move. They drop a container in your driveway, you pack it at your leisure and then on the day of your move, it appears at your new place to unpack. There is none of the stress of the one day dash to get everything moved!

Saturday, we are having a yard sale to get rid of a lifetime of crap that has built up. The new house is much smaller, so we have already given away and sold a fair amount of our furniture. It will be nice to live with less.

This map has a transparent background, so you can load it and it will show on top of your other maps. I would recommend Garmin’s Topo US 2008, or if you want to save some money, the excellent free NY Topo. This map is for Garmin GPS devices only and can be loaded into their free MapSource software. If you don’t already have MapSource installed, you will need to follow the instructions here to install.

Thanks to Jon Sundquist for the Allegany State Park information.

Downloads

1. Installer for Windows
2. TGZ file for Mac

The Apple version of the map is untested. Please let me know if it works.

Please send feedback, corrections and updates to rob (at) prouse (dot) org. You can send new trails in GPX format, but I can handle most common GPS file formats. If there is enough interest, I will try to release the maps compiled for other GPSs.

The maps are for reference only and contain inaccuracies. Data for the trails comes from many sources and all have not been verified. Trails also regularly get re-routed, trails are closed and new trails are opened. I’m not responsible for how you use the data, or any inaccuracies.

Juliette did the house inspection on Beach Blvd last night and everything is fine, so we have waived all of the conditions in our offer and the deal is done. We take possession on November 2nd.

While we were there, I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to the photo album so that we could remember the layout and size of all the rooms. The house is much smaller than our place on Rossmore, so we are going to have to sell or give away a fair amount of our furniture. It will be nice to make a fresh start!

The only issues with the house are some aluminum wiring and the wood stove is not to code. The aluminum wiring is all done properly, and the inspector said it should easily pass an ESA inspection, so insurance may not be a problem. As for the wood stove, we’ll have to see what the insurance company says. Worst case, we won’t use it, or replace it with a gas unit.

We are home for the weekend so Juliette could do a final exam, so I am spending this rainy day going through everything and throwing the accumulated crap away. It is a liberating feeling.

The house on Rossmore is too big for us and now that we have the chalet, maintaining the gardens is becoming a fair amount of work. We love the openness and the light of the chalet. We are comfortable there, but don’t feel the same way on Rossmore. Knowing how happy the chalet makes us, we wanted to capture that feeling at home.

Monday, I was on the MLS website, searching Burlington and area for a place that suited us. I was pretty discouraged looking at all the cookie-cutter suburban homes, but then I searched down the beach strip and found a small beach cottage that had been recently renovated with big bright windows, oak and slate floors, a big open basement for our bikes and kayaks, and a reasonable distance from work.

Tecla was over for dinner, so we went for an evening drive down the beach strip to check out the house, the area and the other places for sale. I had been watching the area for years and was impressed by what I saw. The area used to be pretty run down, but things are changing. Cottages are being renovated or torn down and rebuilt. The entire area is up and coming and we loved the look of the house and the area.

Tuesday, I called Justin and told him we would sell Rossmore if the price was right and set up a viewing of the house on the beach. Just like the chalet, as soon as we walked in the front door, we knew we wanted it. We looked around, talked about it for a few minutes and put in an offer that night.

Unfortunately the offer was rejected because of the condition on the sale of our house. Well, if selling our house was what was required, selling our house is what we would do. We both came home early on Wednesday and did a whirlwind tidy and prep of the house. That night at seven, Justin brought the person who had contacted him through. At 7:20, I was meeting with Justin and discussing price.

Thursday, our buyer was arranging financing and Friday after work we had a deposit and a signed offer. We put in an offer on the beach house and left for a long weekend in Ellicottville before we even knew for sure if it would be accepted.

Saturday, I received an email on my phone. Juliette and I are soon to be the proud owners of a small beach bungalow!!!

I am going for an inspection on Friday, so I will take some pictures and upload them so you can see what it is like. Meanwhile, check out the MLS listing while it lasts.

My coworkers keep asking me if I am cold riding into work, but other than the day that the temperature dipped below -20°C, the main problem is actually overheating. I think it is a bit worse for Juliette though since she spends nearly an hour on her bike each way.

In other news, we have been enjoying our weekends at the chalet. There is a crazy amount of snow, perfect for snowshoeing, snowboarding and drinking wine in front of the fire. I have finally pulled the pictures off of our camera and put up albums for everything we have been doing lately. There is an album with mixed pictures from this Winter, another album with the Christmas photos and two more for surprise birthday parties we had for Mari and Tim back in November. Please check them out.

I haven’t been updating my photoblog Shifted*Exposure much lately, but it is nice to know that people like my work and are still looking at it. It is especially nice when the recognition comes from a site that I respect. I guess I will have to pull out my camera and start updating again…

This is the MLS Listing while it lasts. I have also put up a bunch of pictures that I took with my cell phone and copied from the MLS site. I am going down again next weekend for a home inspection, so I’ll take and post more photos then.

The chalet is on 5 acres of land and looks out over a large pond on one side and off into the distant hills on the other. There is only one neighbour and plenty of woods on the property. I expect we’ll have snowshoeing, x-country skiing and biking trails cut in no time.

It has been ages since I last posted, so a quick update. Juliette did great on the Crank the Shield, the three day mountain bike race in Northern Ontario. It was a long tough race, but we managed to come in third.

A couple of weeks of weeks later, we flew down to Las Vegas for one day for Steve & Silvia and Cam & Lori’s Elvis wedding. We had a great time. I think it was easily the most fun I’ve had at a wedding. Check out the pictures, they’re fun.

I got sick right after the wedding and the next weekend, we found ourselves in Pennsylvania for the Iron Cross, the longest cyclocross race in North America. It was a fun, tough race. Neither Juliette nor I did very well because we were so beat from going constantly and being sick, but we had a great time hanging with the True North team. We’ll be heading back next year for sure.

There are plenty of new photos to check out and I will add more soon. I’ll also do my best to not leave it so long between posts.

I got in my car, drove to another building at the airport, waited in line, was questioned by customs, got my forms stamped, went to wait in another line, paid the import duty, got back in the car and drove back to Air Canada. All the while, poor Daisy was in her crate in the cargo area, waiting after a stressful 4.5 hour flight.

Back at Air Canada, I was served by another agent. He informed me that they couldn’t release her to me. Once again, I begged and pleaded. He called his supervisor. He then called Juliette on her cell phone, no answer! Eventually, Juliette returned his call, paperwork was stamped, airport fees were paid and the agent headed back into the cargo area to get poor Daisy.

I took Daisy outside to the grass, opened her crate and waited. She nervously crept out and sniffed around. She was shaking like a leaf, but a few calm words and quite a few treats and she was wagging her tail and chasing me around.

She was bundled back into the crate, buckled into the seat beside me and we started the drive back home through rush hour traffic. She was so good on the way home. She just sat there licking my fingers until she fell asleep.

Back at home, we let her out into the yard to explore and to meet Juliette. She was cautious at first, but was soon bounding about and following us everywhere. Our first night went well. She was up a few times to go pee which she did quickly and was back to bed with barely a whimper.

This weekend, she is going to be thrown into the deep end. We are doing the 24 hour race at Albion, so she is going camping with us and will get to meet a bunch of new people. She has been really brave so far, so I think she will be fine. She can always retreat to her crate in our tent if she gets stressed.

Click on the pictures of her to see a larger version.