Liam and Jake

Jake & Liam

~Expeditions do not always have to be solitary ventures, as true happiness is often shared~

My baby brother, Liam, who is not such a baby anymore, and his friend, Jake, are soon to set off on the ultimate small-space-living adventure.  The two of them plan to ski out their front doors in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, and travel along the Great Divide by foot to Mexico, where they will complete their journey on bicycle.  Their transcontinental trip will incorporate 3 self-propelled sports – skiing, hiking, and cycling – all while utilizing a backpacker’s tent for shelter.  And I imagine a very stinky tent at that….

According to Liam and Jake, their endeavors are both adventure-seeking and educational:  “Through this trip, we will travel through areas we have only heard about and seen postcards of. We will discover lands in our own country we didn’t even know existed. We hope to experience local cultures, and meet interesting people. Since the trip will include three different countries, we will be able to compare Canada to other nations, thereby hopefully gaining new insight and perspective on our home.”

You can follow their progress on their blog:  A DoorStep Adventure.  They plan to begin late-April, and finish roughly at the end of the year.

The pair have calculated the cost, and it’s hefty, as I’m sure you can imagine.  If you would like to donate to their adventure, you can make donations here.  Any amount (even $1) is appreciated!  As an added bonus, a donation of $75 or more will earn you a fancy new hat, knitted by the one and only Liam Harrap.  Here I am in my very own Liam creation.  As you can see, the fit is spectacular.

Another way you can help these two, is by joining the journey yourself.  They hope to share portions of the trail with new and old friends, and if you’re willing, provide a stop for a shower and some shelter….  “If you live on the Great Divide/Rockies in either Canada or the USA and are willing to let two possibly grubby gentleman (only when we first arrive, after a shower I am sure we will be quite sparkling and merry) stay a night or two in your home, that would help us enormously! We have our sleeping pads, so all we would need is a comfy floor and some cheery company. ”

So if you would like to help a couple of Canadian lads on the trip of a lifetime, please do – either by monetary donation, food, shelter, shower, or just by following their blog.

Happy travels, Jake and Liam!!

Lots of love, from your favorite sister (and your friend’s favorite sister).

Rebecca Knabe

Wood Floors and Fuzzy Socks

When I was young my grandma lived in an old house with a couple of stories and the original hard wood flooring on the stairs.  If you ran too quickly down the stairs in stocking feet, to answer the phone or get a fresh piece of grandma’s kougan, you invariably lost your footing, landed on the wood with your tailbone, and bump-bump-bumped on your butt down the remaining stairs.  Everyone in the family had done it, and most of my friends had done it too.  It’s just what happened at her house.

Grandma’s House

When I renovated my trailer, the first to go was the horrible flooring – ancient linoleum and well-used beige carpet.  I replaced it all with laminate beech wide-plank flooring, and I love it.  Clean, easy, bright.  Perfect.

My father refers to me as having “the worst balance in the world.”  I can (and have) fall over just standing there.  I fell over in my desk twice in elementary school.  I once fell onto a snowboard racecourse while standing at the starting line.  I got stitches in my hand from falling in the woods.  The wind blew me over twice in Iceland.  I was on crutches several times as a kid.  In Athens I couldn’t walk a block without wiping out on the marble sidewalks.  I have entered Safeway airborne, because of tripping on the door frame.  I’ve fallen down several flights of stairs, tripped up even more flights of stairs, and because of that, had recurring nightmares in high school about tumbling down those stairs, usually while naked ( 😦 ).

That’s me strolling around Athens, likely immediately prior to or preceding a nice fall.

So this last weekend, it should have come as no surprise when I found myself upside down in a corner of my trailer.  Here’s how it happened….  I was wearing my pajamas and fuzzy socks, and making breakfast.  Actually I was burning breakfast, and lunged to remove the pan from the heat, and in doing so flung my egg flipper thingy behind my infrared heater.  This heater is a large rolling wooden box; and as I leaned sideways over the box to retrieve my egg flipper it rolled, my feet slipped out from under me (you know, slippery floors and fuzzy socks, just like at grandma’s), and I teeter-tottered over the heater and onto my head.  I had wedged myself into the corner and bruised up my thigh, but all I could do was lay there laughing.

Ahhhhhh, if only someone else had been there to see it….  It would have been worth the humiliation.  It was pretty funny!  Funny enough to share.  I’m sure of it!

Rebecca Knabe