After lunch on Sunday I received my gift from my family- A Kelly Kettle/1 pint. It is a volcano kettle used and originated by Irish Fisherman for over a century. 
http://www.kellykettle.com/ It uses small kindling (leaves, grass, twigs etc.) to boil 20oz of water under 5 min. It is fast. We can use it for a "spot of Tea or hot chocolate " on a bike trip or a picnic. or to heat water for freeze dried on a overnight 24hr trip. It is small enough to fit in a bike bag. I read about it on Kent Petersons blog. http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/
http://www.kellykettle.com/ It uses small kindling (leaves, grass, twigs etc.) to boil 20oz of water under 5 min. It is fast. We can use it for a "spot of Tea or hot chocolate " on a bike trip or a picnic. or to heat water for freeze dried on a overnight 24hr trip. It is small enough to fit in a bike bag. I read about it on Kent Petersons blog. http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/Later that afternoon worked on my TE and removed the rear fender and replaced it with a rat tail and then I replaced the 1.35 marathon tires on my Tour easy with wider XC tires. 
A Specialized CX Borough 1.9 rear, and a Kenda Kontact 1.8 on the front. I rode it down the gravel packed road by my place and was amazed at the difference!.
The wider tires seemed to float across the loose stuff. My narrow marathon tires just seem to plough in. On the asphalt it was a little slower and more bumpy with the kenda on the front. So I switched it out with a 1.75 Chen S. from a Bike E and it improved the tarmac ride and speed and still rode exceedingly well on the gravel.
I think I will take both tires on the tour and use the knobby on the days on the rail trail and the smoother chen s. on the road days. Speed on the tour is not primary, stability on varing rail trail surfaces is.
A Specialized CX Borough 1.9 rear, and a Kenda Kontact 1.8 on the front. I rode it down the gravel packed road by my place and was amazed at the difference!.The wider tires seemed to float across the loose stuff. My narrow marathon tires just seem to plough in. On the asphalt it was a little slower and more bumpy with the kenda on the front. So I switched it out with a 1.75 Chen S. from a Bike E and it improved the tarmac ride and speed and still rode exceedingly well on the gravel. I think I will take both tires on the tour and use the knobby on the days on the rail trail and the smoother chen s. on the road days. Speed on the tour is not primary, stability on varing rail trail surfaces is. 
Marathon - Cheng S. - Kenda KontactLater that evening Alice and I went for a ride around Calmar - I was fooling around and the front tire went out and I ended up on the road. I thought I pulled a muscle in my foot when I got up. But rode home, a wee sore but not for worse. Until I got 50 feet from home when I felt/heard a pop from my left foot and I was in agony. Well it didn't go away over night; so I went into the emergency for an xray this morning. Nothing broken- just pulled and tender- so its no cycling for a couple of weeks or so. Hopfully I can be ready to go on my tour! My wife says it serves me right for "swoopin" around - but hey its so fun!
Take care - ride safely - Larry
Made it up ALL the hills, TOO! 
It was alot more fun this year with my wife Alice along on her TE and our friends Sandy and Murrray on their Agios. Alice did great too, Not only did she look great she rode strong avg 20kph for the whole ride! 
Sandy egged Murray and I to push it up a notch to ride a full metric century on Sunday. (It was easy -we had a east wind pushing us Sunday)
So I rode from Camrose to Calmar- 105km, for a total for the weekend of 180+km. 
It was a great ride and our daughter Kara rode with us. Its nice to ride and see the open water and wondering road. Our regular training rides are straight east or west and back along highway 39. Same old thing alot. 
It was a Sunny and breezy day with a good stiff headwind on the way back. 
We had a nice hot dog roast along the shores of the Lake and then rode back to Calmar. A relaxing weekend with a total of 63k of riding. But thats not the exciting News!
A couple of weeks ago I went to an informational meeting at a local church to see if there was enough interest for a 10 day rail trail ride in the West Kootenays this summer. Alas the dates did not hook up with my holidays so I decided to pass. Fellow 'bent ryders Sandy and Murray Greer lLoved the idea and decided to go. I have had my eye on those trails for couple of years and was envious of them, but I couldn't take the time off and force my kids to ride that much on "our" holidays. Well over a couple of weeks and listening to the Greers I was starting to feel trapped by my business. (Small business owners can be slaves to thier enterprises and find it really tough to take breaks often) To make a long story short: Alice surprised me with the offer to stay home and run the shop then we would go on our family holiday. I was astounded. It took another 12 hours before it would sink in and ask if she was really serious. She was/is! I have a wonderful spouse. So I will be away from my shop for almost three weeks. The longest time I have had off in over 17 years! WA hOO! It looks like I will be joining the group on my TE on a large segmant of the Spirit Of 2010 Rail trails. 
I originally found how to do this from a now defunct web page (tigrr8?)
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I cut down flag poles -they come in a pack with a flag at the top that I ripped off along with the joining ferruls. I sized the poles to meet at a point.
I adjusted the fibreglass poles to fit together using an antenna ball from Jack in the Box. Drilled the holesin the ball, stuck the poles in.
The Tail Sok its self came from Terracycle via the Hostel Shoppe; but you can search the web or the Easy Racer Forum for other places to get one.
Overall I am happy with the looks, safety and perforance I get with the Sok. Now I should fly on the MS TOUR!
Okay I'm not a rookie but my wife and other team members are. Plus our team supplied the refreshments at the turn aound point, so I thought I was justified in riding with the group.
