National Parks

So I got myself a National Discovery pass for $84, which grants access to all the National Parks and National Historic Sites in Canada. It's a pretty great deal actually. The info is here: www.pc.gc.ca/voyage-travel/carte-pass/carte-pass1_e.asp

I grew up visiting national parks near Fredericton - Fundy, Kouchibuguac, Kejimkujik. I've never had a vacation down south, it's always been about simplicity. So on this trek, I'm hoping to stop through these national parks:

St. Lawrence Islands National Park - Map
Point Pelee National Park - Map
Bruce Peninsula National Park - Map
Pukaskwa National Park - Map
Grasslands National Park - Map
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park - Saskatchewan - Map
Fort Walsh National Historic Site - Map
Dinosaur Provincial Park-World Heritage Site - Map
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site - Map
Waterton Lakes National Park - Map
Banff National Park - Map
Kootenay National Park - Map
Jasper National Park - Map
Pacific Rim National Park Reserve - Map
Mount Revelstoke National Park - Map
Glacier National Park - Map
Yoho National Park - Map
Banff National Park - Map
Elk Island National Park - Map
Prince Albert National Park - Map
Riding Mountain National Park - Map
La Mauricie National Park - Map
Prince Edward Island National Park - Map
Kejimkujik National Park - Map
Cape Breton Highlands National Park - Map
Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site - Map
Cape Spear National Historic Site - Map
Signal Hill National Historic Site - Map
Castle Hill National Historic Site - Map
Terra Nova National Park - Map
Gros Morne National Park - Map
Miguasha World Heritage Site - Map
Forillon National Park - Map

Pimp Juice - Let It Loose..

So for a long while now Nelly's Energy drink, Pimp Juice, has been a supporter of my music. They were down to support the tour and sent some fly prizes like those in the pics. - www.letitloose.com

Lots of people ask, how did you link up with Pimp Juice? The story goes something like this... In early 2006 my friend Stefan threw his annual "throbbing music dance party" and asked me to perform. For the party, he discovered Pimp Juice for sale in Quebec... I tried it and loved it...

Six months later I get an email from the president of Pimp Juice. They came across my video for "Shake Ya Caboose", loved the vibe and felt it fit perfectly with their product. At first I thought it was a joke... but no, it was the real deal. They requested a song, so Nevski came up with a fresh new beat creating the "Shake ya Caboose Remix", which featured Professir from Nelly's "Derrty Ent" record label in St. Louis. It's definitely fun... anyway, our relationship built from there and it's great to have them on board for the tour!!

TIN Sportswear...

thgp hooked me up proper with gear from TIN Sportswear. This clothing is fresh and I can't wait to rock it on tour!

Dinner with my #1 fan

Location: Charters Settlement, NB

So I to kick off the tour, I took my #1 fan out to dinner. It was 11 pm, so our choices were limited, so it ended up being The Diplomat. We both decided that to new people in town, "The Dip" is considered a high-end restaurant. We laughed because as long-time Frederictonians, we knew better :)

So as we go in, a waitress knows my #1 fan and they converse. As we sit down, my #1 fan turns to me and says the line of the night "I'm kind of a big deal".

So how did I pick my #1 fan? First, it had to be someone who wasn't also a friend... and my fans are usually wonderful people, so we end up friends in the end.

So several years ago, my #1 fan managed to look up my old 454-PIMP number and call me. I was in the middle of moving so we weren't able to meet up.

Then later, as I was walking down Dundonald St, a car stopped at a light suddenly erupted into screams of "oh my god. Pimp Tea?". My #1 fan gave me a great big hug, while holding up traffic :) My #1 fan got a Super Dude shirt, a CD and some stickers and made it back in time for their apartment warming party.

After dropping off #1 fan back at home, I went dancing at The Phoenix to the sounds of DJ Chris Carson (who used to take the school bus with me back in the day). I also ran into James Boyle of Forward Music Group who wanted me to let you know to buy the new Grand Theft Bus CD and that his company has expanded into graphic design and merch making. I also ran into old tour mates circa 2004 of DJ Scout and Rory Borealis.

Rapid Snack Pics

Anyone who toured with me or has hung out with me gets to realize I almost always have a rice krispy square on me... They're low in gluten which appeals to my stomach :) Rapid Snack hooked me up proper when I stopped by their office in Montreal!!

Also, in the background of the 2nd photo, you can see the tote bags that Fredericton Tourism kindly donated!

The trek begins...

Location: Charters Settlement, NB
Kms Driven: 1048 today
Gas $$ Spent: $75 today
Highest Gas price: 136.4 in Levis, QC
Food Order Blunder: Wendy's in Edmundston, NB. I got coke instead of Sprite
Biggest Annoyance: A lot of the NB highway was missing painted lines, making it difficult to know where I was driving at night. Fortunately the bumps on the side of the road were still there to let me know :)

So I've officially hit the road... Lots of thoughts going through my head. Things are crazily busy! I've had tons of boxes of stuff arrive.

** Tin Sportswear **
Those in the Atlantic Canada hip-hop scene, likely know thgp of www.atlantichiphop.com. He's hosted sites and done a lot for the scene. Anyway, he hooked me up some gear from Tin Sportswear from Moncton. I had no idea what to expect, but when the box of gear arrived, it was uber fresh! I can't wait to rock it on tour!

** Rapid Snack **
So on my drive today I dropped by Rapid Snack in Montreal. They hooked me up with three cases of two of my favourite snack items: Marshmellow squares and flakes n fruit bars. Here's how it came about... My friend Catherine, who lives in Gatineau, offered me a flakes n fruit bar one day a couple years ago. It was gluten free, and I fell in love. Unfortunately the store where she bought them stopped stocking them... so I contacted Rapid Snack and started ordering cases direct from the company. True story. They're that good!! So when I asked about sponsoring my tour, Rapid Snack was more than willing! www.rapidsnack.com

I'll write more later... I need some sleep before disappearing into the wilderness!

Biggs

windows mail

So I basically lost a weekend because of Windows Vista's replacement for Outlook Express. The replacement is called "Windows Mail".

I thought I'd figured out the steps of how to transfer the mail, contacts and settings on my own. It appeared to work until I tried to send an email, at which point it just froze... boo!

So I ended up buying software to do it: Express Assist 9

It works quite nice except that Windows Mail now takes over an hour to backup & restore my email, when outlook express took less than 10 minutes...

At least I'll finally be able to sleep...

Merch & Windows Vista

So I've lost a complete day in trying to migrate my Outlook Express email from my PC to my tour laptop. The laptop has Vista on it, and the PC has Windows XP. There are ways to migrate from XP to Vista that are fairly straightforward, but there's no way to go from Vista to XP, which I'll need when I get back off tour! So after a lot of huffing and hawing, I'm gonna have to update my PC from XP to Vista. I'm not impressed!

So in getting ready to go on tour, I need merchandise. I look around a little bit, not as much as someone could and placed orders here:

Stickers: www.colorstickers.com

T-Shirts:
* GAP Custom Images in Fredericton
* Urban Impressionz in Montreal
* Indie Pool in Toronto (which was the most expensive of the 3.

That's all for now!

Evolve date change

The Evolve Festival in Antigonish, NS changed weekends, which has forced me to re-juggle the dates at the end of my tour a bit. Evolve is now taking place the weekend of July 24th-27th.