Sean Neville here. Today, the one and only Sean Neville has brought home yet another yellow jersey. This is no ordinary jersey however. This time he has won the White River yellow jersey home of the one and only Winnie the Pooh! Now I don't know if you know the story of Winnie? Well this is what you might have heard. Where did Winnie the Pooh come from?
The Origin of Winnie the Pooh:
During World War I, a lieutenant called Harry Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a hunter in White River. He named her 'Winnipeg', after his hometown of Winnipeg, or 'Winnie' for short.
Winnie became the mascot of his Brigade and went to Britain with the unit he was with. When he was posted to the battlefields of France, Colebourn, took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. He formally presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919 where he became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.
The bear was also very popular with Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favourite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.....
A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends in the 100-Acre-Wood.
This all sounds Great but it is my time as I am the White River yellow jersey winner. I am self proclaiming that I was involved with up coming of Winnie. You could say I'm a co-owner. First book I'll publish will be "Neville meets pooh".
I feel as though the boys and me are slowly losing our minds. I notice characteristics such as too much self-talk, rocking alone in the corners and Rusty talking with his new imaginary friend Jimmy. We have come to realize that singing helps with these mental breakdowns. One of us will lead and the others will finish. On this very day we were signing a knock off "Am I a man or a Muppet" from the new Muppets movie which we have not seen but have seen the YouTube video.
Scotty- Black window
Rusty- sloth
Sean- Orangatang
Ryan- The Ox
Here is our Version:
“Am I a man or am I an Oxxxxx, am i an man? If im an ox im a very manly ox!
“Am I a orangatangggggg or am I a man, am I a man. Well if I’m a man I’m an orangatang of a mannn , orangatang of a man”
“Am I a sloth or am I just lazy, am I just lazy? Well if I’m a sloth I’m a very lazy sloth, he’s a very lazy sloth.”
Maybe we are still losing it! (Sorry for wasting your time!)
We set up our camp under cover at the information center in Winnie the Pooh park. This was probably the best decision of our trip, as we got smashed with hurricane winds and monsoon rain. Here is what happened:
-3 AM: Scotty and Ryan’s tent cover was ripped off their tent, the sideways rain in there face. Ryan dazed got up to chase the cover but trip on his way out the door of their tent landing on Rusty and collapsing our tent.
-I couldn't tell if the lighting/thunder/hurricane or Ryan's earthquake snores that kept me up all night.
-The lightning would literally make it seem like someone was shining a spotlight right in our eyes.
The sun was shining this morning and thanks to the covered information center we weren't that wet and our hopes were high for the day. We pedaled through to Wawa as we were entering the town I was up front as usual. I heard the boys behind me laughing, cheering and high fiving. I looked back confused as they were celebrating like we had just made it to the Atlantic. Then I saw the SUBWAY sign! The humidity was crazy and all we wanted was a swim. We were scoping out a beautiful lake for a swim when out on nowhere a kid comes flying out of the trees on a rope swing! The water was unreal, just what we needed. Then came the massive black flies! As we climbed out of the water the black flies mauled us, owning us! What made this worst is my tire was flat. I never knew we could move the way we were, we looked like the string puppets being controlled by 5 year olds making as down some kind of funky chicken dance. I have never been more uncomfortable in my life. It was a record tire change time though!
Further into the Lake Superior provincial park the clouds got dark behind us. The biking gods were back for another round. I felt like I was in the movie "Twister" but instead of chasing the storm the storm was chasing us, instead of vehicles we had bikes. Scotty was screaming "unleash your furry biking gods" he shouldn't have said that, within second my spokes blew off of my back tire, Ryan's tire popped and buckets of rain poured over our heads.
We finally made it to the beautiful wet Catherine cove to set up camp and have our Hughy Mac special dinner, roasted chicken, French bread and veggies
Sean Neville
Scotty's Ideal Life Partner | Neville and Natalie next ring to it. | Ry Mac is in love! | Rusty’s Relationship Roundup:
After our short day due to a hurricane/tornado/fog out we decided to lay low in the town of Terrace Bay. I would love to be able to describe Terrace Bay to you but due to the fog we were only able to navigate to the lighthouse right smack in the middle of the town. Other then that we basically stayed dry in our motel room.
Late last night we were feeling adventurous so we decided to make the incredible trek of 15 meters to the Motel Restaurant for dinner, where we thought it was a wicked idea to all order the “all you can eat ribs”. Being an experienced eater (two time defending hot dog eating champion back to back years at Robb Road Junior school) I thought I would easily dismantle my three brothers in an eat off. Man was I wrong. I made the rookie mistake of eating about two loaves of bread prior to the ribs even coming out. Neville, who was much more experienced in the eating realm then I had imagined, passed on the bread and seemingly devoured rib after rib. Seeing in how much pain I was in from being so full Neville began mocking me. He even looked me right in the eye, covered in honey garlic rib sauce and said “Russ, didn’t you know they try and make you full on bread first?” Well I always say you learn something new everyday. Ry and him easily ate the most, while Scotty fell asleep halfway through the meal and was disqualified.
We planned on waking up at 5am this morning to get on the road early to make up for the lost time. However, the comfort of the Motel room was to much to pass and we slept in till 7:30 and after breakfast were on the road by 8:30. The fog was still present, but not nearly a tenth of what it was entering yesterday, which was wonderful since we had to ride 180km to White River. The terrain was very up and down, which made the day go by relatively slow. What makes things the worst about Ontario is that they have KM signs for every 2 KMS you travel. So when you mix this with us climbing steep hills at the pace of a sea turtle it causes some very long and drawn out days. I can see a piece of Ry Mack die every time he sees those KM markers.
The day which started off very slowly, picked up steam when we decided to have some very intellectual conversation. We played a game called your “perfect celebrity girl”. The rules worked as so:
1) You must pick 3 personality traits that you would want in your perfect girl and explain why you would want this trait.
2) You must pick what you would want the girl to look like. (PG 13 of course)
** Having been an avid fan of the Bachelor and pretty much guessing the right pairs for many years in a row now. I consider myself basically a professional matchmaker, so I decided to match each brother to a celebrity that I see fit. **
So I started with the youngest Mackinnon first.
Ryan wanted someone:
- Adventurous: Someone that would be willing to try new things in many different realms in their life. Simply put, a girl who would be a risk taker. (Anyone willing to date Ry is taking a risk in itself)
- Caring: A girl who would care for you, your friends and your family. All and all just has a big heart. (I thought this was very mature of Ryan)
- Sense of Humour: A girl who can laugh at herself, have fun and laugh at everyone of Ryan’s repeated jokes (and there are many)
-For looks Ry wanted someone that was pretty, with that girl next door look. NOT a perfect 12/10 model.
I decided that the perfect fit for him would be TAYLOR SWIFT! Taylor is caring, funny and most importantly she is the type of girl you want to bring home to your parents!
Sean wanted someone:
- Open-minded: His girl would never judge a book by its cover. She would be willing to listen to new ideas and try new things. Perfect for experienced traveler Neville.
- Who takes pride in life: No matter what his girl does she would always take pride in it. In her career, home life, relationship, Neville’s girl would always be giving it 110% no matter what.
- With a Sense of Humour: This is an ongoing theme for the Mackinnon’s. I think it is simple, when we laugh, we are happy. Neville’s girl would be the Chris Rock of women!
Neville mentioned that he really fell in love with unique eyes. So for him I decided to pick the beautiful NATALIE PORTMAN.. This fun loving Actress takes pride in everything she does and is funny to boot. Neville and her would definitely hit it off!
Scotty wanted someone:
- Ambitious: someone always wanting more in their life and never being content. Always growing in every aspect of their life.
- Honest: someone that communicates every one of their feelings and can always be trusted to speak honestly. (So pretty much a girl to tell Scotty straight up to deal with his countless bad habits)
- Outgoing: Similar to adventurous, a girl who is willing to go outside of her comfort zone and adapt to different situations in life. The Cameleon of Women.
Scotty did not mention anything in relation to physical appearance so I matched him purely on Personal traits. For him I chose CRUELLA De VIL, as she is blunt and honest, which is shown through her hatred of animals, but is also ambitious. Always striving for more. I believe Scotty and her would live happily ever after together!
After a long day and a lot of dry conversation we finally arrived in White River, which turned out to be the town in which Winnie the Pooh was founded! All of us extremely excited about this fun fact stayed out all night partying.. Lies. We were in bed by typical Scotty Mack time, at about 9pm.
Enough Said! | Black Fox Lake-MJ FOX STILL LEADING US! | Headed to White River | | Northern Ontario-Home of the Snowmobile | The boys apparently could not get enough of the snowmobile | White River-Home of Winnie the Pooh. Sean snaking his honey!
Ryan here.
Let me be an artist for you and paint a picture for you comparing yesterday to today. I will give you a quick and brief comparison of our days. This is what happened yesterday briefly:
-Beautiful blue sunny skies accompanied with a warm twenty degrees and a 20-km/hr tail wind
-Unbelievable meals (pancakes, bacon, sausages, gourmet sandwiches)
- Scotty and myself had our first experience biking in just spandex, shirts off and mocking countless drivers going past us in our gross horse jockey bodies.
-Rusty was drinking an Ice-Capp while biking
-Sean Neville was chugging water and spitting it in his hair over his head.
***Our arrogance and the biking gods caught up to us, WE GOT CHECKED*****
Today’s Events:
-Around 4:30 AM we woke to a waterfall of water seeping through our thirty dollar tents from a downpour.(Big thank you to the Plays Plat First Nation who let us camp on their land for free, far too nice to us boys!!!!!!) Scotty was sleeping literally in the middle of a puddle.
-We had to carry wet clothes/tents/sleeping bags and Rusty’s wounded heart from previous relationships up and down massive Canadian Shield hills.
-We reached a town called Shreiber around 10:30 AM and pushed through a torrential rainstorm. While biking for almost 45 minutes uphill, with the intense headwind we had hail/golf balls smashing us in the face. At one point I saw Sean Neville biking with a sweater tied around his head, biking on pure instinct.
-Around an hour later we started descending into a town called Terrace Bay, which I later named Can’tseeanythingmorethanthreefeetinfrontofyouville, Ontario. It was mayhem, Fog literally kept us from moving on. Our bags were soaked, faces were mangled from the monster storm and bodies were hurting. Eventually Scotty, Sean and Russ realized that when they couldn’t see me behind them it was time to call it. Mom, you would be proud of us! We called our day after deeming it to unsafe to move on. The entire trip we have battled rain, hail, wind, heat, bugs, rumble strips, torrential downpours, bears, mountains, biking gods and now the fog was the first to stop us.
**After today I realized that each of us are struggling in our own ways. After 32 days of biking, we have finally hit a brick wall. We need help! Our fundraising has hit a stalemate, the country has finally bested us and Rusty has stopped singing***
Here are some of our own struggles:
Scotty Mac: His clothes have begun to grow mold and are literally soaked the entire time. I have seen Scotty put on clothes which might be often be mistaken for Goat’s Cheese. His raingear is ripped, face is burnt and has slowly stopped putting Dippity Doo in his hair.(Something must be wrong)
Sean Neville: Over the past week Sean has developed “Cartoon Stink Lines”, literally in real life. So now wherever he goes, a massive stink cloud follows him. His hair resembles a pig. One that has rolled around in dirt, laid in the sun for hours and then repeated that three or four times. It is matted in dirt. Someone get this muppet some “Herbal Essences”.
Rusty: Our guy has been struggling with our lifestyle. A young man who has been blessed with Kathie Mac’s cooking for over six months is finally fatiguing. He misses the snug boundaries of his leather couch in Comox. The tenting, biking, using any sort of energy lifestyle has slowly worn on his attitude. I am worried about Rusty’s spirits going forward.
Ryan MacK: (written by Rusty). Ry has been the leader of the pack throughout the trip, but has lately seen the back of the pack lately. Pulling such Scotty Mack moves as blaming his back tire, Sean Neville moves by claiming he hasn’t eaten enough and has pulled my move by sleeping 3 hours a day more then normal. I am afraid that Ry is starting to draw from all of our negative characteristics. We need our guy to fire it up!
We cannot see anything! | Lighthouse in Terrace Bay. Could not see it until 20 feet away. | Our clothes and tent trying to dry. | We are finally dry!
The second half of our trip started with the best pancake breakfast I have ever had in my entire life. Treated by the Britton’s to Finnish Pancakes at the world famous and underground, locals own Hoito Restaurant, We were ready for our best and most inspiring day yet.
- Last night the Mackinnon Boys had the pleasure of meeting Hugh Macintyre (Sorry Hugh I spell all MAC names M-A-C as my apparently Scottish father tells me this is the only way to go). It was tremendously special for us to meet Hugh. An 87 year old grandfather who is fit as can be, and looks younger than myself, Hugh is a Thunder Bay local, who 20 years ago rode exactly the same route we have to his home town. Reminiscing with Hugh, was fantastic, we spoke about the pass out of Osoyoos, the traffic and the distinctly fast prairies. (For Hugh who did 300 KM in one day, apparently we are not as quick as we thought) Hugh did the trip at 65 and mentioned that he was not sore at all to a bunch of young guys like ourselves, who have been in fits of pain definitely put us in our place. Hugh, we were humbled in your presence.
- It was pretty cool to meet Hugh the night before I finally got to fulfill a dream of mine. Terry Fox has been a hero of all of ours for a long time and finally being able to see his monument in Thunder Bay was a dream come true. The marathon of Hope that Terry Fox started in 1980 has inspired so many people within Canada and Internationally. To have that kind of insight at 22 years old, I admire Terry so much for his heart, determination and fearlessness in achieving something no one ever thought possible. He is a huge hero of ours! If you ever get the chance you need to watch Steve Nash’s (Our other Canadian hero) documentary “Into the Wind”, as it is a special and magical documentary.
- It has been very interesting to spend time in Northern Ontario, as being here has been my first taste of Canadian cultural and slang differences. One thing I have noticed in Northern Ontario is everyone here measures distances in time. For example if you ask how far it is to a place? They will never answer you in kilometers they will always answer you in how many hours it will take you to get to your destination. I am not sure if this is because of the size of Northern Ontario or if they just like messing with four brothers with 80 pounds of equipment attached to their vintage bikes.
- A camp to a Northern Ontarian is to a Southern Ontario what a cottage is, and is what a cabin is to a British Columbian. Make sense.
While father Art Britton was telling us where the camps that Thunder Bay’s own, some of Canada’s finest the Staal Brothers own are. The Mackinnon Boys were completely confused trying to figure out why all of the Staal Brothers would have competing Hockey Sports CAMPS against each other. Our family has run a basketball camp in the Comox Valley for the last 6 years so being interested in this I began to think who would have the more successful basketball camp Ryan or myself, if we split up. Thinking about it for a while I assume that kids would rather come to mine, as they would enjoy learning more than just shooting a three or doing a left hand lay up. ZING RY!
Speaking of the Staal Brothers, I have decided to use this once in a lifetime opportunity to compare my four brothers to Thunder Bay’s own, the four current and NHL headed Stalls.
The Elders: (Eric and Scotty): Eric the highly touted 2nd overall selection to the Carolina Hurricanes has led in many fashions winning a Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold Medal and becoming a proven NHL all star. Similar to Scotty Mac in the fact that he is a champion, Eric leads by example and is willing to do anything to win just like S-MAC. (Evident in his yellow jersey province victories over Ryan). Eric has adopted into a solid veteran who knows his strengths and still excels at a high level, just like the grey-haired “Comox Killa, Lethbridge Thrilla” who won the intramural “A” division at the University of Lethbridge with the Dragons circa 2005.
The Odd man out: Marc and Sean Neville both have decided to find their own paths and not follow the footsteps of their brothers. The only defenseman in the bunch, Marc a gritty, stay at home defenseman does his job and brings home the bacon just like the foreman and big boss himself Mr. Sean Neville. Both liking the limelight and the big city have relocated to New York and Vancouver respectfully putting their time in with celebrities and the big time. They both went out on their own and have been very successful because of this.
The talents: (Brother Rusty and Jordan Staal): The masters of being good at everything. Both have a talent for being multi talented. Jordan can score, penalty kill, block a shot, finish a check and make the game winning play. Give Russ a ball and he is good with it! The kid is the intramural king! Both are quite intelligent as they surround themselves with extremely talented players. In Jordan’s case with Malkin and Crosby and in Russ with his association with myself and SMA-BRAP!
The Young Bucks (Ry Mac and Jared): About to make their big break, both boys are sitting on the brink of excellence. Ry Mack waiting to go play professionally in Europe and Jared waiting for the shot that he deserves. If I was an NHL team I would be jumping all over this guy, does genetics not mean anything these days! The same goes for Ryan in terms of going to Europe as he had one of the greatest mentors and teachers in myself who taught him every old man up and under he ever needed to know!
(Footnote: By no means should the Mackinnon Brothers ever be compared to the Staals as the most impressive athletic accomplishment we have ever attempted excluding Ryan is this trip and I believe that is stupidity and ignorance more than athletic prowess. We did however play in the Highland Secondary Alumni basketball game where we beat the current 16 and 17 years olds due to Russ bowing out at half time and deciding he was going to coach, Scotty Mac beating up on kids a decade younger than him, Sean Neville hitting no look circus style alley oops and us collectively not passing the ball to our all Canadian brother Ryan as we did not want him to show us up. He took 1 shot in the second half)
At the Terry Fox Monument with the Boys! | No better Canadians than this man! Sean Neville is thirsty. | Can't get enough of Terry! SEAN NEVIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE! | Get up kid!!!! | The fantastic four! | With our tour guide Chuck! |
Almost 10 days removed from the lovely Doris Indome of Winnipeg and Captaine Charles from Kenora, we have had a rough go hitting the halfway point of our trip. We were in need of something special to boost morale when we arrived in Thunder Bay, we needed to feel like we were home, after seeing each other every minute of every day for the last month, we needed to feel like we were around family and friends AND That is exactly what we got at the Britton’s place in Thunder Bay!
I believe that all the mothers that have had a huge impact on my life and on this trip have a maternal instinct that they just cannot ignore. (My mom has this more than anyone) Someone needs help and they are automatically there. I have had the privilege of experiencing this at home in Comox with my second mom Mrs. Bev McDonald and many times on this trip with Mama Morrison and Doris. In Thunder Bay, more so than ever we needed that compassionate, considerate, thoughtful mother figure that would help us get back on our feet. We got that in Janice Britton, a lady who went out of her way for us without ever thinking twice. We will be eternally grateful to her for what she did for us.
Janice’s 3rd son John Britton (The next Cross-Fit Champion of Asia-You heard it hear first) and Scotty’s buddy from Manila orchestrated everything from across the pond, setting us up with an unforgettable experience in Thunder Bay. Thanks John, We owe you big time!
The night in Thunder Bay was wonderful; we spent it laughing at father Art’s great storytelling ability and feeling like we were a part of this welcoming family. Janice and Art’s daughter Katie helped us with everything setting up a Face Time conversation with John, sorting out Sean’s bike and just being a blast to be around. We hope we catch up with her in Ottawa for Canada Day. Eldest son Chucks’ early morning bike tour of Port Arthur, Fort William and all of Thunder Bay was unreal while his helpfulness gave us a unique perspective of what real Thunder Bay hospitality is all about. The 2nd and youngest sister Meghan (Ha ha) and her husband Pete not only fixed Sean’s bike. (If you are in Thunder Bay head to Cycle Path, great bike store owned by a great family), but their daughter Sofia showed us a killer Zoomba move that we are going to use to try and get on Ellen. Last but not least Kathy and Dave were so fun to be around, informative of the Lake Superior area and introduced us to Kathy’s parents, Peggy (Thanks for the delicious cookies) and our new hero Hugh McIntyre, who you will hear about later.
Could not have asked for a more rejuvenating experience of family and friends!
The Mackinnon Boys
The Mackinnon Boys in front of Hoito's with Janice, Art, Katie and Chuck Britton. The best pancake Scotty has ever ate! So Fire Starter Ronnie from Mountain View, Alberta the "Special" moves to number 2.
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