Vancouver Non-Partisan Association Coun. Suzanne Anton may get the chance to combine her work with her hobby this fall.

On September 5, the first-term city councillor is scheduled to attend a board meeting of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Before that, Anton will fly to Toronto along with her husband, Olin, and their touring bikes as part of an annual vacation.

The two have spent chunks of every summer since 2001 cycling across Canada in stages. This year, the Antons will continue on from Toronto and take the Waterfront Trail along Lake Ontario toward Quebec and New Brunswick.

"It would be nice if I could get [all the way] there, but it will be a little bit tight, timewise," Anton told the Georgia Straight after parking her 27-speed DaVinci touring bike at a Main Street coffee shop. "The distance from Toronto to St. Andrews is around 1,200 kilometres. I guess I'd probably be the first one who ever showed up on a bike to the FCM."

Anton says she's also content with the fact that plans may change. The relaxed and flexible itinerary sums up the touring-cyclist mentality: know where the destination is once you arrive or once the sun starts to set.

"I just have so much fun," Anton said. "To me, it's the greatest trip I've ever taken. It's so satisfying to see all the places across the country. And the beauty of it is everybody can do it, as the food and accommodation in many of the places is so cheap and you are supporting the Canadian economy."

And if you're Anton, you later get to tell Canadian politicians from places like Collingwood, Ontario, you stayed in their town and ate at a great diner.

"I do have to resist the urge to tell people 'I've been there' all the time. But I love the experience, you know, of seeing museums: old farm machinery, and Aunt Mable's dress or a hospital room re-created from the 1920s. You see all this in these small towns."

Dozens of cyclists from Canada and across the globe ride the entire stretch from Vancouver to St. John's, Newfoundland, or vice versa, in one shot. It's about 7,500 kilometres from coast to coast and, depending on your route, takes anywhere from two weeks to two months or more.

"Neither myself nor my husband are in the position right now where we can do the whole trip and take three to four months," Anton said.

Many of these tours are self-guided and self-motivated, but cyclists wanting a more formalized structure can log on to www.cyclecanada.com/ and check out what the Alliston, Ontario-based Cycle Canada, the Veloforce Corporation has available. It offers one-week supported summer rides and multiprovincial tours, such as the 900-kilometre ride from Vancouver to Calgary, from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains to the flat Prairies.

The Antons started in 2001 by cycling the Kettle Valley Railroad, prior to it burning down, before heading along the smoky Crowsnest Pass during the 2003 forest fires. Such journeys bring an appreciation of the vastness of nature, the beauty of small towns, and the simple things in life.

"We were in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, in a museum," Anton said. "I was talking to a man there who must have been the same age as my son, 21, and he showed us a family photograph. There must have been 250 people in it. He told me the second cousins were not allowed in the picture."