Tuesday...

In anticipation of picking up Little Granddaughter's laundry after work, I parked at my Callingwood spot and rode 13.5 km, mostly on multi-use pathways. Nice! I still feel a little uncertain on the many-branched path between my parking spot and West Edmonton Mall, but seeing a line of red shopping carts ahead is a good way to know I am focused on my target: the WEM Target store. 

As I ride along 165 Street, I pass some schools with names that have pleasant associations for me. There is Afton School, bringing to mind long-ago piano lessons. A little farther along is a school named after Thomas More; in my opinion, one of history's most interesting characters. There is also a sign that I find amusing: Parent Parking Patrol. No idea what it means, but it sounds like something that would feature on Sesame Street for the Letter P.

cartons of what??

And no matter how fast or slow I ride, I always seem to hit the red light at the Foody Mart intersection. In fact, I always arrive just as the light has turned red, meaning I have lots of time to contemplate this sign and to wonder just what "By the Carton" items Foody Mart deals in. Maybe one day I'll stop in and take a look. But I doubt it. It's on the wrong side of the street, for starters. But it is clearly an up-and-coming business.

Today as I entered the River Valley, a rabbit ran across my path. Seeing wildlife along the way makes my already-enjoyable ride even more delightful. As I began my climb up the Fortway Road hill, I saw another form of wildlife: a group of about 20 men, dressed in matching athletic wear, sitting on the grass and apparently listening to a pep talk of some kind. No idea what sport or what team. 

It was a gorgeous day and a great ride, but look what I wore! I wanted to wear my peachy-coloured skinny jeans. It was a cool morning, so I threw on my hot-pink thermal cycling jacket for the ride to work. A fashion statement I was not! I did look more pulled-together once I removed the pink jacket, revealing a cute and classic black pleated top.

A Study in Clashing

By the way, I love this Sugoi RS Zero jacket. I had to buy a larger size than I normally wear, as the shop didn't have the smaller sizes, but that turned out to be a good thing, as I can layer it over almost anything. I wore it all winter for both riding my bike and cross-country skiing. It is comfortable, cozy and highly visible -- everything an urban cyclist needs.

Monday...

... rain again. More than a few people thought I was nuts for riding. But when I considered the option of driving all the way downtown, a vision of the stop-and-go traffic along 102 Avenue came to mind. I know it's only for a few minutes. I know that many commuters in other cities sit in stop-and-go traffic for an hour or more every single day. But the fact is, I'd rather be on my bike, cruising past the creeping vehicles, getting wet, than sitting behind the steering wheel. My almost-waterproof pants and jacket held up pretty well until about 1 km away from my destination. I was wearing my regular work clothes under my semi-waterproof layers, and I suddenly felt my pant legs and my sleeves below the elbow get very wet. Oh well, I was almost there. And wet clothes dry. I've thought about buying MEC's waterproof cycling wear, but when I went to the store they didn't have my size. And when I went online to order, the idea of spending so much money for only occasional very wet weather stopped me. Also, I have my doubts about the size 4 -- why don't they offer smaller sizes? Maybe one of these days I'll break down and fork out the big bucks, but on Monday, I settled for a good soaking. 

On rainy days, I usually eschew the River Valley route and ride on the city streets. This way I figure if I have a breakdown, I am near alternative modes of transport -- bus or taxi. So far it has never happened, but I like to think ahead. The on-street route is also shorter -- 7.5 instead of 9 K, so there is less time to get soaking wet.

Mom, what's a trike?

 Look at this poor little three-year-old boy.

 

 Clearly he thinks he is hot stuff, riding his brand-new bright red tricycle. 

But he's not. 

He doesn't know it, but he should be riding a "run bike." The three-wheeled design of a trike means that he might not learn to balance as he should. If this boy continues in his foolish ways and persists in riding a trike, as his parents are seemingly forcing him to do, he might later, like his older brother, pictured below, succumb to the fallacy that training wheels are helpful when learning to ride a real two-wheeled bicycle. 

  

And, training wheels? Why, if he relies on training wheels, he might never learn to balance on two wheels.

Does this sound a bit like the story of The Three Sillies? I thought so, too. 

 (Deep sigh of relief from the audience)

From the photo above, it appears that our fears were groundless. 

Older Brother did indeed learn to ride on two wheels. 

Maybe there is hope for Little Brother after all.** 

This was 1990, when bike helmets for everyday riding were still a relatively new idea and when parents and children everywhere believed that the natural progression was: Trike, Bike-with-Training-Wheels, Plain Old Bike. Somehow, it worked, even without the benefits of the latest European technology.

** Since the long-ago days depicted in the above photos, Big Brother and Little Brother have ridden their bikes together on the Icefields Parkway, across southern Alberta and across Vancouver Island. Big Brother has also ridden the 250 km from Montreal to Quebec City in one day. Their early riding lessons on trike and bike-with-training-wheels seem to have been pretty effective.

ride leader in training

When I first started road cycling I read a few books about the sport. One thing that struck me as kind of funny was that a ride leader is expected to call out words of warning to those behind, thus informing them of hazards such as potholes, gravel, ridges in the pavement, etc. Well, around here, it might be more noteworthy to encounter uniformly smooth pavement. Otherwise, it is best to assume that There Will be Hazards.This is particularly true on the 106 Street bike lane in Edmonton. I laughed when I rode on the northerly portions of this lane. A ride leader would quickly become breathless from calling out, "Pothole!" "Another pothole!" "Gravel!" "Pothole, pothole, pothole!"

I also laughed the other day when I was out for a walk with Maggie on the trails here in town. A boy on a bike rode past, carefully moving as far left as he could to stay out of my way. He then called back, "Watch out for the person! Stay right!" -- and I watched as four other young riders obediently fell into single file behind him. 

I was especially taken with "the person." Was he merely being scrupulously politically correct? Or could he really not tell whether I was a man or a woman?

Or perhaps he wanted to say, "Watch out for the lady," but had learned from my 1st year French prof, Father O'Brien, that chaque dame est une femme, mais chaque femme n'est pas une dame.  (Every lady is a woman, but not every woman is a lady.) 

Incidentally, Father O'Brien also taught us: "Chez moi ou chez toi?" (My place or yours?)

And he taught us this song (we learned the first version.) He was a pretty cool guy and definitely knew how to make learning French fun for first-year university students.

[Chevaliers de la Table ronde
Allons voir si le vin est bon] [bis]

[Allons voir, oui, oui, oui
Allons voir, non, non, non

Allons voir si le vin est bon] [bis]

- 2 -
[J'en boirai cinq à six bouteilles
Une femme sur mes genoux] [bis]

[Une femme, oui, oui, oui
Une femme, non, non, non
Une femme sur mes genoux] [bis]*

back in time...

 

...to the land of the dinos. Today we went with Son #2, Daughter-in-Law and Little Granddaughter to Jurassic Forest. They had free passes through the military, so we tagged along.

Of course, I went by bike. It was 71.81 km north and west of here. I began by riding my usual northerly route to the airport and then ventured into unexplored territory, taking Highway 44 north from Villeneuve. The shoulders on this road are nice and wide, but beware the sand-trap at Inland Concrete: the shoulder at the plant entrance is covered with a thick layer of gravel and fine sand. For my flat bar road bike, gravel is not usually much of a problem. Sand is another matter. I made it safely through the dunes, but it was a bit nerve-wracking. I do like the look of this huge plant, though, with its enormous catwalks and sky-scraping mounds of various concrete-creating materials.

At the junction with Highway 37, I headed west. This is another good highway for cycling, with wide, debris-free shoulders. The scenery along here is beautiful right now, with the vivid greens of the spruce trees and grains and the bright-yellow canola.

I expected an almost completely flat ride, so was quite surprised to see this sign:

It made me a little nervous. I am not a big fan of riding down large hills, especially when they also require a sign like this:

But, all went well -- the hill was not nearly as dramatic as these signs would lead one to believe. I didn't exactly pedal like mad to increase my speed as I descended, but I didn't brake constantly either.
And the uphill on the other side was a breeze, especially compared to the hills I ride around here.

After riding west for quite awhile along Highway 37, I finally came to Highway 28, where I turned north. This road's shoulders are almost like another lane -- a cyclist's dream. The pavement is smooth; there is no almost no gravel and traffic is fairly light. The road is pleasantly curvy and mostly flat, with a few small hills (and another rating the truck sign) to break up the monotony.

A few surprises along this route: Several dog-boarding facilities with charming names: Blackpaws Pet Resort, Wagging Tails Pet Resort, The Ranch Kennels. Appealing names attempt to hide the real theme of these places: Abandon hope, all ye [canines] who enter here.

A U-pick apple orchard -- in northern Alberta? Who knew? Several U-pick berry farms.

A golf course called Terrae Pines. This sign, as Hercule Poirot would say, gave me furiously to think as I rode along. Did they leave out the "c" in "terrace"? Impossible! (French accent.) Is it a feeble attempt to translate "Land of Pines" into Latin? Maybe it's someone's name? Whatever. Do place names always have to make sense?

Then there was the Moonlight Hotel, coupled with the Double Dragon Chinese restaurant, in Bon Accord. Almost tempting. I glimpsed cemetery gates at Namao and Bon Accord -- again, somewhat enticing. The Bon Accord cemetery was established in 1905. It might merit a visit on another day.

When I came to the turn-off for the town of Gibbons I was stumped. I'd printed directions from Google Maps, but they didn't make a lot of sense, so I called Hubby. He and Teenage Son were still on their way, so they stopped to pick me up. It was a good thing, as the entrance road to the park is large-chunk gravel, not at all suitable for cycling.

It was a gorgeous day. I had a hard time deciding how to dress, but chose just the right combination of clothing -- I wore my longer cycling shorts and a short-sleeved jersey with a thin long-sleeved jersey on top. If necessary, I planned to take off the top layer and stuff it in one of my pockets. But I wasn't too hot and I wasn't too cold -- I was just right. The temperature was about 12 degrees when I started and around 18 at the end, and the sun was shining most of the time. The above photo was taken on the drive home. (Sadly, I had what must be bad batteries in my camera, so I couldn't take any photos on my way.)

The Jurassic Forest park is kind of cute, set in a lovely cool old-growth forest and peopled by mechanized dinosaurs. Little Granddaughter, at six months, wasn't quite ready to appreciate it yet. When our boys were younger they would have loved it. For adults, it's just a nice walk on a beautifully-made boardwalk.

And for some adults, it's an excuse to take a nice long bike ride.

the bard

Last night we went to King Lear performed by the Free Will Players at the Hawrelak Park amphitheater. We met Oldest Son and his girlfriend there.

I rode my bike into Edmonton again, along Highway 16A. It was pretty busy at 5:00 p.m., but not too terrifying. The worst part was under one of the overpasses where the light was dim and the gravel was thicker than it appeared. I skidded a bit, but regained control and all was good. From 16A I exited to the Anthony Henday and then 87th Avenue. I took a different multi-use path this time, turning right at the first path I came to. This is obviously a very old path of its ilk and is about half the width of the newer ones. But it does the trick. I rode from there through a nice quiet neighbourhood until I came to another path heading south. That led to the first overpass that goes across the Whitemud. I'd never taken that before, so chalked up another "first." This leads to 76th Avenue, which in turn leads to the 69th Avenue bike lane. I rode on this into Wolf Willow and through the Ravine to Patricia Heights. This was another first, and an interesting one. From the residential street, the path looked superb -- nice and wide, paved, painted middle line, the full monty. I rode happily along -- then my stomach lurched when I came to the downhill part. It was steep. Of course I knew that what goes down must come up, so I was ready for the big climb on the other side -- or so I thought. The first part was fine. But then the beautiful pavement suddenly became gravel -- the big-chunk, loose kind. After skidding along for a bit, not making a lot of progress, I finally gave up and walked my bike to the top. From there I took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end, so I u-turned and came back to 76th Avenue, which took me past some rather elegant homes and finally to the bridge that crosses the Whitemud. Here I found myself on the steepest path I have ever encountered. I actually got off and walked down part of the way; my stomach simply couldn't handle the curvy steepness. I'm not sure how much of my nervousness was due to the foreboding signage, warning riders about the steep grade, the possibility of oncoming foot and bicycle traffic, the hairpin curves; but whatever it was, I decided there was nothing in the least shameful in walking down part of a hill. It was an easy ride at the bottom to Laurier Park and from there to Hawrelak, where I met Hubby.

The play was fantastic, as all the Free Will performances always are. I don't know why, but I always forget just how cold it can get on a summer evening under the tent ceiling. I did bring jeans and put those on first thing. Also a wool sweater. Also a shawl. I could have used a few more layers. While we were waiting in line, we were snickering at the people wearing down-filled jackets, but by 9:30 we were eyeing those same people with envy. Nothing like a cool winter summer evening in northern Alberta!

close encounters with nature

One of the things I love about riding through the River Valley is the chance to encounter nature right in the middle of the city. Today this is who I met up with:

It was a desolate spot on the trail, just me and Old Man Coyote. I felt a bit nervous as he eyed me up -- like yon Cassius, he had sort of a lean and hungry look -- but once I'd passed him I couldn't resist stopping to take a pic. Then I high-tailed it out of there.

Yesterday a garter snake slithered across the trail in front of me, and a few days ago a pair of yellow warblers flew from one side of the trail to the other. And then there are the woodchucks I've seen a few times, down below the museum. We even saw a deer in the Wolf Willow Ravine when we rode to Fort Edmonton on Saturday; I have yet to see one on my way downtown. Maybe someday.

 Severe thunderstorms are in the offing once again tonight and tomorrow, and this cloud we saw approaching as we walked the dog doesn't exactly make me doubt the accuracy of that forecast.

Tomorrow's forecast is as follows:

Thursday, 11 July

Increasing cloudiness. A few showers with thunderstorms beginning near noon. Wind becoming northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 in the afternoon. High 20. UV index 3 or moderate.

Thursday night, 11 July

A few showers with thunderstorms ending in the evening then clearing. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 becoming light in the evening. Low 10.

Sounds like a perfect day for cycling!  At least the UV index is only moderate.