By the time I got to the airport after work on Friday, October 7th (cutting the time close, of course), I was utterly exhausted. I accepted the middle seat I was given as my penalty for being late. I was just glad to start my three-week vacation in Europe with my boyfriend. I was flying into Amsterdam, spending some time with him in Utrecht, and then we were taking his mother’s car and driving to Spain. After the summer I’d…
The last ride for me of the season was my very first Toy Run. I was excited to see what this major day of bikes was all about. The day dawned and it was cloudy but not raining, so we decided it was a go. I was taking one of my sisters on the back – she can’t ride (or drive) because of a vision thing, but is an experienced passenger and loves bikes. The day turned out well despite…
A few years back I had the idea that my ex and I, my sister and her husband and my mother and stepfather should all buy a piece of property on Gabriola. I set it up, got the ‘rents in touch with a realtor, and we went as a group to look at properties. I had in mind a cheap piece of vacant land. At the end of the day, my mum and step-dad decided that they would buy a…
Anyone who was reading my European travelogue closely might have noticed that I spent close to three weeks in the Netherlands with a Dutch guy I’d met in St. Petersburg. The more curious might have wondered if it was entirely platonic. Well, it wasn’t, but at the time we thought it was a vacation romance. However, as time went on, and after some drama, we came to believe that the connection we had was deeper than that. So, on July…
With the death of Julia Sit, the riding community lost one of its most involved members. It seemed an especially unnecessary tragedy since she herself had lost her partner in a riding accident almost exactly a year previously, and now her loss was being felt by her new fiance and almost everyone in the riding community. It seemed like even people who’d never met her felt like they knew her. She’d run a coffee shop for her parents, the Flying…
Things broken on this trip: One contact lens (ripped)One tank bag zipper (map compartment)One camera door (CF card)One record for no “roadside chats” on a bikeTwo friendships (at least I thought they were)Friday morning, Canada Day, awake at 7 am, despite having gotten to bed at 1:40 the previous night fully exhausted after a full week at work, barely dragging the clean laundry into the apartment before collapsing on an unmade bed. Excited about trip to Mt. Rainier that I’ve…
This ride, the Merritt loop via Princeton, started wet, continued grey, turned brilliant, but involved some loss and searching, and ended with good proof that my luck hasn’t run out yet.In preparation for this ride, 6EChick came over and spent the night with me – including gamely going out to a bar with strangers. In the morning, she got to accompany me on my cookie deliveries to my team in Kits (in the rain) and then out to Burnaby Kawasaki…
Duffy Lake road is one of the long loops available from Vancouver. It’s got some great scenery – going from coast to mountains to the desert on the other side – and is very twisty. But it’s also well known for the quality, or rather lack thereof, of the pavement. I’d been wanting to do it for a long time, but unfortunately, at the beginning of the day at least, my head wasn’t quite in it (hangover and hormones –…
Last night, I arranged a group ride to get to know some of the women on the website we hadn’t ridden with yet. And, after telling everyone to be there at 5:30, gassed up and ready to go, I got stuck in traffic getting out of Richmond and was late myself. And it was hot. And I was in full gear, and sweat was running down my legs and pooling in my boots by the time I got there. And…
Tackle and I had been looking forward to the May Long Weekend for months. We’d planned a 3 day trip to the Olympic Peninsula and Oregon Coast, and had 3 or 4 other people interested in coming along. But, as it grew nearer, it became apparent that the weather was going to be wet. Very wet. So, at the last minute, and faced with desertion by every other interested person, we decided to cancel and just go for a long…
Tackle and I spotted a weekend that neither of had commitments on and planned a 2.5 day trip to the Olympic Peninsula. Perhaps planned is too strong a word. We picked out an end point and got some general ideas together, but we didn’t do things like arrange hotels or figure out mileage or anything like that. We invited Hot Rod and Tab to come along, making it quite the diverse collection of bikes – me on Penny, Tackle on…
The SpeedyBikeGirls got together after work for a quick jaunt up to Squamish for dinner at a pub (it’s funny how this becomes a normal idea on a bike). Despite getting, um, misdirected a couple times in the search for gas, it was a great ride. The construction area was a little rough, but it didn’t slow up traffic too badly. It was the first time that several of the girls had been up to Squamish. It was a little…