Tempus Fugit

I know a lot of people ride the bus, but not me, not until yesterday that is.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the cost of operating a vehicle lately and when you add up the payments, insurance, parking, and repairs it’s an amazing amount per month. So, yesterday was the start of my bus adventures for commuting to work.

I needed to take the truck in to have the windshield replaced, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to start riding. Armed with bus tickets and an app to find my rides I set out on the #57 Express from Southdale to downtown. Nice ride, not crowded, as fast or faster than driving and strangely relaxing. Perhaps it’s just the 1st time novelty.

Going home was equally good. The stop is a block from my office and the bus was exactly on time.

Today I’m on the #19, not an express but moving well. Oops, spoke too soon! We’re jammed up on Archibald with all those darn cars!

Giving up the truck and going to a one vehicle family will be a big change for me. Bussing in the winter seems like it will be OK, and way less expensive. From early spring to late fall I can be on the bike so that will be excellent. I think I’ll turn the mountain bike into more of a commuter bike with fenders and skinny tires and perhaps the reward for my new transportation style will be a new full suspension 29er.

I thought I’d planned well for the trip as far as what temperatures we’d experience but I think I payed too much attention to the daytime highs and ignored the overnight lows and the effects of altitude. Night time temperatures can be a little important when your camping in a tent trailer.

At the Loveland Pass (11,000ft) we experienced snow and thankfully were not camping there. But, later in the day beside the Colorado
River near Arches National Park (~6,000ft) the overnight lows were in the 3° range.

Tonight at Bryce National Park the campground office has a sign requesting that you disconnect your waterline as the overnight low is expected to be -3°C.

Right now I’m by the cosy camp fire. Could be some snuggling for warmth later.

Every other person you see is wearing spandex.

It’s OK to have a Hummer

The grocery store dedicates a whole aisle to energy bars.

All in one day we went from a rainy morning to 1° with snow at 11,000 ft to 21° and a sunny afternoon to sitting around a camp fire in t-shirts at 9pm. What a day!

We’ve crossed the Rockies, seen the Colorado National Monument and driven Scenic Route 128 along the Colorado River into Moab Utah. The scenery has been breath taking.

The most common phrase heard today was “Oh My!” followed by “Look at that!”.

Sleeping under the stars tonight.

Not that my blog posts have any frequency or pattern at the best of times but, for the next week or two I might be a little more frequent as we’re on a road trip in the south western USA.

The order might be a little jumbled as well as the upload is dependent on sporadic wi-fi availability. Hey, our campground doesn’t even have running water, unless you count the Colorado River.

Bike lanes have been showing up around Winnipeg, especially the downtown area over the last couple of year. Until recently, even though a couple of these lanes have been on my normal commuting route, I’ve not given them too much thought. Nice to have, but I was a little indifferent.

Then the city created a dedicates lane on Assiniboine Ave. which caused a lot of controversy and in my opinion was a waste of money. Assiniboine was a low traffic street in the first place and bicycling on it was no problem.

Then one day a few weeks ago a bike lane shows up on St. Mary Ave.! Initially, this seems like a great thing, in fact just the day before I rode up the middle of two lanes of traffic and thought to my self “that was a little crazy”. And then there it was, my own dedicated lane, and for a day or two things were good.

Then things changed. St Mary has parking in the curb lane before 9am and lots of drivers cruise up the curb lane, encounter a parked car, and lane change with no regard to the bike lane or the bicyclist in the lane, that would be me! To top it off they frequently rounded the parked cars and then crossed over the bike lane again with no regard for the cyclist, to make a right hand turn onto a one way street.

I don’t think that bike lanes really help the cyclist all that much and I’d just as soon not have the false sense of security. Cycling on the road with cars, it’s always be ready for the unexpected.

Somebody has a birthday and we’re celebrating tonight.The BBQ is fired up and ready to go! Guests are on the way and a fabulous dinner awaits. Mmmm, the dessert will be some awesome frozen chocolate goodness.

With the wet weather and Plan B in effect we’re riding on the road in the park. The roadies went the distance just ask Scott, Daniel, Chris or Garry. Lots of climbing and wicked fast twisty decents. Very cold too.

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Looking pretty happy about this.

Somebody got an early birthday surprise, and from the looks of it in this photo, the “surprise” was worth it! Way to go Scott.

Happy Birthday Mandy, lots of love, Mom & Dad.

It is looking like there will be a second trip to do some mountain biking on the MDH trail in 2010! A tentative date of Sept 18-19 has been suggested and this also might be the largest group ever. I hope the Ranch is up for this.

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