Maggie, get out and ride (Friday 3/11)

OK, first it's official Maggie your a news group personality. We only
have to say your first name and most people knwo who we're talking
about. And in this case it's not a back thing as opposed to Mikey
(Mike Vander something or other ;-).

I went out riding this afternoon and it was pleasant! I've got 50F at
3:30, a little cloudy, wind out of the west (here in South Central
Jersey). Enjoyed the ride, so get on your bikes and ride (taken from
Queen and no the title of the song suggests nothing!).

And as an extra bonus, a story (Bill S will like this :-). Over in the
back of Monroe they're planting more houses on the farms and at one
spot they have a lot of equipment doing what they do. I noticed one
Back hoe/front loader backing up when I heard a thud. I was looking in
that direction anyway when I notice the driver knock over one of the
porta-potties. The way he did it made me beleive that he did it on
purpose and that someone was in there. I burst out laughing and the
guys in the back hoe looked at me as I made a hasty exit from the
scene. I'm glad I didn't **** them off! :-)

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

Neil Cherry wrote:
OK, first it's official Maggie your a news group personality. We only
have to say your first name and most people knwo who we're talking
about. And in this case it's not a back thing as opposed to Mikey
(Mike Vander something or other ;-).

I went out riding this afternoon and it was pleasant! I've got 50F at
3:30, a little cloudy, wind out of the west (here in South Central
Jersey). Enjoyed the ride, so get on your bikes and ride (taken from
Queen and no the title of the song suggests nothing!).


I worked all day then went for happy hour. I MISSED THE GOOD DAY.
Glad you had a great ride.

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle

So forget all your duties oh yeah!
Fat bottomed girls
They'll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah

When spring rolls around I will be posting stories of my bike
adventures...instead of the inane drivel I usually post. I'll be
Talkin' Bike Baby.

This fat bottomed girl will be riding and posting. You'll be glad you
put up with my posts all winter....I will have my pee wee herman type
big adventures to post. And I will understand that GET BENT, doesn't
mean GET BENT. ;-)
All Good Things,
Maggie.

In article .com,
"Maggie" writes:

When spring rolls around I will be posting stories of my bike
adventures...

Fri Mar 11, 2005

Rode the Burnaby Heights trail today. I set out at about 10:00 AM,
via Prince Edward - 19th - Prince Albert - 20th - Glen - 19th/20th,
and decided to look for where Super Sport Manufacturers has moved to.
I knew the address was 3745 Commercial. I found it, right next to where
the Honey Cream Donut factory used to be.

Doubled back on Commercial, up Findlay to 13th, cut through some back
lanes to bypass some street construction and John Hendry Park, onto
Lakewood, and on to Wall St, toward New Brighton Park.

I didn't stop at the park; I just kept going up the trail.

The route became a little obscure as it crossed Willingdon, but became
apparent again as I rode south a little. The trail itself is pleasant
enough -- surfaced with hardpacked gravel, embroidered with bucolic
surroundings on either side, a couple of "interesting" but not terribly
challenging grades, and fleeting glimpes through the alders, of the
eastern reaches of Burrard Inlet. I hardly encountered anyone else on
the trail. I passed some site called the "Chevron Training Centre",
and imagined some sort of regimental academy for spotlessly uniformed
gas jockeys. And then I recalled the scene in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad,
Mad, Mad World" where Johnathan Winters goes nutz with a tow truck on
a gas station, and I had a little, interiorized chuckle about it.

Eventually I popped out of the end of the trail at N. Gamma & Penzance Dr.
But there was another trail on the other side of Penzance, going up and
over the northern instep of Burnaby's Capitol Hill. But Penzance looked
inviting in a road-riding way. The trail went up, up, up, and the road
went downward, and I stood there alone -- no people, no cars, no nuthin'.
That corner of the world was my oyster. I deliberated for awhile, and
opted for the trail.

The first stretch was middle-ring easy, but eventually I found myself
confronted with granny-ring material -- almost a vertical wall to surmount.
I started to tackle it, but the top/rear-heavy weight of my pack o' stuff
in the milk crate, my slick-like tires, and my lack of bar-ends made me
think better of the idea (had some trouble keeping the front wheel down)
and I bailed. I coaxed and cajoled my bike up the steepness, pushing it
by the ass of its saddle. Sometimes getting off and hoofing it is harder
than riding, but at least there's less danger of flipping over backwards.
I finally crested the hump, still afoot, and remounted. Around the next
bend Iencountered a guy taking his doggies out for a walk (or rather,
a /drag/, as one of them was a short-legged miniature dachshund who had
trouble keeping up with his human,) and I rode by them as if I had just
breezed up that incline. That was the first and only other group of
people I met on the trails part of my ride.

On this trail I noticed something I had completely forgotten since
my youth -- elderberry bushes blossom before they leaf out. There
were these stark, brown stalks, with pinky/peuse pilot-light flames
at their tips. I used to make whistles out of hollow elderberry stems.
My mom used to make kick-ass wine out of elderberry berries. On
thinking back, I should have looked for some cottonwood -- I just luvs
the fragrance of cottonwood sap in early spring. And I'm sure there'd
have been some there somewhere, too. Maybe even some wild hazelnut
trees, or wild Indian plum trees. There definitely was a lot of
salmonberry scrub, and that damned, pernicious, feral ivy, strangling
every alder tree it could get a hold of.

Near the highest height of the trail is one of those memorial-plaqued
park benches. This one is dedicated to some Ernie Savage guy. I sat
on his bench and took a good, long swig out of my water bottle with
the top flipped right off, and said "Cheers" to Ernie. And then rode on.

Whoo-hoo! Another granny-ringer. This time I take it, and succeed.

Then the trail spits me out onto N. Fell Ave. Suddenly I'm ejected
off the trail, into developed suburbia. I look back to see a sign
that says in effect, "Please don't feed the coyotes, raccoons, or bears."

Bears?!


So I zoom down Fell Ave to Burnaby's Kensington Park, and have a
little rest stop, while Burnaby Mtn beackons from the east. But I
don't have the wherewithal, foodwise, to do that climb. Then,
homeward via the Frances/Union/Adanac route. I shoot by where an
old, good buddy used to live (Pender & Gilmore) and discover the
entire block has been razed for new construction. Goodbye
fond memories.

But I take a notion that I want a bottle of that cheap, rot-gut
Andre's sherry, which is all I can afford right now, and that
stumps my budget. Along the roller-coastery ride of Adanac I notice
Kaslo St has one of those Bike Route street signs. Apparently that's
only good for a block. Anyhow, I wended my way down Kaslo, intending
to get to the Broadway/Lillooet liquor store. Steep downhills and
busted pavement -- wheee! No luck at the re-tox centre, so I decide
to try the Kingsgate Mall one. Back up to 5th to Lakewood, 10th,
Kingsgate Mall ... and they don't even know what sherry is. 10th -
Ontario - 29th, to the Main St liquor store, and again no luck.
So finally I score at the Kerrisdale shop at/near Maple & 41st.

And what westerly headwinds I had to endu

The enemy wind
gleefully thwarts my progress.
Catkins in my eyes.


Tailwinds & downhills for the final home-bound leg, though.


cheers,
Tom

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