What the ****?

City slogan

Our city has just announced that two meetings will be held next week to discuss what kind of bike lanes are to be installed at two different parts of the city.  What surprises me is that a bike lane is to be installed on 102 Avenue.  At the last bike lane meeting I joined, the city planners admitted that 103 Avenue was a better bike route.

For ten years I have been commuting to and from work on 102 Avenue but since attending that bike lane meeting, I have ridden on 103 Avenue and have to agree with the city that it is a much better route.  My choice of 103rd was also prompted by the demolition of the 100 year old bridge across the Groat Ravine.  With the bridge gone for 15 months while a new one was being installed another way to work had to be chosen - hence the 103 Avenue choice.

Bye bye bridge

But I'm going to miss the two meeting next week since my work is taking me to the center of the universe (Ottawa).  A producer and I are going to film our city's soccer club playing for the Amway Cup.  Amway Cup?  I thought Amway only dealt with toilet paper and other household goods.  Who knew?

It is for real

Every time I travel, my intention is to grab ahold of a bike and ride around my destination.  I see on the interweb that Ottawa has many bike lanes.  In fact Ottawa appears to be quite progressive in building bike lanes.  In fact, our capital city has been cited as:

OBLP RECIPIENT OF 2014 RGD SO(CIAL) GOOD DESIGN AWARD

To translate: Since 2012, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) has invited submissions of projects created under the theme of communication design for social good. The So(cial) Good Design Awards celebrates work with the power to incite action and make meaningful change in the way we live our lives.

Even though I will miss giving my input to the city's cycling planners, I hope to have the pleasure of cycling on Good Designed bike lanes and who knows?, maybe my city's soccer team will bring home the Amway Cup.

"Like"

On Facebook, a number of my friends have "liked" the fact that I'm going to the "Bike to the Symphony" event on June 12th.  My hope is that all those friends will join me in what has always been a fun bike ride.

Wigged Out

In the above photo, I'm the guy in the suit with the silver helmet.  If you look carefully, you'll see a GoPro camera mounted on my head.  My old friend Bruce Wiggins from CTV2 had shown up with a producer and they needed to find someone to wear a camera during the ride.  As soon as Wiggy spotted me, they knew they had their man.

A dressing down

After getting chain oil on my suit, I decided last year to dress down a bit and just wear a tweed jacket and jeans.  I was especially delighted to ride my Root Beer Raleigh 20" folding bike that my friend  The Raving Bike Fiend had found for me.  Someone snagged the above picture while we rode along the bike path near Railtown and I was eager to try taking my own pictures while pedaling.  Something I'd seen Coreen from "Breaking Chains and Taking Lanes" do many times.

The Bike Riding Photographer herself

My photographic efforts weren't worth publishing however, I did manage to get a photo of William Eddins, the Edmonton Symphony conductor who happened to lead all of us through downtown.  He then rode right into the concert hall on his bike.  Something we all liked.