More Bike Riding

When I was in Walmart, like I mentioned in the last post, I just happened to pass by the bike section.  I had thought about getting a bigger, more padded seat.  So I was checking out all the options, and me being me, had to weigh the cheaper options against the more expensive ones.  Anyway, I bit the bullet and went for the most expensive option.  You probably can't read that oval label.  It says 'With ergonomic relief channel for advanced comfort'.  So I got to thinking.....what exactly does that mean?  The more I thought about it, the funnier it got.  So I've decided that you can pee while you are riding along, and it will just flow through the seat and be left behind.  You've gotta be riding fast enough so that your feet don't get splashed though.  Isn't that what they mean by relief?

On Wednesday we had to pick my sister up from the airport in Vancouver, well actually it's in Richmond.  Richmond is flat, built on a river delta, and has some good bike trails.  So since I was going that way to pick up Cathy, why not take our bikes along and make it our weekly bike trip.  Her plane arrived at 1:40, so if we left home at 10 am, that would give us an hour to get there, two and a half hours to ride or sit or whatever, and time to get to the airport.  Well mostly because of me, we left half an hour late. I had rolled up some pants that I wanted to take along just in case the sun didn't come out, and then I couldn't figure out where I had left them/put them down, whatever.  Come to think of it, I still haven't seen them.  They are here at home somewhere.

So we get about half an hour from home, and it suddenly dawns on my that I've forgotten to bring along a set of keys for my mum's car.  We were going to pick Cathy up and then take her to my mum's place.  She was going to use my mum's car to go see her at the hospital, drive out to our place later, etc.  So I phoned home, where David was.  He's been fighting a bad bout of mono and strep throat since last week.  Anyway, he felt well enough to drive, so he found the keys where I had left them on the dining room table, and met us partway.  So now we had just lost another 45 minutes of riding time.

We get to Richmond, and exit the freeway right after the Massey Tunnel, at the tourist info.  We park there, and head off on a little side road that crosses the freeway and we work our way down to the river and ride along the roads and pathways, heading to the village of Steveston.   It was 12:25 when we got on our bikes.

When we were about halfway through our time, we stopped for a drink and a bite to eat.  The weather was perfect, sunny, but a nice breeze.  Okay, maybe the breeze was too nice.  Seemed like we were battling a wind both coming and going.  

Why does it always seem like that?  We were sure the wind would be at our backs on the return journey.

We rode through two really nice dog off leash areas.

See that guy just to the right of Larry's shoulder.  It was an older fellow, sat on his walker, 'chucking' a ball for his german short haired pointer.

There were some funny looking dogs there. 

Kind of blurry, but that's what you get when you are cycling along at a decent speed on gravel, and are facing sideways with the camera, trying to get a photo and not fall off.

It could quite easily have been a photo of the grass coming up to meet me.

Here's another off-leash park.  The guy in front is wearing a fluorescent vest that says 'Please Recycle' on the back, and has bags of bottles.

There's a narrow slough not far from the start, that has the most fascinating group of shacks, shanties and boats.

Needless to say, the plane landed early, and we were late getting to the airport as it was.

Since we are taking Cathy back to the airport next Wednesday, we might take our bikes again and go for a longer ride AFTER we've been to the airport.

The jury's still out as to whether that seat was $33 more comfortable.

And no, I didn't try out the relief channel.