BentUPBike

Happy New Year!!

2012-01-01T23:23:00.001-06:00

Haven't posted much on here lately, been busy finishing up work for the year and visiting family for the holidays. I have one more day off work then I'm back at it again. Some people don't do the resolutions for New Years and usually I am among those. This year I figure I should put some down in print, then maybe I will follow them. So here are mine:

1. Lose weight (probably common for most people). I'm sitting around 260lbs right now and want to be around 200lbs next New Years.

2. Try to be less negative about work and life in general.

3. Try to explore my artistic side. I used to draw constantly. Plus I want to take more pictures this year.

4. Try to learn how to handwrite again. My writing is atrocious, it looks like a child was printing it.

That's about it I guess, feel free to comment and let me know what yours are (if anyone still reads this.) :)

Here are some pics from over the Holidays:

2011-11-24T12:49:00.001-06:00

Turned out not to bad, for a phone anyway.

2011-11-24T12:33:00.001-06:00

So this is my first post done entirely off my phone, so my apologies if it is not setup the same as my other posts are. I included two pictures with this post, one is a HDR picture I took of the main floor of the Rumley Building in downtown. It used to be a warehouse and showroom for the M. Rumley Co. who manufactured farm machinery in the early 1900s. Quite a distinctive building, it is in the processof being converted into offices and condos.

While we are enjoying warmer than normal weather right now, in the past couple of weeks we have had some snow storms. Last Thursday we had a decent snow storm, I had to push snow out of the way getting the door open. So the second picture is of myself shoveling our walkway off.

My bike is away for the season now, no more winter cycling anymore. I may have to drag the xc skis out of the garage however. Anyway until next time try to stay warm and have fun.

Hello again!!

2011-10-29T11:03:00.004-06:00

Look at those sexy socks!! :)

Old Grandora highway, the road washed away here in the spring, they finally fixed it enough to drive one. Pretty windy out today, some nice waves on the water.

My baby girl Kelsey. She was 10 months old this day.

Austin hamming it up, sure is bigger then in the previous post (three years back). They grow up so fast, blink and you will miss it.

Best picture I think so far with the new phone

Well it's been over three years since I last posted in here. I feel bad about that, but jobs, school and kids have a way of taking up a lot of time. I recently got an Iphone and it has a pretty decent camera, it's rekindled a little of my love for snapping pictures and made me think about this blog enough to remember my old passwords and login. I quit posting here for several reasons, one was just a lack of time. Another one was having Austin we didn't want a lot of personal pictures and details on here for security issues. Now that I have resurrected this I will be staying away from more private details and pictures as much as possible. Anyway with that out of the way, here is a short synopsis of what has happened in the last three years.

-I quit my job working for the vac truck company and went to school for a machinist, I did very well at that in school, really learned a lot and morphed from someone who had very little math skills to someone with above average math skills. (can you tell that is what I am most proud of?)

-I got a job working at a machine shop, it was horrible, I realized I hate working inside and the pay was pitiful.

-Tina and I had our second child, a sweet little girl named Kelsey in December last year.

- Just before we had Kelsey I quit at the machine shop and got a job as an operator on a hydrovac truck, I did this for about 6 months.

-While doing the previously mentioned job I was being called by my old vac truck company who was looking for workers. I quit at the hydrovac company and went back there as a supervisor, been doing that ever since.

-Around when Kelsey was born we bought our first house, it's a 1100 sq foot townhouse, close to everything including a really nice city leisure facility.

-I've began taking adult swimming lessons because I figured that by age 30 I should really learn how to swim finally.

I honestly haven't been riding a whole lot lately, About once a week in the summer. Last season I put on around 1600kms all year, this year has been a lot less, maybe 500-600kms. I'm a little out of shape for sure, but I still like to get out and next year when Kelsey is older I hope to be able to ride some more, or at least put her in the trailer and take her out (Austin has never been a huge fan of the trailer) I went riding today actually, the kids sleep in forever is seems and I wake up early, so I went out riding. It was cold (about 2C) and it started to rain/sleet about half way along. We live very close to two highways and I can cycle out my door and be outside the city in under 5 mins, it's very nice, lots of options for places to go. I did take some pics and video with the Iphone, hopefully they look okay.

As far as the blog here goes, I'd like to keep it up, but obviously I won't be updating it constantly like I used to, probably once a week at the most, but I promise some nice pics every time. :)

Please ride safe and have fun,

Sean

It's been a while......

2008-07-15T22:48:00.008-06:00

A few weeks ago I thought I would make my daily shaving routine a little more exciting/dangerous, and took up shaving with a straight razor. I got this razor off http://www.straightrazorplace.com/. It was made sometime between 1912 and 1921

I got this J.A. Henckels stainless razor off ebay, it was made around 1928.

My bike ready for the commute to work.

Austin being really happy.

The other day we got Austin a Jolly Jumper. Tina took this picture of him while I was at work, I haven't seen him in it yet, but apparently he likes it.

One of the jobs I go to often is in a field, the other day I came home and found this little critter on me, it's the second tick I've found on me lately, got to be careful.

Some breaking news, we were in a car accident on June 20th, this is the result of it. Tina's car was written off, Tina and Austin were taken to the hospital. Austin was fine and Tina had a some bruises and burns from the airbag.

Inside of the car.

One of our Wednesday night rides.

A big summer storm rolling in.

I got a handlebar mount for my GPS, here is the data from my ride to work one night. There seems to be a glitch though because there is no way I did 106km/hr top speed. :)

Austins first trip to Alberta, this is the river just upstream from Crescent Falls.

I just liked this picture. :)

What is my Mom trying to do to me??

Austin sleeping in his car seat.

Nice hair!!

The first and probably only video you will see on here, since after borrowing Tina's camera to take this video I ended up dropping it and it is no longer working.

Wow, it's been over two months now since I updated this, I feel bad about that. It just seems like there isn't much time or ambition lately. More then likely it's ambition holding me back. We were in a pretty bad car accident with Tina's car. A woman did a left turn right in front of us and we hit her going around 50km/hr. Tina was pretty bruised up, Austin (or Rubberman as I've been calling him) wound up being just fine. SGI settled with Tina already and she bought a 2005 Pontiac G6 GT, it's pretty nice, I haven't taken a picture of it yet though. This week was my first time commuting to work on my bike. Since I work Saturday and Sunday I decided to bike to work those days and take my van on Monday and Tuesday when the traffic is bad. Except for Sunday when I got a flat tire it went pretty well. I have to leave a little earlier but it only takes me 25 mins to ride the almost 8 kms to work. Anyway I will try to update this a little more often (I know I always say that) Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.......

Hello again!!

2008-05-04T19:53:00.005-06:00

Austin not sleeping in his crib, something he likes to do a lot. :)

Spadina Crescent at night.

I was playing around with my camera down at the Weir one night, here is one of the photos.

Austin all streached out on the couch, he is getting bigger by the day.

Looking very shocked after his bath! :)

Finally got out on the bike for about an hour today, I found several routes for getting across Circle Drive, all of them involve tunnels which I'm not crazy about, since there is a lot of muggings and such around them.

I got a sweet deal on this Lowepro Slingshot 200AW camera case. I wanted one for a long time, but $130 was too much for me to pay, I found that Blacks Photo had them on sale for $69!!! and ordered one. My old camera case had no more pockets left to offer, with this one I need to eventually get some lenses to fill all those spaces.

Some days Austin loves his bath, this was one of those days. Isn't he the cutest?

He seems to enjoy sleeping on his tummy sometimes, we started him on his back, but now his neck is pretty strong so he can sleep either way, Tina put him on the couch and we took this photo because he looks like a little bean all curled up and sleeping.

On Saturday we went to Saskatoon's largest garage sale in Montgomery. Tina put a hat on Austin because it was a little windy out, he also has a leash on his soother in case it blows away. :) We didn't find anything too good at the garage sales, or anything we really needed, so we just walked around for a long time looking at stuff.

Wow, there has been a few things happen since my last post. First of all I got a new job, I'm currently working out my last two weeks at Siemens Laserworks, and then I will be starting at Envirotec on May 12th. I will be driving and operating a vac truck in and around Saskatoon. I'm pretty excited about it because it looks like it will be a pretty enjoyable job and I think I will do well at it. The other thing that happened is my brother moved to the Phillipines. He has been actually married to a girl from there for a just about two years now and he finally moved there since she has been unable to come here. It is pretty sad for my parents and I, but I know he is pretty happy there and things seem to be going well for him there. It is weird to talk to him and he is half way around the world away, they are just entering their winter season there now, which is pretty crazy. Austin is getting bigger and with that he seems to be getting a little more moody lately. I think he gets bored sitting down or lying somewhere for a long time and he get's cranky and wants you to play with him. I guess it won't be too long now and he will be into everything. Well, until next time, ride safe and have fun!!

Hello again

2008-04-12T18:04:00.003-06:00

There is a funny story behind this photo. Austin decided he didn't want his soother, so he took it out and put in on top his head, then he fell asleep. :)

Mommy is drying him off after his bath.

Cuddling with Daddy on the couch.

In last post I forgot to show our backyard. We do have a small backyard with our new place. It even has a small shed where the bikes can stay. There is a garden along the fence too, so I may make a second attempt at cherry tomatoes this year.

I just took this photo today when I got home from my bike ride. Tina made a bed on the couch for him. He always holds his hands up like that when he's sleeping for some reason.

How's it going? It's been a while since I put something here. Austin takes up a lot of our time during the day (and night). Today we got up to around 14 Celcius and all the snow melted and dried up so I decided to head out on the bike for a while. Whew! Am I ever out of shape, I went out for about an hour and headed down 33rd St out of town and then out on the highway I went. I took the highway over to where they are building a new school and Olympic size swimming pool just outside of Confederation area. They just threw in some new bike paths over there, so I rode around on them for a while before heading home again. Austin isn't being too bad, but he has a lot of gas for some reason so he often doesn't want to fall asleep right after he has eaten (can you blame him). He thinks it's bedtime around 12:00-2:00AM. Tina looks after him at night when I'm working and I look after him on the weekends. I'm hoping it warms up a lot more so we can take him out for walks soon. We took him to some stores today and walked around with him in the stroller a bit. Anyway keep looking here, I do post occasionally :) :) Ride safe and have fun.

Our newest family member....

2008-03-20T14:02:00.004-06:00

Getting fed in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

All hooked up in with wires in NICU.

Isn't he cute?

In the car seat waiting to go home.

The first time Mommey got to see him

Snuggling with Mommy in the hospital room.

His bed for five days.

Austin's favorite thing to do.

In the hospital room.

AUSTIN ANDREW STEPHENSON

Born: March 13th, 2oo8 at 8:57am

21" long and 6lbs 15.5 oz

Well that is all the information on Austin for those who like to know such things. Everything went really well except that he got really plugged up with mucous and had trouble breathing and feeding properly, so he had to spend a few days in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. We still got to visit and feed him in there, but he didn't get to stay with us until Monday. The first night at home was pretty intense, thankfully my parents were here and could help Tina and I out. He really didn't sleep at all that night, but since then he has slept pretty good at night. It's certainly a lot of work to look after him, but also kind of cool to think that one day he will grow up and be an adult, pretty amazing when you think about it. It's been hard because Tina had a C-section, so she isn't able to do too much right now, so I haven't been able to work too much. She is going to her Mom's house for a week so that her Mom can help her out. Anyway I will try to keep this updated more now, but with Austin here and all it took me two days just to get this in here. :) So until next time, ride safe and have fun.

Long time, no write...

2008-03-12T21:18:00.004-06:00

Getting my bike ready for the first ride of the new year.

Leo waiting for me to get ready to go.

Heading to Delisle, we didn't make it all the way there, but it was a good ride for sure.

Look at that belly. :)

Almost ready for the baby.

Our new kitchen

This is our new living room, the laundry is on the right behind the closet doors. That is Tina's friend Louisa sitting in the chair, she actually took the two above pictures of us, they turned out really nice.

Our new bathroom

Our new bedroom, please excuse the cloths on the bed. :)

The baby's room!

Well it's been a long time since I updated this blog, I feel bad. We have had a lot going on lately. At the end of February we had to move out of our old apartment, we found a place in Confederation which is on the opposite side of Saskatoon to where we were before. We actually got a basement suite this time, complete with a yard and shed. I really like our new place and we were super lucky to get it, we looked for a long time before we found this on. Rentals are few and far between in Saskatoon these days. Moving was quite a production, I actually rented a moving van and we got it all in the new place in two trips. We had tons of help (A very big Thank you to all those who helped us out) so that made it go faster. I don't think I will ever chose to live on a third floor part of a building again. That many flights of stairs makes you realize that you have to much junk and should get rid of some of it. Another exciting bit of news is that Tina is going to be having a C-section on March 13th (tomorrow) so the baby is coming sooner the we expected. Still I think we have everything under control and are ready to have a new son or daughter. Both Tina and I will be staying at the hospital for a few days following her C-section, so I won't update this again until we are home. Look for photos of our little one then. Becoming a Dad tomorrow has made me reflect a lot on how life will possibly be when our kid gets to be my age. Lately I've heard that we are running out of iron ore to mine for metal, and we are currently experiencing shortages of oil as it can't be found fast enough to supply growing demands. Also gas prices are supposed to jump to huge levels this summer and it makes you wonder what the world will be like in ten years, or even one year. I think science will have to take over in place of natural resources that are running out fast, we will have to advance very quickly to make up for the loss of things like metals and oil. My bike is steel, it might start going up in value a lot here soon. :) Anyway food for thought, I have to go to bed soon and tomorrow will be very exciting for both Tina and I, we will need our sleep. Until next time, ride safe and have fun!

It's been a while...

2008-02-09T12:54:00.001-06:00

Hailey Galacz, my new niece, isn't she cute?

Just thought I should write down what we've been up to. I turned another year older on Jan. 30, so now I'm 27 years old and just three short years away from being 30. I'm also a new Uncle, Tina's brother and his fiance had a baby girl on Boxing Day. We went to visit them last weekend and got to hold her, she is funny, never sits still. I haven't done any biking or skiing to speak of, right after we got back from holidays we were hit with some really, really cold weather, it got down close to -40 Celcius a few times. We also had a bunch of problems with Tina's car because a modual in the remote car starter stopped working and shorted out, which resulted in several dead batteries. We finally got it fixed last weekend and it works good now. Also we have to move out of our apartment because this is an adult only apartment, so we were looking for a new place to live. We lucked out and found something within a week or so of getting back into town. It is a two bedroom basement suite with a small yard and a storage shed. It is resonably priced too, so at least we can afford it. Also I registared for the Primary Care Paramedic program through SIAST, they put me on a the waiting list, so if someone doesn't decided to quit I will be starting that in April 2009. I've been looking into taking it part-time at a community college too, so I can get started sooner, we'll see how that works out. Anyway that's about all for now, ride safe and have fun!

Hello Again!

2008-01-18T23:17:00.000-06:00

Monkeying around at the San Diego Zoo.

A snake having dinner.

Tina and Tristan standing in front of a Saguaro cactus outside Quartzsite Arizona.

As skilled as I may be at riding a bike, I can't swim a stroke, it is only with large amounts of pool noodles that I managed to not drown. We were in the outdoor pool at my Grannie's place in Yuma, Arizona.

The business end of a Sherman tank at Yuma Proving Grounds. This one seen action in World War II as well as Korea and it has the bullet dents to prove it.

We went to the sand dunes by Yuma, and I was offered a ride in a sandrail, which I accepted of course. It was quite a wild ride, I had sand all over me at the end.

The Ocean Pier in San Diego, we walked to the end of it.

The beach in San Diego.

Shamu the whale, at Sea World.

Orphan Mine shaft at the Grand Canyon, in 1951 uranium was discovered in the mine, this is as close to the mine as you can get now as the whole area around the shaft is contaminated with radioactive waste. In the photo you can see the mine shaft and a lower frame work with cables going into the shaft.

The upper part of the mine.

Route 66 Motel, with the Roadkill Cafe in the background. We travelled down about 100 miles of old Route 66 between Williams, Arizona and Kingman, Arizona.

The Grand Canyon

Highway 89 south of Prescott, Arizona, is a very fun, senic highway to drive as you can see. The van isn't too sporty though, we needed Tina's car for this stretch of highway. :)

World's biggest TV screen over Fremont Street in Las Vegas, we went there to watch the graphics, they are on for about 10 mins every hour.

Words of wisdom from Caesar's Palace Casino.

A look down the Strip from our casino.

A Ford Group "B" rally car, they were banned from competition for being too dangerous. This particular one has 650HP, all wheel drive and goes from a standstill to 60mph in 2.1 seconds. We stayed at the Imperial Palace Casino and they have a impressive auto collection.

Looking over the edge down the Hoover Dam. Those are cars down there on the parking area by the water.

9133Kms, that is how far we travelled on our vacation. I really didn't want to come home when we were all done, it's cold here now. We did have some really nice weather for the vacation though, and the roads were good going there and back. Tina and I are now looking for a new apartment before the baby comes, we aren't allowed to stay here with kids and it's getting a little cramped in here now with all our stuff. Time to move up to something a little bigger. Anyway, thanks for looking, ride safe and have fun.

More Photos

2008-01-07T01:54:00.000-06:00

A statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.

The tram going to the parking garage.

We are in San Diego now and the weather isn't the best, here are some nice swells coming in on the beach.

The military cemetary at the San Diego Submarine Base.

The old style amusement park at California Adventure Park.

Glass elephant inside the Ice Cream Shop at Disneyland.

The parking garage, I thought it looked cool, especially at night.

Tigger :)

The river boat in the New Orleans section.

Well we are now in San Diego. I have to say that I much prefer the city of San Diego over Los Angeles. It is much smaller and they now how to put up signs so that travellers like me actually know where they are going. San Diego is a very beautiful city and to be honest I will have a really hard time going back to Saskatoon after this. :) It hasn't been the best weather for our visit though, since arriving in San Diego it has rained everyday to some extent. I wanted to post more photos on here, but I haven't had time to go through the couple of hundred photos I've taken so far, and the wireless internet at our hotel leaves a lot to be desired. The only reason I'm posting right now is that it is suddenly working good for a while so I decided to take advantage of it. After San Diego we are heading to Arizona to visit my Granny, then it is home again for us, with planned stops at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas along the way. Anyway I will post more on here when I can, keep watching for more. Ride safe and have fun.

A few pics

2008-01-04T02:41:00.000-06:00

Heading into Nevada.

Going through Las Vegas.

The road going to Disneyland.

Tristan in the big "C" at the California Adventure Park.

Tristan and Tina at the California Adventure Park

Well, we have been having a different hotel every night since arriving in Los Angeles. We really haven't had good luck with hotels. This is the first night that we have got internet. I'm really tired so this is just a fraction of the photos that I have to eventually get on here. Anyway we arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after bumper to bumper traffic all the way from Las Vegas. The wind was horrible in the hills above Los Angeles and we passed several tractor trailers that were blown over in the ditch on the way in. I would have taken photos but I was busy trying not to join them. Driving on the highways here sure isn't like home. It is 5 lanes wide and everyone seems to be driving around 75-80 mph. We went to Disneyland for our first day on Tuesday and it was a lot of fun, but very tiring. We have to go again tomorrow and then we will be driving farther south to San Diego tomorrow sometime. Anyway I will put more photo's up when I get a chance. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

HAPPY 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-01T02:26:00.000-06:00

Heading south on Interstate 15, driving through southern Montana.

Driving through Idaho, it is flat! (for the most part)

Big chunk of ice - 1, My van - 0

Some horribly grainy photos of the fireworks in St. George, Utah

We were staying at the Econo Lodge and this is what we seen outside the door at 12:00 midnight.

Happy New Year! We are already two days into our trip and currently in Southern Utah. We are heading for California tomorrow. We started off today in Butte Montana and quickly headed south into Idaho. We stopped in Idaho Falls for gas around lunch time. We pulled out onto the Interstate after getting gas and were following a semi, small chunks of snow were blowing off the top of it and hitting the windshield. This was making a mess out the windshield so I went to pass the truck. Just as we came up to the back of it a huge chunk of ice flew off the top of the truck and hit the front of my van. I knew it probably wrecked something because it hit hard and shook the van. At the next rest area I pulled in to survey the damage. The ice broke my grill, ripped the hood latch off (you need a screwdriver to open the hood) and bent the front of my hood up, also poking the screws from the grill into the hood and making some cool little dents in it. I wasn't really impressed to say the least, but at least nobody got hurt and the ice never wrecked my radiator or anything which would have been far worse. After that it was smooth sailing all the way through to Salt Lake City, Utah. I would have taken some photos out the window there, but I was busy trying not to get hit by manics going 80+mph in all 5 lanes of traffic. We made it out of Salt Lake City in around 45mins and headed to St. George, Utah were I had booked a room for us at the Econo Lodge. The Econo Lodge was nice, and only $39 for the night, plus we got to check out St. George's New Years fireworks display which was awesome. I forgot my tripod for this trip, so I had to turn up my ISO's on the camera to 3200 just to get a half decent quick shot. So that is why the firework photos look really grainy. Anyway, ride safe and have fun. Look for more tomorrow! :)

Christmas Eve

2007-12-24T11:28:00.000-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Just a short little post to wish everyone the best this holiday season. I want to thank those that regularly visit my blog as well as those that just dropped by for a peak. There were many changes this year for us and I don't think that will stop in the new year with the arrival of our first child and all the things that go with becoming a parent. We are currently in Porcupine Plain at Tina's parents until boxing day, then we will be returning to Saskatoon for a couple of days so I can work and we can straighten everything out for our trip, then it's off to soak in some sun for the next three weeks. There may be some post made while we are gone, who knows. :) Ride safe and have fun in 2008!

Last Ride of 2007!!

2007-12-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Is your work like that?

The bike rack at the library.

Ready to go cycling.

My bike, all ready to go with a ton of books on it.

My new light, not bad, since that is after 7 hours of run time.

Ice on the river.

Being bad and cycling on the sidewalk, the city filled the bike lane with snow piles.

Another look down the sidewalk.

Looking down 4th Ave by the library.

This is probably the last ride of 2007 for me. I did my weekly trip to the library to bring my books back. It was pretty snowy out, we've had a lot of snow lately and most of it is still on the road. The snow tires I made work pretty good, I slipped around a little but it wasn't anything too bad. My new light works decently, it could be a little brighter, but it shows most of the obstacles in my way and the cars can see me. The batteries started to die down a little near the end of the ride, it could have been the cold or the fact that I had run the light for 6 hours previously, I don't know how long the batteries last. 7 hours is pretty good with the cheap batteries that came with the light, with my rechargable batteries it should last a long time. It was pretty cold out (-16Celcius), but there wasn't much traffic and the bike worked well. I may post again before the new year, but possibly not so have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Ride safe and have fun.

Why can't it stop snowing!?!

2007-12-16T21:38:00.000-06:00

We got some frost the other day so I took these photos of the Castle on the River.

Another shot looking up the river.

The roads are still pretty icy out, really icy actually, so I haven't been riding my bike, just really isn't too safe. Anyway the other day we got some frost and more snow (surprise) so I went down to the river to take some photos, it was pretty dark out so these are the only two that worked not to bad. I can't wait until our trip. I guess I never mentioned on here yet, but Tina and I along with her little brother are going down to Southern California and Arizona for a little while in January. You will get some really good photos I hope, because now I will be bringing my new camera with me. Anyway, ride safe and have fun!

Random Stuff

2007-12-11T12:31:00.000-06:00

Besides the snowman decoration on our door, this is our sole Christmas decoration. A gingerbread house that Tina and I combined our artistic talents on and it came of not too bad. I take all the blame for the droopy windows.

Eb's trails in Nesbitt Forest. Very nice XC ski trails.

They are groomed all winter for skiing.

The Saskatoon Nordic Ski Club looks after them.

Tina before she got her hair all cut off. :)

Kristen and Chris's dog Cooper with his really cute hat on, which he hated by-the-way.

Look at that belly! :) The new mommy with her new hair.

Here I am, attempting to find my XC ski wax in the disaster that is our storage closet. You
just have to close the door fast when your done.

Well I haven't done any cycling since my last post, it really has been nasty outside. This weekend it warmed up to around -10Celcius but I was doing other stuff like sleeping. :) Yesterday I took off work because Tina and I went to the Bon Jovi concert last night (which was awesome). Since I had the day off I decided to go with Leo for a ski up at Nesbitt Forest which is a little over an hour north of Saskatoon on the highway to Prince Albert. The trails were very good and I had found that magic wax combination for my skis so it went really smooth for my first ski outing of winter. I didn't even fall down the whole time (there were some close calls). Last weekend we went to Kindersley, SK and spent the weekend at Kristin and Chris's house. On Saturday I helped Chris move his sister to Hanna, Alberta and Tina got Kristen to chop off a lot of her hair, something new, I think it looks really good for the record. I'm excited to try my new light out on the bike, so I wish it would warm up a bit for that. Anyway, ride safe and have fun!

New Bike Light (again)

2007-12-02T22:26:00.000-06:00

A photo showing the beam pattern right in front of the bike.

My mounting system

A photo of the whole light and mount

As some of you may know, I have a VistaLite light system that I bought several years ago for a 24 hour mountain bike race that I did. Lately I have been having problems with the batteries, they seem to die out in about 20 mins from a full charge, often leaving me in the dark for the trip home. I've been trying to think of an alternative to the VistaLite system for a few weeks now. Ideally a Dyno front hub with front and rear lights would be the best, except that it would cost several hundred dollars for that. Another lighting system would cost me around the $250 that I paid for the VistaLite system that I bought and would still leave me saddled with batteries that would likely go the route of the VistaLite ones in short order. I have several LED flashlights that are very bright and last a very long time on just common batteries. My best one is a 3Watt Maglite flashlight, it is huge and very heavy though, not the best to hang off the handlebars of my bike. Several of my other flashlights are bright but have a very focused light that wouldn't work for a bike light. So I got a 1 Watt LED light that Dorcy makes with an adjustable beam, it takes two AA batteries that are the same as my camera takes. Next I ripped the mounting braket off my VistaLite headlamp and then I went looking for those little plastic things that you always get with cycling stuff for mounting it to handlebars and other round stuff. I found a good one and then used a bolt to connect it to the VistaLite bracket. Then I attached the whole works to the handlebars. Since the VistaLite bracket has a small knob on the bold for it you can loosen it by hand, I used this to hold the flashlight so I can take it off downtown in case it get's stolen when I'm parked. I think that the light will be at least as bright as the VistaLite it replaces, and so far I've ran it for 4.5hours without the batteries going low at all, of course in the cold weather battery life will suffer, but I'll be using NiMH rechargeables, so they should still last as long as a conventional throwaway battery will. I'll post something after my first ride with the new light and let you guys know how it works. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

New Light

2007-11-22T21:22:00.000-06:00

Computer Geeks :) Tina's cousin Brandi, myself and Tina's friend Louisa, all on laptops.

My new super bright light, notice all my reflective tape, I'm really safe now. :)

It's a BLT Ultra Wazoo DX. this thing has 8 LED, very bright.

Well I wanted to by a Planet Bike Super Flash rear light for my bike. (see hear) I've been looking something really, really bright for the back of my bike. Since I couldn't find the Planet Bike Super Flash anywhere in Saskatoon so I got the next best thing. This light is supposed to b visible for 3500meters and last for 150hours on batteries. It came with very nice mounting brackets so that I could attach it to the bar on the back of my seat. Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.

Bike Stuff

2007-11-18T22:03:00.000-06:00

New snowtire for my Burley. $15 for a 20" Kenda tire, not bad.

I had to take all the fenders off the bike to fit the snowtires on my bike, notice my reflective taping job.

Another failed attempt at making a fairing, I got the brackets down pat, I didn't buy the right type of plastic I guess, it cracked very easily, as you can see in the upper corner of the fairing. When I drilled the holes in the plastic it cracked around all the holes.

The lower bracket that I made from aluminum strips.

The upper brackets.

I decided to get my bike ready for some winter riding, I wasn't going to but I want to get out a little bit this winter, hopefully if we have some nicer days. I started the day by trying to craft a fairing/windshield for the front of the bike. This went really well until it came time to drill the holes in the plastic, as soon as I started drilling the plastic cracked. Apparently they use a different type of plastic to make commercial fairings. When Tina came home and told me my windshield looked retarded I had to agree and admit defeat. If it hadn't cracked it would have looked and worked much better. The upside is the brackets appeared very sturdy, so I may have to find some different material to make a fairing out of. I also got a Kenda kids bike 20" mountain bike tire for the front of my bike. The last winter I rode I used a Kenda BMX tire on the front and frankly it was just grippy enought, this new tire has really huge lugs that should grip good, I also screwed some sheet metal screws into the luges for studs. When I went to put the new tires on my bike the fenders wouldn't fit, I could remember if I had them on last time or not, I guess not. Well ride safe and have fun.

Alberta and stuff........

2007-11-18T01:45:00.000-06:00

Cresent Falls by Nordegg, as you can see it's getting cold there.

I snapped this photo on the way back from Leo's house about a week ago.

My parent's dog Kramer, wondering why I keep blinding her with the flash, she is adorable though, isn't she?

Looking upstream from Cresent Falls, you have a beautiful scene that is very much the Canadian Rockies, river bed, evergreen trees and snowcapped mountains in the background.

I lent Tina my latest hat with ear warmers cause she said her ears were cold, she seems to like it. :)

My brother Matt and I found this huge water bug carcass at the bottom of the falls, I guess he froze.

My brother Matt, his first time on my blog.

I guess I haven't mentioned this yet, but I quit working at BJ Services in Red Deer and I'm now employed in Saskatoon at Seimens Laserworks. I had to bring all my gear, credit card and fuel cards back to BJ's, so Tina and I took of to Alberta for the Remembrance Day weekend. It was a nice trip, we got to spend time with my family and I got to visit with some friends that I worked with at BJ's. Friday I didn't have to work at night so I thought that a ride would be in order. I met Leo and Julian for lunch at the Parktown Hotel and then Leo and I departed on a ride after lunch. Since it was my first really cold ride of the season I wasn't quite prepared. I was decently warm as we headed south along the river towards Valley Road, however as we left the confines of the city I became acutely aware of a really harsh wind that I hadn't noticed in the shelter of the city. About this time the zipper on my fleece jacket decided that it didn't want to be zipped all the way up around my neck and the two sides parted in the middle letting the wind blow down my neck. We were originally intending on heading south on Valley Road, possibly to the Berry Barn. I wimped out and told Leo that we should ride back towards the city. I was almost frozen when we got back to the shelter of the buildings and trees. I guess this should teach me that summer is over and I should dress a little warmer on the bike now. I bought some supplies to fabricate my long overdue homemade fairing for the front of the bike, I'm also toying with the idea of putting my snow tires back on it now that we got our first little drift of snow this morning and it seems to now be melting. I may look for a more aggressive 20" tire for the front of my bike though, the old kids bike tire I have is pretty worn out now. Anyway to those in warmer climes, happy riding, ride safe and have fun. Those up here in the North, just try to stay warm and keep the shiny side up. :)

Winter's coming

2007-11-03T23:36:00.000-06:00

Signs of the upcoming provincial election, if you need choloplast to make stuff out of, here is a good supply of the stuff.

Heading home from Leo's place it was starting to get dark out, only 5:00pm in the afternoon, winter's coming!

It was a beautiful day on Friday, here it is looking down the street from the front lawn of our apartment building.

A lone cyclist riding across the CPRail bridge.

The university farmland, you can see the university in the background.

The mural at the end of the Circle Drive Pedway is complete now.

Looking down the Pedway.

I haven't been biking too much lately, but on Friday Leo invited me to his house, so I decided to ride my bike up there. It was really sunny out but it there was a really cold wind. I had a really good ride up to Leo's place but it was cold and dark coming back, winter's coming for sure. Ride safe and have fun!!

Winter is coming

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000-06:00

Tina at 16 weeks pregnant, nice belly! :)

My Burley

The ultrasound that we just got on Thursday. You can see the face in this picture, the baby (or fetus I guess) weighs 6oz right now.

Leo and Howie on the way to Clavet.

I know I shouldn't take photos while riding after last post, but this time I was careful not to run into anyone.

Howie taking a drink after we turned onto the Paitence Lake Road.

Leo and Howie turning onto the Paitence Lake Road.

I had a really hard time doing this post. First of all I switched my internet browser to Opera from Firefox. Opera doesn't seem to like the blogger site to much, I got my photos up but they were all messed up. So I restarted it all in Internet Explorer, I'm still having glitches with blogger, but it's working enough to get this on here. For the last few weekends I've gone on rides to Clavet. Leo has a friend named Howie that has a WizWheelz trike that is really cool and he has been going on ride with us. Last weekend we had a good group of recumbents, Julian on his Rans Stratus, Howie on his WizWheelz trike and myself on the Burley. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera with me because it looked like it would be dampish out, however after a while it cleared up and the sun came out making for a really nice day. This Saturday we went to Clavet again this time just Leo, Howie and I. It was a really good ride but it got pretty cold on the way back with a decent headwind, I was tired at the end of the ride. I've been riding a little at night after work as well, just around town and down to the library downtown. Anyway, ride safe and have fun til next time...

Saskatoon in the Fall

2007-09-30T18:15:00.000-06:00

Sunset on Friday night.

The brilliant people that run the city here in Saskatoon decided it would be a good idea to spend almost $500,000 to light up the crumbling Victoria Bridge (Oops I mean Traffic Bridge) like a Las Vegas casino.

Leo, Julian and I riding out of the Riverside golf course this afternoon.

I nearly ran into Julian seconds after taking this photo. I decided to put the camera away after that. :)

Riding down 3rd St you can see that the fall season is in full swing.

Yet again riding down 3rd St, I just thought that the red tree was pretty cool.

My bike out at Cranberry Flats.

Some hot air balloons flying around on Friday night.

Broadway Bridge

Looking up the river just about sunset time.

I finally decided to get some photos together and put another post up on here finally. These are a combination of photos from several different rides that I went on recently. It cleared up today and I finally got to go on a ride with Julian and Leo. They are expanding and resurfacing highway 219 that goes out to the Whitecap Indian Reservation. You couldn't ride a bike on it before because the road was too narrow with hardly any shoulder. Now it is super smooth and the shoulder is almost the size of a full traffic lane. We rode down there for a little bit until we got out of the city and then we turned and rode towards the river. We decided to ride to the Riverside golf course and check it out. It was quite nice with all the fall colors. As we were riding back I had my camera out for the whole trip and was taking photos on the bike, this was working well until I tried to get a closeup of Julian as I caught up to him. Just as I was beside him and taking a photo I looked around the camera and realized that I was headed right for him and almost going to hit him. I slammed my foot down to right myself and almost broke my foot. :) I guess that means I should stop to take photos. Anyway that's pretty much it for now. Ride safe and have fun.

Hello, it's me again :)

2007-09-14T21:11:00.001-06:00

The city widened Circle Drive bridge and in the process they removed the walkways from both sides of the bridge to make up the extra traffic lanes. Here is the new walkway that they made, it hangs on steel struts between the two halves of the bridge, very cool.

Some people making a mural at one end of the new walkway.

Fall's coming quick, the trees are starting to turn color already. :(

Finally got my bike out for a little riding, it was really nice today!

The bike path going from the university to the river.

The Meewasin Trail, there wasn't too many people out today.

Victoria Bridge (or the Traffic Bridge as our super-smart city council wants to refer to it as.)

Some "artwork" at the new Riverlanding park south of Victoria Bridge.

I haven't put a picture of my bike on here in a while, so here it is.

Work in progress at Riverlanding.

A beautiful sunrise on the way to Red Deer.

Another nice sunrise, I love the fog as well.

My latest toy, a Russian 10meter target air pistol. Made by the same folks that throw together AK-47's :) It really is fun to shoot and pretty accurate too, I've probably shot 1500 pellets through it already.

Well it seems like this update thing is only happening once a month. Kind of disappointing for me as I'd like to make more post, but when does one have the time? It's been two years since I got my recumbent and almost two years since I started this blog. Hard to believe, I was looking back at past posts earlier and it amazed me at how much has happened in the past few years. I've switched jobs several times as well as getting married and many other smaller things, and now Tina and I have a kid on the way. Time to start looking at bike trailers I guess. :) We have another big step coming up soon, that is all I will say right now because everything is always up in the air right now. :) I finally got out on my bike Wednesday after months of not riding it. Leo and I took a shortish ride around Saskatoon, it was actually pretty cold out but I had a blast. I'd forgotten how much fun it is riding my bike, it's hard to explain to someone who hasn't ridden a recumbent before, but it is pretty close to what I think a luge would be like, pretty low, fast and exciting. Thursday was very cold (there was frost on my van), but today the clouds parted and we were blessed with a beautiful, warm day. I actually threw on a pair of shorts and took the bike out for another ride. The last few days of riding have made me realize how far out of shape I really am, I hope that in the coming months I can get some of that endurance back again. I did end the ride today by breaking some more spokes, I also bent my rim beyond repair finally, so I went to the local bike shop and they are setting me up with a much stronger rim (with eyelets for the spokes) and hopefully a much improved wheel building job. I was going to tackle it again, but after this last time I can't help but think that my first few wheel building jobs were just beginners luck. Hopefully I will have the new wheel by Monday so I can slip out for another ride then. I'll try to update this a little more often from now on, but please understand if I can't. Rest assured though, I won't stop writing this for a long time to come, so check back once and a while and I will have something new up here. Ride safe and have fun!

Wedding, Honeymoon, etc.....

2007-08-12T21:07:00.001-06:00

The Italian Garden at Butchart Gardens.

Goldfish pond and many flowers

The lobby of the Banff Springs Hotel.

Tina in front of the Banff Springs Hotel, now we have visited three CP Hotels and stayed in one.

A Huge fountain at Butchart Gardens, it squirts water up to 75' in the air.

The Rose Garden at Butchart Gardens.

Tina's wedding bands and engagement ring.

The pavilion in the middle of the Rose Garden

Tina in front of the Sturgeon Fountain in Butchart Gardens

A jelly fish in Victoria Harbour.

The Empress Hotel in Victoria, another CP hotel, rooms start at $369.00/night, for a double bed, I asked :)

We were driving to the Ferry at Swartz Bay and I spotted this Catrike while stopped at a stoplight.

The sunken garden at Butchart Gardens, this is the oldest part of the garden and is over 100 years old, believe it or not it was once a limestone quarry and cement factory, the chimney for the cement factory can still be seen in the woods beside this garden.

Another part of the Sunken Garden, you can see some people in a boat cleaning out the pond.

A cruise ship in Victoria Harbour.

Along the beach by Oak Bay.

The front of our hotel in Victoria, it was pretty nice.

Tina sitting in front of the fountain in the driveway of our hotel.

Tina with the harbour in the background.

Tina on the ferry.

Looking down the length of the ferry.

A giant boot in a mini golf by Parksville, BC

Cruising down the old highway by Crofton, BC

Looking out over the houses in Oak Bay.

A tunnel along Roger's Pass.

Alligators at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Driving over the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver.

Huge lineup in Horseshoe Bay, waiting to get on the ferry.

A water skier on the river in Saskatoon.

A rainy day looking off the balcony of our apartment.

Tina and I, just after we got hitched. :)

And outside getting ready to get in the van.

Wow, my first post in almost two months, someone should really slap me. I just haven't been to good with the blog these days, hopefully I'm making up for it with this post. Since the last post Tina and I got married and went on a honeymoon to BC. On August 4th we got married in Porcupine Plain Saskatchewan. On the 6th we left for our mini-honeymoon to BC. We basically went to my parents in Nordegg the first night. The next day we went to Vancouver where we went to the Aquarium in Stanley Park, we were there for a couple of hours and then caught the ferry across to Nanaimo. I showed Tina my parents old house and my Grandparents old house in Nanaimo and then we went on to Courtenay, BC. I got to meet an old friend of mine in Courtenay for a coffee, I haven't seen him since we were 10 or 11 years old. We then drove down to Victoria and spent a day there, the next day we went to Butchart Gardens by Victoria, it was super cool and and well worth the time and money to go see, also it is supposed to be a National Historic site. After the Gardens we took the ferry back to Vancouver and then proceeded to my great aunt and uncle's house in Vernon. That was a long day because we missed several ferries and didn't get to their house until 11:30 that night. The next day we stopped in Banff on the way to Calgary and checked out the Banff Springs hotel. We got into Calgary late and got what I think was the last hotel room in the whole city, we tried several places and they were all booked up. Today we went to the Chinook Mall in Calgary before leaving and then proceeded to drive to Saskatoon. Overall the wedding and everything went really well, I just wish we could have gotten more time off work for driving around. Ride safe and have fun until next time (hopefully soon!)

All little bit about everything.

2007-06-15T23:46:00.001-06:00

If you wander up in the woods behind Nordegg you will come across this waterfall, it's called East Bush Falls.

I took several photos of the falls while Dad and I were there. This was one of the only photos that I took that weren't time exposed.

Another photo of the falls and the creek that it splashes down into.

The stream the the falls empties into.

Cool clouds by Melfort Saskatchewan.

Inside the Regina Legislative building.

A very cool room in the Legislative building where paintings of all the former premiers of Saskatchewan are shown.

My Mom and Dad

The outside of the Regina Legislative building.

A plaque showing the year the building was erected.

The main part of the Legislative building, built of 15 different types of marble, all of which are now extinct, this part of the building was awesome, the columns are green marble and weigh between 2 and 5 tons each.

Last time I was home we visited Tina's Aunt Laura and Uncle Ian in Regina, we haven't been to Regina and a while and it was a fun time. We went on a short tour of the Legislative building there and it was pretty awesome. A lot of history wrapped up in this building, such as one of the tables that the Confederation was signed on graces one corner of the library. While I was in Alberta after the weekend Dad and I found our way to East Bush Falls after three previously failed attempts, well worth the hike and pretty impressive. This weekend we went to Tina's parents for Tina's Bridal Shower and stagette and my stag. Tina had a lot of fun at her shower and stagette and we have a lot of new stuff for the kitchen. My stag was good too, we went golfing in Melfort (my first time golfing) and then we went to Porcupine Plain for the after party. Unfortunately I already partied a little to hard at the golf course and on the way to Porcupine so I didn't make it through much of my party before I had to find a nice couch to sleep on. We paid for a lot of the wedding stuff this weekend so that takes some stress away. The weather hasn't been good at all so I haven't been cycling yet this time, we'll see how Tuesday is. Until next time ride safe and have fun.

Coliseum Mountain

2007-05-24T11:54:00.001-06:00

The view looking toward Abraham Lake, you can see it threading it's way into the mountains off in the distance.

At the summit, 2045meters and 6.98kms from my van, it did take me 3 hours to get here, but I guess I wasn't moving much, gasping for air most of the time. :)

Peaking over the rocks on the way to the summit, that is Nordegg in the background.

Kramer and I at the top, behind us is the foundation of the first fire tower ever in Alberta.

Kramer cooling off in the snow near the top.

People wrote their names with rocks on the flat part below the summit.

That is the peak of Coliseum mountain, Kramer and I had to hike all the way along this ridge to the get there, the snow was several feet thick in places so it was slow going.

To hike along the ridge to the summit first we had to scramble down these rocks, it was very steep and Kramer had a few problems but she made it down and back up again as well.

Looking back across the bowl at the way we came up.

Another view of the bowl and the ridge leading up to the summit.

About 3/4s of the way up the first hill we came to this rocky area off the trail, Kramer and I stopped for a break and I snapped a few photos. That is Nordegg down below.

Looking down the other side of the mountain towards the East, you can see all the logging that is taking place as well as storm clouds rolling in.

Well I finally did it, I climbed Coliseum Mountain. I've been wanting to do this since climbing Shunda/Baldy Mountain earlier this spring, Baldy Mountain has a road leading to the top though and it is an 8 km hike. Coliseum has no roads and it is 14kms round trip from the staging area to the summit. Coliseum Mountain was home to the first fire watch tower in Alberta, all that is left now is the foundation. The trail leading to the summit has been there for almost a 100 years and was once used by locals of the area to bring mail and supplies to the fire watch tower. The trail is in pretty decent shape and switchbacks up the first mountain at a fairly decent grade for hiking, it does get steeper near the top though. I didn't bring water as I didn't want to bring the bottle with me so that was one downfall to the hike, it was a long hot hike without water and Kramer and I both got a little dehydrated. Once you summit the first mountain you have to hike around the ridge that tops the huge bowl between the peaks and then you can make the finally hike to the summit of Coliseum. The hike to the top was well worth the view and I even ran into some fellow hikers up there as well. Here is a website for the mountain. When I got home I hooked Kramer to her line and went and got the water dish and food dish, when I came back out she was passed out sleeping in the grass and she slept all night until the next day when she started to get some energy back again, she might run and hide when I ask her if she wants to go for a walk now. :) Anyway ride safe and have fun, hope you enjoyed the photos.

A lot of photo's!

2007-05-18T20:17:00.001-06:00

Mom and Dad took me to Shunda Creek one night north of the highway, very nice...

Another photo of the creek with the mountains in the background.

Kramer, looking cute as always and enjoying her walk.

Myself, looking like a weird hippy or something. :)

A pelican by the weir in Saskatoon, fishing.

Some new baby geese out for a swim with there parents on the river in Saskatoon.

My van with my bed in the back, doesn't look nice but it is comfy.

Tina and I walked down by the weir one of the days I was home, it was a nice day out so it seemed like a good idea.

Julian and Leo going for a ride with me.

My Burley and Julian's new Rans Stratus resting at Cranberry Flats.

My Crosman 2240 pellet gun, this thing really kills pop cans well, too well in fact as I have had to use tin cans because the pop cans are so full of holes you can't tell whether you hit them or not. :) Kids must play right?

Well I'm back at work again now and I finally got up the ambition to post on here. When I was home last it was very nice so I went cycling again, first time in many months. The first day I went with Leo and Julian to Cranberry Flats, about 25kms, it was a nice ride and I discovered that I'm really not in that bad of shape after all, could stand to lose 50lbs, but not bad other then that. The second day Leo and I went for a loop around by the Berry Barn and back into Saskatoon on Highway 7, this was a little longer of a ride, around 55kms, again I felt a little tired at the end of the ride but really had no problems at all. The Burley worked really well and I seem to have my chain skipping problem fixed with a new cassette on the back and some chain lube. Not much to mention besides that. At work I did my first job all by myself and it was a 5 hour drive from Red Deer to boot. I did a small job on the Cold Lake Weapons Range with a truck I hadn't run in many months, I was really nervous but it turned out that I had nothing to be nervous about as the job went really smooth for me, I guess I'm either not half bad at this nitrogen stuff or just plain lucky. :) Anyway ride safe and have fun until next time.

Hello Again!

2007-05-04T21:30:00.000-06:00

A photo I took at our location west of Bragg Creek, the small trees look really funny on the side of the hill, there is nothing growing between them.

Same hillside, different angle.

Looking up the valley into the mountains.

The road from Nordegg to Red Deer, this is what I was talking about when I said "Merry Christmas" in the title of my last post.

Looking down from the hill at our location west of Bragg Creek.

Two fish that I caught the other day at Fish Lake just west of Nordegg, big one was 5.25lbs and the smaller one was 2.5lbs. They are both Rainbow Trout.

I finally pulled myself together enough to hack out another post, a pat on my back is in order. :) I am working 5 extra days this shift, all of them so far have been at the shop. I put a bed in the back of my van so that I don't have to pay for a place to stay or drive to Nordegg, so far it has saved me at least $90 in gas or rent money t0 stay in my van. As it is raining like crazy here I didn't take any photo's of my modifications, as soon as if clears up I'll throw a few photo's of it on here. I used a old foam mattress that Mom and Dad had and cut it in half, I then cut one shorter then the other to make up for how much the middle seat sticks up and then placed the remaining parts of the mattress on top of this, suffice to say it is very comfortable and I have several blankets on it so it is also very warm in there. We are currently having a rain storm of sorts and it even snowed here today, pretty impressive for May 3rd. I also bought a pellet gun this shift, something to get rid of the boredom of sitting around all the time. I also don't have a photo of it on my camera yet, keep posted for one though. It is a Crosman 2240 .22Cal pellet gun, quite accurate, I can destroy a pop can with it very well. :). It does take CO2 bulbs to power it, which is the only thing I dislike about it, it only gets 30-40 shots from a bulb. I may buy the carbine version of it one day, as it is the same caliber and all, but you pump it instead of using CO2. Anyway that's about all I got for now, I will write something on here again just as soon as I get some more photos. Ride safe and have fun.

Merry Christmas :(

2007-04-21T12:40:00.000-06:00

That's what it feels like after 3 straight days of heavy snowfall in Red Deer. Getting pretty sick of it, but at least now the sun is peaking out and we are getting some warm weather finally. I went biking on Tuesday my last day in the city, not very much mind you, but enough to know that I'm pretty out of shape. :) Anyway Julian, Leo and I were supposed to go for a longer ride but I had to cut it short because of the massive amount of errands and chores I had left to do that day before going back to work. My GPS showed 18kms on the odometer by the time I got home so it wasn't all bad. Julian bought a Rans Stratus last fall and he hasn't ridden it too much since then. He let me take it for a spin in front of his house and it is pretty nice, rides much like my Burley, just with a softer seat bottom. It takes a while to get used to riding a recumbent, but he is doing really well and pretty at ease on it. Tina and I have made a decision to move out to Alberta in Oct sometime. Right now I think that we may buy a condo if the bank will let me, at least for a while so that we can get back on our feet and look at houses. Not sure where we are going to be located yet, that will come with time. Anyway sorry for no photos today, I left my camera at Mom and Dad's place and I'm at the Nordegg Library using the high speed internet. Next time I will post them. Ride safe and have fun, summers coming and look for more frequent updates. :)

Mt. Baldy

2007-04-12T16:19:00.000-06:00

The trail/road leading up to the summit.

The mountains on the west end of Lake Abraham.

Mom's neighbor puts out food for the squirrels.

Here is a couple of them chowing down.

Mt Baldy fire tower at the summit of Mt Baldy, 2082m above sea level.

Looking off the edge, it was kind of cloudy that day.

The town of Nordegg from the summit, you can also see the damage caused by last year's forest fire in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

Dad resting on on of the many switchbacks leading to the top.

A part of the road near the top, still a lot of snow.

Snow covered alpine meadow near the summit, would be really nice in the summer.

Well some exciting news, I bought a Garmin GPS off of a fellow at work, he got it through work somehow and didn't want it so he gave me a really good deal on it. This got me excited about doing some hiking. We are on spring break up right now so it is very slow around the shop and not much going on. I went out to Nordegg for Easter weekend and Mom handed me a really excellent book about hiking around Nordegg and area. I really have been wanting to hike to the top of Mt. Baldy for some time now. It is the mountain that is located almost directly across from Nordegg. So Dad and I, along with Kramer (my parent's dog) decided to climb it one day. A road leads part of the way up so we drove up in my van, we got stuck on a hill about a km from the gate on the trail so we hiked from the van to the summit and back, altogether about a 9km hike. The view from the top was awesome and well worth the effort. My next plan is to climb another mountain right close to Nordegg as well. Anyway the hiking is good fun and fitness for me. Ride safe and have fun

Pictures from Work

2007-03-27T00:37:00.000-06:00

The truck and I in front of the Rouleau, SK water tower, home of CTV's "Corner Gas"

The "Corner Gas" set, all boarded up for the winter.

An enclosed drill rig at a potash mine by Moosejaw

The control panel of our Nitrogen pumper.

Yours truly with dorky safety glasses running the pump.

Our bunkhouse at Antler, Sask., 4 kms from the Manitoba border.

Looking out the front widow of our truck on location.

The coil tubing unit with command center right behind it.

BJ's own drill rig, for directional drilling with coil tubing. You can see test vessels to the left of it.

Huge rail bridge by Mayerthorpe, AB. This photo is only about a quarter of the size of the actual bridge.

Our Ford 550, I just washed it after driving it nearly 900kms from Dawson Creek, BC.

A skunk by Nordegg, he got mad at me when I tried to get a closeup, so I backed off. :)

Huge coil tubing operation by Dawson Creek, BC.

CO2 "Queens" sitting on location.

Giant Beaver at Beaverlodge AB.

Lots to say but no time to say it. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let the photos do the talking. I did cover from BC all the way to Manitoba on my last shift, a lot of driving and seeing new country side. I worked a lot and did some jobs I've never done before as well, including drilling in Saskatchewan and foamed cement well liners by Moosejaw, pretty cool. I'm tossing around the idea of taking my bike to Alberta this time. Until next time, ride safe and have fun.

Giant snowman, funny teeth.........................................

2007-03-07T20:55:00.000-06:00

While I was home we drove past this huge snowman on 14th St in Saskatoon, the house had little snow in the yard compared to their neighbors. :)

Tina got me a lollypop for Valentine's Day with big teeth on the end, so I posed for some photos.

Ice built up in the wheel wells of my van.

A snow covered highway north of Saskatoon

Tina trying to take a photo of me scrapping ice out of the wheel wells.

It's been a while since I last did a post. A few things have happened since then. Tina's dad wanted me to take a tour of the diamond mine he is working at right now, so I went there on the first Thursday of my days off. It was pretty cool and the landscape a few hundred kilometers north of Saskatoon changes dramatically, suddenly we were driving around in the woods. I really didn't do too much this time when I was home, I was hoping for some warmer weather so that I could do some work on my van, it needs new brake rotors on the front and probably pads too, I can't afford to get someone to fix them so I guess it will be a parking lot job at our apartment. I need to change the spark plugs too but that is a major job that involves dropping the motor down to reach the back ones. Out in Red Deer we are getting close to spring breakup and slack times for a few months, next time I go out I am going to bring my bike so I can do some cycling in the spare time. It was 12-15 degrees out today I wore my t-shirt all day, spring is coming fast. I'm liking my job a little better now, but I still really miss not seeing Tina for such a long time. I would love to be around her more, especially as we get closer to the big day. I just got my own truck today, not mine to keep, but I will be going on my own now on jobs, no more co-driver to help me out. I'm a little scared, but also I welcome it as a chance to learn new things. I hope that anyone that still reads this is doing well, hope you enjoy the photos. I wish they were better but the prairies looks pretty ugly in the spring :) I can't help it. Ride safe and have fun everyone, come back again soon for more...

February's Post :)

2007-02-13T20:33:00.000-06:00

Beautiful sunset right outside Nordegg.

Tina with birthday cake (Feb 11)

Tina getting her hair done in Kindersly.

The finished product, pretty pretty huh?

Not much has happened since the last post. Both Tina and I celebrated our birthdays since last post 26 for me and 24 for Tina. We went to Kindersly this weekend, Tina's friend Kristin did her hair up all nice like it will be for the wedding, just to see if Tina would like it I guess. I looked around Kindersly for jobs, I put my resume in at a few places, we'll see what will happen. Anyway I been working quite a bit at work lately, a lot of driving around. On my last shift I was in Fort McMurray, Lloydminister, Lethbridge and Bonnyville, AB. Hopefully I'll find something around home soon. Anyway not much to say really, ride safe and have fun. Check back once and a while and who knows, maybe I will update this once and a while.

Not much to say....But what's new.. :)

2007-01-23T10:48:00.000-06:00

A photo that I took on the way to Nordegg one afternoon last week.

The CPRail bridge in Saskatoon.

Not much to say right now. You ever feel like your really lost, that's kind of the way I'm feeling right now, not really any direction at all. I don't know if I should stay in Saskatoon or Saskatchewan in general or continue with my job in Red Deer. It's really slowed down in the oil patch this year and things aren't looking really good right now. Hopefully they will pickup because I have to pay for our wedding coming up and that has me a little stressed out. I really don't know why it's so hard to find a good paying job where you don't have to be travelling all over the place and away from home for long periods at a time. I kind of wish I had gone on to higher education some days, it opens up a lot of options for nicer working conditions. I can't foresee myself affording schooling for a long time now though. Oh well, things will work out I hope. I'm trying to gather enough material for regular post but my heart just hasn't been it it to be honest. I just need to stay motivated and get out of this slump. There now I made this post sound like pretty much every other one on the internet, full of whining and self pity. :) Anyway check back often and hopefully I will have something of value here. Until then ride safe and have fun.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-07T12:28:00.000-06:00

Driving into Red Deer in the morning.

Tina out on Fish Lake before Christmas

Just took this a minute ago, looking out my motel window in Hinton, Alberta

Tina and Mom, walking on Fish Lake.

Another morning in Red Deer.

Snow/Ice covered Fish Lake, the weekend before Christmas.

Well I hope everyone has been enjoying my frequent updates. :) I guess I kind of fell behind here, not even a post around Christmas day. Well, now it's a new year and I figured it would be nice to start it off with a fresh post. Above you will find all the photos I've taken since my last post, which is a major reason I haven't wrote anything on here since November, just haven't taken any photos at all hardly. Since November I switched jobs twice, on Dec 13 I quit my job with BJ Services and went to work at Calac Trucking in Saskatoon delivering groceries. My job with Calac really didn't work out too well and resulted in me quiting after only 5 days of work, I won't get into what happened because it isn't appropriate to mention on a public site such as Blogger. I did get hired back at BJ Services and I'm currently almost halfway through my first two week shift. I really miss Tina and I was pretty disappointed that my opportunity in Saskatoon didn't work out better. I was awesome to be home and see her for most of December. I really don't know what's in store for me now, I'm really just plugging away and seeing what happens in the future. I know quite a few people read this in the past and I feel bad not keeping it up as well as I used to. I like to have photos for every post simply because people like looking at pictures and sometimes I don't think what I write is really interesting enough to capture people's attention. We'll have to see, I might throw in a few post that have no photos in the future. I'm currently in Hinton on day two of a standby, we were supposed to have two jobs today, but last night they got booted forward a day, so if the stars and planets are in perfect alignment, we may get to work tomorrow. I really don't mind one day off, but after that it gets pretty boring and I run out of stuff to do. I did bring some movies with me this time to watch on the laptop. I hate watching TV because it's usually just crap for programming, but with the laptop I can surf and watch movies, which makes me happy. I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas, I know that I did, got to spend a lot of time at home and with family, also got some pretty cool stuff for Christmas like a memory foam pillow (very comfy), a new coat, and a satellite radio. We went to a wedding New Years Eve in Porcupine Plain which was fun and then I left for Alberta on the 2ND of January to sign my papers and start working again. Have a Good New Year, I hope 2007 is a good year for everyone. Make sure you ride safe and remember to always have fun, check back for more soon!

So much for regular updates huh?

2006-11-28T21:31:00.000-06:00

Why is there a picture of a very ugly tub/shower on my blog? Well some of the places I stay while at work are not always castles, this particular one fell short by more then a bit. It shall remain nameless for the dignity of it's owners, let's just say I didn't have a shower this particular night.

My parents dog Kramer, I took her to Fish Lake (by Nordegg) to go for a walk, it was brrrrr.......very cold and we walked around for a while. Kramer got all iced up and I thought it looked funny, plus she is adorable. :)

Fish Lake on the same day, it's got a really decent sheet of ice over it, the tracks are from snowmobiles.

Kramer all frozen up and ready to head home.

Not much to say, and sadly not much for photo's either. It's very cold today; -30Celcius, and I just got back to my hotel room after spending more time then I would have liked outside, in a semi-frozen state. I've suprisingly been working a fair amount this hitch, which will be good with Christmas coming soon. Anyway, don't get too cold out there, ride safe and please have fun. Check back often and you will be disappointed, but bear with me as I'm doing the best I can. Best wishes.........FLYBYU

Enjoying my time off

2006-11-16T00:15:00.000-06:00

Tina and I headed out to Nordegg/Red Deer for my days off and we toured around, here we are just outside Nordegg.

We headed out to Big Horn Dam outside Nordegg to check it out, weather changes fast, the photo above was taken about 15 mins before this one. :)

My parent's dog Kramer, looking all pretty. :)

Tina and I were trying to determine if these horses were wild or not, I'm still not sure, but they really looked nice against the beautiful rock formations in the background.

Tina getting cold while I take a photo. :)

Not much to say this time, just wanted to put some more photos on here. I'm yet again looking for something jobwise that is closer to home. I like my current job but it is such a pain driving out to Alberta and I really miss seeing Tina. Hopefully something will work out for me, I spent most of my time at home handing out resumes, eventually someone will call. Ride safe and have fun, keep looking back for more!

Hard at Work

2006-11-03T21:36:00.000-06:00

Coming onto a lease up in Edson, Alberta for a frac.

I just took this the other day while we were down in Pincher Creek, Alberta. We had just finished putting the tire chains on and were waiting for the customer to show up so I whipped out the camera and took a photo of our nitrogen pump. It still was somewhat clean in this photo

Another nice sunrise on the way to work, as you can see the roads were a little icy.

Five big frac pumps all firing up at once in the early morning, still really cold as you can see by the smoke coming out of them. Here we are all rigged into the well and ready to pump, just had to warm those engines up first.

I took this photo one morning after I arrived at the shop, that is the main office in the background and our parking lot in the foreground. I thought the sky looked pretty cool too.

I writing this from the Nordegg Library, they actually have high speed internet that I can hook my computer to. I've been pretty busy working and I'm starting to go out with people that I started with, so we both have equal amounts of experiance, in many ways it is a lot like going out on my own and I like it a lot. I'm getting better at driving the big trucks, I took one through Calgary during rush hour the other day and only stalled it once. :) Oh well, everyone has to learn sometime I guess. It won't be too much longer before I'm back in Saskatoon, Wednesday is coming fast. That is good because I really miss Tina and I want to see her again, I can't wait. It is really hard to get a lot of jobs in the two weeks I'm here though, it is starting to pick up and hopefully I will make some money. Anyway thanks for looking if anyone is, ride safe and have fun!

Hello

2006-10-31T21:26:00.000-06:00

Well I really don't have any thing to put on here, I have taken some cool on-the-job photos though, so they will be up on here as soon as I get a chance. Keep checking back for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Tina and I

2006-10-24T14:41:00.000-06:00

Tina got her hair permed for her friend's wedding and she also just got a new pair of glasses. This will be her first and she really doesn't have to wear them all the time, but I think they look good on her.

Myself, packing up to head back to Alberta for another two weeks. :(

Just thought I would throw a few photos of us up here before I leave for Alberta. I've done a bunch of thinking lately and the conclusion I've come up with is that I want to start working back here again. I love my job in Alberta but it is really expensive to buy a house or rent out there, also I miss Tina, I would like to be around more then I am now, seems like the six days I have off just fly by. I miss not being able to go riding once and a while and so does my body, as my waistline expands :) So I'm looking for something around Saskatoon, it's hard to find anything that will even come close to what I'm currently making, but hopefully something will work out for me so that I can come back again and stay. Ride safe and have fun, I will post more, keep watching for updates.

It's been a long time

2006-10-22T10:00:00.000-06:00

My shadow is alot taller then me. :)

We got my wedding band the other day, so here it is. I decided to get a Titanium band instead of gold, that's why it looks different.

It was August 1st the last time I went for a ride, way too long to be off the bike. Suprisingly I didn't feel to out of shape, even though I know I've put on some weight

Driving into Red Deer one morning I took this photo of a nice sunrise.

A couple of weekends ago we were at Tina's parents place and Tina and I went out to Greenwater park, I took this photo of the golf course with the fall colors.

My new van, I can just wheel the recumbent in there, no need to disassemble it.

I bought this about three weeks ago now, a 2003 Chevrolet Venture van, I traded my sunfire on it.

Well many things have happened since my last post. Yesterday I did my first ride since August 1st, just a small ride, 14kms. I went out to Greenwater park by Tina's parents place because there are some hills out that way, so it would be some good excersise. I hit 58kmph on one hill which is very close to my top speed. It was very cold out, or maybe I'm just not used to it, it was only around -5C but there was a cold wind blowing. I really miss riding the bike, I rode so much when I was working in Saskatoon and since the new job started I haven't had time to ride much at all or see Tina. I decided to get rid of my car recently as well, it was starting to have a few problems that would be expensive to fix. I traded the Pontiac Sunfire on a Chevrolet Venture Van, which is nice because it is alot bigger then the car and much nicer to drive on the highway as well (hello cruise control:) So now I'm able to put the bike in the back without taking anything off it. The van get's very close to the same mileage as my old car got while being considerably more spacious. My friend Julian finally moved over to the dark side and bought a Rans Stratus, so next time when I come home maybe we can go recumbent riding together. Ride safe and have fun, hopefully I can post more often now, it all depends on where I am, I will be making an effort to do that though.

At work again.

2006-09-24T14:54:00.000-06:00

The flarestack at night, burning off H2S gas from the well, and hopefully keeping us safe.

The coil tubing injector being positioned over the well head.

At work: that's me on the left, Lloyd, the guy I'm riding with in the middle and another guy I started with; Rick, on the right.

Snowy roads on the way to Nordegg, this was only for about 45kms.

Our trucks on the oil lease, there is the nitrogen bulker truck on the left and our two pumper trucks beside it, with the "little" crew cab truck on the right. I drove the pumper truck second from the left to Blairmore Alberta and then my co-driver drove it here.

My car buried in snow at Mom and Dad's place in Nordegg.

Driving into Coleman, Alberta.

Some hunters looking for deer on the road into the oil lease.

I hoped to show everyone what it's like at work for me with this post. I'm really loving my job now, I'm catching on a bit better. Right now we are in Blairmore, Alberta and I'm writing this in my hotel room right now. We are here for a few days doing a job and it is beautiful here. I can't write too much because we have to head off pretty soon for our night shift, but hopefully the photos help show everyone why I like my new job. I can't really go in to specifics about the job because I wouldn't be allowed to. Ride safe and have fun.

At work

2006-09-10T10:45:00.000-06:00

I spent a week in Rainbow Lake, Alberta for my last set of days at work. We flew up on the above airplane and then after a week we flew back on the same plane. I actually like flying, so it was a fun trip for me, Rainbow Lake was a boring place to spend a week though, not much going on there.

Here is a photo I took out of my motel room window. The semi truck is ours, we were just driving back and forth in it to our work site and hooking it up to the trailer there. As you can see there isn't much for scenery at Rainbow Lake, just muskeg and half dead trees.

A lot of small towns have mascots, Rainbow Lake's is a giant mosquito. It's fitting because the mosquitoes are the size of hummingbirds there. :)

In case anyone hasn't heard, Burley has stopped making bikes of any kind. The actually were bought out after almost facing bankruptcy, the new owner wants to only produce trailers which is Burley's biggest seller. I'm not really happy about that, hopefully they will still honor warranty issues. This next time when I head out to Alberta I will be taking my bike with me. Hopefully I will get some riding in when I'm not working. We are at Tina's parent's place now, she is going to be staying here until she is able to go to work I guess. Ride safe and have fun!

Hello I'm still here!

2006-09-05T20:48:00.000-06:00

Wild horses in the morning mist by Nordegg, I took this on the way to work one morning.

Another misty morning, I took this today on the way to work.

Tina in the hospital after they put pins in her ankle, she's putting on a brave face because it probably hurt like crazy.

Tina wanted me to put this one here, honest :) A photo of her in the ambulance after she broke her leg.

Tina wading in Shunda Creek shortly before she broke her leg, it started out as a good day.......

Just some quick photos for everyone. Ride safe and have fun.

Sorry

2006-08-21T00:28:00.000-06:00

Well guys, I can't load my photos up, my parent's dialup connection won't allow me to load them to blogger. Wait and in a few days I will hopefully have them up. Ride safe and have fun.

It's been a loooong time.......

2006-08-19T23:46:00.000-06:00

Holy! my first post since August 1, hard to believe, however I do have an explanation for it all. There are no photos, even though I have a lot on the camera because I'm at my parents place and they have dialup internet. Tomorrow I will try to get some photos up though. Anyway, here is my explanation for it all. On August 4th Tina came out to Nordegg from Saskatoon. It was the August long weekend and she had Monday off and I was doing driver train still so we knew that we would have the weekend to ourselves. On Sunday morning August 6th we decided to go fishing, I had caught one fish a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to get another so we would have enough for supper one night. We went to a little river by Nordegg called Shunda Creek and we fished in a small pond in the river for probably an hour. The fish weren't biting at all and I was getting discouraged so we decided to pack up and head for the fish pond northwest of Nordegg. We waded up the river to the road that went to the highway and were having a fun time playing around in the river. We then drove over too the fish pond, the fish pond is at the bottom of a steep hill just off the road (there is a photo of Dad fishing in it on a previous post). We packed all the gear down the hill and I started to cast out in the water, on one of the cast I swung the rod back and Tina was behind me, she thought I was going to hit her with the end of the rod so she back up. When she backed up she stepped on a small rock that was on top of a bigger one, it gave out and she fell backwards, she appeared to land on her back and I heard a crack, I freaked out of course, but then she was kneeling on the ground and screaming that her leg hurt. We figured that her leg was broken, there were some other people there and they were very nice and helped us out, we got Tina on her side and rested her leg on my tackle box and a bag of ice to keep it straight, one of the guys there phoned 911 and the ambulance was on it's way. Since it was a long weekend the ambulance was in Nordegg for the weekend so it didn't take as long as it could have. The ambulance from Rocky Mountain House came and they switched her into that one to take her to the hospital in Rocky Mountain House. There they took her into emergency and did x-rays on her leg. They told us that she had broken her fibula, the small bone at the back of her lower leg on the right side. because it was so swollen she had to get a splint on it instead of a cast. The next day her leg hurt really bad so we took her back, another doctor looked at it again and he told her that her fibula was broken and that she had a dislocated ankle with torn ligaments, he schedualed her for an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon in Red Deer and she went on 9th of August to Red Deer. The sugeon told us that she had indeed torn ligaments and her ankle was dislocated, but he also said that her fibula was broken in two places. He arranged to have her go in for sugery, she went on Thursday the 10th and got some ligaments reattached and also got two screws put in her ankle to help relocate it again. I picked her up on Sunday from the hospital and brought her back to Nordegg. She was doing fine until Wednesday (the 16th) when she fell while getting down on the couch and hit her bad leg on the floor. I took her to the hospital two more times about that and she is okay, just pulled on some muscles when she fell. She is feeling much better today and her leg is starting to feel better for her now. Well that is the quick and condensed version of what happened. Along the way I also went for my Class 1A drivers license driver's test and passed, so now I have my Class 1A license and can drive a semi truck, that took a lot of pressure off at work and I can concentrate on learning other aspects of the job. We won't be returning to Saskatoon until the beginning of September and then I will be taking Tina to her parent's place to recuperate. Anyway, thanks for still reading for anyone who checks in once and a while, and sorry for the lack of current content. Remember to be safe, ride safe and above all else, have fun

Finally.......

2006-08-01T11:20:00.000-06:00

My suprise I mentioned in the last post, I bought a longboard skateboard. Just one more way to potentially hurt myself.

Julian, looking very serious and Leo at Cranberry Flats.

We had a pretty nice thunderstorm Saturday night, you can see the hail balls on the sidewalk leading up to the door of our apartment.

Leo cycling up the boardwalk at Cranberry Flats.

Julian cycling up the same boardwalk, I didn't get a closeup because he was going to fast to snap a second photo.

Well Blogger finally "allowed" me to post my photos, for the last few days it has been saying that my "document contains no data", very frustrating. On Sunday Leo, Julian and I went out for a ride, it was actually Julian's first ride since he broke his wrist. He proved that he certainly hasn't slowed down while he was recuperating. :) We rode out to Cranberry Flats and then after that we headed out towards Grasswood to have lunch at the Smittys there. My suprise was that I bought a longboard skateboard, I saw it in the bike shop and thought that it would be something good to take along with me to Alberta, as it will maybe fit in my bag (I think, it's pretty long). I tryed it out last night as Tina was cleaning the inside of her car, I managed to stay upright on it for a bit, but it's hard. You see the wheels pivot so that you can go around corners, so it makes it hard to balance, you just have to remember that the wheels don't pivot past a certain point, so no matter how hard you lean over it will only go so far. Anyway, I guess it was an early midlife crisis, but I will learn how to skate on it, just takes some practice. Ride safe, and have fun

More photos from Alberta

2006-07-29T22:24:00.000-06:00

Fish Lake, just by my parents place.

A Heron on Fish Lake, I wish I had gotten closer to it.

This during the thunder storm, Dad was fishing and I noticed a double rainbow, so I snapped the photo.

Dad fishing just before the thunderstorm.

A beautiful sunset in the mountains.

Here are some more photos that I took while I was away for the last two weeks. I should have some more current content tomorrow, I'm going on a ride with Leo and Julian tomorrow morning and I have a little suprise too. Ride safe and have fun!

Finally!!!

2006-07-28T23:23:00.000-06:00

Windy point on Abraham Lake, just west of Nordegg.

Abraham Lake again.

Tina and I on Windy Point.

Abraham Lake (again)

Abraham Lake

Tina at Crescent Falls.

Cool lighting through the clouds.

The forest fire at Nordegg.

This photo was taken at night, believe it or not, but it was a lightening storm.

My tomato plants.

Well I haven't written a post in a long, long time, so here it is. Not much to say, I've been working quite a bit lately. I went riding today, I actually rode out towards Blackstrap to meet up with Leo. I managed to get in 48kms so that wasn't too bad. My legs are a little sore, thats all. Anyway I will have more photos from my last 2 weeks in Alberta tomorrow.

Hi Everyone!!

2006-07-16T21:21:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this from my parent's place in Nordegg, Alberta. I've been doing driver training for my Class 1A drivers license in Red Deer for the past few days. On Wednesday night I went to my parent's place and stayed the night. Unfortunatly for everyone who reads this regularly I don't have highspeed internet access and for a night that I spent at Red Deer College I didn't have internet at all. I've taken some really nice photos around Red Deer and Nordegg and as soon as I can I will post them on here. Tina came out on Friday night for the weekend because I really wasn't working all weekend. We've been sightseeing around Nordegg and today I bought some fishing gear and a fishing licence and we went out trout fishing at two different lakes. We didn't catch anything but we seen a huge trout swim right by the shore while we were fishing, he was smart though and didn't want nothing to do with our lure. We had a really good time and it will be sad to go back to work on Monday (isn't it always?) but I want to get back to my driver training too. Anyway when I get some internet access (usually when I go out on a job and we are in a motel for the night) I will post all my photos on here. Ride safe and have fun, thanks for reading too.

POST #200!!!!!!!!! Beaver Creek and Fort Carlton

2006-07-11T00:06:00.000-06:00

Fort Carlton from the outside

Just a fencepost, but I like it! :)

Grain elevator in the very small town of Carlton, pop 10 I'm sure.

A beautiful canola field in full bloom.

The inside of Fort Carlton, the square concrete sections outline were all the other buildings would have been in the original fort.

Looking up in the hills behind Fort Carlton.

"Watching" for the enemy.

The boardwalk around the outer walls of the fort.

Beaver Creek winding it's way through the trees to the South Saskatchewan River.

Looking upstream towards Cranberry Flats.

Tina took this photo of me standing in the wildflowers at Beaver Creek.

What a view! looking down at where Beaver Creek empties out into the South Saskatchewan River.

Another shot of Beaver Creek.

In the last few days Tina and I have been exploring around Saskatoon a lot. Mostly because we've never really done it before and we had some time to do it. What I've discovered is that there are a lot of really cool places, right at our back door. So often people go away to a new place for holidays, but they never really bother to check out what is around where they actually live. I was suprised, but out of the prairies sprung up some truely beautiful places. Up around Batoche and the St. Laurent Ferry there were places that I could spend all summer, along the banks of the river. I wish I had the time to get into fishing again because there is what looks like some really great spots for that in and around that area. Yesterday (Sunday) we ventured out to Beaver Creek, it was spectacularly beautiful, the whole river seems to unfold before you, the pictures I took really don't do it justice at all. Today we ventured up to Fort Carlton. The fort that is currently there is a reproduction of the original that burnt down in the 1930's. The original was a Hudson's Bay Company fort for fur trading and it also housed the soldiers that fought in the Battle of Batoche. The reproduction fort is very impressive and from photos of the old fort it is pretty close to what it looked like. We then went down the road and checked out the town of Carlton, out in the middle of nowhere and lost in time, it was a pretty neat little place. Around 5:00pm we headed back to Saskatoon. I'm going to be working again now, I will try to post while I'm on the road, but sometimes it is pretty hard. Please bear with me and check back often for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Post 199

2006-07-10T23:51:00.000-06:00

Warning! many photos are coming your way. :) I just wanted to make post 200 a special one, so I didn't put them here.

Batoche

2006-07-09T12:30:00.000-06:00

Fields along the river, notice the canola farther up on the field.

Part of Carlton Trail going through Batoche.

Cattle grazing along the river.

The interpertation center at Batoche.

Field of wild grass at Batoche.

The church and rectory at Batoche, there is still bullet holes in the top of the rectory from the Gatling gun that the Canadian army was using.

An example of the river lots that used to be in Batoche. Every lot went down to the river so that all the people have access to the river. You can see the rows of trees that border each plot of land.

Another shot of the Church and other buildings.

A cool hay field.

The cemetary at Batoche.

Tina and I went to Batoche on Saturday to check it out. Batoche is the site of the battle between the Metis settlers there and the Canadian Army in 1885. The church and rectory still stand here and you can see the rifle pits of the metis people if you hunt around in the fields a bit. The cemetary is still in use today by the Metis people. We went to the church and cemetary as well as the East Village site. The East Village site was just the remains of the former Metis houses that were in the village. There was also a site where the Metis people had a ferry to get across the South Saskatchewan River. On Monday Tina and I are going to go to Fort Carlton which is on the North Saskatchewan River and where the Canadian soldiers were stationed at the time of the Battle of Batoche. Ride safe and have fun.

Sorry, first post in 8 days :(

2006-07-08T21:59:00.000-06:00

A storm came up while I was out riding on Friday and it was really blowing good. I took this photo about the time I decided to head home.

Broadway bridge, notice how the tree on the left is really bent over good.

Dust blowing around in the streets.

Part of the aftermath.

I obviously didn't think it would be too safe for cycling at this point.

Wow, I'm really letting everyone down here, first post in 8 days. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me and continuing to read this. The fact is that a lot of the time now I'm putting in up to 16 hour days. The new job isn't hard but it requires a lot of waiting around. Couple that with subpar internet service at best and you get some pretty decent delays with my blog here. I got back to Saskatoon Wednesday and have been enjoying it a great deal ever since. I can't believe how I miss Tina and just being home. It makes it hard because she has been waiting til I get home to go places, and then all I really want to do is stick around home. Saskatoon has really blossomed with the wet weather and now a little bit of heat. My tomatoe plants were doing not bad until I left them out in the windstorm we had on Friday (see photos above) and the wind bent them all over, I did get some good tomatoes off them though. My first bike ride went good except for the rain, also I'm out of shape from a month of near inactivity so it took a while to get up to speed. Tina and I went to Batoche today and I have photos, but that post will have to wait until tomorrow. Also I'm planning a trip to Fort Carlton on Monday, so stay tuned for that. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

Nordegg Mine

2006-07-01T19:19:00.000-06:00

The coal storage shed at Nordegg Mine.

An electric locomotive and coal cars.

A briquet press at the mine.

The mechanism for dumping the coal cars.

A photo I took today from our well lease.

On of the two shafts of the Nordegg Coal mine

One of the massive fans that ventilated the coal shafts, it is actually double this size, there is another blade on the other side.

A 'Bent cartoon Leo sent me.

The boiler and chimmeny at the Nordegg Coal mine.

Here is the second set of photos from the weekend at my parents place. On Sunday Mom and I went on a guided tour of the Nordegg Mine site. It is now a National Heritage Site and is very interesting to go see, I highly recommend it if your are ever in the area. I'm really getting ready to come home now, being away is really just wearing on me and I want to see Tina again. I got to drive the truck today. We unhooked it from our trailer for the drive back to Brooks, Alberta. The semi is hard to drive that is for sure, I grinded my fair share of gears. :) The guy I'm riding with let me drive it away from the well out to the highway and then down a gravel road for a while until we got out to the TransCanada highway, then thankfully he took over before I made a complete fool of myself. :) Ride safe and have fun, thanks for checking my blog out too.

From the weekend

2006-06-30T20:25:00.000-06:00

A small creek by Fish Lake.

Mom standing by crescent Falls.

Yours truly walking the log at Fish Lake (at least that is what I think it was called).

Mom and Dad parked on the side of the road so I can take photos of some sheep.

Yours truly again, this time climbing rocks, yes I like climbing rocks.

crescent Falls.

Myself, standing in front of the North Saskatchewan River.

Upper crescent Falls

Dad, trying to walk up the bank at crescent Falls

This photo looks like I was running in the woods.

Well Wednesday I got called to go out on a job, so I didn't get to do my blog until today. I finally realized today that I got internet in my room, which is very nice. I'm currently in Brooks, Alberta, staying at the Heritage Inn. Here are photo's from the weekend that I spent in Nordegg with Mom and Dad. I'm missing Tina very much, I hopefully will be heading back to Saskatoon on Wednesday. I'm missing going on rides too, but this is a totally different experience I guess. I would show everyone the truck we are driving right now, but I can't because I don't think I'm able to show the company truck on my blog. Anyway, I must go, ride safe everyone and have fun! Thanks for sticking with me during the slow parts too.

Expensive Photos!

2006-06-22T22:23:00.000-06:00

Here is the outdoor theater that I took a photo of in the last post

Some of the photos didn't work too well because of the sun reflecting off the windows

This was a little freaky.

Calgary Saddle Dome.

Beautiful church and park.

Some really big, cool statues in front of the Calgary Education building.

A huge condo on the other side of the river. I believe this is the Bow River.

Shiney office buildings downtown.

The subway again, or the C-train as it's called here.

A very pretty church across the river in Calgary

This post has been almost 5 days in the making, it was ready to go on Thursday night, I got about half of it up and running and then my internet in the hotel room conked out. I tried again at my parents place, but they have dial-up internet and my photo files at 2MB each wouldn't load at all. I'm back in Red Deer and very homesick, but I have some decent internet access for a few days so I'm taking advantage of it. Anyway Thursday night I decided to go up in Calgary Tower, at 525' tall it promised a very nice view. After paying $4.00 for parking I went to the tower and payed another $13.00 for a ticket to use the elevator. The elevator took a few minutes to reach the top and my ears were popping the whole way. Finally at the top I got out, right outside the elevator there were clear plastic panels on the floor that you could walk on, I thought they were a little scary but I walked on them, alot of people couldn't get over them and wouldn't even come close to them. I spent about 30mins up in the tower taking photos. I have some more really good photos from the weekend that will have to wait until tomorrow. I went to my parents place in Nordegg, Alberta for the weekend and snapped around 650photos, alot of them are poor so I will have to wade through them all before posting them. Thanks to all that are still looking at this still, even though it's a "slow" time for me right now. Remember, ride safe and have fun.

Downtown Calgary

2006-06-20T21:58:00.000-06:00

Pedestrian streets downtown, cars still drive on them, but pedestrian traffic is what they are mostly used for.

Calgary Tower, very cool, I was going to go to the top, but I think you have to pay.

Open air theater across from the subway station.

The first time I've ever seen a subway, it was pretty neat.

Office buildings downtown.

Open-air dining along the pedestrian street.

Downtown Calgary

I finally went for a walk downtown tonight. I didn't get away until almost 8:30 though, so some of my photos ended up underexposed from the setting sun, that is why some of them are a little darker, not my best photos. I found a place to park downtown and put in $5.00!? for parking, a little expensive, but you have to pay that much to park anywhere here. I checked out some stores downtown and just walked around for a bit. The subway was really cool for me, because I've never seen one before. Also I wanted to get a closer look at the Calgary Tower, I wanted to go up in the tower, but I think you have to pay, I may check it out some more tomorrow or ask around and see if you actually do have to pay. Anyway, check back for more soon. Until then, ride safe and have fun

In Calgary

2006-06-19T21:45:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm in Calgary now, no photo's today, I did go for a drive downtown tonight and I'm thinking of going down there for a walk with the camera tomorrow if it's nice. So everyone will get a treat hopefully. Until then ride safe and have fun!

Heading back to Saskatoon

2006-06-17T01:19:00.000-06:00

Just photos of my drive back to Saskatoon today.

Hiking around

2006-06-15T19:53:00.000-06:00

Baby ducks and the mother swimming up to me, they thought I had food for them, really I just wanted a close photo. :)

The Bower Ponds park along side the Red Deer river, very nice, to bad it was raining.

Muskrat Sally, she swam right up to me until I got my camera out, that scared her, so she started to swim away, she dove under the water right after I took this photo.

The old CPRail bridge spanning the Red Deer River, built in 1907, it is now used as a pedestrian bridge. Wake up Saskatoon! This is what needs to happen with the Victoria Bridge, NO CARS!!!

It is quite a bit more wooded along the river banks in Red Deer than in Saskatoon.

Only in Alberta, how many MPG do you think this guy gets. Yes, that is a pickup truck.

Part of the trail I rode my bike on last night.

Some geese at Bower Ponds park, the babies are teenagers now I think, not quite ready to leave Mom and Dad yet though.

Tea House in Bower Park.

Well it was raining but I decided to go for a walk up the other side of the river tonight. It actually stopped raining after I had finished my supper and actually drove over to a church parking lot close to the river. I walked for about 6 kms round trip, but I wanted to check out this cool park that I had noticed last night from the other side of the river on my bike. Walking enabled me to take more photos, 106 all together. Because I had the autofocus on most the time and it was raining, a lot of the photo's were out of focus, I guess it was focusing in on raindrops instead of the subject. No blog tomorrow or Saturday probably, I'm heading back to Saskatoon tomorrow and on Saturday Tina and I will be going to a wedding, but Sunday I will post possibly if I have internet access in the motel in Calgary. We'll have to see. Ride safe everyone, and have fun too!

First ride in Red Deer

2006-06-14T19:08:00.000-06:00

My little Dahon partially folded up, actually all folded except I usually don't lower the seat or handlebars because they are a pain to get tighten properly again.

Looking down the river at one of Red Deer's bridges, they are a lot smaller and newer than the ones in Saskatoon.

A wild rose growing by the side of the trail along the river.

My bike fully setup for riding.

Well folks, here is my first ride in Red Deer. To put it bluntly, Red Deer isn't a cycling friendly city. It's urban sprawl at it's finest. However like any place there are some little jewels hidden, you just have to look for them. For me that was the pathway along the river, it really is nice, the pavement is smoother then the Meewasin Trail in Saskatoon and it seems to extend a little longer and hook up with a few more parks. The scenery isn't nearly as nice as Saskatoon. Red Deer is a very industrial type town and a vast majority of it's residents are working, not living here, just like me I guess. Everyone is probably doing a collective doubletake right now because my ride today is a upright ride and that doesn't jive with the whole philosophy of the Bentupbike blog. :) However this is probably the last time that it will be on here, even if I can take it with me in the trunk of the car. It is only slightly better then walking, only slightly. :) I took a 8 mile (my odometer is set for miles still on the folding bike) ride and afterwards my butt hurt, my wrist hurt and my shoulders were sore. I may ride down the other side of the river bank tomorrow night, but I think after that I will use my feet power. :) Anyway must go now, ride/drive/live very safe and always have fun, because that is what life is about. Right? :)

Stormy skies

2006-06-12T20:41:00.000-06:00

Just before Hanna, Alberta, I got a dry spot so I could snap some photos.

Looking out the front window of the car.

Just outside Kindersley Sk.

Just before Three Hills Albert, it cleared up a bit.

Leaving Saskatoon.

Well post will be few and far between now, I'm afraid. I'm in Red Deer, Alberta training for the new job right now, next week I will be in Calgary for what the company calls Greenhand Training. Other then terribly missing Tina it's not going to bad. I'm not overly fond of Red Deer and will probably not be working here too long. I would like to save up for the upcoming wedding and honeymoon and then see from there. I signed a contract for a year, so I will be here for at least that long. Anyway I'm thinking of taking my folding Dahon out for a ride either tomorrow or Wednesday, there looks like a good trail network down by the river in Red Deer and I'm feeling the need to explore a little. We had a company BBQ today and I got to meet a few of the guys I will be working with and it seems like they are all pretty nice, so that is good. Don't know much beyond that right now, so stay tuned for more.

Urban Hikers :)

2006-06-09T23:15:00.000-06:00

The big red bus downtown.

Tina, keeping dry under her umbrella.

The Delta Bessborough, looking from the street side at the main entrance

Tepees in the park as part of the Saskatchewan Children's Festival.

The dining area at the back of the Bessborough.

It's been raining for the last two days, so no cycling at all for me. :( Instead I've been walking. On Friday we went for a walk in the park down by the Bessborough hotel. They are having the Saskatchewan Childerns Festival there right now, so we checked that out, although it was all closed up for the day. Today I was hoping to get out for a ride, but the rain dashed my plans again. I was supposed to meet Julian for lunch at a place on Broadway, so I decided to walk there instead of take the car. It was a good 40-45min walk and I actually didn't get too wet because the trees shelter the sidewalk in most places. I found it amazing all the things you see while walking that I totally miss while I'm cycling. Just small things, like a piece of landscaping in someone's yard, or an old car in the tall grass beside the back alley, when I ride my bike along that same stretch of road I don't see any of that, it's kind of cool. I won't be taking the bike to Alberta with me, it's simply too large and bulky to have in my car. I will be posting as long as I can get internet access though, so keep posted for more. This next week I will be in Red Deer and then after that it is off to Calgary for a week, then I will spend the weekend in Nordegg with Mom and Dad. After the weekend I have three more days of training in Red Deer and then I'm either going back to Saskatoon for a week or starting in on my first two weeks out in the field, it's kind of up in the air right now. Anyway, keep checking in for more post, they won't always be about biking, but I guarantee they will be interesting nevertheless. Ride safe and have fun.

Sunny day in God's country...

2006-06-08T00:02:00.000-06:00

The new setup for my tomato plants, now they are up in the sun.

Hows that for a wide shoulder? A very nice shoulder on the highway to Aberdeen

Some nice horses finding shade under a tree on the way to the Clarksboro ferry.

The ferry taking a truck across.

The main drag in the huge town of Aberdeen (notice the sarcasim) :)

Well Leo and I did get out for a ride this afternoon. We actually had a pretty good ride. It was mildly warm with a light wind, we headed out towards the town of Aberdeen which is about 25kms northeast of Saskatoon. We did the full circuit to Aberdeen and then across on the river on the Clarksboro ferry, a short jog over to the town of Warman and then back to the city. All together I put on 84kms, which isn't too bad for an afternoon. I was thinking all day about a ride to Batoche this summer, that is about 200kms round trip, so a pretty decent haul, I think with proper pacing it really wouldn't be too bad. Batoche is one of my favorite parks and I would love to get some photos of it for you guys. I want to wait until Julian's arm has healed though, so all three of us can head up there one day this summer. Anyway probably no post tomorrow, I'm taking Tina's car in to get the windshield replaced, meeting Julian and Leo for coffee and taking Tina to and from work. I will post again on Friday and then it is off to Red Deer, I will try to post from there, if I get a good internet connection, stay tuned. Ride safe and have fun.

Sorry no photos today

2006-06-06T14:51:00.000-06:00

Blogger was once again acting stupid, it won't let me upload the photos I took today. Nothing really exciting, just a photo of the new stand for the tomato plants and a few photos from my ride today. I really didn't go to far on the ride, it was very windy and about 25C out, I think I put on around 12kms. I did run into a fellow riding a Wizwheelz trike though, it was a beautiful bike and look really comfortable. I spotted him as I was coming up from the University Bridge, so I tryed to speed up and catch up with him, it took me about 1/2 km to catch up and I yelled at him, he slowed down and we talked for a bit. He seemed pretty intent on riding so I didn't ask him to stop so I could take a photo. He said he rides it all winter long too, when I mentioned that I rode mine in the winter he seemed suprised. It was neat to run into a fellow bent' rider. I will probably be going riding with Leo tomorrow (he just doesn't know that yet) :) so look for some photos tomorrow (hopefully). Ride safe and have fun.

Tina and I, out walking or the tour of flowers :)

2006-06-04T23:05:00.000-06:00

Tina took this photo of some poppies where we parked the car.

I enjoyed the photos of flowers so much yesterday that I went a little wild today taking some more.

Tina in the Galleria, we decided to go for a walk around the Galleria, Boffins Club and the Biotechnology greenhouses on campus.

The north road leading out to Preston Ave.

Tina took this photo of me "posing" in the grass, I tryed to smile while getting eaten by mosquitoes.

Look at my baby tomatos! One of them is almost full size already.

Tina took this photo of the small waterfall at the Boffins Club.

I decided to show Tina where I had taken the photos last night, so after supper we drove over to campus and went for a walk around all the areas I had taken photos last night. Of course I took my camera along again, this time Tina took some photos too. The photos above are the best ones out of the 38 that we took, hope everyone likes them. Ride safe and have fun.

Exploring the University

2006-06-04T01:07:00.000-06:00

Greenhouses on campus.

Put the camera in Macro mode and snapped this photo of what I think are daisies.

The Boffins club on campus, they left the gates open, so I sautered in to take some photos.

The huge dish on campus, I think it is one of those radio telescopes.

Saskatchewan Research council Galleria, since I was here last winter they have put on the fountains and it is a lot greener.

Small Japanese garden in the Boffins Club.

Another closeup, Tina didn't believe I took this one because it looks like a screensaver. :)

Two post in one day, well kind of, it's 1:30am as I'm writing this. Actually I decided to go for a bike ride tonight, it cleared up, got nice and warm out and the sun peeked from out of the clouds, how could I resist? I decided to tour around the University of Saskatchewan campus, I haven't really done that since last winter. It is a great deal nicer looking in the summer, that's for sure. I also got in 15kms of riding between taking photos of pretty much everything, I took 66 photos altogether, and here are the best ones for everyone to see. I just wanted to mention that for June 3rd I had 89 people view my blog. I want to thank everyone for coming to look at my little piece of the web world, it means a lot. The small ad at the top of the page tracks hits on the page on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, that is why I have it there, otherwise I would have sooner not had it there, but it serves a purpose. Thanks for looking, check back for more soon and always ride safe and have fun!

I forgot to post this yesterday!

2006-06-03T13:16:00.000-06:00

Out at Cranberry Flats, kind of cloudy, but very, very hot.

My Burley with all the current stuff on it, new seat, speed struts, etc.

Leo and I were sitting on the bench at the lookout point and I saw this crazy ant trying to haul this huge thing around (not sure what it was), right here he got it stuck in a chip in the plank. He eventually got it out and then fell down between the planks.

They graze sheep out at Cranberry Flats to control the grass. You can see the guy in the lawnchair is watching over them.

Leo's Giant touring bike.

I really didn't do to much yesterday. Leo and I met Julian for coffee at the Fine Arts Cafe in the morning and we didn't get out riding until 2:00pm, it was very hot out, around 28-30Celsius so we really didn't feel like going for a huge ride. We decided to go to Cranberry Flats again for a little ride. It was just enough of a ride to feel I had done something for the day. Anyway I won't be doing much today, so check in the next few days for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Night Rider

2006-06-01T23:06:00.000-06:00

I found this cartoon on the BROL forums and it reminded me of the pile of jerseys that I have in the bottom drawer of our dresser that I may put on one day "when I lose some weight."

I took this time exporsure off the balcony of our apartment, you can see the headlights of a van as it drove down the road and turned in the back alley

Another time exporsure from the balcony.

It's sad, I haven't posted since Tuesday. Yesterday we really didn't do to much. Today Tina sold her old car, we just put the ad in the paper today and the first person to look at it bought it. It was a good car for driving to work and stuff, so hopefully it treats them well. I went for a bike ride tonight while Tina went on the treadmill. It was after dark so I put my light on and headed out. It was beautiful, made me realize why I love nightriding so much. It was still about 20Celsius outside with a slight breeze, just to keep you cool. Also the sky hadn't quite turned black yet, it was that really dark blue, so it was still light enough to see around. I retensioned the rear wheel on my Burley last night, in an attempt to prolong it's normally short life, hopefully it will work for me. I also adjusted the rear mesh on the new seat and moved it ahead a bit. I find that when I'm moved back so my leg overextends I can't generate enough power. Leo and I are going riding tomorrow, so check back then for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Post #180!!!

2006-05-30T22:58:00.000-06:00

Lakewood Park, very nice, this is actually the first time I've ridden through it.

Sunset photos in Diefenbaker Park

You can see the lights from Gordie Howe Bowl in this photo.

Lakewood park.

Not much to write today. I will be leaving for Red Deer on June 11 to start training, I spend a week in Red Deer and then I will be going to Calgary for training the following week. Apparently by June 29 I will be ready to go out in the field. That will be nice because then I can start getting bonuses. It finally stopped raining so I got to go for a short ride tonight. I went for a ride through Lakewood park, Tina and I drove past it last night and I've never been to that part of town before on the bike, so I decided to ride over there. The streets are nice for riding because that area isn't too old, so the streets are not full of potholes and things, very nice. Anyway check in soon, ride safe and have fun.

Saskatoon Marathon

2006-05-28T21:07:00.000-06:00

The tallest and smallest runner, or pretty close to it. :)

Just an idea of how it was today, that is the tip of my umbrella in the top of the photo.

This woman ran most of the race with heavy work gloves on, she took them off for the final leg.

Here is Julian talking with a local recumbent rider, he followed the last runner on his bike so that everyone would know who when the last runner went through the checkpoints.

Broadway Bridge with the Bessborough in the background.

This guy looks pretty happy after just slogging up that steep hill. Many of the runners when they saw my camera would smile. I was hoping to get some photos of the pain on their faces, but instead they all look happy to be running 42kms in the rain. :)

Some more runners coming up the Broadway hill.

Julian wanted me to take a picture of this guy, he should win the best headdress of the marathon for the purple touque.

This woman put on a happy face too. :)

These guys looked totally drenched, but happy.

The start of the race, here are the runners coming past my checkpoint on 8th Street.

Very unusual sunset on Saturday night.

Runners rounding the corner at the top of the Broadway Bridge.

This guy doesn't look happy.

This guy was one of the faster runners, you can see he is really motoring along.

I went out with Julian today and we volunteered for the Saskatoon Marathon. It really wasn't a nice day, it rained constantly and it was pretty windy too. I really felt sorry for the runners, some of them looked like they had taken a dive into a swimming pool. Anyway not much else to say besides that, didn't go biking because of the horrible weather. Ride safe, enjoy the photos, and have fun.

Good News

2006-05-27T00:10:00.000-06:00

In case anyone was wondering what happened with my new job (I was frankly starting to worry myself) there were some problems with my medical that had to be approved. Nothing really bad, I just mentioned my skin allergy and carpal tunnel syndrome and the company doctor had to determine if I was fit to work for their company. Thankfully everything checked out good and I will be starting soon. On Monday I will be giving my two weeks notice at Hitachi. Though I won't be riding while I'm working, I will be taking my computer (it's a laptop) and camera along for sure, so hopefully I can post if I get internet access in my motel room. Really my little blurb at the top of the page doesn't really pertain to this blog anymore, it's still focused on my riding and recumbent, but I also want it to encompass other aspects of my life as well. Truth be told it's become almost an enjoyable habit writing in here every other day, most of the time I really like it. So look for some photos from the oil field, hopefully of the truck I'm driving and some of the things I will be doing. I will also be doing a lot of traveling so hopefully I will be able to share some nice photos of that with anyone who reads this. Today I actually don't have any photos, it was misty out all day so I didn't take my camera with me. This morning I met Julian for breakfast at a coffee shop by his house, after that I rode home for lunch, I made pancakes for lunch and Tina came home because she works close by today. After lunch I talked to various people on the phone for quite a while and then I headed downtown to go to the library, it had actually cleared up a bit so I had an enjoyable ride. While at the library I had two people ask me about my bike, this has become very common. There are two types of people that ask, people who don't bike and are wondering what the heck it is, and people who do bike and are looking into a recumbent for themselves. The latter group surprises me, I didn't know so many people in Saskatoon were interested in getting a recumbent, apparently the internet helps because anyone can see pictures of recumbents on the internet. When I got home I had a shower and then when Tina came home we went out to a bridal shower that a friend of her's from work was having, we stayed there until around nine, had a good meal and a drink and then we drove around to look at a few houses and things. I probably won't post till Sunday now, check back then for more, ride safe and have fun.

Got my seat!

2006-05-25T15:33:00.000-06:00

Sask Cres., "tunnel of trees"

Looking down the river towards the Saskatoon Rowing Club, notice the kayaks out on the water.

For our centennial the City marked signs on the street indicating where the city limits were in 1906.

I finally got my replacement seat from Burley, I got it and right away went to work replacing the old one with this one. Obviously the break in the last seat effected it a lot, as this one is noticeable stiffer and doesn't creak at all. I went for a short ride today to test it out. I just rode around by the exhibition area. Hopefully I will go for a longer ride tomorrow, got to see if I can con Leo into going somewhere for the day. :) Ride safe and have fun.

Fixed my bike today

2006-05-24T15:18:00.000-06:00

My new shorts I got yesterday, I really like them, Tina thinks the colors are funny though.

A small park by Market Mall.

"First Base," the ball diamond by Market Mall.

I just went for a short ride today to work out the fixing I did on my bike. The bottom bracket on my bike gave up on my the other day, the bearings on the driveside fell apart. The bearings had gotten loose in the frame a long time ago and I tightened them up, apparently they were loose for too long so that really didn't last too long after that. I didn't get my seat yet for my bike. Check back tomorrow for more, ride safe and have fun.

Rainy Day

2006-05-23T15:04:00.000-06:00

There were rumors floating around that a local shop had a tadpole trike for sale, so today Julian and I decided to go take it for a test ride. It turns out that the shop did have a tadpole trike there, but it was just getting serviced, and the owner had picked it up before we got there. So we went to Nutana Cafe for lunch instead, after that Julian had some things to do, I headed out to Confederation to go to Walmart. I hate the Walmart by my house, too busy, and I bought some new shorts. After that I just head home. It is pretty warm out still, but it has been raining off and on all day too. My new seat still hasn't come yet, hopefully tomorrow. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

Bikes on Broadway

2006-05-22T18:04:00.000-06:00

Some more geese down along the river bank.

The Broadway Roastery, where we met this morning for coffee.

These following photos are of the Cat 4 Crit race along Broadway.

Today was really nice, I'm not sure how warm, but as I'm writing this it is 11:20pm and it is still 20 degrees Celsius outside right now, the A/C and fans are cranked up, but it's still too warm for me. I guess I like colder weather, a lot of times on the prairies I find that it gets too hot in the summer months. Today we met at the Broadway Roastery for coffee before venturing out for the day. We then head up Broadway a few blocks to check out the racing action. The Cat 4 riders were just finishing up and the women were getting ready to go, I managed to snap a few photos of the Cat 4's racing around, I find that to be the most interesting category because a lot of the riders aren't that experienced yet and everyone seems to be using a different technique. After watching the racing a bit we headed out to Wanaskewin Heritage Park for lunch, we had a good lunch and after that I headed home because Tina and I had plans for later in the afternoon. I just want to thank the Regina riders who came up and shared their time with us this weekend, it's always great to meet new people, make new friends and share some beautiful Saskatoon riding with fellow cyclist. Ride safe and have fun, check in tomorrow for more.

Riding around

2006-05-21T23:22:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what everyone is looking at, but it must be pretty interesting. :)

Spadina Cres.

We did some riding on singletrack trail, the recumbent worked pretty well actually.

The Delta Bessborough at dusk.

The Delta Bessborough in the daytime.

Everyone tying their bikes up at the Western development Museum.

Riding back from Cranberry Flats.

Some Canadian Geese along the Meewasin trail.

Leaving the Broadway Cafe in the morning.

Finally a fellow recumbent rider to ride with.

The view from Cranberry Flats lookout

Making plans.

All the bikes lined up and ready to go.

Every year the Saskatoon Cycling Club puts on an event on May long weekend. This year it was named Sask Bikeapalooza, basically it runs in conjunction with the Bikes on Broadway provincial stage race and people from Saskatoon and Regina come out and do some rides around Saskatoon. I decided to rest up yesterday so I didn't go riding. Today I joined up with the group of riders (there were four riders from Regina and three from Saskatoon) at the Broadway Cafe. After a good breakfast we headed out to the Western development Museum, some of the group stayed at the museum and the rest of us headed to Cranberry Flats for a little ride. It was very cold this morning, but by the time we got to Cranberry Flats it had warmed up a lot and the sun came out. We wandered around Cranberry Flats for a while and then headed back to the museum for lunch. In the photos you might notice another recumbent rider, one of the riders from Saskatoon rides a recumbent regularly and he joined in for the weekend as one of the unofficial guides for our small group, Leo being the other one. After lunch we headed north to Lawson Heights and checked out some sights up there and then tried to ride down some single track trail. Tomorrow we will be doing some riding too, so look back tomorrow for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Here's what happened.

2006-05-21T00:32:00.000-06:00

A nice sunset on the way home.

Just after Hanna, Alberta there is this valley you have to drive through.

My new tomato plants I just bought today.

I didn't go to Nordegg on Thursday night, it turns out that the company I was supposed to go for the interview at, bought me a motel room in Red Deer for the night. The company was actually BJ Services which is one of the largest oil well servicing companies in the world. I'm pretty excited to say the least. Oh, I guess I should mention that I did get the job, I will be starting in a few weeks, it pays very well which is the main thing for me right now, and there are a lot of opportunities for advancing as well. I will be driving a nitrogen pumper truck, which is used to pump nitrogen down oil wells. Friday after the interview I had to get a drug screening test and go for a medical. After that I met up with my friend Steve who just moved to Red Deer from Halifax, Nova Scotia. We had coffee for a while and then I headed home after that. I will be going riding tomorrow with Leo, so check back then for photo's. Ride safe and have fun.

New News

2006-05-17T22:46:00.000-06:00

No photos today, I also didn't get the seat for my bike today either so I didn't go for a ride today. I could have but the old seat on, but I was feeling lazy and it wouldn't have been to effective because I have to tear it all apart again when my new seat comes. Anyway I have so big news, I heading to Alberta tomorrow after work, Friday I have a job interview with an oil company in Red Deer. Tomorrow I will drive 9 hours to my parents place in Nordegg, Alberta and then Friday morning I will drive to Red Deer for the interview. It was impossible to pass up as the wages is several times what I'm making now, and I could really use some money to get things paid off and possibly buy a house sometime. I will take my camera tomorrow for sure, so look for a new post when I get home Saturday night. Unfortunately Tina won't be able to come because she has to work tomorrow, I will miss her but I will be pretty busy too so if she did come we wouldn't be able to do much anyway. So drive/ride safe and have fun!

Saturday ride and post number 170!!!

2006-05-15T22:14:00.000-06:00

The small marina at Greenwater Lake.

Heading back to Porcupine Plain from Greenwater Provincial Park.

Sunset on the prairies.

Greenwater Lake.

This means fun, try 62kmph fun. :)

Greenwater Lake provincial Park sign.

Looking down the road back to Porcupine.

Some geese swimming around in a pond.

We went to Tina's parent's place on the weekend (I think I mentioned that in the post before this) I took my bike this time with the intention of cycling to Greenwater Lake. I left around noon on Saturday and I had a tailwind for the whole way, so I managed the 26kms to the park in 65mins. It's a really nice highway to Greenwater, there are actually a few hills along the way that are not too bad. There was a really good hill heading into the park, I got up to 62kmph pedaling and then coasted along at that speed for quite a while. I finally realized that I really can't get over that speed without coasting, my bike is just too low geared for that with the mountain bike gearing. The ride back to Porcupine Plain was not so good, I had a strong headwind and it was raining part of the way. I still made it back in around 90mins, not bad, the bike really goes into the wind good. I won't be posting tomorrow because Tina and I have some plans. I will probably be out on Wednesday though, and hopefully I will have my new seat by then. Ride safe and have fun.

It's not even semi-decent out, it's downright nasty!

2006-05-12T15:47:00.000-06:00

A look down 3rd Street, just to give everyone an idea of what type of day it was.

Well I had every intention of a long ride today, but I felt tired and it was not nice out. Leo and I rode to meet Julian for coffee, then we rode around and looked at some houses and cars. All together I put on around 18kms so it wasn't all bad. It was pretty cold out and raining slightly today though, such a change from yesterday. The city looks beautiful with all the greenery out. We are going to Tina's parents for the weekend, and I'm actually taking the Burley with me. I'm planning on a ride to Greenwater Provincial Park, but we'll see how the weather holds up for that. I will bring the camera too, but I may not post again until Sunday night or Monday. Until then ride safe and have fun.

A very nice day!

2006-05-11T14:27:00.000-06:00

12th Steet, since I go down it on 98% of my rides at least once, I thought I'd share it with you guys.

A Canadian Goose, checking out my bike. :)

The last few days it has gotten really green in Saskatoon, as you can see in this photo.

There was a comment left a few days ago regarding my mirror, here is the new one, it is an Axiom model, can't remember the exact model name, so I took a photo of it instead. Notice all the adjustment points, that is what is so nice, the flat part appears to be metal or a really strong plastic.

The Mendal Art Gallery, I've been meaning to take a photo of it for months, finally I was riding by it today and snapped this one.

Just went for a short ride today because I was a little busy today. To answer a previous comment; there are several other hills as well, I will probably take some photos of them too, possibly next week. Nothing like in other parts of the country, but Saskatoon isn' t all just flat riding, especially if your into mountain biking, we have some very, very challanging mountain bike trails. I went to an IMBA trail building class and the instructer had ridden some trails in Saskatoon, keeping in mind that he rides trails all over the world, he said that he would classify the trails in Saskatoon as very advanced. They have very short, but extremely steep hills, and lots of them too. I should be out riding tomorrow (tomorrow I have off) so check in tomorrow for more photos, ride safe and have fun

Finally a half decent day

2006-05-10T14:48:00.000-06:00

This photo and the one below are my speed record setting hill. :) Fastest to date has been 62kmph.

The Broadway Bridge.

Another hill by Broadway; see, not all of Saskatchewan is flat.

I finally made it out on the bike today. It stopped raining sometime last night and it actually dried up pretty good by the time I got up at 11:00am. I just went down along the river and around the Broadway area. I attempted to break my speed record on the Broadway hill but my chain was skipping (note to self, look into that) so I only managed to hit 54.5kmph. It was a pleasant ride, I felt pretty tired but I did okay. Anyway I will hopefully get out on a longer ride tomorrow, hope everyone likes the photos today, I figured I better take my camera with me since I haven't posted some photos for a few days. Ride safe and have fun!