Spring Return of Critical Mass

The last Friday of April brought the return of the Prince George Critical Mass.  I arrived at the meeting place by 5:15.  I was just about ready to give up and go home at 5:30 meeting time, when all of a sudden, people started showing up!

New Continental Touring Plus tires

Bicycle with the new tires on

 I had yet another flat today! Again I was grateful to have a beater bike backup to get to work.

After work, I decided that it was time to invest in a new pair.  I wasn't sure what the bike shop would say about it, but when I told them I was getting lots of flats, they agreed that it was time for a new set.  I had just over 5000 kms (just over 3000 miles) on the old pair.  Those tires came with the bike when I bought it, and so probably were a cheap $18 tire.

Bike & Geocache Fail

Crossing the Fraser River

Happy Easter everyone!

It has been so nice out this weekend, that I thought I'd give it another go at geocaching around town with my bike.  I biked out to the BCR Industrial Site, just South of the City. This is where the trains go through, load and unload.

On my way out, a group of cyclists speeding away in their lycra and fast bikes, went past me.  I imagine that they are from the local cycling club.

Gold Geocaching Adventures Part II

Found me a big Gold Nugget!

When I last left you yesterday, we were driving to Quesnel with some geocaching stops along the way.  Quesnel is about 130 or so kms South of PG.

A Gold Geocaching Adventure Part I

While exploring Quesnel, we found some cool Murals.

Yeh!  It looks like Spring is here!  It was a warm sunny day, the first that we've had all year.  Sure, we've had lots of Sunny days, but the cold wind would put a damper on it.

What better to do then to have some Geocaching fun and hit the road at the same time.  I've been itching to do a little road trip somewhere, and this helped sooth the itch for a while.

Good Postcrossing week

Postcard from Belgium

It was a good Postcrossing week.  It more then made up for the week before's lack of any postcards.

Little bit of Bike & Geocache

Good day to bike and Geocache

I started doing some more Geocaching this weekend as the weather is getting better and I'm tired of hanging around home.  I haven't geocached since the end of January.  This weekend I found 3.

Bicycle themed postcard from Taiwan

Today, I finally received a Postcrossing postcard in the mail, this one is from Ivy, who lives in Taiwan.  It's been over a week since I last received one.  This one also features a bicycle, from Taiwan.  The wording below says "Ride around Taiwan Island".   I wonder what it would be like bicycling around Taiwan?  I bet it is nice, although I wonder about the amount of traffic on the road.  I can't imagine the country having dedicated bicycle trails/routes, but I could be wrong.  Maybe I'll get to try it one day.

There is not much written on it, basically the sender hopes that the card is alright.  It's wonderful!  I wonder how easy it is to find bicycle themed postcards?  I wonder how many more will have a bicycle theme?  I love surprises!

This is my second postcard from Taiwan.  It's been a good postcard week so far.  I look forward to checking what's in my mailbox daily, if I got to do errands, I tend to go home first to check and see if I got anything interesting.

Holland Dreams

I received a special surprise from Nolleke who lives in the Netherlands, a extra bicycle themed postcard.  She already sent me a bicycle themed one from France recently and another apologizing that she hadn't sent one out right away.  Wow, this one is so pretty!  I love flowers on coloured bikes....

Thank you Nolleke!!  I sent her a special card out that I think she'll like.  :)

Here is the bike stamp on the back...  I would love to visit there one day, it seems the country is in love with bicycles.

First ride in Park for 2011

First ride in Park for 2011

Despite it being a gloomy looking day with a threat of snow, I decided to go for a little ride out to the major park in the City.  So off I rode to Fort George Park.  I didn't bike up by way of the Heritage trail like I do in the Summer as I suspect some sections in the forest still have snow or ice on it.

Patience needed

Snow is melting slowly

Not much to post about today, but I took another photo of the area that I took last week to show you that the snow is melting.  It's not melting very fast, but I suppose that it is better then flooding.

Some of big potholes that I was biking by have been temporally fixed, so I don't have to worry about trying to miss them.  I should take some photos of the potholes that I have seen in my travels.  :)

No postcrossing postcards arrived this week, but the one I sent to Brazil, FINALLY made it!  It took 34 days to get there, but when I look at the other recent cards that the person had received, mine didn't take too long.  There was one card that took 60 days to travel to Brazil from the USA, can you imagine?  I just sent out one to a city in Russia that is 500 kms south of Moscow.  According to the person's stats, it'll take 38 days to get there from Canada. It would be nice if it got there as quickly as the one I sent to Moscow did, but I just have to accept however long it takes.

Just as life is slower on a bicycle (no so fast paced), so is snail mail versus e-mail.  We are so used to instant replies, with cellphones and emails, that we forget patience.  Snail mail and bicycles I think, teach us to slow down a bit..be patient and not expect things to rush around quickly.  You get a chance to smell the roses. I guess the same could be said about the slow melting snow, it's certainly not rushing to melt away.

A late April Fools

Just when you think the nice weather is here for a while, it snows.  Well, actually, I was expecting this.  It has been chilly enough for it to snow at any time.  So it was no joke to me!

Time for a new lock

The plastic case covering keyhole and area, broke off.  (Left one is old lock)

I had problems with the old lock this Winter, it was getting hard to move key.  I used WD-40 to clean the keyhole and it moved smoothly again.  But today, the plastic casing on both sides of the keyhole area, fell off.  The lock still works, but with the metal exposed, not sure what rain will do to it.  And the metal would damage my frame easier if I accidentally let go of the lock and it hit the frame.

Sunny Saturday on bike

While doing errands I noticed Mr PG was holding a special flag.  Yeh for the City's support!

Today was errand day. And it was an enjoyable one with the sun being out.  We had some rain last week, so the snow has been disappearing.  I rode over 10 kms just doing errands, it's amazing how many miles I do a day. What's better is I don't even notice!  I can tell Spring is here, there are tons more people out on their bicycles now, which is great to see.  I miss that in Winter.

Lucky postcard in basket is going to Poland!