Life on Mars: Part 1

Greetings from Moab! Craig's crew made it down safely last night after 20+ hours of driving. We haven't even gone for our first ride yet. These are just a few shots from our road trip into town.

Craig is getting the Bikes strapped to the Van as Susan, Ina and Steve watch on. We stayed in Baker City, Oregon, up the NE corner of the state, before heading into Idaho and down into Utah.

The trip down went pretty smoothly. Craigs van is pretty spacious and cat naps came easy. Craig and Ina did all the driving. The rest of us got to relax.

The view from south of the land of milk and honey(Salt Lake City). Most of us slept through Salt Lake City. We did stop at a Coffee shop called Paradise Bakery and Cafe. Recommended for anyone taking the same route down.
Our first glimpse of the desert.
We stopped off at a Mexican place called La Hacienda. Good food, but make sure they get your order right if you are taking out. Labled plates of food wouldn't go a miss either.

Ina managed to find us some nice digs here in Moab. It was too dark last night to take pictures, but this is some of the view we woke up to this morning.

Craig just made coffee. We are still waiting for the rest of the travellers to emerge. Breathing the air here is like breathing nothing. It's beautiful here. The temperature so far has been perfect.

We are surrouned by Red.

Sunday's Neds Ripper

Had a relaxing ride on Neds today with Nic, Rebecca and Dave. No story, just some pics from our rather chill day.


Think Nic was blinking while I was taking this blurry shot.
This is me on the A Frame.

Ice Time

Just a few shots from last weeks Curling drop in organized by Tom.











Images courtesy of Kenny, on the left. Next to him are Kari, Andy(Acting TL), Liam(off to another team), Me and Sarah (Liam's GF). Hanging out with your Work buddies. Weird. I doubt this team will ever be as functional as this again, but I guess time will tell.

Inside Track

Ilana and I had Friday off so we headed for SFU. I got there early for a solo lap on Gear Jammer. Ilana arrived just as I was finishing off my muffin.

Ilana's riding and conditioning continues to advance. The ride down Nicoles got started off on a good note.

Ilana: 1 SFU: 0

Crap! Tie Game

She's looking right at home under her Pitch. I guess to ride, part of you needs to love the abuse.

I drove out to Chilliwack Friday night for some Karate training. I can never seem to stop and take pictures during the practice. My fresh of the hill legs didn't hold up very well as I had trouble keeping up with my fellow B&B's . Karate is a journey, not a destination. I'm cool with that. But with all I do, the Karate trip seems to be tacking on miles.

Saturday, Ian committed to a ride with Aaron Thompson thinking he was responding to another Aaron. I went along for the ride. The trip of 7th and my first trip ever down Ladies Only. Digger has been adding some nice stuff in there. I think Ladies is my new favorite trail. Can't wait to get back.

We swung by the shop after. A sort of tradition for 2 of Cove's biggest Fanboys. Chaz let Ian into the Candy shop in the rear, usually kept under lock and key by Stu. Ian flagged me over and I grabbed my Camera.

Ian's going to pull the trigger on one of the white G-spots with the Red trim.
Am I jealous? Fuck yeah. But I am still determined to be a home owner one day. I'll just have to make due with the 2 bikes I already own...... 3bikes???

It's Sunday morning. The sky is gloomy. My legs feel like someone has taken a meat tenderizer to them. Add in a belly full of Mash Potatos and I think I'll make a few playoff hockey games the center pieces of my day.

Taking a Knife to a Gunfight

April is usually a turning point in the weather here. At some point during the month you can really see the sun and clouds duking it out for superiority in Vancouver's skies. The sun will poke through the clouds at the same time as the rain. But eventually summer takes over here and it hearkens the beginning of the true ride season.

Saturday is SFU with Ian and Dale. Sunday saw a big turn out for Sarah's B-Day ride at Burke.
Today was only my second ever ride here. The first ride took us down a different set of trails. Triple Crown gave me the idea that Burke was an All Mountain safe zone. Beans - Nescafe is not Triple Crown. Lesson learned.

Today I brought the Hustler. I wish I had my STD. (The new G-Spot is going to be perfect here. )

No matter. As always I keep the wipeouts to a minimum. We had a good ride in good weather with good people.

Here are some of the pics of the day.
Patti just after the entrance to Beans.
Trevor looking back at some of the crew in classic 1940's comic book staging.
Marylin proving once again that she is a braver and better rider than I. Not bad for our Ride Mom.
Aaron lining up a steep rock face.
Bryan going the wrong way on the same face.
That's a hard-tail 29er. That's Drew, too. Over the rock he flew. He belongs in a zoo. (Ever read the'Lobo' comics from DC?)
There goes Aaron.
Daleth sporting her Jasper Jersey.

We made it to the creek and took a break. Down a ways we started the chain gang to get our bikes across. Shortly after it was out to the road and off to the Golden Spike.

2 days riding for me. Nothing new. My right leg has a rotor burn on it. My left has some log scrape. My head, well, I forgot to duck. Oh well, the helmet took most of it.


Happy B-day Sarah. Good ride everyone.

Oscar 2010

Oscar predictions for 2010.

Movie: Up in the Air
Director: K Bigelow
Actor : J Bridges
Actess: S Bullock
Supporting Actor: C Waltz
Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique

they have already started. I gotta post now.

Later on, a rant on how the oscars are all about fashion and politics and not individual bodies of work.

Of Whine and Cheese

The Olympics are over now and I'd have to say that it was a much better experience than I had expected. For a few weeks in 2010, people in my home town finally stopped being grumpy. The constant sea of red and white in the streets of Vancouver was like and explosion of pent up national pride. It was nice to get it all off our chest and it feels like we can shed a certain coyness about our nationality and just get on with being who we are.

14 Olympic gold metals would not have seemed enough had we not got the last one. Crosby's OT winner provided the ending everyone had waited for. Had it gone the other way, it just would not have been the same.

Only a few gripes from Karate Monkey. I can't complain about the weather cause it has been good to bikers. The death of the georgian luger was a major drag. And the closing ceremony was borderline cheesy. Only funny to anyone who had consumed major amounts of beer. Shatner is a national cliche, Nickleback is the most overrated shitty band in the world. (Tracey never reads this blog does she?). The beavers, blow up mounties, floating moose and dancing maple leafs was like being 2 years old and trapped in an airport souvenir shop. They just needed to hand out smoked salmon and maple syrup to the audience. And where was the Arcade Fire? What better more relevant Canadian music act is there?

Cam MacRae had a good article on NSMB today. I'm not much for writing opinions when they are pretty much the same as someone elses'. I'd might as well just post a link. His pics are better than mine too, so if you wanna see what you missed, click here.

And finally, you've prolly all seen this but it's nice to get some good press, even if its meant to be promotional. The final comments by Brokaw and the host make me wonder if they are starting to understand they are going to need our help to turn their economy around and at least for while want America to back petal from their neocon, Bill O'Reilly/Anne Coulter/ignorant view of our country.




Now we get to sit and wait for the bill. This should be fun.