A 37 St thrill

I had expected there to be a thunderstorm tonight so was resigned to riding on the trainer if I was going to ride at all. Then it turned out to be warm and sunny, but windy. Very windy. At least it was a steady wind.

Road to Nepal was calling me, but my left calf did not heed the call. There were complaints. Niggles. Then a cramp while going up one of the steeper hills. I dialed it back a bit and kept going, trying to stay straight in the wind. I was hoping my calf would get with the program and settle down, but looking at the long hill where you turn left, I made the call to turn back. The wind was shifting a bit more south, which would make it nice going out, and hell coming back. I'd had several spasms or cramps, and didn't want to have one on one of the big hills. It wasn't always going up, I got one just coasting coming down once.

From there I took a scenic route home for a 1.5 hour ride. The thrill was coming home on 37 St. This is not my favourite bit of road by any means, but I'm on it a lot because it's the only practical route to get to some of my favourite roads. 37 St is narrow, there is no shoulder to speak of, and the ditches are brutal. Bailing out is preferable only to the certainty of being struck by a car.

There I was, going north, leaning into a strong west wind. (At one point going west, uphill, I was going 40 Kph in dead calm.) I could hear a truck coming up behind me slowly, timing it to avoid the oncoming traffic. More cars show up over the hill and the truck eases past me, actually giving me lots of room. The problem is that it's a high sided panel truck of some kind. As he got beside me the wind stopped. If anything there was suddenly a wind swirling around the top of the truck pushing me towards it. You can bet my eyes widened and I steered very carefully for a few seconds.

All in all good practice for dealing with cross winds, even if it wasn't the ride I was hoping for. After a ride or run I usually pop into the cul-de-sac behind our house. Tonight one of my bike buddies was out working on his lawn and we chatted a few minutes. It turns out we both work at the same place! How's that for a small world? He's just got a new road bike and is eager to get out for a long ride on it.

Stretched a bit, but the calf is still feeling weird.

Lastly, for Calgarians. The Devonian Gardens are still in progress, but stuff is happening. Here's a couple photos. Maybe by next winter they will be open. We can hope.

How well do you know your outside artwork? Anyone care to take a guess which building these paintings are on? I saw them for the first time the other day, and I've lived here most of my life.