Day 247 – Bus Stop

247/365 (Sept 4, 2011) – We decided to do a trip to the Sunshine Coast today since the boat still isn’t fixed. I saw this just out of Gibsons and caught it about 8 hours later when we were on our way back.

I have managed to log about 1200km over three days. Friday was my flex day and I went state-side, yesterday we went out to Hope the back way, today we explored every nook and cranny on the Sunshine Coast, and tomorrow will be a not-so-quick ride to Squamish on the tail of a speed limited BCSB ride.

Today we managed to drag our asses out of bed early. Correction, Kirk set the alarm, I snarked at him for it, he got up and had a shower, and I grudgingly hauled my sorry (and sore) ass out of bed and donned my gear for the third day in a row of 300+km on the bike. We “just” caught the 7:25am ferry to Langdale. We were the very last ones on but were directed to thread the needle down the pedestrian lane to the front of the boat ahead of the rigs. Parked and vegged for the ride across. We rode up to Port Mellon and discovered several km of fresh, oily, pavement, that was fun! On our way through Gibsons and towards Sechelt I spotted these, they became a fairly regular sighting at the bus stops along the way actually, and I logged it in my usually faulty memory for a catch on the way back in the evening.

Fortuitously we located a Starbucks in Sechelt and had a much needed caffeine break before heading on up to Tuwanek. The road was curvy, but lots of gravel in the corners made it a bit stressful. We paused for a wander through Tuwanek and then rode back to Porpoise Bay where I needed to rid myself of some of that freshly acquired coffee. When I came back to the bikes, Kirk has (not surprisingly) made a new friend. Back into Sechelt and then on up to Earl’s Cove. What an awesome bit of road! Sections of long sweeping curves followed by short, blind, tight twists that challenged me (not that it takes much) to talk my way through deep corners, some of which changed radius halfway through leaving me cursing inside my helmet… “push harder or you won’t make it without crossing that freaking line!!!!”

We took a break at Earl’s Cove where I was asked to take a couple of photos of a pair of riders. Then we back tracked to Egmont for lunch. We found the Back Eddy Pub and I stalled for a moment at the top of the drive, which dipped down and to the right on nice, loose gravel and ruts. Deep breath, just do it, pontoons out! It wasn’t much to look at, and I had visions of Budweiser and greasy burgers. What a surprise! A fabulous deck overlooking the bay, Strong bow, and the waitress had us hooked on the first special – tomato salad with roasted corn, goat cheese, pine nuts, bacon, greens, avocados, and grilled chicken. Two Strongbows and two salads please!!! It was pretty quiet there, for a little while. Over the next 30 minutes or so about 15-20 motorcycles rolled in, mostly cruisers, a couple of sportbikes. The pub filled pretty quickly. My guess is that the ferry docked and we just arrived before the passengers disembarked.

A couple of ciders later and a fabulous salad in our bellies, and we returned tot h highway and did those fabulous corners again. I took the first tight corner a bit hot for myself and was ok until the radius decreased and I had two choices – cross the centre line or dive into it…I opted for the latter with a bit of cursing inside my helmet. Later Kirk said “That was the best lean I’ve seen you do yet, you were right on the edge of your tire, you were having fun!” “No, no honey, I actually wasn’t, that was not entirely intentional, but it worked, so I’m OK with it…now…”

We wandered down into Garden Bay and had the biggest ice cream cone known to mankind, dinner wasn’t going to be needed! Then down into Madeira Park, through Halfmoon Bay, and finally back into Gibsons and down to the marina where about 20 of our friends were lounging on their boats. A drink on the dock, then we joined them up at the Waterfront restaurant for dinner (which I really could have done without) before getting back on the bikes at about 9pm and heading for the ferry home. While waiting for the boat I glanced at my odometer and it was sitting right on 11,000 km. Over 1000km in three days, no wonder my butt hurt! And another 120km to go tomorrow. Plus I will be putting about 250-300km on her Tuesday when I have to ride out to a hatchery for an egg take.

Some people laughed when I got this new job, they said my riding would be crimped. I can honestly say they were very wrong. I’ve put more mileage on the bike in the past few weeks than I have in a long time, mostly because now I have these flex days every other Friday and I use them to the fullest where before I’d just go for a ride for an hour or so. Now I go for the whole day!

Anyway, home about 11pm and collapsed into bed with a glass of wine.

What an awesome day!