Sunday, April 14, 2013

I Can’t See!

Today I decided to ride into Leduc From Calmar (18 Km) as the weather seemed to have finally become more mild than the last few days. So around 4:00 pm I got my stuff ready for the ride to my local Gym. Snap Fitness is concluding a 6 week weight loss challenge that ends on Monday April 15. Currently I am in second spot. The weather was sunny with a few clouds and no wind, YES! I moved the velo out of the garage to set my gym gear and batteries for my stereo in and I noticed the rear tire was flat- okay fixed that. I love you don’t have to remove a wheel on the velo to change tire tubes! Then I had troubles getting my heart rate sensor and speed sensor paired with my IPhone . Finally got that going and off we go 15 min later.
Man I am just cruising along at about 30-35 kph along highway 39 east, just before the Devon turn off, listening to music on  mysound system via an iPhone. About 15 min into the ride I start to notice that my breathe is starting to fog up my oversized visor, the temperature is dropping.. I love this Visor because it keeps me totally out of the cold spring air as I cruise along.  About 9 km along or about halfway to Leduc I start seeing large snow flacks floating around. The sun is still shining, but the breeze has picked up. 1 kilometer later the Visor is definitely foggy from my breathe and body heat rising out of the velo and there is a lot more snow flying around. The closer I get to Leduc the worse it is getting. From the edge of Leduc to Snap Fitness is about 3-4 kilometers. From the first reduced speed sign to the first red light is about 400 meters, I could barely see the light from there is was snowing so bad. I could see these huge heavy snowflakes hit the ground and leave large wet spots. I wasn’t cold being in the open  velo, but the big wet snowflakes were pletering the visor so bad I was having trouble seeing clearly. As I past Leduc Common it really started to snow heavy. Maintaining a good for me pace of around 27kph through Leduc (in traffic) past Leduc Common retail area and onto the highway entrance to bypass Leduc residential area.
As I turned on to the highway for that 1.5 km shortcut to Snap Fitness, a huge dollop of snow hit me in glasses and then smeared and fogged up. So Here I am peddling my @$$$ off at 30-35kph on the busy highway right hand lane, with merging traffic behind me, having to look sideways past my glasses pulling the visor down occasionally to stay on the right side of the lane I was in and yet not drive into the ditch. Every time I pulled down the vizor my glasses would unfog for a moment, but the wind would throw more wet heavy snow on them and the visor.  I finally rolled into the parking lot and Snap fitness barely seeing where I was going. When I got out of the Velo, the visor and the top of my head was caked with wet heavy snow.
Man Was that ever a Fun, Thrilling and memorable first of the Year Ride into Leduc WAHOO! I love Velo Riding. Only my face was a bit wet , but I was warm  and smilin! Sorry I don’t have any pictures, I would love to get one of the ones that at least 5 people slowed down to take as i was madly flying down the streets in a April snow storm. Did I mention that 10 minutes after arriving at Snap Fitness the Snow Stopped, the Sun came out and steam was rising from the wet streets!  That’s Alberta for ya!

2 comments:

  1. Speaking on behalf of all Manitoba. PLEASE KEEP THE SNOW IN ALBERTA.
    Great description of your experience. So good no photos are needed.
    Better put a Tour Cap on your Santa list for next winter. Mine has been great in the snow this winter.
    Kevin

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  2. You guys are making me jealous with all that snow fun! ;-)
    It's getting near 20oC here...seems that spring finally started.
    Really fun to read.

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