Monday, August 25, 2008

Wow, so its been awhile since I've written here. That's because its been awhile since I've been on my bike. That's what happens when my riding partner leave town for almost a month. ;) Anyway, I didn't really get a ride in today either. The bike was more of a mode of transportation more than anything. My mom needed a ride home because she was dropping her bike off at Reg's for a service. Ryan had the car so I decided to take the bike. That's about all we did. It was threatening to rain so I just rode her home and came back into town right away. I did notice however (AFTER I got home) that I should really put gas in my bike. I'm glad I didn't run out on the road.

Start: 39,780 km - End: 39,801 km - Total Distance: 21 km

Monday, August 4, 2008

So Phil and I had plans to go for a ride today. We met up at Timmy's at about two and decided to pick up Nadine and take her with us.



By the time we finished that we didn't get out of town until about 3:00 pm. We headed to Quesnel for dinner. It was an awesome ride. The weather was very nice, and it was hard to decide whether or not to wear our jacket. (In actual fact, we either put them on or took them off at nearly every stop). We had a really nice ride out there and back.

There always seems to be one idiot though. So we're in a passing lane and we pass this one car, and a second car comes up behind us so I pulled back into the right lane and he passed me, but he ran out of passing lane (and I left too much space between Phil and I) and he got between us. So as I'm looking for another place to pass this car and get up with Phil, this car is riding Phil's butt BIG time. And the more I watch him, the closer he is getting. All of a sudden I realize that he's trying to pass Phil on the RIGHT. Phil realized what was going on and pulled over and let him go, but we were all pretty upset.

Once we got back into P.G. we decided we weren't quite done riding and decided to take the Old Cariboo Highway to Giscome Rd as a little detour. I think we all had a really great time. I know I did. I've been gone pretty much all day. I left the house at a little before 2:00 pm and didn't get back until almost 9:30 pm.

Start: 39,451 km - End: 39,780 km - Total Distance: 329 km

Cleaning :P

So I cleaned my bike yet again today. I'm still trying to get all the dirt from my last trip off of it. I have again failed at my task. My response yet again was "Well, its better". My dad always raved about S100 for easy cleaning. Its a spray on, spray off type of cleaner so I thought it would work great in all the little hard to reach areas. Unfortunately I was wrong. I was actually not very impressed with it at all. It seems that every time I clean the silly thing, more dirt leached out of places I have overlooked before. I was however really impressed with a cleaner that my mom brought over called Purple Slice. I had tried to clean my wheels a couple times already and could NOT get all the grime and bugs off of them. This stuff however did an awesome job. I guess there's nothing for it. I am just going to have to spend a good few hours going over every inch of the silly bike to get it really clean.

P.S. Does anyone know of a good paint cleaner/polish that will fix a hazy finish?

California 1999

So I kept a journal of my trip down to California in 1999. I had only been riding since the fall of the previous year, and I had only had my class 6 for about a month. I've decided to create a seperate blog and post my journal there. If you are at all interested in this blog, you might find my california trip an interesting read. Check it out at http://1000virago.blogspot.com/

Thursday, July 24, 2008

So today was test day. I went and picked up Phil at 12:30 and we headed down to ICBC. It was very hot and I was melting by the time he finished. He did awesome, he only put his foot down once in the u-turn, but he nailed it the second time round. So he can ride on his own now, and I don't have to feel guilty if I can't go for a ride with him. I'm sure he's very happy about that.

So because he can legally go about 60 km/h, we decided to go for a little ride. We headed out to Vanderhoof for a celebratory piece of pie.


Homemade rubarb pie and homemade strawberry pie = YUMMMMMM!!!!!! It was very good, but kind of expensive: 16 bucks for 2 pieces of pie and 2 cans of pop. Its o.k. it was a special occasion. I couldn't finish all of mine so Phil had to help.

I'm sure he was completely heart broken that he had to eat more pie. ;) I think he'll get over it.

So again I didn't wear my jacket, and again I got burnt. At least its in different spots, cause I was in different shirts. I'm going to have all sorts of funky tan lines by the end of the summer.

Start: 39,229 km - End: 39,451 km - Total Distance: 222 km

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

So today I took Phil out to practice for hopefully the last time. His test is tomorrow and I'm sure he will do just fine. I did wash my bike again, this time by hand, but I had limited time to do it so its still not very clean. It is better though. We'll see how many more times I have to wash it before I get all the Yellowknife dirt off of it.

Phil and I went for a little bit of a ride after we were done practicing. We went up and around the airport and then across town to university way. It was a nice little ride. I paid for not wearing my jacket today though. My shoulders are pretty burnt again. You'd think I'd learn. I should at least use sun screen when I don't wear my jacket. Also, you'd think I'd remember that its bloody cold down foothills and up university way without a jacket, but I always forget that too. It was refreshing though, so I won't complain too much. ;)

Start: 39,156 km - End: 39,229 km - Total Distance: 73 km

Monday, July 21, 2008

So nothing too exciting for today. After picking up my bike from my mom's, I took Phil out again for a little practice. Once I dropped him off I did attempt to wash my bike. That was a waste of time and money. I took it to a car wash and sprayed it off. It did get SOME dirt off, but it's going to take some major TLC to get it clean.

Start: 39,124 km - End: 39,156 km - Total Distance: 32 km