Sean and  I rode into Downtown from Burnaby. Round trip it was a little over 21 miles. The weather could not have been more spectacular. It was beautiful, sunny day, slightly overcast (wouldnt be Vancouver if wasn’t) when we left it was in the upper forties. Sean rolls up in shorts, a light long sleeve shirt and a jacket. Cali Boy over here is wearing riding shorts, leggings, arm covers, light jacket and wishing I had my biking beanie. Yeah, he was smirking. I was a bit nervous for the ride, since I only ride in 12-15 mile intervals, though I am pulling tub of goo, I call a child. I am not used to riding 20 + miles in a day let alone, within a few hours.

We took the bike route, which was gorgeous. Just light traffic, but tons of other bike commuters. About 4 miles in, Sean ducked between the speedbumps and caught his tire and blew that puppy out! Nothing like the sound of a loud pop and 100 PSI of air air hissing its way out. Luckily, Sean had all the materials to fix it, unfortunately the tire was hosed and we were going to need to get a new one. By the way, I am going to have to get a C02 pump. That bad boy was tight! 100 PSI tube filled in less than two seconds. Daddy likey. I took some pictures of the trip into town if you are interested. Not the best quality since I was taking them and riding at the same time. The last one is very nice. Looking over downtown Vancouver with Strauss Mountain in the background at dusk. I got off the bike for that one. Just waiting on a nicer camera from Mr. Jobs.

We stopped off at the local bike shop (luckily it was the one day a week it was open until 8) so that Sean could get a new tire. It was nice being able to browse the bike shop without clamoring from the locals to leave. Sean got a yellow tire to match his bike, which kinda made me laugh. Its so cute. Now he just has to get a matching front one and he is accessorizing nicely. I am sure the boys in the Castro would be proud. While Sean was working switching out hte new tire, I got another Bike Toque (I am picking up the local vernacular, a toque is a beanie for those who dont have a red maple leaf stuck on everything they own, whose up for a Timmy run?). My ears thanked me for it on the way home. We rode over to the Comic Book Store since that was the whole reason we were headed into town.

It was just before 8 and we noticed that they werent looking very open. Apparently, Fridays are the days they stay open until 8. We cant blame the stop off at the bike shop for missing out on the last issue of Criminal. They closed at 6, which is shortly after the time we left. Guess we should have looked into that prior to us leaving, eh? I crack myself up…anywho…The Mexican place wouldnt let us park our bikes on the patio to eat, so we rode into Granville Island. Which by the way is cute quaint little place. Awesome farmers Market and cute little shops, surrounded by the bay. We ate at Sammy J Shigglers, or something like that. With Mexican on the brain, I got the fish tacos. What? it had been at 24 hours since I last had fish and it was cooked. I am sure there was no mercury as it was cooked out. Mexican is not their forte. Listen, their salsa had canned tomatoes and the fish tacos were on flour tortillas with lettuce. I mean really, why dont they put yellow tires on a yellow…heehee…kidding Sean! The beer was good at least. Probably would have had another if not for the ride home.

Even with the lack of reading material for the plane, it was well worth the ride. There are many things you can call Vancouver, but flat is not one of them. Just about 1 mile from Sean’s house, we were able to split two lanes of traffic, hang a left and topped out around 27 mph. That was a nice little pick me up to end the night. After riding 27 miles for the day and still hit 27 mph on flat ground, I got my high for the night. Which will pale in comparison of the high tomorrow when I get off the plane to the sight of my beautiful wife and the wonderful sounds of our two boys asking me what did I bring them. Snap! The airport better have something freaking cool for them!

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