Wednesday, May 23, 2007

even more trike fun

Yesterday was an almost non-stop day where the trike was needed every step of the way. It was the same schedule as last Tuesday, but with the added attraction of first heading westwards to MEC to pick up their donations to the re-Cycles Co-op. And like last week, once I got to the co-op I had to empty the trike of all the gear and bring it inside, and then put it back in again when leaving (perhaps I should into one of those plastic pick-up bed liners with a locking lid...).

So off to MEC at 2:00pm, then back home to pick up some drums and other gear for the evening's events:


Then to re-Cycles for 3:00, where I spent three hours doing my usual work there. I then grabbed some dinner, and headed off to the 7:00 dance class gig. From there I headed south again to another IJO rehearsal. I took almost the same route as last time, leaving Sandy Hill via Chapel and cycling over the 6-lane Queensway:


Taking the lane of course, because I have no choice! (It's easy to take photos while riding a multitrack vehicle.) Left turn signal is on as I approach the lane to turn into the parking lot of the former Algonquin College campus:


At one end of the parking lot is the bike path bridge over the Rideau River. The space on either side of that bollard is about 5' wide, and the trike is 4'4" wide, so I squeak through:


Then, instead of going straight through like last week and ending up on busy Riverside Drive, I took Loretta's advice and went around the TransitWay station. This added a few minutes and had me doubling back a bit, but it was much more relaxing! I normally do not take the trike on bike paths unless absolutely necessary, simply because it takes up a lot of space (though it just fits one lane width-wise). But I did not encounter a single cyclist on this section:


Just ahead of me is Riverside going across, with the bus lanes on my left with Industrial leading away from them. It was nice to just go straight to get onto Industrial and not get caught up in the busy 3-lane crossover like last week:


I only stay on this road for two blocks before cutting over to Coronation, and while that's a 2-lane it is wide and quiet (all the through traffic seems to stay on Industrial, but perhaps this is a busier route in the daytime). This scene remained the same for the rest of my ride to rehearsal, and I arrived with 5 minutes to spare.


Oh, and the trike's e-assist performed flawlessly (I guess last week it just didn't like getting left out in the rain). I did bring the battery charger along and recharged the pack once, but probably did not need to do so.

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