Pretty Tough Lady

February 3, 2019

Since "Risking All for a Date Square" Dodie has had some ups and downs, but the trend is up! So now, 10 days after the date square debacle, there is no question that Dodie can go out to Drumroaster and circle around back, for a total of about 12 km. There is one downside, in that each visit to Drumroaster is worth about $15. Soon we will reach out to Oma's cafe, which is in Shawnigan Lake village. Oma's is further, but not cheaper. It could be time to carry a thermos along!

These daily rides have been happening in mid day temperatures about 8 degrees. That's ok. Except in rain, we have kind of told ourselves that our bottom operating temperature is 6. That's slightly higher than Andersons. I think they said their number is 4. But zero and below is definitely out, at least for the delicate people we are acquainted with. (If you can really go lower, then you get to write a book - like Rob Lilwall's "Cycling Home From Siberia".) Here is the quote in the Amazon listing:

“It is late October, and the temperature is already –40 degrees . . . My thoughts are filled with frozen rivers that may or may not hold my weight; empty, forgotten valleys haunted by emaciated ghosts; and packs of ravenous, merciless wolves.”

Anyway, nothing like that, but with my cycling gear already on today and peeking out the door, I declared "OK, it's starting to snow. That's it, I'm going back to bed." So what does our former invalid say? "Just get out there fast, before there is much accumulation". Errrgg.

We had of course been watching the "Polar Vortex", that led to 21 deaths in central North America last week. Nothing like that could strike our island paradise here, but when we made it to Drumroaster, the local paper was doing its best to dramatize the situation with the following headline:

At least where we live things like the weather and a boat fire are "above the fold" news. There is also a special sticker for a hockey game. Now that was trouble! The Victoria Royals lost to the Tri-City Americans 2-1 in the only shootout in our weekend news.

Note also in the photo the "Hugs and Kisses" and Chunky Monkey. This recovery is getting repetitive! We gotta make it to Oma's!

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	10

Bill ShaneyfeltGood! Keep on keeping on!
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Scott AndersonI recognize a challenge when I see one. I’ll have to keep my eyes open for a good cold snap so we can take it up.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonI don't know about Portland, but in the Vancouver area (and I expect most of Vancouver Island), there are a lot of vehicles on the slippery roads (1) whose drivers aren't good at driving in those conditions and (2) aren't equipped with things like snow tires which help. Riding on streets where it's like a bumper cars attraction is not for me.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Andrea BrownTo Scott AndersonI commuted to work a few times when it was around 24F, but one time apparently there was moisture in my brake lines so at around mile two my brakes froze up completely, so that was something I had not anticipated. Jacquie is spot on, stay away from streets with any sort of traffic if possible, many PNW drivers in the snow and ice are ridiculously bad at it.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Rachael AndersonTo Andrea BrownI won’t go out when it is icy or too slick but I better make sure Scott doesn’t either.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Keith ClassenI thought my cut off point might be around 4 or 5 but today the sun was shining with no wind. It was -1 thereabouts. What the heck. So I layered up and did a quite enjoyable 40 k ride up and back along the waterfront. It was a solo ride I might add as Kathleen thought a walk with a friend made more sense. Thought it would be wise to hose off any accumulated salt when I got home but that didn’t happen as the hose was frozen. We are quite spoiled here in Victoria as the temperature this January typically got up to around 8 degrees many days...very bikeable.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Richard HughesPatsy and I have been busy backpacking (across the Pyrenees in 2017, the PCT in 2018) and consequently haven't toured by bicycle for a couple of years. However, we're planning to go to an Adventure Cycling shindig in San Diego next week and I got to wondering what you two were up to. Hmm, vanished off the face of the Earth. Ah, but with the help of Google I was able to hunt you down. No longer crazy? Blazing a new path? What's up with the move? Some of your links are old and broken, BTW, but not those knees. Keep on peddling. Richard
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Richard HughesHi Richard and Patsy, it's good to reconnect! As you can see we have kept cycling, right up to the collapse of Dodie's knees in Amsterdam last Spring. Now with two new knees, we will head out again in 4 weeks. In part we will be replicating your 2014 tour in Austria and Bavaria! The upcoming blog for that will be called "Grampies Track the Tortes", here on Cycleblaze.

In 2017 some topics came up in the forums of Crazyguy that caused Neil Gunton to come out as a gun tot'n Trump supporter. Just as much of the social fabric in the US has been torn by the 2016 election, this tore Crazyguy and resulted in the departure of many top bloggers. It was a movement that Neil tagged "Crexit".

Cycleblaze was created by Jeff Arnim, one of those top bloggers. It has some great features, like a toolbar for formatting, and inserting links and photos that works very well. Most importantly the Cycleblaze community feels inclusive, something that seemed to have evaporated from Crazyguy.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Richard HughesTo Steve Miller/GrampiesI had no idea; ignorance is bliss. I know you can retrieve your CGOAB posts as single files, but how did you retrieve and then repost all the individual files? This seems as though it would be a monumental task. We're going to be busy backpacking again this year, starting with the 800 mile-long Arizona trail in March and April, then a trip to Japan in May to hike the Kumano-Kodo Kohechi, 800 miles of the GR5 in France in July and August and finally about 100 miles on the AV2 in Italy in September. We have no plans to bicycle-tour this year. There are lots more bike trips that we'd like to do, including in New Zealand and Japan. It's just a matter of finding the time to fit it all in. We've had to be content with day rides in San Diego. You'll have a great time in Austria and Bavaria. All that Sacher torte and apfelstrudel! Our diet of pastries was so impoverished on the PCT that I lost 7 kg. It's great that Dodie will be able to get around pain-free. I signed up to follow your posts so I'll look forward to reading about your adventures but will be envious of the pastries.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Richard HughesYikes, those 800 mile rambles are each roughly equivalent to one Camino, the only walking route we are familiar with. I guess the 100 miles in Italy would just be to cool down!

The blogs got transferred by software. It is not perfect - with some photos lying on their sides, and some dead links. Links to our own stuff on Crazyguy are automatically dead, since Neil deleted it all! It would be a good rainy day project to shift these to their Cycleblaze equivalents. Only thing, we would have approximately 2000 pages of blog to check. That would be monumental, as you suspected.
Reply to this comment
5 years ago