Scenes From Tweed Ride

Sweet poster, via the Facebook event page.

Today I went to the Edmonton Tweed Ride with a few friends. Despite rain that ended at the last minute, there were an impressive number of people who came out. We had a wonderful time, met lots of great people, and rode a perfectly gorgeous route through the river valley.

It started pouring mid-afternoon, but - thank goodness - it stopped in time.
Here is Eliza, dried off and ready to go after a rejuvenating tea at Karen's.
The City of London souvenir hankie tied to the vintage purse is a sly little homage. 

The bike pile in front of Pembina Hall.

Sarah rides this Vulcan with the adorable bell and basket she scored at Calgary's BikeBike.

Even Robert was dressed to impress.

Loving the argyle socks.

Coreen sewed her outfit, isn't it rad?

Gorgeous, bubbly Sarah. Love her skirt and boots.

Impressive trackstanding skillz. Loved her flapper dress.

Organizer Neil telling us about our route and destination.

Down Saskatchewan Drive,

and across the road into Belgravia,

where the sun decided to join us.

At the top of (the former) Keillor Road we paused to chat with another group of cyclists.

After taking it slooooow coming down the switchbacks - because I was more than a bit nervous about my rod brakes in the wet road conditions- Judy and I had Keillor Road to ourselves. So pretty. In another week or so the leaves will have all fallen.

Notice the point-blanket scarf. This is how Canadians do Tweed.

At the other side of the bridge across Whitemud Creek everyone was waiting for us slowpokes and having a lovely chat.

Judy took a great photo of me - thanks Judy!

Our destination, after a bit more riding: the new(ish) Fort Edmonton Foot Bridge.

Judy admires the view upriver.

We stopped at the midpoint of the span to hang out.

The downriver view. Pretty!

Everyone looked so great. I wish my photos turned out better - my candid approach doesn't always work.

Luckily there were a lot of cameras there. Here are some great shots that Tess took, for example.
I'm sure more will get posted to blogs over the next few days.

Kevin demonstrates his mad trackstanding skillz.

You are here.

On Keillor Road on the way back. Some of the horses were in the field at the equestrian centre.

Taking a breather at the top of the hill on the Saskatchewan Drive MUP.

Soon after this we parted ways - some of us needed to get home early,
while the rest carried on to get dinner and drinks at The Next Act.

Neil tells me there will be another Tweed Ride next Spring! Can't wait!

POSTSCRIPT:
There are more great photos and a video of the ride at TuckamoreDew (as mentioned in the comments).
I also found a ride report with links to others' photos from the first Edmonton Tweed Ride (in 2009)!

Critical Lass 7: New Southern Bike Lanes

In summary, the new bike lanes are pretty sweet...
and we're really excited that they connect up all the bits of
previously-disconnected bike infrastructure on the south side of Edmonton...
but you'd like to see some photos, right?

We first attempted this ride on the last Sunday of August,

but too few people were able to make it, so we rescheduled for yesterday.

Laura and Angel

We waited for about 25 minutes at Century Park,

L-R: Laura, Angel, Emma

then we were off.

There were shiny shoes

(mine)

and fabulous lace tutus.

Karen and Robert

We crossed the LRT tracks,

admired a cool tandem while we waited for the lights,

(sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet)

and started counterclockwise around the loop,

opting for the road instead of the under-the-power-lines multi-user path for the first bit,

and stopping only so our littlest attendee could be given more crackers.

The section of the route south of 23rd Ave has just been repaved to fix the potholes, 

and is still awaiting paint.

The city has put these awesome signs up all along the loop.

Millwoods' sharrows could use signage like this, too.

Several sections, like this one, could potentially put you in the door zone of parked cars, so stay alert!

The area has a couple of big parks with playgrounds in them, several schools, 

and a mix of single-family housing and apartment-style condominiums 

(in addition to the big transit-oriented complex at Century Park),

and a fire station! Sadly, the brave uniformed guys had other things to do than flirt with us.

Our route circumnavigated the area of strip-mall shopping and grocery stores, 

but we did see evidence of it. 

It was cool to still see all the ghost marks in place that precede application of reflective paint.

The bike lane turns the corner at a three-way stop at the southern end of 106th Street, so, so did we.

We had to veer around a curb repair. We were really glad for the barriers.

Then we took the multi-user path beside 34th Ave back to 111th Street,

By this time the wind had really picked up and we wondered where the sun had gone.

So we were glad to wrap things up (for those of us who could stay)
with brunch and fancy coffees at Bistecca.

There was Italian Eggs Benedict,

and Southern French Toast,

with a side of cutie pie

Robert's always a charmer.

and lots of great conversation.

I want a wrist tattoo like Laura's.

We were so glad Judy caught up with us.

We emerged from brunch to rain and wind,

but it didn't stop us from admiring all our sweet sweet rides, 
before we fled to the warmth of the LRT or our vehicles.

PS: Since our tentative date of Oct 9th is Thanksgiving weekend, we need your help rescheduling the next Critical Lass ride: please participate in our Doodle poll to see when works for the most people! We'll announce the date and create a Facebook event page within the week.