June is bike month!

Here in Calgary Alberta we have been enjoying a function known as Cycleapooza which is 10 days of cycling events. It’s been great fun. So far I have been working most of it and only took in the launch party which started at a bohemian cultural center in the making called The Area. Having spent the past 5 yrs now in “cowtown” this event was more than wonderful for me. I have been searching for my tribe and it wasn’t until this launch party that I think I may have found it. It’s important to be a part of something that matters to you and to share it with like minded people is even better. I have always been a bohemian since my childhood. It’s not an easy thing being this way though. You buck the system. You distrust the establishment. You want to make art and poetry rather than work. It’s hard to find a mate (unless you like them hairy and a bit musky… the men too. lol). All kidding aside, its a great group to be involved with. No longer are they all dread locked and stinky tree planter stereo types, although they still do exist. Most of these new bohemians are very educated, work in office buildings, wear suits and so on. It’s a new time.

Cycling is the new black. It’s always been around and in fact, the first roads were made to accommodate bikes but over time, the automobile took off and forced bikes to the sides of the roads. We are slowly taking them back. Not because we are looking for a fight, not that at all. What is happening is more and more people are seeing the reality of our environmental plight. It’s a very real issue and most people are still just dismissing it because they are selfish. They want to enjoy their big homes and huge cars/trucks because they have worked so hard to get them. Why on earth would they want to give up something that has been their goal for so many years? I understand completely. I wont however let them off the hook. Selfishness and greed I understand but it doesn’t make it right. Soon they will realize what is happening and start thinking of others instead. I just hope it happens soon.

So, friends who are reading this… if you don’t ride yet… you need to ask yourself why not? If you do ride but not enough… thats a start but maybe you can try a bit harder? How about driving halfway to work like I do often and then ride the rest of the way? Every little bit of gas you save is more oil not consumed and the more oil that isn’t consumed means less is demanded and without demand comes change. YOU have the power to enact this change.

Ride your bike… your body deserves it.

If you need a bike.. go see my good friend Sean Carter at BikeBike on 17th. He will set you up with an awesome ride at a great price.

Visit The Area web site

When thing’s get depressing… I ride.

When things start getting “heavy” in my life, one thing always seems to make me feel better… a ride on my bike. I’m not kidding. I think it’s that connection to nature and everything around you. You have to be on high alert! Either that or be road kill. Drivers out there aren’t exactly wise to bikes plus they don’t pay the best attention, shoot… even some try to make you wipe out thinking you are indestructible or something and not just 20lbs of bike and 150+lbs of flesh and bones. Uh… we do go splat drivers! So do you when you’re not in your rolling coffin.

Anyways, my point wasn’t about bashing cars and car drivers, it was about getting out into nature. When work get’s too much or life matters weigh me down, spinning my peddles with the smells and sounds of the world all around me does wonders. The very fact that your pumping some blood through those arteries does a lot too. Bikes were by far the greatest invention ever made for so many reasons. Therapy was never an intended side effect but it turns out it’s terribly effective. I would rather spend my money on Dr. Bike than Dr. Phil.

I hope you take my advice on this and get out and take a spin. Dust off that old CCM or Road King and take a rip around the block, maybe two. You will feel great.

Sunny Sunday bike ride with strangers!

Today I found myself purely by chance downtown with about 100 other cyclists chasing down motorcycle police escorts as we rode around in a huge gaggle promoting bike awareness. I gotta admit… it was much more fun chasing the cops than the opposite! Ha ha. Anyways, while I walked around awaiting the ride to begin (apparently about 15k) I noticed most people came with friends. While I do have several friends currently who have jumped aboard the bike bandwagon with me and now have 2 wheels, they still don’t come out to these kinds of fun functions. I think it is now my next personal goal to get them out. It really is the best thing peddling alongside someone you don’t know at all but you have one thing in common… the bike. Actually, chances are there is a few other things you may have in common… nature, green movement, exercise to name but a few.

As it turned out, the ride was terribly slow. Painfully slow in fact but then… it was more about the awareness and less about seeing who can peddle fast and who cant. The slow pace kept the huge group together as one and that was a good thing. It was very entertaining to observe the several hundred pedestrians, other cyclists and drivers held up by our motorcycle police escorts as we cruised along (about a football field and a half in length). Some people actually clapped as we passed them! I don’t know if they thought Lance Armstrong was winning or not but it was the thought that counts I guess.

I am not unaccustomed to this kind of group rider attention anymore. Last year I met up with more complete strangers and began riding once every two months roughly with a bunch of riders during an event called Night Ride. BikeBike bike shop promotes this event and it begins at 8pm on a full moon evening and we ride all around downtown with our blinkie lights and funky bikes and bells going dingy dingy. It’s great exposure for one thing and its just the best fun on a bike. Riding at night add’s a whole new level of romanticism to the whole thing.

Well… I hope those of you near me who have bikes feel inclined to ride with me on one of these things. I know you wont regret it one bit.

Cheers

Scotty

Here is a video I made of the event’s ride part

Summer luvin

Nothing quite beats a chill evening with a buddy just hanging out around a small pit fire with a beer or two and talking about all things mundane like conspiracy theories and Jesse Ventura or why women are the way the are (still haven’t figured that one out just yet. lol). Regardless… summers are meant to be enjoyed and this is just one of those things I have come to truly enjoy. After all, isn’t the best part of camping the part about sitting around the fire? This is bringing that best part home is all.

Happy summer everyone.

Lived in

For those of you who don’t know, I am living for the summer in my small 25′ Class C motorhome with my daughter who spends half her time between me and her mother. For my daughter its an adventure. For me it’s a chance to teach her how to live minimally, for me to save money for her dental work and the bonus is that living like this seems to purge the “junk” from my soul. I am happy every single day regardless of what crap life seems to throw at me. Living small, off the grid (almost completely) and without debt truly is refreshing.

If you scroll back you will find pictures of when I first picked up the RV, then you will find some pics of us living in it last summer and today I bring to you a couple pics of it lived in this summer. During the winter I worked on it to make some minor changes such as ripping out the roof, patching a leak and putting in 4″ of insulation as well as some false walls, decorative cabin like slat’s, some shelves for books and things like that. Take a look at these pictures below.

Cheers

Scotty

Pedaling towards…. a great day!

Random thought