Distractions and hiccups

April 8, 2024

The past few months have been full of distractions. Normally, we do a lot of skiing over the winter, but this year the season has been awful due to lack of snow. Unfortunately, that didn't mean warm and salt-free enough to get out on our bikes instead. Why there is so much rock salt, snow melt, and brine spray used around here I don't know. When I was still working, the path I followed into campus often had drifts of the stuff and the multi-use path near our new townhouse is similar. I often wonder about the salty runoff into freshwater streams...

So, not a lot of skiing or cycling this winter. But there's a new distraction: Ryder. Ryder gets hiccups, a lot, but we had one too, which I'll describe later.

Ryder joined us last summer. When our son (and now proud dad) was born, people kept commenting about the size of his hands. They are bigger and fuller now.

When Graeme was a baby, Al said if he kept growing at the same rate, he'd be bigger than me by his fourth birthday. Ryder is 8 months here.

Now that I've distracted any readers too, I'll return to cycling.

I don't take a lot of photos on local rides and often I ride alone, but here are a few photos from recent rides:

Mailboxes in Point Roberts. It's funny how it just feels like a different country as soon as I cross the line, and the roadside mailboxes are part of it.

As a Canadian living near the US border, I sometimes opt for shipping to a parcel-receiving business "over the line" when an online purchase is shipped from the US. The difference can be amazing--instead of paying $30 for shipping to Canada, I get free shipping and a bike ride! I usually use an outfit in Point Roberts because it's a quick crossing and offers pleasant, if limited, cycling on quiet roads. Point Roberts is an isolated enclave disconnected from the rest of the US and only part of the US thanks to the Oregon Treaty of 1846. According to Wikipedia, the treaty had the "unintended consequence of putting what became Point Roberts, Washington on the 'wrong' side of the border. A peninsula, jutting south from Canada into Boundary Bay, was made by the agreement, as land south of the 49th parallel, a separate fragment of the United States."

Closer to home, I ride up the hills of Vancouver's north shore for a workout. I keep hoping to get faster, at least by not having to stop so frequently, but not a lot of improvement yet.

It's finally spring and I had to include this photo from my Easter Sunday ride.

My favourite ride so far, though, was on Easter Monday with friends to a favourite area, the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve. There are paved and unpaved roads up to the Seymour Falls Dam and on this day, we did an out-and-back along the 10 km traffic-free paved road and then the short Old Growth Trail to its end. Of course, we rode there and back too, but only took photos on the Old Growth Trail.

Bundled up on the Old Growth Trail. An overcast day in early spring in deep forest near a river adds up to chilly!

My three riding buddies that day. One of these lovely ladies is planning to ride in France with me this fall.

The four of us at the ancient Sitka Spruce just off the trail.

This photo from last June gives a better idea of the tree's size. It's not a Giant Sequoia, but it's definitely majestic.

Now for the hiccup. Last Thursday, exactly four weeks before departure, we received electronic tickets for our flights. But when I clicked on a link to check the details, I learned that our return flight had been cancelled and we’d been rebooked to leave Bilbao a day earlier. The email did not mention this at all!

At least we were given the option to adjust it (for free), so we will be coming home a day later than planned. Coming home a day earlier would mean riding to Bilbao (not a short ride, especially with a site to visit en route), packing our bikes, and leaving the very next morning. Too rushed and no time for anything to go awry. There were also possible flights on the same day we had originally planned to return, but leaving early in the morning with two very long connections. Ugh! An extra day is a better choice.

Then, having made that change, it seemed that our baggage allowance and bicycle bookings (required by KLM) had disappeared! It took some time on the chat line to straighten that out. I mentioned in the chat that we hadn’t been notified of the flight cancellation and I’d only discovered it by fluke—and the next day we got an email about it. Seems fishy to me.

All of this, of course, meant adjusting our accommodation bookings. I decided to add the extra night in St-Jean-de-Luz (easy) and shift our two bookings along the Basque coast ahead (also easy, with the benefit of a less expensive stay in Zarautz) but could not get our final stay in Bilbao adjusted until we brought in Booking to help. That’s done now, though unfortunately the price went up. Only by 16€ for the two nights, but still!

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Scott AndersonI can’t believe your flight got rebooked for a different day without making that clear. That’s so outrageous. At least you did better than I did and caught it while it was still cancellable.
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8 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonThe rules, as far as I know, state that passengers should be rebooked on the *next* available flight. When we looked at the options, they included the same itinerary either a day earlier or a day later, or the awkward itineraries remaining on the same day (Who wants a 5-hour connection at Edmonton Airport? Or anywhere? Not me!).

It seems that the airline industry still hasn't really recovered from the pandemic disruptions.
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8 months ago

Kelly IniguezWe had two ticket changes with American. One we received an email about, the other one, we discovered by chance. Both times I was able to make satisfactory changes. It was still stressful.
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8 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Kelly IniguezI contrast this with our most trip with Air Canada (our preferred airline because bike fee is only $50 and our credit cards get us each a free checked bag). We received multiple emails about flight changes; each time was because a departure or arrival time had been adjusted by a few minutes.
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8 months ago

Patrick O'HaraGood catch. Looking forward to following along. Good luck over the next two weeks!
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8 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Patrick O'HaraThanks, Patrick. We four should meet up sometime.
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8 months ago

Scott FenwickGlad to see everything coming together on your ambitious cycling tour. Fingers crossed for the spring warm weather to finally show up. While you and Al are in Spain travelling East, Pat and I plan to be heading West on the French side. I will monitor your progress and if you are about to lap us I will give you a shout. But with our head start we likely will not cross paths. Our route is along the Pyrenees foothills with a few excursions deeper into the range before hitting the west coast. Good luck!
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7 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott FenwickI doubt we will catch you. We should cross into France on May 25 for a day off in Collioure, a place I remember visiting in 1992. Then we head west and arrive at St-Jean-de-Luz on June 13. One thing about pre-booking is we know our schedule. Unless, of course, we act like TA and revise it every couple of weeks.
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7 months ago

Scott FenwickWe plan to finish in Hendaye on June 4th and spend a couple of days there - about a week ahead - but close for sure.
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7 months ago

Jacquie GaudetYup, close but a miss. We'll be in Adast, between Luz-St-Saveur and Argeles-Gazost, when you're in Hendaye.
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7 months ago