Back from B.C.

Here’s the cause of all the fuss: a new bride and groom in Revelstoke, BC., after their non-religious marriage service.

BC highway cameras

Here’s a link to some British Columbia webcams: BC highway cams.

In Revelstoke

Revelstoke, B.C., is entirely surrounded by mountains except for a couple of passes. It’s an inland rain forest, humid in summer and snowy in winter. They had at least 12 feet (3.5 m) of snow this year. There’s still snow in drifts here and there, waterfalls coming off the mountain, and stretches of road marked “Avalanche Area: do not stop.” The mountains are amazing and beautiful - sometimes like solid clouds, sometimes hidden in fog, sometimes monumental and brooding.

I’m going to B.C.

I’m off to Kelowna and Revelstoke. It looks as if the weather will be cool.

Not the Newport Beach triathlon

I looked into running (doing? playing?) the Newport Beach triathlon, which would be extremely convenient once I got to California. Setting aside that I’m woefully undertrained. It would just be an experiment and starts about a mile from the corporate apartment in Newport Beach and bikes past it. But the race was cancelled in 2006 because it was inconvenient for car owners and since then it has been rerouted. The bike course is now two loops of an out-and-back on a road that’s normally one way: it’s one lane plus a bike path.

One side has mud cliffs or swamps and the other side has an estuary. There are not guardrails the whole length. So riders dash through this narrow road, up a hill, then do a U-turn and go back down against the stream of people still going up. Half of them will be zig-zagging or wobbling and the other half will be zooming downhill. And then they’ll do it again. The fast people will lap the slow people. It’s tailor-made for bike crashes. I think I’ll skip it and aim for a mini-tri somewhere else, later in the season. It still sounds like fun.

Georgia to North Carolina

Yesterday we got up in Savannah, Georgia, and went to bed in Wilmington, North Carolina. We drove up the scenic highways near the coast.

At one point we made a detour into a wildlife area in a swamp. We saw great white heron or great egret, great blue heron, and possibly a glossy ibis. Where there weren’t too many black vultures, we saw crows. The crows seem to avoid the larger scavengers.

We’re staying with friends on the outskirts of Wilmington. One of my best friends from twenty years ago, a restless soul, has alighted here for the moment. To my dismay, she’s avoiding surgery by treating melanoma with naturopathic and homeopathic remedies.

Ironman nutrition in Madison

For the past few days, I’ve been trying to stick to a Weight Watchers plan and LotStreetWiz has been trying to eat healthily for an athlete’s training plan. He gets to eat about 4,200 Calories a day. It’s hard to eat healthily while travelling.

The Chicago Grill Uno Pizzaria was delicious, but the individual pizzas were almost 2,000 Calories each with 4 ounces (130 grams) of fat. My meal there blew away my whole diet budget for the week. No wonder half the patrons were blimps. They should rename it Fat City:

The star is the Panera Bread restaurant. The food is delicious, with sandwiches made with fresh bread, salads, robust mixing of flavours, and home-made soups. There’s a bakery with home-made desserts and good coffee. And there’s free wireless Internet access. So we’re here.

We’re in Madison, Wisconsin

We’re here so that LotStreetWiz can swim/bike/run the Wisconsin Ironman. Various offspring are holding the fort at home.

This time, we drove the short way: through Sarnia and Flint, past Detroit, through Chicago around the southern tip of Lake Michigan, west across the tip of Illinois and north to Madison. I think we’re about the same latitude as whence we started, perhaps 35 miles further south. This is the short route:

We did the long route in June.

We drove all day across the very glaciated landscape of the Great Lakes area. Along the way I noted various science attractions, such as a Museum of Archaeology in Michigan, a Glacial Lakes and Drumlins park, Rock Cut State Park, and a bog state park.

We were on the road for 13 hours so I’m going to get some sleep. We are staying at the Staybridge Suites in East Madison.

I’m in Wisconsin

LotStreetWiz and I drove to Wisconsin over the last few days: first from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie and then from the Soo to Madison. We’ve seen a lot of wildlife (an unfortunate amount of it roadkill), lots of rocks, and innumerable trees. I wish I’d brought my tree book. Someone is house-sitting for us, so the cats are not alone.

Tomorrow and Sunday, LotStreetWiz will be out biking. I need to buy a new camera; then I’m thinking of going to the Geology Museum.

I’m wondering if there are any science-bloggers in the area.

We’re in Wisconsin

We are in Wisconsin for the weekend. It’s the furthese west I’ve been on the ground. We are here for LotStreetWiz to ride over the Ironman course a couple of times. He’ll omit one 40-mile repeated loop so that the ride will be only about 70 miles. It’s good to get the feel of the course before a race. Each day he takes off to bike and I depart later to tourist around.

(This is what our hotel room looks like.)

We are about here in Madison, Wisconsin.