Rode down town and picked up a clip-on rack at MEC for my plans for tomorrow. Went back to IdealBikes and took some more photos of bikes. I hung around at IdealBikes until it was time for the Alley Cat to start at the Grand Parade, then headed down there with everyone else. We were given four checkpoints to start with, and got more checkpoints at the last one.
The first checkpoint was at the
Clyde St liquor store. The task was to buy a "Deaf Hands Alphabet & Numbers" card from the guy who sells them for spare change. I was the second person there, and he was trying to sell his cards to passers by. I gave him a toonie for a card, and he thought it was great. Suddenly, about 20 bikers arrived waving coins at him for his cards, I think his evening was made!
Next task was to go down to Allgoods Comics at
Hollis and Morris and see what was next to the road warrior in the window (a Simpson family box).
After that, we had to get a signature from the checkpoint at
Purdey's Wharf. This was a bit tricky as we were required to answer a skill testing question about Halifax; that took me several goes as it was first person to answer that got their card signed.
Next checkpoint was at Paperchase at
Blowers. The idea was to go to the counter and get an envelope for delivery. The address on mine was, "look for minibikes". Fortunately one of the organisers was outside, he told me it was a hint; after I fumbled about for a couple of minutes ("oh... is it the scooter place off Spring Garden?") he took pity on me and told me to go looking on the far end of
Agricola. I rode up and down a couple of times, stopping to ask a couple of pedestrians if they knew anything about minibikes ("this might sound a bit funny, but... have you seen any minibikes here?"). I saw a couple of the mechanics from IdealBikes who were racing on a tandem also looking for minibikes, then I saw three minibikes lined up in a driveway. They were essentially toddler bikes with raised seats, and the task was to ride up the street a block and back again. It felt like the back wheel on mine was about to snap, and if not, the tyre and tube roll off. On my way back down I was honked at by an SUV driving in darkness with no lights, which I thought was just slightly hypocritical. After I completed that task, I got another sheet with two tasks, count the number of steps leading up to the town clock on
Brunswick, and go down to Perks to pick up an envelope. I got down there and saw Myles, and he told me to take my envelope to Agricola. I cursed at the fact I had to go all the way out there again, and he said, "what, you did the task out there?" I said I wasn't sure, but I rode the minibikes, and he said, "well, that's it, then, open the envelope!" The directions were to go to Stage 9, which Myles said was on
Grafton St. At this point, I was apparently in second place, but my dismal sense of direction kicked in and I ended up on
Salter St. After consulting with a pedestrian ("uhhh... I really should know where that is... I've lived in downtown Halifax for 8 years... I think it's maybe a block or two more uphill?") I managed to get to Grafton Street at the wrong end. The bouncers at one of the bars set me straight and I headed to the other end and I finally arrived.
At this point I found I'd managed to miss a checkpoint, so technically I got DNC. I wasn't really feeling like doing more riding as I could see the beer, so I stashed my bike in the storage area and headed up to the bar.
I ended up at the bar for several hours talking to people. The
Affordale Rides guys were great fun; they did the rides on full suspension mountain bikes with what looked like 2.5" knobby tyres, with Nick doing it with leg armour on. Also there was Pete, a really interesting guy who's doing a one-man blitz advertising Critical Mass, putting flyers on every bike he sees parked and handing them out to everyone he sees on bikes. His aim is to get "regular" people on the ride, which is definitely a laudable aim - if a complete cross-section of riders goes on the ride it's more difficult for drivers to pigeon-hole it as "just a bunch of kids" or something.
I finally left around 11:15 when it started getting
really chilly and headed home, there were still a lot of people going there - I'm guessing they probably closed the place out...
I took a few pictures along the way -
the gallery is here.
Distance logged: 55.361km
Time: 147:31
Average speed: 22.5km/hr
Max speed: 59.1 km/hr
Temperature: 20C-12C
Cumulative distance: 4732.294km
Cumulative cost per km: $0.45
Monthly distance: 233.769km
Monthly cost per km: $0.36
