Sunny day bike ride

On Monday, Garrett and I hopped on our bikes and followed the riverside trails to Rundle Park, on the east side of the city. We expected to take about 2 hours to ride there, however were surprised to arrive after about an hour and 20 minutes. Not bad, hey? Guess we're speedy! The weather was hot, just as it has been lately, so we slathered on the sunscreen and prepared to get a bit sweaty.
First sight on our trip: a spray-painted rendition of Lt. Geordi La Forge from Star Trek the Next Generation. As many of you may know, Garrett and I are what you might call 'Trekkers', which is the new "politically" correct term for Trekkies. Thus, the graffiti got a thumbs-up from us.About halfway to our destination, we stopped for some water and took a picture of us on our bikes.Unfortunately, another of our sites while traveling the river valley was Oil Refinery Way. Take a look. Pretty, no? There are a lot of houses with a 'view' of the river valley, including the source of financial stability in Alberta.Here is a nicer view of downtown Edmonton over the river valley. Nicer! The river valley really adds a lot of value to the city.This is me! In my bike gear. You can see the Coliseum (football stadium) in the background.
So once at Rundle Park, Garrett and I ate a picnic lunch and relaxed in the shade for awhile. After not too long, we hopped back on our bikes and headed home, riding along the other side of the river with the intention of stopping at Garrett's house on the way.
Coincidentally, Garrett and I actually have the exact same bikes. He had the same bike as his friend Kristine, and I ended up buying that bike off of her last year when my old one was stolen. Here is a quiz for my readers: Look at the next two pictures and tell me if you can see what's different between them.Here are your options:
A. One is clean and one is dirty.
B. One if bigger than the other.
C. One is missing its chain.
D. One has a bell.


If you guessed C, then you're right!! After cruising down a nice big hill near Capilano bridge, we came upon the equivalent big uphill stretch. As we hurriedly shifted gears to make it up the hill, Garrett stopped gaining ground right in front of me and I had to stop quickly to avoid hitting him. Then I saw it. At first I thought his chain had just fallen off, but no, it was way worse then that. His chain had broken completely, lost some links and twisted the end links to boot. It was a complete destruction of his chain. Ack! There was no way we could fix it and we don't happen to carry around spare chains with us when we ride.
We pushed our bikes to the top of the hill and assessed our situation. While not terribly far from Garrett's house, we were even farther from my house and his car. Our best option was hoofing it to Garrett's, resting and then catching the bus to my house. This we did, with Garrett coasting downhill as often and as far as he could. Luckily, it didn't take us too long to arrive at his house - probably about half an hour. We relaxed there for awhile before heading back to my house.
Overall, it was a really fun trip and we had some pretty good laughs about his chain breaking and our subsequent walk home.