July 21, 2013 – I wish construction season didn’t always coincide with summer travels. Some of my earliest memories of traveling to the Shuswap are of sitting in the car, during the hottest part of the day, somewhere in a desolate part of the highway while the air was filled with the stench of hot tar.
I still hate that smell.
The single bench seat truck would be filled with my Mom and Dad, and my brother and I seated each between one of them. Had to separate the kids by an adult body if the peace was to be kept for the 6-8 hour drive. Oh, and there was a dog in there too. She had to sit up on the bench seat as well, if she was put on the floor she would throw up. And then that would lead to me throwing up. Yes, family summer road trips were a joy.
And when we’d round a corner on the highway and see those orange signs we knew there would be lengthy delays. We didn’t have air conditioning in the truck, so we’d usually pile out and try to find a square of shade at the side of the road somewhere. It was particularly awful when it was midday and the sun was directly overhead though.
But the best season for road trips just happens to always coincide with the best weather for getting roadwork done.
Yesterday Kirk was working at home and I had the day off. I decided to get out and run an errand, and maybe ride out to talk to someone about a class. Thought I might ride out Lougheed and through Mission, maybe farther.
That didn’t happen.
I had to run into a jewellery shop out in Burnaby and figured I’d just get that quickly out of the way. I rode down The Cut and quickly encountered heavy traffic. Along with everyone else, I crawled across the bridge and through the tunnel before seeing a veritable parking lot ahead of me on the freeway.
The Hwy 1 has been undergoing construction for what seems like years, actually, it has been years now. Construction began back in 2009 and it’s just been a mess ever since. Sometimes the traffic patterns seemed to change every day. Painted lines were ground out, making riding horrible and when it rains the lines are almost impossible to distinguish.
The new Port Mann bridge opened in December and it definitely provided an improvement. But there is still a lot of re-paving needed and they are rebuilding many of the overpasses and on/off ramps. And unfortunately, you just never know what you are going to encounter when you use the Number 1 these days.
On seeing the traffic jam ahead, I dodged across a couple of lanes and took the Rupert Street exit to duck down 1st Avenue, and immediately ground to a halt. Again.
More construction under the overpass and all lanes being merged at the bottom of the hill.
After crawling through that I was cut off my an agitated driver and couldn’t make the Lougheed turn, so I slipped down a secondary route that took me over to Willingdon.
Where I ground to a halt.
Again.
The Willingdon overpass is being rebuilt and it was a total traffic snarl that I was stuck completely in.
I finally made it up Willingdon to my destination on Kingsway and was grateful for the air conditioning inside the shop. Unfortunately my trip was in vain as the woman I wanted to see had her water break that moring, three weeks early, and was whisked off to the hospital in labour. So the owner (her father) and I chatted for a bit before I headed back out towards Surrey.
Or at least that was the plan.
I wanted to avoid the mess at Willingdon so I opted to head down Griffiths and out over the Queensborough. Another failure. The traffic was a snarl down 20th and I just didn’t feel like crawling over that bridge. Hate that one at the best of times, but when it’s filled with rigs and angry drivers, nah. So I hung a left at the bottom of the hill and rode through New Westminster towards Front Street.
Yet another parking lot. And unfortunately, once on that road, there isn’t a way off until you run the length of it. Stop and go the whole way. When I finally got moving again, and the sweat stopped trickling down my spine, I decided that Surrey just wasn’t worth it. It was time to find a less traveled way back to the North Shore. So I dodged over Brunette and headed down the Cape Horn and up over the hump. Mariner Way took me over into Port Moody and I rode the back route back around to meet up with the Barnet after the city.
The original plan had been for me to come home around 4pm and meet up with Kirk to go for a ride together. Coming back over the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge found the Eastbound traffic backed up all the way past Lonsdale. So that direction was out.
By the time I got home I was hot, tired, and cranky. We still thought we’d go for a ride and head up towards Squamish, but then a friend sent a message saying that it had taken them over two hours to get from Squamish to the airport.
At that point one just has to say Uncle, put the bikes to bed, and walk to a pub.
So that’s what we did, and it was a pleasant evening on the patio, joined for a bit by a fellow we met through BCSB.
But every time we take the highway, there is a little bit more that has been completed, and it leaves me hopeful that it will be finished soon. And when it is shiny and new again, it should be a slightly more pleasant to take when the goal is A to B on the quickest route, not the most scenic one.
113 in 2013 – # Something New
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