Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Pastoral Ride

Today I rode out to Ålgård. I accidentally discovered the North Sea bike route. It largely follows the E39. When I moved here, I was a little disturbed by the lack of shoulders on the roads. Major routes, like the E39 simply forbid bikes. However, there is a bike lane separate from the actual road. To an American roadie, this is akin to riding with training wheels. It goes against everything I stand for to "ride on the trail." However, this is not the US- this trail is 8 to 10 feet wide in many places. There are many underpasses under other roads. I saw maybe three other bikes today. There are no rollerbladers and hardly any pedestrians. In short, it makes for a great ride.

I began near Hinna.

Behold a very dirty bike! This was taken before the ride. Horses had been on some of the trails- you can do the math.


Stone fences are everywhere. This one is modern.






Behold, a river. I have seen very few of these around here.


A toll station- they are "manned" by video cameras. Most people use the "Auto Pass" system that electronically deducts the tolls. Manual lanes are off to the right.

An old ceramics factory in Figgjo. I swear it looked haunted.





Ducks! Made me feel like I was back in Minnesota.

I cannot imagine living on a hill like that. On second thought, we already live on a hill like that.


Ålgård- my turnaround point, as I had literally ridden off my map. Actually, I was a bit more than an hour from home and it was starting to rain.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah another connection, Law and Order, I love that show. I especially enjoy the Criminal Intent spin off. The lead investigator, I don't even know his name, is akin to my psychological bend on most things in life. I see him as taking a pseudo-like Colombo approach though clearly not as comical if even comical at all but that is who he reminds me of in some ways.

Your pictures in this segment are real keepers, you should enlarge some of them or if you paint, paint them, I thought they were quite well done; rule of thirds, perspective, and other photo techniques for making a good picture, appeared to be utilized in your photo taking. Bucolicity at it's best.

Quite the game aye. Couldn't believe the Vikes pulled it out again. How long did it take to watch a game "Tivoed"?

Again I need to ask. How much time do you spend entering your blogs? Does the stuff just roll off your finger tips or is there quite a bit of thought, revising etc.? I ask this because I think you write very very well and I'm curious if you put alot of time into the process? Personally, I know some writing styles can take more or less time than others eg. journally where it's often just free association, no censorship, takes less time.

Thanks for defining MUT, fixed gear and commuting. I'm now more in tune with your world, sorry for the possible biking pun there (don't they "tune" bikes as I recall). LA

filtersweep said...

Actually, it was Criminal Intent. I cannot get past Vincent D'Onofrio's role in Full Metal Jacket... but that is another story altogether.

I really don't spend much time writing- and frankly, I think it shows- but thanks for the compliment. I try to maintain a consistent structure to my entries, but I just post the raw material with no editing. It actually takes more time to upload the photos than it does to write. Of course, I know how to type fast- and with all my fingers (unlike J.L.). I was an English major, BTW- a huge waste of tuition!

The other issue is that I don't have all that much structure to my day to interfere with such important tasks as posting here.

The photos will enlarge if you click on them.

filtersweep said...

BTW- my digital camera's view finder doesn't show exactly what is captured. I am on a borrowed PC, so no photoshop with these. I don't even have rudimentary editing software, hence the dangling tree branches that encroach on the snap shots.

I love taking photos of my rides- but stopping to take them really interferes with my rhythm.