Sean and Shaun ?

Day 13, Calgary West Campground - Bassano RV Camp
Dist. 165.5 km. Avg 20.6km Saddle Time 8hrs.

The ride into Calgary was a nice stress free roll along the Bow River Pathway. This was only possible because I took the time to scour my maps. The day before, I tried following Hwy 1 all the way in. Bad Idea !  So, once I found my way to a Highway connection, I was back in the thick of it. After finally leaving the bulk of the traffic behind, it was nice.
I pulled into a small town called Strathmore where I utilized Scotiabank services. I called ahead to Bassano to check on it's validity. Yup. "Come on down !" Okay, so with another 80km to go, I saddled up and put the hammer down. About 2 thirds of the way into it, I approached another cyclist. YAY !
He new I was creeping up on him as he had removed the earbuds fom his ears. Turns out his name is Sean (Shaun I think) too ! He's from Ottawa (I grew up there too) Wierd. He's going to NFLD also, but began with a different route. ( Hwy 3 to 97, then the #1) A childish route for the weak and uninformed. Ha Ha Ha kidding ! I thought of going that way, but I've bin on Hwy 3 several times and wanted a fresh conduit.
I was very impressed about how streamlined his gear was. Only 2 Axiom panniers on the rear, with a small backpack. Amazing. I asked Shaun to pick up my bike. He couldn't easily, I think that he was shocked at the "Brontasaurusness" of it. Yes I'm old and need stuff so what. Part with my Coin collection and my complete set of "Funk and Wagnel" Encyclopedias I think not !
I gave Shaun one of my Blog cards, took a pic and we parted... for now.

Another Shawn !

Bassano turned out to be further than I thought, and when I got there, I was amazed and pissed off at how pathetic it was. Did I say pathetic ? The woman I spoke to on the phone made it sound like a real campground. It was a cruddy small field beside a train track on the edge of a neighbourhood. The odd thing is that there was a pretty nice comfort station. Weird. I made the best of it with beer. And skipped out early morning without paying. Woo Hoo ! They should pay me for showing up and bringing awareness to it. Perhaps the residents didn't appreciate my swearing at the mosquitos. "Pish Posh !"

The RIGHT WAY to go to downtown Calgary. Bow River bike route

I was pleased with myself. Those are lights on top of my helmet, not beetles. 

Highwaycat approved trail

Time to get into the thick of it. Where the hell am I ?! Confused at this point

I thought that this was funny

A whole lotta this

Big Beer/Cooler

Only in Canader Eh

HWC aprooved route 

Towns folk

Sean meets Shaun ? same riding gloves? Hmmmm. Good meeting you sir !! I think that you should've saved your back and shoulders by strapping that backpack to your rat trap. I'm just jealous of you minimalistic approach. Ride on ! Perhaps we will cross paths again... 

The worse campground in the world. Strangely enough, the "comfort station" is nice and new. I guess they found some money.

But it has lovely signage

The "Campground" borders a residential street

 The big Hotel

Thriving retail

Never mind. I have pliers

Good riddance Bassano

View Larger Map  Not totally accurate, close enough