Raymi Rides Queen St W on Hot Summer Night

Tuesday September, 1st 2015 was a real hot night in the City of Toronto.  At approx 7:30 pm there were still lots of cars on the street, and lots of people out on the sidewalks. It must have been eighty degrees out there, and we were sweating as we rode our bikes west along Queen St. in Toronto.

One of the great advantages to riding bicycles over riding in cars is how much faster we can travel on crowded city streets. Driving a car in this city is like being in a slow parade without all the people waving at you.  By contrast, riding a bicycle is like flying!

The video starts at Queen at Augusta, in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken dispensary. At Queen and Bathurst I tell the world its the intersection of life and point out some of the hot spots. Rob asks me what it smells like at Queen and Markham, beside what used to be the Boom Boom Room and is now Hero Burger.  Later he told me that he asked because he thought it smelled delicious all down the street; he was smelling food and flowers and perfume. But I could only perceive car exhaust and so I said, “this is so exhausting!’

Out front of the Gladstone, at Queen and Gladstone, I predicted we would have some life threatening automotive intercourse under the Dufferin Bridge and it was a little dicey.  Best advice is just to stay the course and ride sensibly straight and pray.

Finally got to Roncesvalles, past all the empty Uhaul trucks, and with all the students returning to class in Sept 1 – 7th, I bet those trucks were busy. And eventually we crossed over the Gardiner Expressway and onto Lakeshore Blvd bicycle trails.

Summerside Pavilion is a great place for a refreshing beverage, and that’s our far point station – from there we cycled back to our little concrete cell in the hive.