Cambie Street re-opening festival April 25, 2009 + et al

First on tap for this update is my little trip over the Cambie Bridge for the Cambie and Broadway merchants celebration of the re-opening of Cambie Street to full traffic.

After almost four years of detours, construction, deep holes in the street for the cut and cover tunneling under Cambie street for the building of the new Canada Line rapid transit route to Richmond and Vancouver International Airport - the project is just about finished - one of the last sections to the completed was the Cambie and Broadway corridor - this is one of the most used transportation and shopping areas in the City.

Many of our large retailers like Best Buy, Canadian Tire, London Drugs, Whole Foods, Save on Foods, Home Depot, Winners and Home Sense have built urban themed stores as part of the redevelopment of this part of the City.

The area is just a couple of KM's from the downtown core, has City Hall and the largest Hospital in the Province VGH within a couple of blocks.

To celebrate finally getting there street back the above named merchants organized a street party to bring the people back to the region. Judging by the crowds that were there the event was a success.

A concert stage was set up on 6th between Cambie and Yukon - a steel band was playing while I was there but later in the day a popular Vancouver Band - 54 -40 was scheduled to play - with clearing skies and warming temps this should be a success.

I actually hope that they make this an annual celebration.

The images below tell the rest of the story.








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The Marathon Bike Escorts volunteering is coming along nicely.

There were 30 people out riding on Thursday night - they have had me lead our group for two of the nights recently and I was the end sweep for another - this means I stay at the back in case there are any problems with the riders.

Tomorrow I have to be at the Plaza of Nations by 6:45AM as we will be doing a ride of the full course - this is mandatory for all participants if you want to be able to ride on Marathon day - as it stands right now they have me slotted in to be a male lead rider - this means that I will be near the head of the runners ensuring that the coast is clear - it also means that I will have to be able to maintain an approx speed of 18 to 20 KPH. I have been able to do this in the training rides this year which is why our team captain has selected me for this task - it also does mean that I will be finished earlier - that is only a big deal if the weather is bad - like in rain.

The group is coming together as a team - while there a number of us who have been involved before and considering that not everyone can make every practice it is a credit to Brian our team leader and his two captains - John and Alain that we are progressing.

After the ride tomorrow we all head for Ricki's restaurant on Beatty for brunch - while it is no host the coffee and pop has been picked up from the remains of the pizza fund.

In preparation for the marathon on May 3 I will be taking in the bike for a spring tune-up on Monday and picking it up on Tuesday - it is part of the maintenance package for the the first year of the bike so it should be in fine form for the big day.

Cheers

D