My map, my best friend

We have had some nice autumn days recently, they do come as a surprise still. Used to the Edmonton weather I feel like the weather in K-W changes a lot faster and surely overnight. This brought me already to the conclusion that I have to go for a bike ride when it looks sunny now as later might be too late. I mean, unless I have to, I don't fancy cycling in the rain. 

Cycling in K-W shrinks the city. Suddenly I am at the end of our city map. Yeah! That would not have happened in Edmonton where even the longest bike ride moved us barely within the city limits. On Sunday, a crisp sunny morning, oh it was so beautiful, I cycled north past the university and around Laurel Creek Conservation Area. To my disappointment there is an entrance fee to use this area and the picnic tables at the lake. That does not make my picnic any cheaper than going down the road (any road as a matter of fact from where we live) to Tim Hortons and having lunch there. Boo! Any way, cycling around the fence of the conservation area gave me wonderful views of the lake as well. Today I cycled in the same direction but ended up criss-crossing residential areas that look like part of Waterloo but once you are there you feel like out of town. That's because they are need-a-car  bed communities, people only come there to sleep since there's no stores, no offices, no nothing else, apart from the lovely parks for walks and bike rides. That's worth a lot to me but I would not move there. The older neighbourhoods have more charm. Our ugly apartment building is surrounded by them. Old brick buildings with treed gardens and trees along the side walks.  I love it. The newest neighbourhoods look like in Edmonton, wider roads and without trees. Bah!

K-W does not have a grid system and the residential areas have (like in Edmonton) terribly windy and curving streets. No surprise people need GPS to go anywhere. I prefer the good old map and out on explorations we always carry one with us. You can tell by the look of the map it's survived a lot during the last couple of weeks. I taped it today to keep it from falling apart. Did I mention yet I like the bike lanes in K-W. Travelling North-South and vice versa by bike is pretty comfortable here, going East-West and vice versa has not quite so good options of off-road and on-road bike paths. In order to get to the Grand River and its park system we'll have to one day suck it up and cycle bike-lane-free roads. It's going to be a Sunday. Two days ago I cycled on busy roads south to drop off an application. I could have mailed it but for the added benefit of exercise and getting to know more of Kitchener I cycled and was all proud when I made it there and back safely, without getting lost.