Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Boo.
“Boo hoo!” cried Cycleangelo, when his wife told him his Hallowe’en doodle looks like it’s made of misshapen marshmallows.
A fairly un-scary Hallowe’en doodle. But it was fun, and that’s what counts!
Total distance: 28.0 km / 17.4 mi. Map rotated 180º for viewing.
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
Seventeen months ago – in April 2015 – I hosted my first GPS Doodling ride-along. I planned two Doodles for the occasion – something Star Wars themed and this huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. My apprentice opted for a galaxy far far away, and Michelangelo here had been sitting in the idea vault ever since.
Until earlier this week, when I got inspired to go out and ride my Ninja Turtle route.
I made my first attempt on Wednesday afternoon. But I wasn’t nearly as focused as I needed to be; and thanks to a couple wrong turns, I abandoned the effort after 40-some kilometres (28 miles). Yesterday I was more successful!
I pedalled a total of 183.3 km (113.9 mi) to create this Doodle – 108 km (67 mi) on roads within the Doodle itself, the rest on behind-the-scenes mileage for some requisite dot-connecting.
If this GPS Doodle were a painting, its rectangular canvas would be 109 square kilometres (42 square miles). That’s 26,925 acres…or 109 million square metres.
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
As I was pondering what to doodle next in the ongoing saga of my dimwitted Musclebound Thug, it suddenly occurred to me that the road I ride to create the top of the Thug’s bulging thigh is the same road I used for Garmina the giraffe’s back when I doodled her way back in February 2015. So I got to wondering…would it be possible to combine the routes of two of my favourite doodles into one huge and hilarious episode in the Musclebound Thug series?
As it turned out, the fit was incredibly close…but not perfect. I had to make some adjustments to Garmina’s rear end, lengthening it a tad so that the Thug was clearly riding her and not doing something obscene! This impelled me to give her a new tail and change the configuration of her back legs. Making it look like she was trying to buck the big bully off just made sense.
Poor Garmina! The Musclebound Thug – such a bully! – should just buck off.
The ride itself was exhausting. The actual doodle added up to 135.8 km (84.4 mi), with an additional 40 km (25 mi) for some dot-connecting in Garmina’s lower extremities plus some on-the-fly troubleshooting/redesigning when I hit an unexpected road closure nearly 100 km (62 mi) into the ride!
Shortly after I uploaded my doodle, Strava tweeted this flattering Tweet.
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
Musclebound Thug goes bananas for long tails. After his epic fail in tail-tugging a few days ago, the big ape got down to monkey business. And what better way to lure an unsuspecting monkey than to don a fez and pose as a cute and innocent organ grinder monkey. Cheeky!
Exasperated by detachable tails, Musclebound Thug dons his favourite fez and wraps his hairy knuckles ’round a prehensile tail instead, making an unlucky monkey drop his yummy banana
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
It’s no secret that Musclebound Thug likes catching reptiles by the tail. (It’s a #thuglife thing – something that titillates his puny reptilian brain.) But today, his antics got interrupted by an unexpected lesson in zoology.
MT’s twisted tale of tail twisting came to an end courtesy of an odd little phenomenon called “caudal autotomy” – a lizard’s ability of shed part of its tail structure to free itself from predators. Better luck next time, MT!
While indulging his fondness for catching reptiles by their tails, Musclebound Thug gets foiled by a wily lizard’s ‘caudal autotomy’
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
My wife’s cousin Claire plays the bagpipes.
She recently did me a huge favour. When I asked what I could do to repay her, she said simply, “Doodle me some bagpipes.” To which I – oblivious to just how strange and complicated the bagpipes actually are – said “No problem!”
Well, it took a couple tries (my first attempt ended in tears when I found myself off-course more than 30 kilometres into my doodle – see the second image below), but I finally got ‘er done…
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
My first attempt at doodling bagpipes ended in disaster and boo-hoo-hoos. Attempt #2 was a resounding success.
This morning, as thanks for my invitation from the MS Society of Canada to participate in this year’s Scotiabank MS Bike Cowichan Valley Grape Escape, I doodled #endMS. This afternoon I popped out and doodled another of the fundraising initiative’s hashtags: #MSbike.
Following are the Strava fly-bys (at 180x actual speed) that show how these doodles took shape…
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
Yesterday, I received an invitation to ride along on the Scotiabank MS Bike Cowichan Valley Grape Escape – a fundraising ride organized by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.
An estimated 100,000 Canadians live with MS – an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that can cause extreme fatigue, lack of coordination, weakness, tingling, impaired sensation, vision problems, bladder problems, cognitive impairment and mood changes. Currently there is no cure, but each day researchers are learning more about what causes MS and are zeroing in on ways to prevent it.
I’m honoured to be invited to participate!
On Saturday, July 23, I’ll be riding along on the Scotiabank MS Bike Cowichan Valley Grape Escape – a fundraising event aimed at ending a disease that afflicts some 100,000 Canadians
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
A couple weeks ago, this tweet from the IOC (@Olympics) came across my Twitter feed.
Beyond being moved by the message, I was vaguely aware that the form of the dove would nestle nicely into the cityscape of Victoria. And voila…#OlympicPeace!
You can create your own Olympic peace dove at olympic.org/peace/#/ …or just get on your bike and GPS doodle one!
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
On Olympic Day (June 23) 2015, I designed and pedalled an #OlympicDay doodle and entered it in an IOC contest for a chance to win a trip for two to Rio de Janeiro. And I won!
As it turned out, the proposed travel dates didn’t work out with my schedule and circumstances, so IOC kindly said “Why don’t you join us in Lausanne, Switzerland – home to the International Olympic Committee headquarters – for Olympic Day 2016?” And from June 21 to 25, that’s exactly what my wife and I did!
In addition to stuffing ourselves with way too much Swiss chocolate and cheese, we attended an Olympic Day reception at the Olympic Museum (with IOC President Thomas Bach – see below), visited the IOC offices and enjoyed a day at the museum courtesy of IOC.
I dedicate this doodle to the IOC — a sincere show of gratitude for their kind hospitality.
A few snapshots from our holiday in Lausanne, Switzerland (including my photo op with IOC President Thomas Bach):
* Note: The GPS points will render correctly only if you are logged in at Strava.com
Sketchbook of a GPS Artist 