Velo Vol 

Nope. They've even got a fancy coin!

indyfabz

I’ve entered MT using 2 of them. One of them, and a third one, I have left the state through.

When a couple of us showed up at Del Bonito we had to wait for several minutes for someone to appear. Guy wearing aviator sunglasses with a cigarette dangling from his lips finally comes out of a garage wiping grease off his hands. He asks us if we’re American citizens and how long we had been in Canada. We answer, he says “Welcome home.” and walks away, having never asked for ID. That was pre-911.

Velo Vol 

Looks like a car wash.

WhyFi

I decided to do an easy Zwift ride and farm some drops with a pace partner. HUGE peloton surrounding the pace partner and super flat course. Ended up averaging 24mph with an NP just under 200w... So yeah, *totally* realistic.

LesterOfPuppets

We had to strip to our boxers at Blaine, WA on the way to Canada in '92. My friend in the passenger seat was a hair farmer though, very suspicious!
What really got 'em going was the six half-gallon Mason jars full of hot-of-the-stove bean soup in the back.
"What's in the jars?"
"Soup"
"Why is it warm?"
"Cuz we just poured it in to jars when we left Portland"

We made it back in to the USA at Osoyoos without incident.

indyfabz

The ex and I got the 3rd degree entering AB from Rooseville, MT. Got asked things like what we did for livings. Then the agent fired off "What's you next day back at work?" It was the 3rd day of the trip and the only the 2nd day of riding. I didn;t know what date it was, only that is was Saturday. All I could muster was "A week from this coming Monday." When we crossed back into MT at Chief Mountain. the two young agents could not have more pleasant. They even barked at the car in line behind. Apparently, the driver thought that he did not have wait at the marked line because we were on bikes ahead of him. They told us how Canadians liked to come to the state and try to sneak back beer and cigarettes because they were much cheaper.

When I crossed into Port Erie, ON from Buffalo and asked for a passport stamp the agent literally rolled her eyes at me and reluctantly gave me a "courtesy" stamp.

Velo Vol 

Velo Vol's border crossing log:

Roosville, AL*
North Portal, SK*
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Windsor, ON
Niagara Falls, ON
Hill Island, ON

*maybe

indyfabz

Judging from the flag, that's the Canadian office.

Over 70 miles from Magrath, AB to Cut Bank, MT. Other than a Hutterite colony just south of Magrath and a small general store just north of the Del Bonita crossing there was basically nothing but empty prairie. And wind.

Velo Vol 

All day?

datlas 

I prefer to think of Zwift as a video game you can control with your bike. If you expect it to be realistic and represent the reality on the road, it could get you angry. It's especially mean if you get dropped from a group. Good luck getting back on. You know how I know.

genejockey 

Just for grins, I ran some numbers through Bike Calculator. Assuming 0% grade, 200W, no headwind, 170# rider and 20# bike, riding aerobars (since you were in a peloton), estimated speed is 23mph. So, not THAT far off.

Mojo31

Other than some forays into Mexico from McAllen and El Paso as a ute, all my border crossing have been in the air.

genejockey 

This. Though I, "that you control with your legs".

Catching back onto a fast group, though, seems to be in line with my experience IRL - you don't. I remember missing the rollout of the club ride I used to go on 20 years ago, and if they were 100 yards ahead I'd never catch them. They weren't even going hard at that point.

LesterOfPuppets

Super Guppy alert:

She's about to land at Buckley AFB in Aurora, CO

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...630Z/KELP/KBKF

datlas 

I will agree with legs.

My internet drops the signal every 20 minutes or so, which drops my power to 0, and even on a "casual" ride with friends, I have a very hard time catching the group. In real life, with a chain drop or similar, I have much less difficulty getting back.

Mojo31

You need better internet.

LAJ

Zwift does not give you the satisfaction of turning towards home and realizing you have a nice little headwind on tap for the next hour or so. As you're riding in this headwind, you realize the neighbors tree that normally drops leaves in your yard, are now being deposited in the rightful owners yard. Bikes rule.

genejockey 

For me, it's the Companion App that keeps dropping.

The other night I was doing one of the structured workouts, during which I find it REALLY handy to keep the iPhone with the Companion App running so if I feel the need I can reduce the FTP bias. And it dropped out of the game. As it turned out, the 2nd and 3rd intervals were doable, so I didn't need to drop the bias, but I panicked a bit trying to remember the keyboard shortcut, and telling myself NOT to hit ESC.

datlas 

Yes. But this is as good as it gets. It's quite fast but freezes, and the idiots at Verizon won't fix it. Sad.

Mojo31

Different provider?

datlas 

That would be a huge hassle. If I really cared about Zwift, maybe. I consider it a game so not worth changing. The alternative is Comcast Xfinity which is slower than FIOS.

Mojo31

Maybe when you have grand kids.



Can you watch streaming shows without freezing?

indyfabz

Heh. Did you see this on Saturday? Hilarious.

datlas 

Streaming shows will also freeze for a fraction of a second, at the same interval (approx every 15-20 minutes) as the Zwift power drop. I am confident it's the same internet freeze. I am also confident that my ISP will not fix it based on my conversations with them. I consider it a first world problem.

WhyFi

I actually stopped, intending to end my ride, then I realized that I was very close to leveling up, and that one or two more miles would do it. 500-some-odd watts for 30-some-odd seconds got me back on to the group easy peasy.

Yeah, I understand how the math works, I just think that mileage is laughably inflated (relative to workload) because of situational absurdities and generous assumptions. I mean, yeah, if I had a closed course, 200 riding buddies and we could throw concerns of crashing out of the window, I don't doubt that I could managed 24mph on 200w NP. But, you know... reality.