Welcome to my blog

If you enjoy finding a lot of different outlets for your creativity, then we may just be kindred spirits.

This blog is an outlet for my interest in miniatures, crochet, plastic canvas, and many other various arts and crafts.

I also love walking, taking digital photos, and most recently, have rediscovered an old love...bike riding! I purchased an amazing new bike, a comfy Townie by Electra this summer, and have been having a grand time exploring the area as though for the first time. It's like being a kid again!

If you enjoy any of these things too, pour a cup of coffee and tea, sit down, and join me.

Take care!

Kat

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Day 2 Italy (Italian Coast) VR Cycling Tour with VZ Fit Explorer

22 GORGEOUS km along the Italian Coast, in VR, on my exercise bike, in my living room...

Oculus Quest 2 + Magene Cadence Sensor + VZ Fit Explorer App = VR Cycling Tour

Day 2 of my VR Italian Coast Bike Ride was spectacular! Even prettier than Day 1!

The ride started beautifully again, and one thing that really helps make the rides look nice is that in Italy, there are lots of stone walls that are the same distance from the road for miles, so they look good instead of wonky in 3D. Also a lot of the houses are built right close up to the curb which helps them to look nice in 3D as well. Things get wonky when one house is close to the curb and another is far back, and that doesn't seem to happen much in Italy, so it all looks good.

Much of this ride had glorious ocean views, mountain views, or both!

I rode up and down curvy mountain roads and in VR, you really feel the twists and turns. There were only a few spots where the turns weren't great and I rode "off" the map and into the blue void, but I kept pedaling and the game put me back right again, lol.

The google car must have travelled this route in 2020 because many people were wearing masks. These 4 masked people were glaring at the unmasked people on the other side of the road. I can't say that I blame them. Everyone should be wearing a mask in public now. We have 19 covid cases in town now, and we've gone months with none. We're back in lockdown here in Ontario, Canada, and that's one of the reasons why I thought it would be fun to get away from it all and do a virtual bike tour of Italy :-).

I really wanted to get off my bike and go sit on the outdoor patio of this restaurant for a nice cool drink. Instead, I stopped pedaling and my bike stopped. I had a sip of my bottled water, which fits perfectly under the headset, lol.

I visited Italy when I was 12 years old, but now that I'm touring it in VR, it is back on my bucket list as a place I want to visit one day. I'd have to save loads of money though.

This portion of the ride was so cool. I passed pretty beaches and rode through long tunnels through the mountain. All in VR. It's hard to explain how cool it is to feel like I'm a part of the photos you're seeing. I was actually riding down that road, and I actually cycled through that tunnel.

I'm so glad that VZ Fit Play gives us a pop up map at the end of the rides because Strava messed up and broke the map up into three segments, on 3 separate maps. Twice because I paused to take photos, and once because I went to grab my shoes because my feet hurt from pedaling in my slippers, lol.

Here you can see this segment of the Strava Map is just under 10 km. There are two other segments that make up the 22 km I did today.

I am having so much fun and can't wait for Day 3. Today was the end of week 2 with this app, and I 112 km for the week! So amazing!!!!