stp wrap up – vacation edition
It was a whirlwind of a weekend.
Friday morning Jane and I stood in line for iPhones. I told her last year that we wouldn’t get any until they came out with a new version. It turns out, she remembered what I said. We got downtown to the AT&T store around 6 for the 8am opening. There were probably 50 or so people in line already. The staff was pretty friendly and helpful throughout the process, but the iTunes servers were down, so nobody left with an activated phone. I spent most of the morning trying to get the thing registered via the internet. Once it was though, pure gold. The phone is pretty amazing.
Apparently other people wanted them too. The phone sold out in 21 states and still has lines around the block in major cities that have them available.
The rest of the day was apparently spent avoiding really getting ready for Seattle to Portland. We went to get Jane and haircut and saw Les Thugs play Neumos after having a few drinks with friends. We managed to get to bed somewhere around 1am after cobbling some stuff together for the ride.
Then I missed the 4am alarm.
We woke up about 5:15am after pretty clearly stating that we would try to be at the starting line around 5:30. We stumbled and tripped our way out the door, surprisingly not forgetting anything important. Norman was our ride to the start and back from Portland. He was nice enough to calm us down and get us there at a relatively decent time. Still, we started with no real breakfast and I was pretty worried that I wasn’t taking the ride seriously enough.
Day one of Seattle to Portland starts off pleasant with a ride along Lake Washington. It is an area I’ve covered too many times to count, but it is always beautiful, especially at sunrise. The rest of the day is kind of a snooze though. It is a painfully flat ride that skirts a lot of semi-busy roads throughout Washington. I’d hate to think that people get their only impression of our state from that particular ride. I was actually really looking forward to the “hill” in Puyallup this year. It was a welcome change on my legs.
We left Seattle at 7am and arrived in Centrailia to set up camp at 2pm. Getting in to town made a big difference on my outlook of the ride. The ladies came in a few hours later and had to stand in a massive line to get to the showers. Chris, Gus and I sat in the beer garden and watched Le Tour. I probably drank a bit too much for someone that wasn’t totally hydrated. The temperature was in the low 90s.
We had brought Tent City again knowing that the space would be needed for the extra people this year. Boo brought her friend Josh. He was planning on crashing with us and had brought an air mattress. We decided that we didn’t need to pay for bike lock up this year because there was room in Tent City. To recap, this tent held an air mattress with 2 people on it, 2 people in sleeping bags, 5 bicycles and all of our gear.
Tent City dwarfed the tiny REI tents around it. People only make fun of it because they are jealous that a 6 foot person can stand inside of it without crouching. Also, they are angry that I am stealing their precious land space. I love Tent City.
Even though the tent is large, there are still people within ear shot of your tent at an event of this size. In fact, there are hundreds of people in earshot. Most are nice enough to use hushed tones, but we were lucky enough to sleep right next to several who weren’t so nice.
There was a family with a dog inches from us. Interestingly, the dog was the quietest member of the family. The senior father kept farting all night. It went down like this…
Father (60+): *frrrrap*
Daughter (in her 40s): “Daddy! Quit it”
Father: “Sorry baby.” …. *frrrap*
Daughter: “Dad!”
We all got up around 5, but weren’t able to eat and pack our gear up to leave until around 7am. I felt very good out of the gate, but never really got to 100%. Still, Chris, Gus and I were clipping along most of each day at around 18mph average. We were rubbing elbows with a lot of jock type roadie guys that I am generally not too fond of. A good number of them like to yell “On the LEFT!” at you as they dart out in front of traffic so they don’t have to slow their tempo. We tried to keep a small group, but were always keeping a big train of people that didn’t want to help pull.
To tell the truth, I had more fun last year at the back of the pack. It was still a neat experience, but not quite the same as before.
Once you cross the Lewis and Clark bridge in to Oregon, the day takes a turn for the boring. Highway 30 passes by strip malled towns with little to no shade. By this point the sun was high and painful. I didn’t feel like keeping the 20+mph tempo we had started the day with. I just really wanted to slow the heck down. Thankfully, the guys didn’t seem to mind much. We tried to keep hydrated and moving.
We got in to Portland at around 3pm on Sunday. Pizza and beer were in my mouth shortly. The rest of the crew rolled in around 5pm. Despite the soul crushing high temperatures, all of us set personal records on the ride (for what that is worth).
Norman met us for dinner and drove us home in our car. I passed out easily on the way home. Thank you, Norman.
Monday and Tuesday were vacation days set aside for three things. Resting, eating, Le Tour de France. All three were accomplished.
Behold: The Elvis Waffle (with peanut butter and banana)
