Holy Crap!

We've got real, honest to goodness, internet of our very own now. Yeah for us. I started work right away on Monday morning, a little too early for my liking but Michele was pleased as punch. I've been pretty busy since too. Monday night Michele and I drove up to Monroe to pick up my loaner truck. Tuesday was, hell, I don't even remember, oh yeah, we tried to get a new washer although we had some problems tracking down our landlord(even still).

Yesterday I finally hit the bricks on the Volpe. Michele had a orientation picnic event at Magnuson Park and since she rode in to the clinic so I met her at the park so we could ride back together. I left the house at the height of rush hour and had some good clean fun dodging slow moving hunks of metal. Only a few blocks from the house I started up a conversation with a fellow rider headed the same direction as me. We rode together for a couple of miles and as we talked I noticed that I've got a lot of work to do. I've been riding primarily singlespeed off-road for the last three years and my 800 lb gorilla kung fu style just ain't gonna cut it. My new friend rode as smooth as a baby's ass while I was all over the map. I'm swinging my bike around, standing and sitting for no apparent reason, not shifting when I should, shifting when I shouldn't. Figuring out how to ride is a project for another day though. It didn't take me terribly long to get to the park even with the two decent climbs along the way. Once there I got the introductions all around and headed right towards the food. A couple of hot dogs and a few too many cookies later Michele and I started our return ride. Using my vague recollection of the map we were able to cut out one of the hills without adding too much mileage. I'm looking forward to more miles around town. I rode 11.8 miles and 1000 feet.

I will be putting up some pictures in the next couple days so stay tuned.

Safe and sound in Seattle

We made it! We got into town Friday around 11:00 am and had the truck completely unloaded by 2:00. In another couple of weeks we might even be unpacked. The place is awesome. This is the second time we've rented a place sight unseen and both times it's worked out extremely well. I'm guessing that we've got around 1500 square feet plus a two car garage. We're only 1/4 mile from Green Lake and you can see the Space Needle from the deck. Michele starts on Tuesday and I'm currently choosing between two job offers also starting this week. These are exciting times in the world of Sean and Michele.

We won't have internet for another couple of days so I'm currently stealing wireless that is a bit too far away to be any good. As a result I won't be posting any pictures until we're setup legit.

Pictures from the days travels

Baker City, OR tomorrow, Portland Thursday, and on to Seattle Friday morning.

Pat likes it.

Crazy Jose is off driving the meatwagon and left his toys unattended.

Check Gordo the wonder dog in the background.



G.C., Zion, and St, George tomorrow.

This time it's for real.

The final final Phoenix ride went down today. Michele and I headed up to 32nd St to do her loop x2. I still haven't put the rack back on the car yet so it meant folding the seat down and fighting with the second bike a little bit to get them both in there. Took a little time at the trailhead to address the broken toeclip on Michele's bike that I had neglected after our Pemberton ride on Friday.

I was quite surprised by the lack of people on the trail this morning. The temp was still below 90 when we headed out and we only saw a handful of other trail users. I felt really good and was riding a little faster than I normally would with Michele but since she was hanging with me quite well I saw no reason to make any changes. We covered 5.7 miles and 400 ft in 47 minutes. Afterwards we stopped at Starbucks and Einstein's for breakfast.

Fin.

I'm an idiot

Can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

If you answered that I'm one wheel short of a bicycle, your right. I got up at the ass crack this morning and drove myself over to SoMo. It was only after I had my bike out of the car and most of my gear on did I realize that I left my front tire in my garage. I stayed for a while to chat with those that came little more prepared. When they rolled out at 6:30 I headed home to get my wheel and ride a little closer to home.

I started at Dreamy Draw and headed East toward the 40th St lot, up 8, over to cheesegrater, down to 1A, and back down T-100. A fairly straightforward 6.7 miles and 1000 feet in 1 hour 18 minutes.

There was a bit of walking heading up cheesegrater, but I think that's to be expected.

Headed over to Dale's this afternoon for a little BBQ party, didn't stay for to long but long enough for the final goodbyes. Thanks Jeff and SuLing for the card, I look forward to seeing you guys again in the future.

Pemberton

Michele and I went out to Pemberton this morning. One last long ride for my lady before we leave. Kinda sucked to drive out there(I'm a little burned out on driving at the moment), but the ride was great. We cut the mileage a little by opting to go up on Tonto rather than stick to Pemberton the whole way. By the time we hit Pemberton again Michele wasn't feeling so hot, her bagel breakfast was not agreeing with her. She said she'd be alright so we soldiered on. The rest of the ride went fairly smooth with Michele clearing a couple of steep spots that she'd never made it passed before and was keeping pace quite nicely down the service road. We covered 13.5 miles and 1000 feet in 1 hour 40 minutes. After the ride we made one final visit to Rage so that I could pick up a dirt cheap BB to replace my current one that is on it's way out.

Tomorrow I'm going to hit SoMo with a small group. We'll be headed up Mormon/National to Buena Vista and back, I'm expecting to suffer just a little. Should be my last group ride in the 'nix. I might squeeze in one more on Sunday and I'm going to attempt to get up to Crazy Joe's place on Monday in time for one last trip up Schultz. That will be the end of my biking until at least the latter part of next weekend after we arrive in Seattle.

Yeah Seattle!