Pictures now, words later.

Weir's robbed

I love the shop and this sucks.

Bye Bye Beast

I threw the Volpe in the back of the beast this morning and headed out towards Monroe so that I could return the truck to it's rightful owner. I told Will I'd take him out to breakfast as a small token of my appreciation for lending me his truck. We drove all the way back into Woodinville to go to one of Will's favorite breakfast places. After eating way too heavy a pre-ride breakfast I hit the Sammamish Trail to the Burke-Gilman back towards home. Like the idiot I am I forgot my water bottle at home but I did remember to adequately pre-funk at the breakfast joint so I figured I'd be ok. The trail was pretty crowded and I started out in a pretty stiff head wind once I hit the lake but the trails pretty flat and I was making pretty good time. With all the people on the trail I got a good chance to think abut my bell location and I think it's gotta change a little bit. Just about the time my thirst started to come on strong I came across some kids selling lemonade, at $.50 a glass I couldn't afford not to stop. I handed over my dollar and was quickly on my way again. I was was planning on taking Burke-Gilman all the way to Ravenna and then head towards Green Lake from there minimizing my climbing, instead I bailed at 70th thinking that the hills would be a decent trade off for the distance saved. No such luck, the extra couple of climbs were pretty brutal.

These pictures don't do the hills justice.


If anybody can explain this sign to me I'd appreciate it. What is so special about these days? I mean beside the fact that the list contains my birthday(and SuLing's if I remember correctly).

I figure I rode about 18 miles or so today and 90% of my elevation gain was in the last few miles.

STP and back

The annual STP ride was today and I forgot all about it until just a couple days ago. I've always wanted to do the STP, I'm just not sure I want to do it with 9,000 other riders. That's all beside the point because my Portland trip was going to be a little different. I got up at 5:30 and rolled out towards the STP start and downtown.

Do I look wide awake?

Traffic jam at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, notice how everybody's got a bike.


Looks like a train station and the cheaters way to Portland.

Yup, it's a train station.

And a train with a special place for the Volpe.

City of Roses.

The purpose of my visit.

Also with a special place for the Volpe.

Do I look happy, tired, or just hungry.

Now I can return the free beast to Will which is a good thing because I'm really tired of watching the gas gauge drop like a rock at 8 mpg. That will be tomorrow's project.

Busy, busy

Well it's been a hell of a week. I've been working like crazy, Michele even more so. She had the day off yesterday and so when she got done on Friday we went done to Centralia to celebrate our anniversary at the Olympic Club. We're big fans of the McMenamins hotels and have been looking for a reason to stay here, not to mention that Salish was just a more than I wanted to spend.

McMenamins, for those not familiar, is a chain of pubs based out Portland. The vast majority of their locations are rescued historic locations such as the Oly. They have their own beer which is pretty good and the menu is virtually the same in all 55 locations. It's kind of like a TGIFriday's with a nice warm feel to it. I don't think anybody really goes there for the food, it's all about the uniqueness of each location.



We came back by way of Bremerton and rode the ferry back into Seattle, unfortunately we just barely missed the 12:35 and had to wait until 3:00 to board for town.
This is where we live.
uncropped
Our last stop before home. I can't even count the number of times I heard "Thank you, come again!"
No ride today BTW, I spent nearly 10 hours canvasing the city searching for an AWD Honda Element with a manual transmission at a price I can live with. I've got my choices narrowed down to a few different ones here plus a couple in Oregon that I'm going to make Pat check out for me. Hopefully I'll be able to give up the free beast soon. 8-12 mpg is really starting to wear heavy on me.

Happy 4th!

I've got a day off and Michele's on a 30 hour shift. Same thing for our anniversary this Sunday/Monday. At least she's got Saturday off, it'll be her second day off since this rotation started and one of the few she's going to have this summer.

I'm going to get out for a ride later today but right now I'm kind of tied to the house. As long as I'm stuck here I'm going to try and get something done with the garage. It's been a disaster since we got here and I need to get started on some projects at some point. The house also still needs help but that can wait, I've got my priorities.

Finally hit the dirt

My big Saturday plan was to get my drivers license and car title changed over first thing in the morning and then go ride at a park some 40 miles or so East of here. After burning a couple of hours getting my drivers license and a couple more getting the title dealt with I was no longer feeling like making the drive up to the trail. I felt I would be pushing it to get back in time for dinner with Kate and her dude, Jeff.

This morning I decided that I would not be deterred. I loaded up the loaner and headed out to Saint Edward State Park. On the map it looks like the closest place to home for a ride, just on the North east side of Lake Washington. I met a couple of guys in the parking lot that were new to riding and since none of us knew the trails we headed out together. We covered every bike legal trail in the park(some of them twice) in a pretty short amount of time. The GPS didn't track very well at all through the thick canopy, it came back with 5.5 miles and 1600 feet. There was not near that much climbing but there were a couple of decently steep bits. I'm not yet sure how indicative these trails are of the rest of the area but they were pretty tame. If this park is all you've ever known than it would make Pemberton seem extreme. Steep in a couple places but no real tech to speak of.







Saw this little number the way back to town. Those that truly know my nerdom know that I've got a bit of obsession with the AE86 series Toyota Corolla. Its a real, honest to goodness car ready for tearing up twisty roads. Much like the Datsun 510 it's lightweight rear drive car with a near perfect weight balance and an already capable suspension design. Breaks my heart to see a dumb kid paint it up like a cartoon and then wreck it. Turns out it's only an AE85, nothing special even though it looks almost identical.


For those of you out there that thought I was just bike obsessed, I'm sorry. I've always had a passion for cars, but usually I can keep it in check.