All roads lead to Conoco

Sunday morning started early, but fortunately there was coffee to ease the blow. We were on the road by 7am, which is significantly earlier than I’m able to drag my sorry butt out the door on my own. M was riding with us for the first section and got her first lesson in drafting from Erin. She adapted to it quickly and is definitely a fan. The first part of the ride was on lovely asphalt and just zoomed by. We pulled over for M to turn around, which gave me a chance to snap a few pictures. For you California readers, doesn’t Prosser look like the central valley area?

The highlight of the stop was M asking about rattlesnakes, being assured by Erin & I that there weren’t any and then almost peeing on a dead one. Good times. She was nice enough to snap a shot of Erin & me with my camera before she took off though, because she’s cool like that.

After bidding farewell to M, we continued on our way and made our first stop at a Conoco gas station for water and potty breaks. There were tons of cyclists, so clearly it’s a popular stopping place. Then it was time for some climbing. Erin had planned out a good IM Canada prep ride that had a 6 mile climb, a big loop of rollers and then a second time up the 6 mile climb then another 20-30 miles and then home. The climb itself was fine – good shoulder, decent pavement and not a lot of traffic.

(photo by M)

There was only one thing that made it hard, a crazy headwind that at times felt like an invisible person was pushing against my bike. But I just put my head down and pedalled away.

(photo by M)

After climbing that big hill, we got to turn around and fly back down it which was awesome! You never appreciate how big a hill you just climbed as much as when you get to go back down. It was crazy. We did another big loop, stopping at a different Conoco where I got a Coke and some Nutter Butters (mmmm!) Then more riding and a second stop at the same Conoco that we’d stopped at initially. We called M to schedule some water delivery up on the ridge that would follow the second climb.

The second time seemed easier than the first, headwind-wise, probably because I was remembering it being impossibly awful. After the second climb we headed out into the wheat fields on top of a windy ridge. They’d harvested recently, so the fields looked like this:

It was gusty and the road was chipseal, but otherwise the riding was fine. Eventually, M arrived with water and my second bottle of Infinit chilling in a cooler. She was our hero, because it was definitely hot out there.

We suggested that she ride down the hill we’d climbed, so she’d properly appreciate our achievement. We hit the road again and after a while I saw M up ahead. She’d stopped to take a few pictures of us riding in the pretty scenery. Here’s Erin:

And here’s me:

The last section of the ride was along a busy highway which, with the gusts of winds and trucks going by, was not my favorite thing. Right before we had another big downhill section there was an overlook where we could stop and see all of Prosser below.

Not having M to take a picture of us, we tried the DIY method. (M definitely has job security, because I suck at this… )

Then it was down the hill and home in a flash. The descent was fun, except for a gusty section that was a little scary. Before we knew it, we were back in Erin’s neighborhood with approximately 85 miles completed (my bike computer is not accurate, hence the approximately.) It was sooooo nice to have a riding companion for such a long ride, not to mention such a nice area to ride in. I’m very grateful to Erin for being such a fabulous hostess on all counts.

Bicycle initiation

Today’s agenda was a bit more ambitious than yesterday. I needed to check in with some work stuff at our favorite local coffee shop and then we had a bike ride on the schedule. I’d planned to do a repeat of this route from last year’s trip, turning around a little earlier. It was already sunnier and warmer than yesterday when we got to the park. Joining me on today’s ride were M, who was a little nervous about taking on the proposed 20 mile ride, but still managed to rock it for the camera:

T, who has the honor of making sure everyone’s bike has air in the tires and is ready to go (usually while being teased by one or all of us):

And of course Susan, who was riding her commuter bike, because that’s the bad-ass she is:

The ride was great, except that we turned on the wrong road initially, so it was a different route than I went before and ended up being quite a bit shorter. But since it was M’s first big hill-climbing ride, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Everyone stayed together and we stopped for rests when we needed to so that it wasn’t too taxing on anyone. Afterward, I ran for a very sweltering 30 minutes, while the rest of the group played cribbage on a picnic table. Then we waded into the lake to cool off and finished the outing with lunch at Mo’s (YUM!)

After another lovely nap, some rousing games of Banagrams and a delicous homemade pizza dinner, we took a farewell walk on the beach. I caught M in the act of making art:

It was crazy windy, per usual. Here’s J using the hoody as wind-protection:

It was late enough that there was almost nobody out, so we could let Wally run free. He had a great time galloping around on the sand, which made me sad that he can’t be off-leash more often.

He chased a stick and ran into the surf and just generally bounded around like a dork:

We headed back as the sun was starting to set, so we parked ourselves on a dune to watch the show:

As it got closer to the horizon, the clouds masked the sun into interesting shapes:

A fitting end to an awesome day. Yet again Florence, you’ve provided a wonderful weekend.

Seattle Century

I had a race rehearsal ride on my training schedule for this weekend, which is basically do a bike ride that lasts as long as you expect the Ironman bike leg to last. Since my long rides have been maxing out at 75 miles, I decided to find an organized ride to join for this part of my training. Luckily, the Seattle Century was scheduled for that same weekend so I signed up. I was excited to have a course already figured out for me, as well as aid stations where I could refill my water/eat and not have to carry so much on the bike. The unfortunate part of the timing was that we were also scheduled to go down to Florence that same weekend with Susan. Since those plans had been made long before this popped up, I just decided that we were going to suck it up and leave for Florence after I finished the ride. It was going to be a long day!

I left my house around 6:30 am, a little later than I wanted to but still early enough to feel okay about it. I unfortunately missed the turnoff to Magnuson Park, where the ride was scheduled to start, so I got to do a little riding against the current as I headed back against the stream of riders to the start line. D’oh! Once there, I parked my bike next to the weirdest bike saddle I’ve ever seen:

Seriously, that thing can’t be comfortable! The mood was festive at the start line:

I got my race number, took advantage of there being actual bathrooms and then hit the road. The ride starts on the Burke Gilman, so it was nice, flat and familiar. I skipped the first aid station at mile 12 (!!) and passed a surprising number of people who stopped for it. My plan was to hit every other aid station unless I needed to stop, so I pulled into Marymoor park to refill water and grab a quick snack. The aid station was next to the Velodrome, which was cool and had some guy roller dancing, which amused me:

It’s always nice when the freaks collide!   As the day went on, it got hotter and hillier so I didn’t take any more photos (sorry!) and hit more aid stations than originally planned. But all in all, it was a good day. I took it a little easier than I could have, since this was a good thirty miles longer than my previous long rides. I felt fine all the way through, got to pass some people on some hills and generally felt pretty good about the fact that I can in fact ride over a hundred miles. The route was pretty well marked, except for a few sections in Issaquah and Bellevue where I had to dig out my route sheet and wasn’t too terribly crowded. They also had a really yummy post-race lunch with beer for those who weren’t driving to Florence. If you are ever looking for a nice organized ride in the Seattle area, I highly recommend it.

T picked me up at the finish line and after a quick shower and frenzied packing of bags, we hit the road. There was some sort of parade in Seattle that closed all sorts of major streets so it took us forever to get to the freeway. It was definitely going to be a long day. I drove the first leg before I got too tired and T entertained himself by taking pictures:

It’s almost like being there! I finally crashed somewhere around the Oregon border and T took over the driving duties, getting us to Florence somewhere around 1 am. God bless his night-owl ways!

Long ride’s journey into night

Today’s agenda contained my longest ride to date – 75 miles. (Yes, you read that correctly.) I planned out a big loop that left from my Ballard neighborhood and followed the route I wrote about here and then headed east through Snohomish and ending up in Redmond. Unfortunately, it took me FOREVER to leave the house, so it was about 1:30 when I actually hit the road. While that isn’t a problem in terms of the amount of ride time I was expecting it to take, it was a problem when you factor in the stopping for traffic signals and the getting lost that always seems to happen to me on bike rides, etc.

The first part of the ride was just as lovely as last time, except about 15-20 degrees hotter and super windy. I did see an amusing street sign as I came into Edmonds:

Tee hee! (I know, I’m a child… )

Heading into Snohomish, at about the halfway point, I saw this gorgeous field of yellow flowers which was so beautiful against the blue sky and green bushes that I had to stop and take a picture:

It was also accompanied by a flat road and a tailwind, which added to it’s charms. All in all, it was a good ride, though it was definitely tough. When I finally made it to the meeting point with T, it was closing in on evening. The roads were empty and quite and it was actually pretty peaceful.

I want to ride my bicycle

With Ironman looming large on the horizon, I’ve been pretty motivated to get out and train. It helps that I’ve found a training plan that really works for my schedule, but even more helpful is the fact that I’m scared to death that I won’t be ready in time. The weather was actually nice for a change, so I decided to do a ride up to Edmonds which is just north of Seattle, right along the coast. The route I found was pretty nice, winding out of our Ballard neighborhood and then through some low-traffic neighborhoods all the way to Edmonds.

After the crappy weather rides I’ve been doing, it was great to be out in short sleeves and no jacket. There were a fair amount of hills along the way, which slowed me down a bit, but led to some pretty views along the way. Case in point:

I’m sure the folks of this neighborhood are probably used to people snapping pictures of their view, but I still felt like a huge nerd. Oh well, it was nice to catch my breath before the next hill.

Chilly Hilly

This years first “big ride” was Cascade Bicycle Club’s Chilly Hilly Ride. It’s over on Bainbridge Island, 33 miles of February fun. My friend Erin and her boyfriend David came out to do the ride and I coaxed T to join in the fun. As a last minute surprise, M & J decided to ride the ferry with us and hang out on the island while we rode. This was especially surprising given the early start time – we picked them up at the ungodly hour of 7 am! Plus, since I forgot my camera, M was kind enough to shoot some photos for me.

I had no idea how popular this ride was, so I was pretty surprised to see how many folks were waiting for the first ferry:

We found Erin & David surprisingly easily, given the number of people out there. Then once we’d loaded onto the ferry, we met up with M & J. T had made bagels on Saturday, so we had some yummy pre-race fuel which M was kind enough to photograph us eating…

Finally, we made it to the island and the ride began. It was insanely crowded as legions of cyclists took to the roads. Eventually, things started to thin out a bit, though it was pretty full the whole way. The weather was a little drizzly, but wasn’t that bad, so the Chilly part of the name wasn’t so accurate but the “Hilly” part sure was. Holy crap! I’m proud that I managed to ride up all but one of the hills (a huge group of people basically dismounted right in front of me, making it pretty much impossible to ride through the chaos) although some times it was simply because I wasn’t coordinated enough to clip out. We saw every kind of bike & cyclist imaginable, including two guys on unicycles (crazy bastards!) For the most part, people were pretty nice except for the occasional douchebag (I’m talking to you, a$$hole triathlete deliberately passing people on the right on a crowded downhill section!) and despite my dislike of riding in crowds, it was pretty enjoyable.

After the ride, we met up with M & J and said good-bye to Erin & David:

While we were chatting, some obnoxious pedestrian chose to complain to us about “those cyclists” and how difficult it was to try to drive today. Direct quote: “I mean, it’s bad enough that they have their own lane, but today they were all over the road.” All I have to say is read the sign, dude:

I knew people thought these things, but few of them have the cojones to say it to my face, so bravo Mr. Pedestrian. After a delicious snack/coffee at Blackbird Bakery (mmmm, multi-grain sticky bun) we hopped back on the ferry for the ride home. All in all, a very enjoyable outing.

Summertime

Pacific Northwesterners are obsessed with weather. They all seem to know the forecast and discuss it endlessly. The funny thing about this is that, with rare exception, the weather here is pretty mild. I would expect this level of obsession from the folks in Tornado Alley or in the Midwest where you have extremely hot or extremely cold weather, but here? Not so much. So, we had a 90 degree day in the forecast (in August, if you can imagine… ) and as expected there was much concern from the locals about it.

I had a two-hour ride on my schedule that I planned to do while T was at kickball practice, late morning-noonish. I wasn’t worried about the heat, so much as a crowded bike path so late in the day. But as I set out on the Burke Gilman, I was amazed at how empty it was. There were sections where folks were out there, but by and large I had large sections of it to myself. It reminded me a lot of the last time I’d ridden this section of the trail, except for today was nice and sunny, with a nice breeze to keep things from getting too warm.

I set myself a goal of doing 30 miles in the 2 hours, just to keep from getting too leisurely. This is a tough goal on a multi-use path, because there are places where you have to stop for traffic or slow down for slower riders. So on the sections where I could go faster, I had to push the pace. This is good for me because I have a tendency to get lazy with my pacing. It felt good to go fast and it was fun to pass people (and not have them re-pass me a minute later… ) I made my goal, doing my 30 miles in 1:50:something, so I was very pleased about that.

T and I spent the afternoon puttering around the apartment. (We’ve reached the annoying stage of unpacking where you have to finally deal with all of the stuff you’ve shoved to the side to get to all of the stuff you actually need.) Then we had to drive my friend M to the airport, as she’s headed home to deal with some family stuff (Good luck, M – my thoughts are with you!) and when we got back neither one of us felt like dealing with the apartment anymore, so we decided to take the dogs over to Golden Gardens.

Golden Gardens is a public beach here in Ballard, maybe a mile from our house. It was still pretty warm out, and the beach was packed. We were nervous that it would be too crowded for the dogs, (Wally gets very over-excited when he sees other dogs and sometimes will bark uncontrollably and make an ass of himself) but as we walked down the beach the crowd thinned out as it went from sandy beach to pebble beach. We kept the dogs on leash, but let Wally swim for a bit. (I was very bummed I didn’t have my camera – despite the high probability that it would have gotten soaked!) After a little walk to let the dogs dry off, followed by some vigorous toweling off we headed back home.

All in all, a nice leisurely summertime Saturday…

Adventures in bike commuting…

So, as a part of my mission to get back on track with my training, I decided to ride my bike to/from work yesterday. Now, the commute from Seattle to Bellevue isn’t far in miles so much as it is “inconvenient.” There’s only one bridge that goes across Lake Washington that has a bike path and it’s about five miles south of the bridge I usually drive to work on – make that 8 miles when you add in all of the twists and turns of the road that connects those two places. Not to mention the hills that will inevitably be involved, because no part of Seattle seems to be flat for more than a mile.

This made my plan a seemingly simple one. Ride my bike to the closer bridge crossing and take a bus across the bridge and to work, then ride the longer route home when I didn’t have to worry about being late for work or get up at the crack of dawn. So, I dutifully looked up the best buses to take and found two that would basically drop me off in front of my building. All was in readiness, I got up early and left with plenty of time so I didn’t have to stress about missing the bus.

It was a really pretty morning and such a nice way to start the day. I felt positively chipper as I arrived at the bus stop. Not even going down an unnecessary flight of stairs in my bike shoes could dampen my spirits (turns out the bus stop I needed was on the street level – doh!) I see my bus coming up the street and… wtf… there are already two bikes on the rack. The other girl with her bike and I look at each other – what are we supposed to do now? So, we ask the driver who offers us the delightful choice of either wait for another bus to my destination or take any bus downstairs across the bridge and ride from there. This would be a fine option if I knew Bellevue at all, so I have to wait for the next bus and pray that it doesn’t have it’s bike rack full. Luckily, there’s one spot left on the bike rack (sorry other cyclist) and because I was at the bus stop first, I grab it and am on my way to work, only the tiniest bit late.

It does bug me that there are only spots for two bikes on a bus. In this day and age of crazy gas prices and doing our part to reduce greenhouse gases, I would think that there would be more demand for bike space on buses. Especially since buses around here usually don’t take you exactly where you need to go, so it’s nice to have a bike to avoid transferring or getting from the bus stop to your actual destination. It’s a bit aggravating to say the least!

I had my usual crazy day at work and then it was time to hit the road for home. I was pretty excited about it because the weather was sunny and gorgeous and I was excited to explore a new route. It was a little sketchy getting out of downtown Bellevue, but I made it on to the I-90 bike path with little drama. There was a pretty nice wind coming off the lake, which made things a little more exciting than I usually prefer, but it wasn’t too bad. There were a couple of places where I’d lose the path once we made it onto Mercer Island (an island in the middle of Lake Washington that has a little community living on it, connected to Seattle/the Eastside by the I-90 Floating Bridge, so not an island in the usual sense) and played leapfrog with a couple of ladies.

Once I was back in Seattle, I rode along this ridiculously beautiful road that winds it’s way through forest and along the water. There were times that I couldn’t believe I was in a city – it looked like I was in the middle of a National Park or something. For the most part, there wasn’t any traffic but occasionally it was clear that I was on someone’s secret back way and the fact that there was no shoulder or bike lane would make me nervous. I started playing a mental game of “What kind of car is going to lose it’s patience and try to kill me?” as the cars behind me would try to pass on the two lane road with tons of cars coming in the other direction. Thankfully, this was only a small section and no one actually did anything stupid.

Before I knew it, I was back to the place where I caught the bus in the morning with only a flat 4 miles on a bike path to get home. The bike path was fairly crowded, so I passed where I could and took it easy where I couldn’t. For the most part, people were pretty good about not doing anything too stupid (except for you sidewinder-runner guy with i-pod, you I should have run over… ) and it was awesome to see so many people out exercising on a nice sunny evening.

On the whole, it was an enjoyable experience and I plan to try to do at least two of these commutes a week. I will invest in a little map of Bellevue and it will be all good! Now, if I could just get back in the pool…

Sometimes it’s just one of those rides…

We went into town for some coffee at this great little local spot which has a great patio in back with a view of a slough or river that comes off of the ocean. It also overlooks this beautiful old bridge:

It’s a really nice spot to relax and they have good coffee and very yummy lemon bars. (I’m sure their other baked goods are also delicious.)

There are times when training for long-distance triathlons really sucks and this was one of them. While everyone else was going to do a little food shopping and then chill out at the house, I had a four and a half hour ride on my agenda. I really didn’t want to go and was more than a little pouty when I headed off. My planned route had me going through the Siuslaw National Forest, and avoiding the 101 for as much as possible. The weather was pretty but with a chilly wind, so I had jacket and arm/leg warmer initially, but as I headed away from the ocean there was more tree cover and a lot of slow climbing in the sun, so I had to shed all of them and stuff them into my jersey pockets.

What snapped my out of my sulk was the beauty of the ride and a herd of cows. Now, I enjoy riding out in farm country and seeing horses and cows just because they’re pretty. But apparently in this part of the world the livestock don’t see a lot of cyclists, because as I approached the pasture of this particular herd a few of them started running, which naturally prompted the whole group to start running. (Stampede!) I was starting to get a little worried, because I didn’t see any real reason for them to be running and they were headed for the fence that the road I was on was curving in front of. Just as I reached the section of fence that they were stampeding toward, they stopped and stared at me. (Creepy and hilarious, all at the same time – if I were a more skilled cyclist, I would have taken a picture, believe me!) Then, as I continued on past them, I heard this odd sound and looked over to see them running along side of me. They must have just thought I was a really weird cow out for a little romp, who knows. It was pretty cool though, and damn near impossible to be in a bad mood after that…

After a couple of long slow climbs, I headed into some really pretty countryside. (The climbs might have been pretty as well, I was too busy panting to notice… ) I stopped at an intersection in the road to document the extensive amounts of traffic I was encountering on the roads:

I mean, look at that! Crazy, right?

A little while later, I came to another junction in the road that wasn’t well marked on my map, and took advantage of the stop to take a picture of the beautiful lily-pad filled river that I was about to cross:

It was pretty ridiculous – as was the crazy hill I was about to have to climb up. I’ll let this picture speak to the steepness of the climb: it was taken about half a mile away of the same spot I took the above picture from:

See that teeny, tiny post next to the bridge? That’s where I was! It was one of the hardest climbs I’ve done in a while. I took a second picture of the view (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!)

Unfortunately, all of my hard work was for naught – as the road ended in a gravel path with another steep climb. I didn’t know that it would return to pavement and was unwilling to hike up the gravel path is slippery bicycle cleats so I went back down and turned left at the bridge, hoping for the best. That road wound along a really pretty lake and was a nice place to ride, but unfortunately ended in another dead end. At this point, I’d ridden for about fifteen miles in about an hour and a half, which was pretty pitiful. (Especially, when you add in the fact that the hour and a half was ride time, with all of the stopping and map reading/picture taking it was closer to two hours – there was lots of climbing in there, but still!)

I decided to cut my losses and head back the way I came, adding the ride into town or even all the way back to the house if I had time, for a grand total of 30-40 miles, not too bad – especially considering the excellent hill workout I was getting.

I was excited to get a chance to take some cow pictures on the way back – hopefully getting a repeat of the stampede. The ride back was pretty uneventful, except for some odd local man who initially passed me chugging up a long climb (he had a really distinctive car for the area, i.e. not a pick-up truck… ) and I didn’t really think anything of him at first. But then I saw that same car headed back down the hill and my former New Yorker self sprang to life. (NY self is all about looking like I’m going to F someone up, whether I can actually do so or not… ) Of course, I’m also worried because I have NO cell service and if he turns out to be armed, I’m totally screwed… But he turns out to be a curious local who also apparently rides a bike in the area and just wanted to “know who I was.” So I kept it polite and explained I was from out of town and he said good-bye and was on his way and no violence was necessary. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by how polite all of the drivers I encountered were – everyone nodded or waved pleasantly as they passed and gave me lots of clearance, it was quite nice.

After making it back to the cow pastures, my herd was laying in the grass and not inclined to give me an encore (bummer) but I did see some really interesting looking bulls a few miles down. They had long horns, but shaggy bangs covering their faces like a pony. I stopped to take a couple of pictures, in the hopes of looking them up later:

Just after I took his picture, the white bull got up and started walking toward me, as did his friend.

I tried to get a good picture of the brown one, but they were all pretty blurry:

And here’s one of the white bull. If anyone knows what breed these are, I’d be much obliged…

After bidding my bovine friends farewell, I called T to arrange to have him meet me in town, as I knew it was going to be dicey getting back to the beach house in time. We arranged to meet at a Dairy Queen, just past the bridge I’d photographed earlier and the timing was just about perfect. I had time to grab a quick soda and a little ice cream cone to hold me over to dinner and then he showed up. Total ride was about thirty miles, I was too depressed to look at the ride time.

Dinner was an incredible veggie lasagna that Susan made, an excellent green salad and some bread. I ate a ton, drank some good wine and got to meet the friends of Susan who had initially rescued Wally, so that was really cool. I regaled everyone with stories from the ride and they filled me in on what I’d missed back at the house (monster cribbage whooping to M and Susan administered by T and another walk on the beach… ) Much red wine was consumed and we sat around and visited for a little and let the food digest. As Susan’s friends headed out, M, T, J and I decided that we needed one last beach walk before sundown.

On the road again

So our brilliant plan to go down to Salem last night to get a good night’s sleep had a small snag. Well, actually a big snag by the name of Wally. Because S. had gone to bed already with her dogs, he just wouldn’t settle down, and his pacing kept T awake. (I slept just fine, thank you very much!) But even if the morning started early, it was nice to spend the first half hour or so in S’s pretty backyard, chatting.

We decided to go to a favorite breakfast spot of S, a quirky little local spot called The Off-Center Cafe. It’s named because it sits on a corner next to Center St – get it “off Center”? While we waited, I snapped this picture of S, because she’s cute:

And here’s a shot of my delicious breakfast – the bread is homemade and everything.

After fueling up, it was time to head home and get ready for our ride. I had a four hour ride on my training plan, so I’d printed out the route from a metric century that we’d done last year. That way, I figured if T and S didn’t want to ride for the whole time, they could bail out and I wouldn’t be totally hosed. Plus, we’d missed doing the ride this year, the route was really beautiful and not too hilly, so I figured it was a good choice.

We managed to get on the road by 10:00 and the weather was perfect – sunny, but not as hot as the last few days, so everyone was in good spirits as we left Salem and headed out into the country-side. As we were leaving a suburb of Salem, called Keizer we passed a half-marathon in progress and got to cheer on the last runners and walkers coming in. Then we headed into fields of irises in bloom and it was like riding through an Impressionist painting:

Gorgeous, right? From there we rode through lush green farmland under a bright blue sky. We had a brief stop next to this hops field, so I snapped a quick pic:

It’s a little hard to see from the photo, but the plants wind their way up the wires and eventually will go all the way to the top – a good 12 feet up. It’s a pretty cool sight when it’s all filled in. A little agricultural trivia for the beer-lovers out there…

Before long, we reached Champoeg State Park, which was our turnaround point. Ironically, that same park was on the route that I took last weekend to go to my parents house, but I turned around early because of getting lost so often – so I apparently could ride my bike to Salem, if I so desired. The park has nice restrooms and even a little shop where you could get a cold beverage and a Snickers bar – a fact that I took full advantage of.

After a quick re-fueling break, we headed back. The ride back was uneventful, except for how much better I felt this year than last year. Last year, I literally had to stop a few times on the way home to stretch because my legs were cramping up and I was much slower. This year, I actually out-lasted S, which has NEVER happened – usually she and T are kind enough to wait for me when I’m lagging way behind, so I rode the last few miles into town with her. We stopped at S’s ex-husband Joe’s bike shop, so that T could get the horrible creaking noise on his bike fixed. After a quick repair and good-natured teasing of Joe and his staff, we climbed the last big hill to S’s house.

T was kind enough to go to Jamba Juice while I took a shower, which turned into a much longer affair than expected – as it’s only a few blocks away from S’s house. But he brought back yummy recovery beverages, which S and I enjoyed in the backyard while he took his shower. We lounged for a little while until S’s other local ex-husband Rudy (a.k.a. Husband #2) came over to join us for dinner. We went to the same Mexican place we went to last time and I indulged in a margarita to go with my chicken sopitas. Yum!

When we got back, T helped S get her DSL working. Unfortunately, this involved a VERY lengthy call to Qwest’s stupidest Tech Support person. Finally, he was able to get the problem fixed and we were soon on our way home. The dogs slept the whole way back and have been sacked out ever since. All in all, a very lovely Sunday.