How did we spend our 105 degree Saturday? Well...I left the house at 5:30am for a ride into Olympia to my favorite pit-stop, Starbucks (personally, I think Gatorade is way overrated. Coffee does the trick for me). In the mean time, Dale got the kids ready and loaded up the car and met me over there. I got changed out of my riding gear (no need to be in full spandex any longer than necessary) and we hit the road for Seattle.
With the detailed Seattle-to-Portland route map in hand, we drove to the starting line (Ok, more like "starting parking lot") at the University of Washington. People often assume that the STP starts in Seattle, follows I-5 to Portland, pretty strait forward. Oh no, that would be waaaayyyy too easy. It starts at UW, then winds around right through Seattle, then follows back roads through all the little smaller towns the whole entire way. We drove the route today so we know exactly what we are in for.
I took a few shots along the way (sorry for the crappy quality). Here is one of my beloved bike. See that little pack behind my seat? I bought that just so I could pack my camera along with me. Now Dale thinks it's a bad idea. He thinks all the vibration could damage it. I can't imagine not having it with me. I don't know what to do...I'll have to investigate the matter further.
Here is one of my crazy sexy husband:
Ok, this next pic is of THE HILL. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a shot of it while I actually have to ride up it, so I had to get it today. It's in Puyallup, 1.5 miles long, and is pretty much notorious. What completely sucks is that you start out the hill at an intersection, so basically there's no way to start out with any momentum. Oh- and you've already ridden over 50 miles by this point. It's funny, in the map it's actually labeled THE HILL (all in caps), and they refer to it as "a rite of passage for STP riders". Wow. The whole way up it I kept thinking to myself...How the Hell am I going to do this? So the picture doesn't do it much justice, but you can kind of make out the grade of the hill. Imagine this for 1.5 miles.
This is another Yikes! moment for the riders...The Lewis and Clark bridge. This was scary and steep just driving over it. And we will have to ride over this about 2/3 into the 2nd day when we will already be good and tired and shaky and wobbly.
It was my job to drive from Portland home. So much easier to hit I-5 and be home in 2 hours!
All in all our 14 HOUR day was spent seeing the route (most of which gives me a knot in my stomach) eating junk food, me giving Dale directions and him getting irritated with me for giving him the wrong directions (it only happened 4 or 5 or 6 times) our kids fighting, me singing to the radio and Dale laughing at my bad singing, our kids making each other giggle, and seeing so many cute little towns that we have never seen before. It was fun!
Off to bed...I have 60 miles to do tomorrow.
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