seattle,kent peterson, and the next post

First off I must say that I have been meaning to post for awhile now, and I am sure why I have not will become evident in the upcoming paragraphs.
First off I traveled to Seattle to see my bettter half, Danielle, so we had catching up to do and time to spend together. However with the new Ritchey Breakaway frame I had a bike so the plan was to see what it would be like to not use a car for transportation, we did pretty good. She is not the best cyclist so just riding around is somewhat challanging, although she makes up for her lack of skill and speed with her enthusiasm. So the first day we rode to the local pub had a few beers, Seattle has so many nooks and cranies, it is awsome. She lives in the GreenLake area so we visited Greggs at Greenlake bicycle shop and the pub up the street from there, a subsidiary of the Elysian Brewing company. Makers of fine ales and lagers right in the Seattle area. I am a huge fan of craft beers so there are just too many options up there, and the beer has a very distinct taste. For those of you in the know as well as those not it tends to be rather hoppy. I had the Immortal IPA, and she ESB, and the name of it escapes me now but they were great. The sun was out and the talk at the bar was about how we were all gonna pay with either a dryer and hotter than hades summer or one where the weather makes up for lost time and rains all summer. Either way the people were super friendly and I left feeling uplifted. Danielle and I went out for a great dinner and pondered the weather, for Wednesday was to be a long day in the saddle for me as I was to met Kent Peterson at the Sammamish bike shop in REdmond for a day on the local trails in and around that area, but the weather was to be the worst it had in 2 months, typical weather rainy and windy, not sunny and beautiful. But like Kent said any day is a good day for a ride. Tuesday was a mellow day of riding to the store and then watching movies, something I had been longing to do for awhile, given the work and training load I have been under as of late.

Wednesday rolled around and the weather was challanging to say the least and not something that I am accustomed to. I head out just after nine for the 20 mile road and bike path ride to Redmond. It sprinkeled a little, but the biggest challange was the wind, thank god for Reno it is always windy here so it was not that difficult, but did slow me down, I was hoping that Kent was waiting and not too upset by my delayed arrival. He was not and for two guys who have talked breifly a little over a month together we feel in to the typical banter that two passionate endurance cyclists tend to do. We talked of wool and all its great properties, he had these great Swobo gloves,in addition to that we could have been walking bilboards for Ibex, he with the knee warmers and me with the 3/4 knickers. I also got to test my new rain vest that I had just received from Steve Fassbinder aka Dr Doom, I am going to have to find out the origin of that nickname, the vest worked flawlesly over the next 4 hrs.
I had no idea where kent was taking me but we talked over the histories of our lives and all that is possible. I was shocked to find out that niether he or his wife has had a licence since the mid 80s, I took that as inspiration, what it must be like not to at all be caught up in the car culture that is so prevelent in todays society. I must say he is one hardy indivdual and I hope to spend more time picking his brain and riding to far off places. So off we went, he knowing where we were and me having no idea. We rode over Redmond Ridge and hit what was called the Pipeline trail on our way to Carnation and the Tote? trail system. I was borrowing a bike from Mo Lettevin and Kent was on his Divide Rig. Me light with a fairly easy gear 32 x 18 and him weghing in at 45 lbs with a 32 x 17 gear. He has been logging mostly gravel path miles in antcipation the divide race and I love the twists and turns of single track and have been logging most of my miles in that fashion, so when we arrived at the trail system I slide away under the twists and turns and would wait here and there, mind you we ended up getting lost, which he said we would becasue the trail system has more routes and trails in a small area that I thought possible, we could be half a mile apart and be right next to one another going in opposite directions. As we left this area it really started to pour, my feet were really the only sore spot but we got a break in the rain a little sun on our return to Redmond. We returned to the shop where I bought a new pair of socks, the Defeet Woolie boolies which saved my toes from certain removal and parted ways. On my way home it started to hail and was the worst rain I had ever ridden in. The next post will be on the details of my return home, where I got another first out of the way. My face and the pavement met under less than ideal circumstances, kind of like redneck family members at a wedding. I ended up bruiesed and batter, not really enjoying my slice of humble pie. Tommarrow I am supposed to race the Cool race, but the weather is getting in the way as I must cross Donner Summit to get there. My ribs and shoulder are also protesting but I imagine I will rally and get myself to the start line.
So I am sure by now it has become aware why I have not posted sooner. I also hope to post some pictures of Kents rig in the upcoming days that is if I can figure out how to do that. Ciao