The S T P

On July 15 and 16, my uncle and I did the Seattle to Portland ride. It was really fun. There were some inspirational characters doing it. I saw a triple amputee pedaling a recumbant bike with one tree trunk arm, a paraplegic guy doing it with both arms, a guy in a viking helmet doing it on a grownup sized big wheel, another guy on a unicycle, and lots of parents and kids on tandems. It was a beautiful trip and the weather was fine. After the first day of pedaling " about a hunerd miles," we went to a coffee shop in Chehalis called the Matrix to see my friend Brian Kenney Fresno perform on his Warr guitar. He was a crackup! We didn't get to see his whole gig though 'cause we had to ride about a hunerd miles the next day. On day two, my uncle had a mechanical problem when his spoke broke on his back wheel. We had to backtrack to the last pit stop where Scott, a great bike mechanic from Sumner, fixed his wheel and trued it perfectly in about 15 minutes! I took my wheels to him after the ride and told him about how the incompetant dude at Performance bikes in Stockton claimed that my rear wheel was "severely damaged," and that he couldn't fix it and charged $15 for the advice to buy a new one. The guy from Sumner fixed it so it was dead straight! Needless to say I won't be going to Performance for any maintenance anymore. So, the STP was a kick and I will probably do it again in the future.