Sat, 21 February 2004
Finally a sunny day in February...
After many cloudy weekend rides, we were finally granted a showing by Old Man Sol. I had planned a ride with two friends, Marniy and David from Bothell Landing in Bothell, WA to Seattle's Gasworks Park on Lake Union by way of the Burke-Gilman Trail. Out and back, the distance totals a tad over 30 miles. As Marniy was committed to helping her friend move that morning, we decided to start a little later at 1330 from Bothell Landing.
So there I am the night before sitting in SJC awaiting my regularly scheduled (read: weekly) return flight to SEA which was already an hour delayed when my mobile rings and I'm informed that my CEO wants me in South Korea ASAP. After a few frantic phonecalls and lots of online research (thank heavens for public wireless Internet access in the airport) to determine how I would go about obtaining a visa on such short notice, I came up with a laundry list of things to do the next morning.
The next morning, I woke up bright and early hour of 1100... oops. Clearly things were already off to a late start. I quickly hopped in the shower and mentally reviewed what I had to do. After getting dressed (in non-riding attire), I went and pointed my web browser to the visa application webpage and filled it out. Then I printed it and rushed out the door to go have my picture taken. By now it was noon. I got to Kinkos, got my picture taken and FedExed everything to San Francisco while our company admin began working out flight details.
My wife calls and asks me if I would pick up lunch on my way back. Then I suddenly remembered that my cold weather riding clothes were in a pile of dirty laundry so I asked he to throw them in the wash. After picking up lunch and rushing home, I had to wait for the clothes to dry. It's already 1400... erf! I tried calling David but clearly I had his old mobile number. I didn't have Marniy's mobile number handy. I left a message on David's home answering machine in the vain hope that he might check it. At 1415, my clothes were dry and after wolfing down lunch, I dressed and rushed out the door. I made it to Bothell Landing at 1445 and spotted Marniy's minivan but neither she nor David were around... of course I didn't expect them to be either but at least it was good to know they already started.
I quickly unloaded my bike from the Jeep and headed out as fast as I could. I will admit to breaking the 15MPH speed limit on the trail by quite a bit... but then again that's not really new either. At 9 miles out, I caught up with them. They were both wearing shorts... it was a balmy 55 degF.
We rode on into the U-district (Univ. of Washington) and towards Seattle.
We got to Gasworks Park (right across the street from David's place of employment) and headed up a small hill for some photo-ops.
For those unfamiliar with Gasworks Park, it is on the site of an old plant used to manufacture gas from coal and later on crude oil. Some of the structures and machinery still stand and the old buildings are used as part of the park's facilities. The park is also a favourite starting point for many of the local bike club rides.
As things were beginning to chill down (sun was setting), Marniy and David both began pulling out their jackets. I stupidly didn't bring mine. Of course I was wearing tights and they only had on shorts. I began pondering the newspaper idea. As we were leaving, I suggested we make a stop on the way back at the Starbucks (well, one of them anyway) in the University Village shopping center that was adjacent to the trail. Marniy thought it was a good idea to get something warm in us and David counter-offerred with a stop at a nearby bakery. Unfortunately, it was in the direction which was not that of our return location so the idea was scuttled. We proceeded on towards Starbucks...
Daylight was waning and by the time we were 3 miles from Bothell Landing, the sun had completely set. None of us had our lights. |8^( Marniy was noticeably upping the pace. We got back at 1830 and I was quite happy to have heated seats. |8^)
More pictures can of course be found in my photo gallery.