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STP adventures
Jul. 16th, 2006 10:53 pm'After lunch'? More like 2. And somehow, I managed to miss every single phone call Dru made me, including the increasingly whiny 'where are you? Where's my towel? I wanna shower!' messages, until I finally reached Centralia, only to find they'd beaten me there by an hour.
Oops. No outlet malling for me!
Parking was easy to find, once I'd circumnavigated Centralia College to find the 'clock tower' Dru was hanging out under, and after they showered, we then set up our tents on the lawn in the middle of campus and headed directly for the beer tent. 'Beer me!' used outside of WoW. Who'd a thunk? Our next mission was to find the Nazarene church that was fixing up a spaghetti dinner, and we wandered mapless a bit (we did ask directions, honest!) until we stumbled upon it. Can't miss it? Well, if you're a teenager and Mom's driving, maybe...
Dinner was good, and Dru and Jen promptly crashed thereafter. I sort of hung out a few minutes more, finished my book, and well, morning was going to come soon enough... lights out (well, except for that dang sun!) at 8:30. It was remarkably quiet then for such a large group of people. I woke again at 10:30, and it was dead. D-E-D, dead. Well, I suppose 100 miles takes it out of you.
You wouldn't think it the next morning. 4:30. In the morning. Can we say ow? But all those cyclists were busy little bees, tearing down their tents and managing breakfast and tossing their bags into the vans bound for Portland. I couldn't stay asleep (even with earplugs) with the two tents next to me laughing and joking and all, so I got up, dressed, tore down my tent, marveled at the amazing variety of tents around (and how far tent engineering has come since that little brown dome tent we had in the 80's) and waited . . .
Finally, Sleeping Beauties arise and we pack up their gear and head back to the church for their morning fare: pancakes! Nummy things, and good sausage - I'm always hit or miss with sausage, but they had me back for seconds. And the Dru and Jen were off! And so was I.
I made it as far as the last rest stop in Washington before I pulled over. I forget the name already, but it was nice, with lots of trees and shade and zzzzzzz..... Yay for naps.
It didn't leave me with much time for Powell's, and I didn't hook up with Steph - Mikey and Cousin-Dave called before I got to Powell's and met me there, which was a bummer. The not meeting Steph, cause the guys were cool.
They'd done the ride (a double-century, I don't think I've mentioned: 206 miles) in one day instead of 2 (can we say ow?) and just needed bags and bike-box from the truck. We effected the transfer and moseyed to the finish line to meet Dru and Jen.
The boys scampered soon after, and Jon took advantage of the shower truck there (The men's line was too long for Dru, so he faked it with the sink and a bottle of water. It was enough that the only thing stinky on the ride home were his farts. He'd fit right in at gaming.)
We were all sort of wilting in the heat by then, but beer must be had! I staved off hunger pangs with the samples of Cliff Bars (Chocolate Mint!) and Kashi cereal - I know it's low blood sugar when I'm tearing up at the finish line... and it's no one I know.
Finally we're all fed (mostly) and beered (except for me, what with the driving) and we head out. Only to immediately meet stop-and-go traffic. Gah!
It lasted right up to the Washington border, but it slowed us down, and then magically reappeared just on the other side of Olympia, before Tacoma. I-5 was just spectacularly busy, certainly helped by some large portion of 9000 cyclists trying to make it home. The worst bit was that I got a bout of hiccups in Tacoma, and since my usual means of banishing them is to get up and take a walk? They didn't go away until I got home! Ack!
So: home, and I might have snapped at Dru for handing me a hairclip when my hands were full, so it's a good thing he loves me and he's totally in my debt for being his chauffeur. I had a great deal of fun though, and I got to participate without having to bike a couple hundred miles, which is a good thing.
Oops. No outlet malling for me!
Parking was easy to find, once I'd circumnavigated Centralia College to find the 'clock tower' Dru was hanging out under, and after they showered, we then set up our tents on the lawn in the middle of campus and headed directly for the beer tent. 'Beer me!' used outside of WoW. Who'd a thunk? Our next mission was to find the Nazarene church that was fixing up a spaghetti dinner, and we wandered mapless a bit (we did ask directions, honest!) until we stumbled upon it. Can't miss it? Well, if you're a teenager and Mom's driving, maybe...
Dinner was good, and Dru and Jen promptly crashed thereafter. I sort of hung out a few minutes more, finished my book, and well, morning was going to come soon enough... lights out (well, except for that dang sun!) at 8:30. It was remarkably quiet then for such a large group of people. I woke again at 10:30, and it was dead. D-E-D, dead. Well, I suppose 100 miles takes it out of you.
You wouldn't think it the next morning. 4:30. In the morning. Can we say ow? But all those cyclists were busy little bees, tearing down their tents and managing breakfast and tossing their bags into the vans bound for Portland. I couldn't stay asleep (even with earplugs) with the two tents next to me laughing and joking and all, so I got up, dressed, tore down my tent, marveled at the amazing variety of tents around (and how far tent engineering has come since that little brown dome tent we had in the 80's) and waited . . .
Finally, Sleeping Beauties arise and we pack up their gear and head back to the church for their morning fare: pancakes! Nummy things, and good sausage - I'm always hit or miss with sausage, but they had me back for seconds. And the Dru and Jen were off! And so was I.
I made it as far as the last rest stop in Washington before I pulled over. I forget the name already, but it was nice, with lots of trees and shade and zzzzzzz..... Yay for naps.
It didn't leave me with much time for Powell's, and I didn't hook up with Steph - Mikey and Cousin-Dave called before I got to Powell's and met me there, which was a bummer. The not meeting Steph, cause the guys were cool.
They'd done the ride (a double-century, I don't think I've mentioned: 206 miles) in one day instead of 2 (can we say ow?) and just needed bags and bike-box from the truck. We effected the transfer and moseyed to the finish line to meet Dru and Jen.
The boys scampered soon after, and Jon took advantage of the shower truck there (The men's line was too long for Dru, so he faked it with the sink and a bottle of water. It was enough that the only thing stinky on the ride home were his farts. He'd fit right in at gaming.)
We were all sort of wilting in the heat by then, but beer must be had! I staved off hunger pangs with the samples of Cliff Bars (Chocolate Mint!) and Kashi cereal - I know it's low blood sugar when I'm tearing up at the finish line... and it's no one I know.
Finally we're all fed (mostly) and beered (except for me, what with the driving) and we head out. Only to immediately meet stop-and-go traffic. Gah!
It lasted right up to the Washington border, but it slowed us down, and then magically reappeared just on the other side of Olympia, before Tacoma. I-5 was just spectacularly busy, certainly helped by some large portion of 9000 cyclists trying to make it home. The worst bit was that I got a bout of hiccups in Tacoma, and since my usual means of banishing them is to get up and take a walk? They didn't go away until I got home! Ack!
So: home, and I might have snapped at Dru for handing me a hairclip when my hands were full, so it's a good thing he loves me and he's totally in my debt for being his chauffeur. I had a great deal of fun though, and I got to participate without having to bike a couple hundred miles, which is a good thing.
