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STP Day 1 -continued from the continued-
Wow, it's been a while. I'm hoping to write up STP and our trip to Yellowstone, plus a few spectacular hikes, over break.
So where was I? Oh yeah. At the lunch stop at Spanaway.
More food, and then I saw a triplet, a triple tandem come in. Dad with his two kids, young teen boy, younger teen/tween girl. They parked it right next to us...
Dad and the son wandered off, and the girl stayed. I was waiting and I saw people come up to her and ask her questions about the bike, the ride, etc? She literally turned her nose up and her back at them. It was... jarring. Friendliness is pretty much a standard for most bike rides, and seeing this little brat was bizarre. Later on, their triplet passed me to the RIGHT. I was not near the curb because... oh, the curb turned in and being near it at that point would have you running straight into it in a few moments. The dad realised this, of course, seconds after he passed me on the wrong freaking side, and cut me off to get out of the way. I yelled something rude at him, because he barely missed my front wheel. I saw several more assholish moves by him that afternoon, so I can see where the kid comes by her rudeness.
Anyhow, we headed out from Spanaway. We were making good time, I was quite impressed with how good, actually. After Spanaway is the long stretch of road that goes through the military base. It's flat, and boring, and yeah, it was flat and boring. AC and Greta met up with us at a pullout. We swapped some snacks and other gear around, and headed back out. They were having a good time, and were headed to Portland to have Greta's piano tuned up, then back north to Winlock where they'd meet us for dinner and camping.
We pedaled on.
We'd biked many of these roads before, so Perry wasn't unfamiliar with them. He was doing SO well.
And then... the incident. OMG. I was a bit behind dh and Perry, having slowed for a hill. I could see the group of cyclists at the light ahead of me and... someone went down.
I couldn't see, but I just knew it was Perry. I got there, confirmed that it was him, and I was out of my clips, my bike tossed onto the sidewalk SO fast it wasn't funny. Dh had already hauled him out of the road, from the tangle of two or three down bikes. He was ok. As were the two guys. What had happened was that one car lane and one bike lane narrowed down to just a bike lane, adjustments needed to be made, and someone negotiated something wrong. Nobody blamed anyone else, but Perry felt bad because one of the guys had a mechanical issue. He was SO relieved when it turned out to be nothing. Me? I was in tears. That was my little boy, tiny little boy, on the ground in a mess of moving bikes. Shudder. The guys decided that this the incident had happened in front of a Starbucks, that it was time for coffee. We dusted Perry off, he was fine except for a scrape and a small cut.
Onwards. But wow. Those are the moments when you wonder WTF you are doing, letting a little boy like Perry ride with SO many other people?!
We biked on.
Shortly after Yelm, we got on the bike trail. We'd ridden most of the trail before, so it was familiar and safer than roads at any rate. It was a bit warm and... I was starting to get worried about Perry.
He was clearly tired. Speeding up. Slowing down. Weaving a bit too much. We'd talk to him, he'd be ok for a while, and then get back babbling like he does when he's overtired. We finally made a long stop by the side of the trail, pushed some extra water and some gel and food. It was, at least for me, a last ditch effort. Had he not settled after that, I was going to call the ride for him. It would not have been safe for him to continue. This was, I might add, about 75 miles in, his longest ride ever. And we still had... gulp... 45 miles to go, though it wasn't that late and we weren't concerned about time.
He recovered nicely and we headed on out. We met some people doing STP with their 12 year old, on a bike that was MUCH too big for him. I hope they finished!
We stopped at the Tenino mini-stop and Perry ate more food. The water there was nice and cold and I refilled bottles and we all drank. Mmmm, water! I thought, btw, that Perry would take to energy drinks but no, he, like us, preferred straight water. We called my MIL and got to talk to Linnea and she was so sweet and encouraging!
And I stepped on an energy bar that someone had dropped. OMG, getting that sticky stuff out of my bike shoe took for freaking ever, and there is still some there, hard as cement and impossible to chisel out, almost 6 months later!
From Tenino, we headed out towards Centralia. That'd be 100 miles, and the ride half-way point, and the stopping point for many riders, though not ours!
Centralia was great. Since we were making SO much better time than the previous time we'd done it, we were getting to stops in the middle of the events, rather than trailing in laaaaate. At Centralia, there was the mid-point festival, with an arch, a row of sprinklers -that was SO nice- and volunteers handing out Creamsicles. I'm not usually much of a Creamsickle fan, but that one was DELICIOUS.
Again, since we had time, really, we hung out for a bit, dh and Perry shared an order of meatballs wrapped in bacon with bbq sauce, and we enjoyed a break before the last part of the ride.
Our camping was to be in Winlock, twenty miles out from Centralia, and out we headed. Since so many people stopped in Centralia to camp there, there were very few people on the road, and we were often alone. Nice, rather flat roads, few cars, and very pretty scenery. One homeowner had set up their sprinkler to hit the road, and we went through that, waving and yelling thanks. Perry wanted to turn around to go through again.
And then. The hill. Worse, imo, than The Hill, is the long, dragging, hot hill up to Napavine. Grind, grind, grind. It was hot, and it was long, and remember, we'd already biked over 110 miles by then.
We did make it. It was slow, at least for me, but we did make it, and stopped at the top to catch our breath and get some more water. It's a small town, there was the usual water or gatorade leave a donation for our football/baseball/cheerleading/track whatever team, which we did.
And a little guy, probably about three, was there with his mother, and he was handing out popsicles. And OMG, he was SO sweet, and that gesture of kindness on their part meant a lot. Perry had a lime popsicle, and eventually, we headed on our to Winlock, feeling... good about life.
The road runs near the train track, and we stopped to watch a train go by. Remember, my spouse is a train nut. It was a stinky garbage train. I made him leave before the whole thing passed by! Onwards towards our evening destination, Winlock, and dinner and tents. This area is the start of the big rollers, ups and downs, where you can get enough momentum that the up isn't quite as bad as it would otherwise be.
We missed the turnoff to the elementary school and our camping as we blew through Winlock, it was not well signed. However Perry and I -we were ahead of dh, whose knees had started to bother him- realised that something was wrong, stopped and turned around. We made it to the elementary school field, checked in, and went to chose a spot for our tent.
We had just dropped down bikes when Greta and AC got there. With the car, our camping gear, and OMG, the cooler with a diet Coke!
AC and Greta started setting up camp, and dh, Perry, and I decided to head for showers. Which is when we found out that someone forgot to... pack one of our bags. We had toothbrushes, but no towels. Yay, cold shower and no towel afterwards. THAT was not too fun, but oh well, I made do, we got our showers, and drove to dinner. It wasn't far, we could have biked or walked it, but I wanted the five minutes of charge time for my cell.
I'd bought one of those battery chargers, that uses AAs to charge the cell? Yeah, no, that did zip.
Dinner, at the senior center, was pasta, salad, garlic bread, and a cookie. Perry... devoured so much garlic bread, it wasn't even funny!
After dinner, we headed back to our tents. We had the usual argument about the rainfly: on or off. My vote is always off BUT set it up to where a quick pull gets it ON. Which has saved our butts (or at least our sleeping bags) more than once. We opted to do that, and after brushing teeth and setting alarms, went to sleep. We were TIRED.
So where was I? Oh yeah. At the lunch stop at Spanaway.
More food, and then I saw a triplet, a triple tandem come in. Dad with his two kids, young teen boy, younger teen/tween girl. They parked it right next to us...
Dad and the son wandered off, and the girl stayed. I was waiting and I saw people come up to her and ask her questions about the bike, the ride, etc? She literally turned her nose up and her back at them. It was... jarring. Friendliness is pretty much a standard for most bike rides, and seeing this little brat was bizarre. Later on, their triplet passed me to the RIGHT. I was not near the curb because... oh, the curb turned in and being near it at that point would have you running straight into it in a few moments. The dad realised this, of course, seconds after he passed me on the wrong freaking side, and cut me off to get out of the way. I yelled something rude at him, because he barely missed my front wheel. I saw several more assholish moves by him that afternoon, so I can see where the kid comes by her rudeness.
Anyhow, we headed out from Spanaway. We were making good time, I was quite impressed with how good, actually. After Spanaway is the long stretch of road that goes through the military base. It's flat, and boring, and yeah, it was flat and boring. AC and Greta met up with us at a pullout. We swapped some snacks and other gear around, and headed back out. They were having a good time, and were headed to Portland to have Greta's piano tuned up, then back north to Winlock where they'd meet us for dinner and camping.
We pedaled on.
We'd biked many of these roads before, so Perry wasn't unfamiliar with them. He was doing SO well.
And then... the incident. OMG. I was a bit behind dh and Perry, having slowed for a hill. I could see the group of cyclists at the light ahead of me and... someone went down.
I couldn't see, but I just knew it was Perry. I got there, confirmed that it was him, and I was out of my clips, my bike tossed onto the sidewalk SO fast it wasn't funny. Dh had already hauled him out of the road, from the tangle of two or three down bikes. He was ok. As were the two guys. What had happened was that one car lane and one bike lane narrowed down to just a bike lane, adjustments needed to be made, and someone negotiated something wrong. Nobody blamed anyone else, but Perry felt bad because one of the guys had a mechanical issue. He was SO relieved when it turned out to be nothing. Me? I was in tears. That was my little boy, tiny little boy, on the ground in a mess of moving bikes. Shudder. The guys decided that this the incident had happened in front of a Starbucks, that it was time for coffee. We dusted Perry off, he was fine except for a scrape and a small cut.
Onwards. But wow. Those are the moments when you wonder WTF you are doing, letting a little boy like Perry ride with SO many other people?!
We biked on.
Shortly after Yelm, we got on the bike trail. We'd ridden most of the trail before, so it was familiar and safer than roads at any rate. It was a bit warm and... I was starting to get worried about Perry.
He was clearly tired. Speeding up. Slowing down. Weaving a bit too much. We'd talk to him, he'd be ok for a while, and then get back babbling like he does when he's overtired. We finally made a long stop by the side of the trail, pushed some extra water and some gel and food. It was, at least for me, a last ditch effort. Had he not settled after that, I was going to call the ride for him. It would not have been safe for him to continue. This was, I might add, about 75 miles in, his longest ride ever. And we still had... gulp... 45 miles to go, though it wasn't that late and we weren't concerned about time.
He recovered nicely and we headed on out. We met some people doing STP with their 12 year old, on a bike that was MUCH too big for him. I hope they finished!
We stopped at the Tenino mini-stop and Perry ate more food. The water there was nice and cold and I refilled bottles and we all drank. Mmmm, water! I thought, btw, that Perry would take to energy drinks but no, he, like us, preferred straight water. We called my MIL and got to talk to Linnea and she was so sweet and encouraging!
And I stepped on an energy bar that someone had dropped. OMG, getting that sticky stuff out of my bike shoe took for freaking ever, and there is still some there, hard as cement and impossible to chisel out, almost 6 months later!
From Tenino, we headed out towards Centralia. That'd be 100 miles, and the ride half-way point, and the stopping point for many riders, though not ours!
Centralia was great. Since we were making SO much better time than the previous time we'd done it, we were getting to stops in the middle of the events, rather than trailing in laaaaate. At Centralia, there was the mid-point festival, with an arch, a row of sprinklers -that was SO nice- and volunteers handing out Creamsicles. I'm not usually much of a Creamsickle fan, but that one was DELICIOUS.
Again, since we had time, really, we hung out for a bit, dh and Perry shared an order of meatballs wrapped in bacon with bbq sauce, and we enjoyed a break before the last part of the ride.
Our camping was to be in Winlock, twenty miles out from Centralia, and out we headed. Since so many people stopped in Centralia to camp there, there were very few people on the road, and we were often alone. Nice, rather flat roads, few cars, and very pretty scenery. One homeowner had set up their sprinkler to hit the road, and we went through that, waving and yelling thanks. Perry wanted to turn around to go through again.
And then. The hill. Worse, imo, than The Hill, is the long, dragging, hot hill up to Napavine. Grind, grind, grind. It was hot, and it was long, and remember, we'd already biked over 110 miles by then.
We did make it. It was slow, at least for me, but we did make it, and stopped at the top to catch our breath and get some more water. It's a small town, there was the usual water or gatorade leave a donation for our football/baseball/cheerleading/track whatever team, which we did.
And a little guy, probably about three, was there with his mother, and he was handing out popsicles. And OMG, he was SO sweet, and that gesture of kindness on their part meant a lot. Perry had a lime popsicle, and eventually, we headed on our to Winlock, feeling... good about life.
The road runs near the train track, and we stopped to watch a train go by. Remember, my spouse is a train nut. It was a stinky garbage train. I made him leave before the whole thing passed by! Onwards towards our evening destination, Winlock, and dinner and tents. This area is the start of the big rollers, ups and downs, where you can get enough momentum that the up isn't quite as bad as it would otherwise be.
We missed the turnoff to the elementary school and our camping as we blew through Winlock, it was not well signed. However Perry and I -we were ahead of dh, whose knees had started to bother him- realised that something was wrong, stopped and turned around. We made it to the elementary school field, checked in, and went to chose a spot for our tent.
We had just dropped down bikes when Greta and AC got there. With the car, our camping gear, and OMG, the cooler with a diet Coke!
AC and Greta started setting up camp, and dh, Perry, and I decided to head for showers. Which is when we found out that someone forgot to... pack one of our bags. We had toothbrushes, but no towels. Yay, cold shower and no towel afterwards. THAT was not too fun, but oh well, I made do, we got our showers, and drove to dinner. It wasn't far, we could have biked or walked it, but I wanted the five minutes of charge time for my cell.
I'd bought one of those battery chargers, that uses AAs to charge the cell? Yeah, no, that did zip.
Dinner, at the senior center, was pasta, salad, garlic bread, and a cookie. Perry... devoured so much garlic bread, it wasn't even funny!
After dinner, we headed back to our tents. We had the usual argument about the rainfly: on or off. My vote is always off BUT set it up to where a quick pull gets it ON. Which has saved our butts (or at least our sleeping bags) more than once. We opted to do that, and after brushing teeth and setting alarms, went to sleep. We were TIRED.