Sunday, I took Terri out for a little bit of an extended valley spin, with your’s truly deviating a couple of times to do some climbing at Cemetery Hill off Orillia Road, and the extended Macadam Loop in Tukwila. Terri is lovin’ the new bike.

Sunday I took Terri out to breakfast, then went for a short spin with “the guys”. Insert adolescent humor here:

Sunday night, we went to the Cirque du Soleil show Corteo. The show was great, as it has been the other three times we’ve been to Cirque. The “plot-line” of the show is the celebration of the life of a clown who has passed away. Not necessarily the happiest of topics, but his spirit rides into the afterlife on a bicycle. I should hope so.

Just over a week until the Ride of Silence.  I hope you all can find a local version of this ride to attend and help honor those injured or killed by collisions with automobiles.

In two weeks, I’ll be riding day three of the Century Ride of the Centuries in Pendleton.  I’m very much looking forward to this ride in Eastern Oregon, as it is always fun and very well supported.  They still have some availability for this ride, but registration will close at the end of this week, and no on-site registrations will be taken this year.  Get ‘em while they’re hot.

• I had to drive up to “the core” to do this ride, as riding to and from Gasworks from home would have been schedule-prohibitive.
• I saw several folks struggling with the Seattle terrain on last year’s version, specifically the climb up Eastlake to REI, then the ride over the Dexter hump. Seattle doesn’t have a lot of “flat” options that would also meet the general “ride the streets in rememberance” theme of the Ride of Silence.
• Despite several elbows to the ribs of my riding compadres in the south end, precious few actually made the trip to Seattle for this event.
• Having spent a few years now vying for space with the automobiles in the greater Green River valley, I figured it was high-time to help raise awareness in my local communities.

Therefore:

DATE: May 21, 2008
TIME: 6:30 pm

WHERE: Kent Park & Ride: 902 W James St (N. Lincoln Ave & W. James St), Kent Washington
Also 100’s of locations worldwide, including Seattle and Tacoma Washington

I will be running a local version of this ride, for those that cannot make the trip from the Kent valley up to Seattle or south to Tacoma for the larger local versions of this ride. We will be starting from the old Kent Park & Ride just east of Hwy 167, between James and Smith Streets. The ride will begin at 6:30 p.m., but please show up early. Please note that there are no bathrooms available at the start location, so plan accordingly. The ride will be approx. 12 miles in length, almost completely flat. We will ride at 10-12 mph through downtown Kent, and down to a portion of Auburn before returning to the Park & Ride.

The Seattle ride will start from Gasworks Park at 6:30 p.m. If you live close to Seattle, you are urged to attend the Seattle event. There is also a well established version of the ride to the south, in Tacoma. All locations are listed on the Ride of Silence website:

Ride of Silence website

The official count of riders was 260, far less than last year’s estimated 700. From what I’ve gleaned from the Internets, some groups felt like this memorial ride was a bit too staid and somber, and they chose to not participate.

This was Terri’s first experience riding in downtown Seattle. She was apprehensive before the ride. She hates driving her car in downtown Seattle, and she was about to ride her bicycle down these same streets. She did great, and she felt quite accomplished afterward. Deservedly so.

1,804 miles year to date.

I chose to participate in the Seattle version of the Ride of Silence, a group ride to honor those injured or killed in bike-car accidents. There were a couple of other locales I could have chosen that would have been closer (Renton or Tacoma) but I figured that the biggest turnout, and the most unique experience, would be the Seattle iteration.

I connected with my friends Kevin and Nina at their house off 35th Ave. We rode the few miles down to the start point at Gasworks Park. We were a good 30 minutes before the start time, but there was already a large crowd forming. Several Cascade ride leaders were directing traffic. They were having folks queue up down the walkway toward the restrooms from the parking lot.

We met up with friend and ex-coworker Julie at the start, and the group got rolling a little after the appointed hour of 7PM. We were near the front of the pack, so we didn’t experience the trickling funnel effect that Jim Carson experienced, althought the light at Stone Way was tedious, to say the least. This was the one intersection that could have used a bit of traffic control as it fragmented the group by a lot.

We headed across the Fremont Bridge, my first big-city grated bridge deck experience. Not so bad, but it’s not something I’ll seek out in the future. From there we went right, past Seattle Pacific University and around Queen Anne Hill via Nickerson / 15th / Elliott Avenue.

Then it was up Western & Denny to 2nd Avenue. The stops for red lights were frequent until the point where we passed the Moore Theater. The ride at this point was packs of 20 or so riders per block, bunching and rolling through each stoplight. It being a beautiful evening, there were folks out on the sidewalk at several venues watching the parade. We were asked several times what we were doing, but this being a Ride of Silence, there were few responses from the cyclists.

We rode all the way down 2nd to the Pioneer Square area, then doubled-back and heading north on 4th Avenue. The route back was then Olive (or thereabouts), Westlake, Eastlake, a quick loop through the U district, and back to Gasworks. I stopped and saw Julie pass by one more time, then I grabbed Kevin and Nina and we headed back to their place from the University Bridge, rather than doing the last little run into, and out of, Gasworks. The ride was running late, and we had a way to go in the failing light. We got our hill-work in on the way, then capped the night off with a fresh ale at the Fiddler’s Inn on 35th.

I’m glad I decided to go to Seattle and do this ride. First and foremost, there are far too many car-bike collisions and anything I can do to help raise awareness is time well spent. Second is the fact that I may not have another opportunity to do a ride of this nature through downtown Seattle. Unless I start commuting downtown again, the logistics of getting up there for Critical Mass or anything makes the chances remote, at best. Lastly, what is better than going out and riding with friends, and making a few new ones along the way?