t-minus 10 hours...

AND TOURING WE ARE!

HELLO ALL!!!

welcome to day 6 of the stla (seattle to los angeles) ride.

the trip started by being the lucky two passengers selected for a cancer inducing automated security check at lax then boarding our rather cushy virgin america flight to seatac at silly o'clock last sunday morning. we arrived in washington one short hop later, ripped open our boxes right at the baggage carousel built our bikes, and rode right out of seatac airport.

our ride first took us northbound about 15 miles into seattle (a cool town for sure) where we stayed with a friend of mine for the night.

the next morning saw us up and out he door at 7:15ish, still before sunrise up here in this remote part of the world. we began by cycling south down old hwy 99 to the 509 S which wrapped us around puget sound (a beautifull ride) in to tacoma wherer we stopped and had pb&j's for lunch. we then sontinued down tacoma way S to the pacific hwy at which point we became eligible to start the crimanimalz interstate chapter by jumpin on the I5 S at mile marker 124. we rode the 5 till mile marker 109 where we exited in lacey and cut down over to olympia(in the rain) and to a friend of brad's house, our final destination for the day. all said and done a 73 mile journey. not a super long day unless your riding a bike that fully loaded ways in excess of 90 lbs. brad's weighed 80+.

day 3 saw a beautifull trip through washington down old 99 again and some other small highways which i don't have route numbers in front of me and into to vader wa. (no joke) where the xtracycle unfortunately succumb to the dark side. mechanincal issues abound, a number of broken links in the cahin and deraileur issues) we werer forced to stop for the night.

day 4 we woke bright and early fixed the xtra cycle as best we could (it became a single speed) and rode until it until it broke again. at which point we hitched a ride to the 5 then after a long mornign of unsucessfull hitching i fixed it one last time (it worked!) and was able to single speed a 90 lb xtra cycle a good 35 mile down the 5 (feel my legs i'm a racer!) till brad got a flat tire. at this point his friend who we were staying with, picked us up about 10 miles north of portland. here in portland, a sweet sweet town, i realized the end of the xtracycle, bought a cannondale touring bike and am shipping the xtracycle home. we've been met by lili and brad's friend jill who will join us for the ride to l.a.

day 5 & 6 - a couple days layover in portland was really nice. i could live here, but now we must ride on. tomorrrow begins our leg to the ocean by leaving p-town and heading out to the coast to lincoln city then down to s.f. for halloween.

with that i'm off!

be well kids and see you in a few more weeks!!!

jaik