Miles 4 Melanoma

I woke up around 8:00am, and I probably could have slept longer, but I heard Patti talking to some other people, and I wanted to say good-bye to her before she left in the airport shuttle.

Some bad news this morning. We found that three people had their bikes stolen last night. The first I heard about was (Aussie) Matt Sheehan; later I found that James (staff) was another victim, and the third was George, a rider who had only been with us for the past week. They all filed reports with the local police. George had a nice Litespeed; I assume he will be replacing it once he gets home. James had a Specialized Sequoia, and Matt had a Bianchi Brava that he had bought in Seattle. They had locked their bikes, but since fence and lamp post space near the school was limited, they just put their locked around their wheels and frames to prevent the bikes from being ridden away. This had been sufficient in the past, but this time the theives apparently carried the bikes off.

Matt’s story is somewhat amusing; as a long-distance runner, he is in very good physical condition, but did not have a lot of experience cycling. When he arrived in Seattle, he went downtown, and flagged down a cyclist on the street and asked him where to find a good bicycle shop. The man directed him to a nearby shop, where Matt entered and said “I need a bike to get me from here to Boston.” They selected the Bianchi Brava for him, a decent entry-level road bike. Then Matt asked “What sort of clothing do people wear for cycling?” The clerk pointed out some typical jerseys and shorts, so Matt said “OK, I’ll take a few of those.” They repeated the process for shoes and helmet. As he exited the store, Matt turned to the man one last time and said, “So, which way to Boston?”

Matt was doing his best to keep a positive attitude after the theft, but I could tell that he was really sad that his brand new trusty machine that had gotten his this far across the continent was gone. He joined Colleen, Meg, Jim, and I for breakfast at the Flying Saucer Restaurant, which is on Lundy’s Lane a couple blocks from our school. There was a big crowd waiting to be seated, but our party of five turned out to be an advantage, as they had a large table available for us right away. I ordered the Belgian waffles with blueberry topping, then decided to add the 99-cent breakfast special to it, which added two eggs, toast, and home fries. All were excellent.

Colleen and I decided to take a walk down to the falls. There, we saw Molly, Marisa, Colin, Jane, and Sue. We walked across the Rainbow Bridge to the U.S. side with Molly, Marisa, and Sue, then we did the Cave of the Winds tour (minus Sue; she wanted to head back to do laundry). We got soaking wet, but it was fun. Then we made the long walk back to the school; Colleen stopped with me so I could satisfy my coffee and donut craving at Tim Horton’s. We had just enough time to get a little cleaned up for dinner.

We walked back to Mick & Angelo’s. Our non-vegetarian choice was chicken parmesan; there were two huge pieces of breat meat and a large helping of spaghetti. The chicken tasted a little bland, but I finished the whole plate anyway. Then we headed back to the school for Tour Talk. There were a large number of new riders this week, the first time that the new people outnumbered the us coast-to-coast riders.

Filed under: Coast to Coast 2004 |