July 19: A Couple of New Developments

     Last night I joined Aaron and a few of his bike-riding buddies on a ride through Seattle to a popular party beach on the Puget Sound.  We had a few IPAs from a brewery in Portland, the name of which I don't recall, grilled some burgers and stayed to watch the big orange sun set behind the Olympic Mountains. 
     While talking about my big ride, I got some advice from one of Aaron's friends who warned, from experience, that US Highway 2 can be very dangerous in the mountains for bikers because of heavy traffic, the speed of that traffic around sharp turns, and fairly narrow shoulders.  He suggested a bike trail that parallels I-90 through Snoqualmie Pass.  Right then and there I decided to change my route that I had planned for six months.  The new route will be considerably longer, but safer and probably more scenic..
     Not only that, anywhere from four to 10 of Aaron's friends are going to join us for the first day of the ride up into the Cascade Mountains and then turn around and ride back to Seattle the next morning.  That could be interesting.

     Then there is the issue of my Blackberry device.  It seems I won't be able to post much more than a paragraph at a time using that thing.  I say "thing" because I can't think of a better epithet right now.  Memory issues I guess.  (Mine and the device's.)  Therefore I will have to stop at public libraries occasionally to write more detailed entries.  I just KNEW I should have packed a laptop.

     Anyway, tomorrow morning my ride begins.  I thought the day would never get here, and if it did, I was sure something would go wrong to totally screw it up.  Fortunately I was wrong on both counts.  Nothing can stop me now.

While on a night-time ride with Aaron & friends, I got this shot of the Seattle skyline from across a small bay.