The season has begun

Spring is just around the corner and The FeMan was eager to get back out on the roads. He sent out Email messages and posted offers to ride on feman.com and got responses and agreements to go riding. The Hammer and The Rocket committed to a ride.

The agreed upon route was a circumnavigation of Lake Washington.

At 8:00 am the trio met at The Hammer's house for some last minute taunting and caffeine. Then they were off.

The first obstacle was navigating a section of mud in order to ride up the alley. The Rocket glided through on his mountain bike, even though it was street ready with slicks and all.

Off the mud and onto the concrete and they were headed north and into the wind. The Hammer was very concerned about frost on the wooden bridges the group would encounter and rode with great caution during bridge crossing, thus giving a break away opportunity.

The FeMan had a devilish route in mind, with plenty of uphills to keep the group's attention. However, the first section of the ride was uneventful along the Burke Gilman trail to Kenmore. The FeMan was in a steady mood, so he let The Hammer and The Rocket beat up on each other as they saw fit.

Then off the trail and on to the first hill of the day: Juanita. Three miles or so of steady climbing, then magnificent coasting back down to the lake level in Kirkland. Near the top of the big climb The Rocket attacked! The Hammer answered and they were off sprinting to the top. Grind, grind, grind as The FeMan followed along. His mantra was "Lettem go, lettem go, lettem go" repeated over and over in a droning, hypnotic voice.

The FeMan felt a need to see a man about a dog, so he asked for a stop in Kirkland. The other two were agreeable and discussed how they could break away as soon as The FeMan dismounted. By the time the stop arrived, they also had become interested in dogs and stopped as well.

The Hammer shared cookies and all three discussed weighty issues: The Rocket wanted to lose some weight, The FeMan displayed how his excess weight turns into stomach fat, and The Hammer taunted the other two with his lean frame.

As they were getting ready to leave, The Hammer pointed out to The Rocket that one his his newly attached fenders was loose and flapping in the breeze. All searched through their emergency gear looking for wire or twisties; the area was searched, but these Eastsiders are way too clean, there was nothing to pick up.

Then The Hammer went dumpster diving and came up with a plastic bag. He proposed to fabricate a piece of twine with the bag plastic and use this to tie down the offending fender.

It worked!

A portion of the bag was rolled and threaded through the bracket holes and tied off. This left a totally cool plastic tail to flutter off the back of The Rocket's bike. He, however, was much less enthralled by this coolness and ripped off the excess.

Then off to the south through Kirkland.

As The FeMan and The Hammer rode along side by side, The Hammer asked The FeMan if he could guess what had been in the bag.

"Oh, no! Not dog poop?"

Yes, indeed. The Rocket's bike was held together by dog-poo-plastic.

Both politely asked him to keep downwind to avoid being grossed out. He was not very interested and stayed right in the group for the remainder of the ride.

South of Kirkland, up the sleeper hill of Hunt's Point Drive with a quick stop to check out the $750,000 shack house with lot. It's true what they say about real estate: location, location, location. It sure isn't the quality of the building.

West to Medina where they observed dueling cranes. Was it more Microsoft millionaires shouting out to the world "My crane is bigger than your crane!"

What's the world coming to when there's crane envy?

What is being brought in to these construction site? Great boulders barged in from the mountains? Entire swimming pools built off site? Are the cement trucks just lifted up from the freeway and hauled in so that the neighbors won't be subjected to the sound of diesel engines? Send your suggestions to The FeMan.

Rolling hills into Bellevue, then the steep climb up in order to drop down into Beaux Arts. (Cool name for a village, huh?)

Through the I-90 swamp on the bike path, Lake Washington Boulevard on new pavement, then cruddy pavement and on to Renton, fighting gusty head winds all the way.

Boy did that turnaround at the south end of the lake beckon!

Tail winds were a-callin'.

With the wind at their backs, they sailed north. The Hammer took the lead on Rainier Avenue as they blasted along. Words were few, but he did show them where Fast Eddie dropped both wheels into a major crack and flatted both tires.

Just a couple more easy hills, then down to Seward Park and Lake Washington Boulevard.

The Rocket took the lead and away they went again.

Then an easy roll through the battle zone section of pavement in Leschi and up Madrona, the last hill. At the top, The FeMan said his goodbyes and trundled on up to his house and some blessed rest and food.

It was good, it was fun.

The season has begun.

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