Simple pleasures

Sunday, 29 October

An extra hour of sleep and a ride on a tandem. What more do you need?

Thanks to new teammate and long-time friend Brian (with permission from his wife), I had a sweet ride today on a steel Erickson tandem. Nice bike, experienced captain. Life was all very good. Who cares that it was cold, that it poured rain from Renton to Mercer Island, that there were leaves everywhere, or that we couldn't just let the bike rip through some of the turns on MI (because of the wet pavement under the wet leaves)?

We had to test the waters (aka "show off") and punched it after the little riser on Rainier Avenue; we managed to drop everyone but Jonah. After about half a mile, though, we faded big time (aka "blew up"). They got their revenge by ramping it up on Mercer Island, which is mostly uphill when you ride clockwise. It was all a ton of fun, though.

Brian's 3-year-old daughter interrogated me before we left: "Why do you want to ride the tandem?" "Because it's so much fun." "Why?" It's just fun, trust me!