Road bike

I dusted off the old Trek 2000 bicycle today for the first time in several years. I bought it in 1987 for the Seattle to Portland ride. I see now it's the "Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic." Back then it was just the STP. Anyway, I'd been thinking of getting a fairly serious road bike, and that ride was my excuse. By today's standards, I suppose the down-tube shifters and six-speed freewheel would be considered quaint, but back then it was nearly a full-out racing machine. I made one concession to my less-than-race-ready self: my spindly little legs couldn't handle the standard gearing. I had the corncob-like rear gears replaced with something a little more forgiving.

Karen, Dan, and I pooh-poohed the idea of taking two days to ride the 200 miles to Portland. We'd do it in a single day like any real cyclists would.

Ha.

We made it about 50 miles, to Spanaway, WA. It's a little foggy in my memory, but we had a number of problems: there was something wrong with my bike; one of the people riding with us was throwing temper tantrums; Dan was bleeding from a crash. I'm pretty sure it was raining, too. Funny -- you'd think I'd remember that meteorological detail before the others. I know it rained at least a little.

I don't think we were all that far behind our predicted pace, but we just weren't having the fun that would normally be guaranteed by, say, 13 hours on a bike.

We bailed out. Called it quits. Went home and dried off.

I put thousands of miles on that bike over the years, but today I was still surprised at how it feels to ride it. What little riding I've done lately has been on a heavier bike with fat, slow tires and a trailer carrying two children. Switching to the 2000 was like going from a Suburban with a boat trailer to an MX-5.

It's a sweet ride.

Boo Who?

Even though Thomas hasn't caught on to the concept, he and I traded knock-knock jokes last night as I prepared supper. Of course I told the "boo" joke. Several nonsensical jokes later, he pulled this one on me:

Thomas: Knock knock!
Me: Who's there?
Thomas: Squirrel.
Me: Squirrel who?
Thomas: Don't cry!

Bike trailer

Around four years ago, we bought a used bike trailer (a Burley. Maybe this one; I'm not sure). It sat in the garage, gathering dust, until last night. We got it for Thomas; two little sisters later, and it finally saw the road. It's lucky we did it now, because Thomas is almost too big now to ride in it.

The tires were flat, of course, and we don't have the owner's manual. Still, it only took a little while to pump some air and figure out how to unfold the trailer, put on the wheels, and attach it to a bike. It seems like a really good design. The hitch in particular is ingenious.

The girls took the first ride while Thomas rode his own bike. Ava tired of it after a while (mostly the helmet, I suspect), so she went back home with Mommy, and I wedged Thomas in with Johanna. They fit, but there's not much room to spare.

I'm hoping to use it more than once every four years.

Doughboy

Turns out I'm older than the Pillsbury Doughboy. The Michelin Man is much older.

Wordsmith

Bob Roll, in his daily Tour de France report describing how Lance Armstrong crushed his main rivals today, said "The wienerschnitzel is bitter indeed."

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Weather.com claims that the high temperature here yesterday was 84°F. Well, I was out running at about 1:30, and I don't believe it. I was on the fitness trail along I-29, and where the trail dips down just southeast of Rainbow Play Systems, it was an oven. I could see the flag at Rainbow flying straight out from the wind, but at the bottom of that little hill, there wasn't the slightest breeze. It had to be near 100°F. Normally, I'm pretty slow, but today I may have set a new standard.

Back on top

I was doing a little ego surfing, searching for "Thvedt" on google, and found that these pages are back in the catbird seat. The last few times I tried that search, a tattoo artist in Elgin, Illinois, named Erik Thvedt, has been the first result. I don't know how, but I've knocked him down to number two.

Update: I just came across an interesting article that describes how Google ranks pages.