Seattle to Portland – Day 8: So now we ride bikes

4:30 a.m.
Ring, ring, ring…snooze.

5 a.m.
MV gets up. He tells me that I should really consider doing the same.

I am still not that nervous. A little, but not too much.

5:35 a.m.
Heck, I should probably get out of bed if we are riding at 6.

6 a.m. or probably a little later
Coach Steve is finally getting everyone to begin riding to the start. Getting over 40 excited cyclists moving in the same direction is like herding – what is that thing that you herd and it doesn’t work? Problem is, MV is still locking up the truck. But I assume we will just catch them right away. Then we stop for photos from Alissa. By the time we go, the tail of the group is nowhere to be seen. And we don’t really know where the start is exactly, just a general idea. We see some other cyclists and go over to follow them. But they sound confused too. So we decide to just jump onto the course right by the hotel. It cut off about .9 miles but I didn’t think we would notice them missing at the end. And since it is not a timed race, we didn’t need to cross the actual start – so we are off. MV says we started at about 6:30 a.m.

We later find out that the team got lost getting to the start and crossed the starting line at 7:15 a.m.

*insert long ride here. have not yet processed this information*

3:30 p.m. –ish
So we finally get to Bethel Church. S&J are still waiting with the truck. They have been there since 10:30 a.m. We tell them to go have fun and we climb in the truck. We decide that the big folded piles of moving blankets look really nice and comfy (keeping in mind that they are borrowed from a friend who is retiring from being high end antiques dealer and has pristine blankets, not some scary rentals blankets). We flop down on the blankets and fall asleep. Best nap ever! (OK, you are right – at that point, I would have even slept on scary rental blankets.)

MV eventually gets up and goes for a shower, but I stay on the blankets and greet (startle) people as they come up and look in the truck for their stuff. I am like a truck troll. When I say, “Sure, hop up and get your bag,” one guy says, “I’ll pay you a lot of money if you just get it for me.” Hmmm…

Then I get tired of the truck. I head to the room. We are set up in three classrooms in a church, just in rows on the floor. MV has our air mattress all set up (best $40 ever spent!) and I lay around with a bunch of folks and tell stories from the ride. Eventually it occurs to me that I never showered. Gross! So I say it will be much better for all of us if I go do that and head off.

At some point we eat (luckily they have a salad bar with beans cuz that’s what I eat) and then S&J come back so we hang with them for a bit.

9:30 p.m.
We go to our room. Of the three MI TNT room, ours is the one with the lights off. We sneak over everyone to our mattress and that’s all I know. Apparently the other rooms are a bit more hardy than us. I’m cool with that!