Woke up super early on a Sunday morning because T had a leg cramp. Realizing that today was the Tour of Flanders, I found a cruddy Flemish livestream that included sound advertisements before I found a better French one that featured Thor Hushovd speaking beautiful French to a journalist. I love it when my sports heros are multi-lingual. Tyler Farrar also speaks good french and it really does me proud.
30 Days of Biking is a kind of a gimmick but it's a gimmick that I can live with because it fits pretty much exactly into what I do every day. Well, except for today. I was down in Tacoma for the weekend, had not brought any bikes, but had the bike I gifted to my father in law. The only problem: loose headset. The star nut had dropped down the bottom of the steer tube and it couldn't figure out how to jam things up nicely.
Well the kids needed to get out, they had bikes, and I figured I would just hit up a local shop. Local in Lakewood means Bike Tech but on Sundays it means Performance. Yes, that Performance, by the freeway interchange, 5 miles away. We got in the van, clicked everybody in, and drove down to get the repair done.
Luckily, the shop in question is right next to a pedestrian bridge that I've always wanted to go over. This pedestrian bridge connects an elementary school, which due to it's location, features an ambient decibel reading of 83db. Loud! And the roads weren't even wet. This bridge covers 12 car lanes in 4 highway segments and takes a couple of minutes to cross. Cars sure do make cities ugly.
We played in the playground and found Easter paraphernalia (early!) that the kids put in their baskets. Then we rode back to Performance where I tipped the guy who took my bike on such short notice. The workers there were astounded by this bike: 24 inch Mongoose rigid 26er. Rear rack, fenders with mudflap, 1by7 drivetrain with ancient gripshifter, European city tires, 42 tooth front road crank off a track bike with a 13-30 7 speed in the back. Best of all, it's bomb canned John Deere green with legit stickers. I spare no expense on my bikes and on my gifts.
After getting this crazy bike out from the clutches of Performance, who were excellent by the way, we drove to a skate park in South Tacoma off 56th. It is here that A discovered the joys of gravity. T is in the distance. There are few things as fun as riding down a ramp and up another in a seamless roller coaster.
Biking distance today was approximately 200 yards, give or take.
2 comments:
"Cars sure do make cities ugly." well said.
200 yards still counts.
Hope things are well.
It's a pretty low mileage month so far but I'm having a good time. When you walk over a freeway, it really hits home how much real estate is consumed by cars. Thanks for the comment.
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