Tacoma to South Hill

Saturday, June 14, 2003

After years, well two years, of dreaming and many months of planning, departure day has arrived. We played bridge last night, and I was in no rush to get going this morning. And there was no need to rush. By mid-afternoon, I had all my stuff finally organized, the boxes set up for the interim shipping, tire pressure checked, panniers packed and in the trunk. With nothing more to do, I put the bike on the car rack, the bags in the back seat and we set off for Tacoma.

With unlimited time, I might have been tempted to start from Ocean Shores on the Pacific. Instead, going down to the harbor area of Tacoma gave me a nice photo opportunity and a real, albeit more proximate, connection to salt water.

We took some pictures of the Tacoma Skyline with the bike in front, my wife headed back for home in the car, and I followed on the V-Rex.

Starting Point: Tacoma Waterfront June 14

I soon stopped. My Cateye Astrale showed cadence but no speed. It took a few minutes but I figured it out. The front wheel was on backwards. So in front of the Tacoma Dome Commuter bus station, I removed and replaced the front wheel. So much for taking the bike in to make sure everything was tiptop.

The ride home is about 17 miles from the waterfront and gains about 600 feet net. I mostly wanted to be sure everything worked under load before the real push started on Sunday. The route I take also has two short steep parts that would let me judge how much the bigger hills might tax me. Other than trying to pay attention to everything about the bike and enough about the traffic, I took things slowly. An hour and a half later, I was home. Without luggage, the trip would usually be as quick as 57 minutes or as slow as an hour twelve. I thought 11.4 mph might signal trouble making my daily quotas, but just filed the concern away for the moment.

Upon getting home, I had a great dinner and got some sleep.

17 miles in 90 minutes at 11.4 mph.

Eastbound: South Hill to North Bend