Another Milestone

I probably could have used a little more sleep after a relatively long night last night. I'm one of those guys who, regardless of how tired, has a hard time sleeping when the daylight shows up! I'm just not a "night person". Anyway I wanted to share yesterday's events, but will do it mostly with pictures in that I think Dale's "prose factory" is in shutdown mode today!!

I recently reached yet another milestone in my bicycle adventures!

Lisa, met me, Gary, and Bill at the Foothills Trail in Puyallup for what was intended to be a thirty mile ride through the Orting Valley and back. This is the same trail that was the focal point for part of the earlier "Procrastination, Milestones, and Rogue Waves" blog I posted a while back.

It is a wonderful paved path that begins just outside the town of Puyallup and winds through a pleasant river valley connecting the three towns of Puyallup, Orting and South Prairie. Fifteen miles up and fifteen miles back.

Here are the four of us in Orting's City Park, barely a quarter of the way. Left to right, Me, Bill , Gary and Lisa.

The next few pictures were all taken near the end of the trail, at the halfway point in the town of South Prairie
I think somewhere during this photo op, Bill and Gary were sharing humorous stories. Lisa was mentally planning her practice sessions of clipping and unclipping her new hi-tech shoes and pedals without hugging a tree!
And Dale was just wondering if it was really true that the wind blows both ways at the same time in this valley!!

It does, and it DID!

My "hybrid" bike doesn't allow me the opportunity to hunch down into the wind as well as the road bikes the three of them had, so after awhile I noticed I was falling back a bit. A short while later I managed to catch up. But I will guess it was more of the three of them slowing down for me, rather than Dale becoming super fast, hard pedaling "Rocket Man"!!

By the time we made it back to Orting, Hi-Tech Lisa and Bill with their Superbiker Clips and Shoes had pulled quite a ways ahead of Gary and I. We thought we could see them WAY up there. At least we wondered what those two little Orange and Yellow "dots" were so far off in the distance!

So plodding along, enjoying the easy ride back towards our starting point in Puyallup, Dale was "drafting" fairly close behind Gary, when nearly simultaneously Gary stops, Dale's brakes engage, Dale's rear wheel comes off the ground in a backwards wheelie, and we meet Lisa and are introduced to her friend Janet as they were heading back to the opposite direction!! Gary had to head back, but I had time to kill before work, and was thinking about pushing beyond our planned thirty anyway, so I accepted their gracious invitation, and turned around for some more miles and another pleasant ride.

Here is Lisa at the REI "rest area" between Orting and South Prairie, setting up her "Hi-Tech, "Gorilla Pod", Moment in Time Capturing Device".

And here is the resulting picture of the three of us. Janet, Me, and Lisa.

Dale got a little brave on the return trip and managed to single handedly reach behind, pull out his camera and snap off a couple pictures while riding without ending up as roadkill in the ditch!

Here are Lisa and Janet.





Then I got REALLY brave and scooted ahead of them, to try and capture a head on picture of the two of them by pointing backwards.

All I got was my shoulder and Lisa, following behind, probably wondering if that goof was going to end up in the ditch!!
And THEN...the image for history that Dale REALLY DID pass the FORTY MILE MILESTONE!!!!

Take care all, be safe, more later.

Islands and Trees

A title like that gives a little of a peaceful feeling doesn't it? Maybe an evergreen tufted rock here in the Pacific Northwest, or maybe a swaying palm in a warm south sea breeze.

This evening, while driving at work, I turned on the truck radio for a weather/traffic report. After a while the station aired a brief segment from a call-in talk show earlier in the day. The topic was in regard to Time Magazine's idea of using the famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo, with a tree in place of the US Flag. Their reasoning was to call attention to 'global warming'.

As one would imagine, it sounds like it stirred up a fire storm of heated debate surrounding 'sacrilege' and disgrace.

Then I got to thinking about it. You know there was a time when Dale would have been right in there flag-waving like crazy.

Not anymore.

Put all the politics aside. Forget the hero worship. Forget global warming.

Sixty-three years ago, over 26,000 US Marines and Soldiers were killed or wounded in the invasion of Iwo Jima. Nearly all of the 21,000 Japanese defenders were killed during the month long battle.

(As a side note, to attempt to illustrate the intensity of that horrific battle, I recently read a couple books on the subject. A correspondent who was on that beach later said, "Running through the hail of bullets and not getting hit, was like trying to run through rain and not getting wet." Another book related the story of one who returned to that island many years later, and remarked how the volcanic sand was "red", and upon closer inspection realised that the SAND was not red. It was simply a beach covered in rusted bullets and shell fragments!)

My guess is that if those young men lost on that island were able to talk to us today, that most of them would think a living, blossoming tree a far better memorial than a rusty flag pole.

Here is my memorial. For them.

Daffodils, Tulips, and Hyacinths!!

And you probably wonder, where on earth does Dale get these off the wall blog titles?!!

Yesterday was Wednesday. Bike Ride Twenty Miles in Kent Wednesday. Hey if you gotta find a routine, I cant think of many better ways to do it! ;)

So I run up to Kent where I meet my freinds Lisa and Gary, and we started the very pleasant ride up the Green River Trail...and I'll repeat it here. Just as I was told, King County, Washington has some really kewl bike paths. Of course I base that on the fact that THIS path is the only King County trail I've ridden, but if it is any similarity to the rest. My guess as well, is that there are even better riding paths up there.

Absent-minded Dale manages to forget his camera and so, pirates a couple pics from Lisa. Besides hers are a lot better than mine, so maybe I didnt REALLY 'forget" my camera!! HAA!!

OK, OK, seriously I DID really forget mine, but since she graciously allows me to swipe hers to post here, why not post those better than I can take myself! :) So all photos, courtesy of Lisa and her hitech camera and talent!

This one was taken at our ten mile, halfway turn around point ( I actually measured this on my neato, groovy, kewl wireless bike computer that read 10.03...or something like that!)

So, we get turned around and head back south towards Kent with the "Tulip" ringing her bells and the "Daffodill and HyacinthMan" shouting ring ring bell noise to harmonize through the echoing tunnels and underpasses like a bunch a danged goofs!!

(NO! I did NOT say 'harmonizing in our underpants'!! And I don't need a danged hearing aid!! Whadjusay?? HAAA!!!)

Hey! Who says "fortysomethings" can't act like little kids!! And YES!! We are ALL "fortysomethings"!! ;D

You know that reminds me. All the strife and discord in our crazy, modern world could be lessened significantly if more people just dumped all that dopey, self imposed seriousness 'becuase I am grown up and have to act like it', hogwash and let the 'kid' in them come out to play once in awhile, the world would be a far happier place. I can tell you, I know three people anyway, who are discovering "the secret".

Maybe our esteemed, world "leaders" should all go out and buy bicycles with big brass bells!!

Nearing the end of our ride, we stopped to pose by some other bike riders. Many have mistakenly assumed that these are metal sculptures. In reality and known only to people with bizzare imaginations, these are real people, who one day, while riding on a rainy day without proper rainy day stuff, froze, rusted on the spot, like Dorothy's TinMan! One day we'll have to remember to bring our oil cans on a ride to save these poor characters.

You know, come to think of it. This picture DOES resemble Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow dont it!! HAAA!! Wheres Toto?!!

And so, you still ask, "Whats with the off the wall blog titles? OK Ill tell ya, its really a simple, enjoyable tale.

On our ride back we passed an office complex and glanced over at our reflections in the window and said to ourselves, "Hey those guys look like a bunch of flowers on bikes!! So, there ya have it. Its all in the shirts! Yellow Daffodils, Pink Tulips and Blue Hyacinths! Are we craving Springtime up here or what!! HAA!!

More rides and more tales later. Thats my blog for today!!

Be Safe!

Celebrations and "Safaris" !!

Not yet sure if its lack of sleep, not strong enough coffee, or a vague rushed feeling that I still need a nap, and a bike ride before I start work in three and a half hours or what, but lengthy prose escapes me this morning!

Yesterday I helped my friend celebrate her successful SIXTY MILE bicycle event this past weekend with lunch at Pt Defiance ( Oh Man I'm feeling hunger pangs again..this blog will have to be short!!!)

Afterwards we took off, cameras in hand, for an impromptu "photo safari" in our local park, where I was taught a few of the finer points of 'pitchur takn' from a real pro! Of course my weenie little camera pales next to her hi-tech photograph-ic gadgetry and talent, but here are a few samples of an early Spring day in Washington State.

It would appear that certain people really get into their work wouldnt it?

And then we found, rocks and seaweed, the resident seagull, and flowers. TONS of flowers!

I have mentioned on occasion, during these outdoor excursions how much one sees when walking or bicycling. I have lived much of my life right here in Tacoma. During part of my childhood in University Place in the 1960's, before UP was a city, and long before it became developed, the forest was our backyard playground. Maybe I didn't "see it" then, but I never noticed ferns like these growing from tree trunks.

So with this small sampling, welcome to early Springtime in Washington!!

And with that I need food, fresh air, and a nap in a yet to be determined order.

More later!!!!

Satisfaction!

Woke up this morning to a BEAUTIFUL sun-filled day! Fiddled around down here on the boat for a little bit, then headed out for a few loops on Glinda around Pt Defiance Park....

Reality Reminder! You have to remember that Dale has just endured his first entire winter here in Washington in TEN YEARS. For the better part of the last decade, I'd come home for a few days then leave for sunnier climes. Well that same thing applies to the first REAL day of Spring here in Washington. During those years away, I forgot what happens in Washington when the sun comes out!!

Reality began to set in when I saw a cop directing traffic into the park several blocks from the park entrance! So tricky Dale just figures, 'Ah well, Ill just go in the back way'...Uh Huh...They were parked all the way outide the park entrance!!

So Dale, still in the blissful throes of a sunny day decides, "Ok, the park is out, I'll just head over to secondary plan. So, in full Spring mode, Dale rolls down the window and fires up the local oldies station, and lacking only foam dice, CRUISES on over to Chambers Bay.........Hmmmm, parking full up over there too! Then Mick Jagger starts whining to me that he "Cant get no Satisfaction" and still in Happy, Spring mode, Dale yells at Mick.....Ahhh Shaddupawreddy!!

By Gads, Dale is going to find his satisfaction SOMEWHERE!!

So, off to a favorite feeding trough and a purty dang good French Dip....which leads to a purty dang good sweet tooth.....which leads to a purty dang good giant cookie with a pile of ice cream that looks like the "Iceberg that ate New Jersey" covered in caramel and chocolate!! Hey, when I indulge I indulge ok! HAAA!

Now I am peacefully relaxed and happy in the sun on my quiet little barge in the bay trying to take a nap and blog at the same time which dont work too well and refusing to get in a crabby mood about going to work in a half n hour :(

More later!! E N J O Y!!!!

Ragitty Dolls!

No one is too sure, or accepting of the notion of the SUN actually making an appearance, however this morning it HAS!! What really bums me out is the knowledge that I have to go to work in a couple hours! What a SUCKY thought!

Never did get a bike ride in today. But I did run up to the hardware store for another hose nozzle for my big Springtime project. Winter has been very nasty, not only for us people, but it was especially hard on my poor boat!

My young neighbors here at the marina, a couple nice kids, installed a diesel heater to survive this downright SH**TTY winter we've all endured. So, with that AND the obnoxious harbor taxi up in front of both of us, little specks of diesel soot gathered to spend the winter on my deck. I wont even mention the grime that is ALWAYS down here from the simple reality of living in a downtown, industrial marina next to railroad tracks and freeways! Sometimes I miss that nice, quiet, park-like, clean, marina down in Olympia. Earlier this year, my neighbor, apologising all over the place, offered to wash his soot off my boat, but I figure what for, it'll just get dirty again. I could have been a grumpy old turd and whined, but really what would that do other than make the poor kids feel worse. So I decided to just wait till Spring. However, now that I have discovered how much scrubbing goes into removing diesel soot, I should have let him go for it!! HAA!!

So with that I can say that Dale's poor neglected, winter-weary, "Rag Doll" ain't quite so ragitty anymore! And I have wet pants, (still oil stained from yesterday!), wet feet, and a neglected, starving, empty, stomach, and with this great day, a really crappy attitude about work :(

More later!!

Tulips, Daffodils....and Dirty Pants!

So one would ask, what the heck kind of title to a blog is THAT!?? One with a discerning imagination could conjure up all SORTS of images with that I suppose!

OK so truth be told. Yesterday evening, my friend and I enjoyed a very pleasant 20 mile ride on the Green River Trail before we scarfed down a well deserved feast of bacon cheeseburgers and fish and chips. Anyway, as we rode along our chat included daffodils and tulips which made me comment, "Hey! Daffodils and Tulips! What a kewl idea for a blog title!!" So there ya go. Pretty simple stuff huh?

Now I bet you want to know all about 'dirty pants'. OK I'll tell ya....but I refuse to put into words the descriptive language I used when I learned I wrecked my favorite pair of blue jeans! I mean come on, you know how it is. Your favorite jeans are like old shoes and comfort food! And you just dont mess with stuff like that!

Anyway the story. A long overdue oil change on the boat was in the works. Next time I find a four inch mechanical robot to do this nasty job. I was kind of thinking that if I could find the Teutonic Marine Motor Engineer who designed this thing, that I could tie him up to the bottom of the keel and take him for a leisurely cruise over barnacle encrusted rocks!!!!!

One needs to keep in mind that I am 6 foot plus and this engine access is only about two feet across. If that weren't challenge enough, the oil filter is way down underneath and off on the side!! You cant see it in this picture, but the clearance under the motor is MAYBE four inches, and the side access is in fractions!! Lets not forget either that I banged my head on a hinge that I didn't get out of the way of, and dang near put out an eye hanging my mug over the top of the engine and that was just to check the dipstick!! Yeeesh! ( For perspective, if someone was standing behind me while I was in there and took this pic, my hunched over back would have filled the entire picture. Yeah its TIGHT in there! )

So, in all the ensuing contortionist acrobatics, I got danged oil stains on my best danged jeans!

Yeah, Yeah I know, wear cruddy clothes when you do cruddy work. I know all this, but the other voice in my other ear says, " Your good Dale....REALLY Good Dale, you and ONLY you, can pull this off perfectly well without so much as a smudge on a fingertip!" Ya right!

OK thats my story and thats my blog.

I cant think of a witty title for this blog!!

Despite some local opinions about our Pacific Northwest Spring weather and the lack thereof, I decided to undertake an investigatory exploration.

Yesterday, when an intended short ride before work was interrupted by a roving rain squall (actually there were several roving rain squalls), I opted for a walk instead of a bike ride at our local park. I was glad I had my camera handy just in case any wild beasts were loose, and discovered this amazing phenomenon!!

What I was shocked to discover were these GIANT TEN FOOT TALL DAFFODILS!!! Proving once again, that although we might wonder what the dangdadgummed delay is in getting Springtime going around here, we can still rest assured that at least the FLOWERS are getting ready here in Washington State!!

In other news, today I DID get in my much needed bike ride! It had been nearly a WEEK with all this cruddy, wet, weather we've had to endure, and I felt it! Knocked out ten miles before heading off to work.

Tomorrow another twenty miler and the weather is REALLY supposed to start drying out soon! Really it's TRUE!!!

(Photos provided by Dale's cheapo camera!!)

UPDATE: I probably should in all fairness, mention that the story of 'ten foot tall daffodils', was only a tenfoot tall notion in Dale's half asleep imagination! ;) We dont grow em THAT big around here....maybe in Puyallup they do!!! hohohehehaha!!

Help! I'm surrounded by 'bozos' with the ability to breed!!

It happened again. Although I am no longer surprised by it, or even phased beyond finding a blog topic.

As some of you know, I work as a gasoline tanker truck driver. One requirement of the job is securing the unloading site with bright orange, highly visible, safety cones. They aren't intended as targets by people in cars too distracted, uncaring, self absorbed to avoid them.

Their intent is to protect a work area where I have multiple hoses leading from the truck and trailer into large underground fuel tanks. These hoses and the fittings where they connect, unload gasoline at the rate of nearly 500 gallons per minute.

I wonder if these same, distracted, uncaring, self absorbed 'bozos' might grasp the image of what would happen should they drive their cars, with hot engines over one of those fittings.

So, just the other night, right on cue, there goes "Mr Bozo in Acura" right over a cone and halfway into my "secured" work area in an impatient attempt to gain that extra inch in line. I walk up to the window, as politely as my irritation allows and inform him that they have one of my cones jammed under their car simply because they weren't paying attention. The standard response so far, and almost verbatim is, " It wont cause any damage will it!?" To which I politely as my irritation allows, inform them of the spectacular consequences to ensue should they drive over one of my fittings with gasoline pouring through at 500 gallons a minute under a hot engine, and THEN I offer the suggestion regarding the cone of, "Aren't you glad it wasn't a small child?"

"It won't cause any damage will it?" Good Grief!! The greatest concern is that a piece of semi- soft rubber cone will scratch the undersides of their precious Oldsmobeemer! No clues at all!!

Along these same lines, I was chatting with a station attendant one evening while unloading. Often the topics of conversation are about these very same 'bozos'.

He related the story of how a few months back, Madam Bozo in SUV pulls up to his pump, ciggie in full burn hanging from her nicotine stained lips. He informs her of the NO SMOKING laws in gasoline stations and in turn is curtly advised to "F-Off"!! So, he advises her that he will simply flip the switch and shut down the pumps. Her excuse then becomes "I haven't got an ashtray!" To which her daughter ( great parental examples huh!!?) offers, "Mom you can use my soda can". Ahhhh the wisdom of a child!

Another amazing observation I have is how gasoline tanker trucks seem to act as a magnet to bozos. After midnight, not much traffic, eight pumps in a station, place is empty and here comes Mr or Ms Gasoline Purchasing Q. Public. EIGHT pumps on four islands to choose from. Where do they go? Right next to Gasoline Tanker Truck dumping 11,000+ gallons of highly flammable liquid! Just last week I see such odd behavior and as the "driver" gets out to pump gas, Nicotine Addict Passenger With Window Down is puffing away less than ten feet from 11,000 gallons of gas!! At least THIS one when I informed them, managed an authentic "Oh S**t, I'm sorry!!

If these stories aren't scary enough, keep in mind these people BREED!!!!!

Before I had this job, I always wondered about the seemingly bizarre laws in the State of Oregon where it is illegal for people to pump their own gas. Now I think I have a clue!!

Sometimes I think, there ARE truck driving jobs where its just toilet paper back there!!

Procrastination and Milestones

There have been rumors that Dale fell into a gravel pit in Mongolia, or a giant mutant whale came along and swallowed him, boat and all in the night!

Both rumors are false! I was gently informed yesterday by a good friend that "Its not like you don't have anything to talk about".

How true!! It HAS been an eventful week. My problem is that there has been so much to talk about that its all blended in my mind now!

Its sort of like food. On my other posts, I have concentrated on one particular event or maybe two. Its easy to post about 'ham n eggs' or a 'strawberry milkshake'. But now that I've been a lazy blog poster, I'm sitting here with a giant pot of 'vegetable soup with rice and barley and a handful of exotic spices' and cant figure out where to put the carrots and onions on the same spoon! So, if I tend to ramble here, please bear with me, as rambling seems to be my way of getting sorted.

Big Milestone this week. I think it was last Monday. I met my buddy Lisa and her friend Ken, at a nearby bike path for a ride. Until last Saturday when she and I did the 21 mile ride that involved the flat tire story, (See the "Living and Learning" blog) I had been content, and felt quite accomplished with a ten or fifteen mile series of loops through our local park. But last Monday the three of us pulled off a THIRTY MILE RIDE!!



Here is a pic of the three of us at the halfway mark and the 'end of the trail'. It was a great ride although the weather just had to stick its boogery nose into the whole thing! On the way up we fought a bit of a headwind that to me anyway, made flat ground feel like a mountain!! It WAS however much easier on this trip. The first time I rode up there was on the back half of this route, which amounted to fifteen miles for me. On that particular trip I rode it unaware that I had a brake dragging! Nothing like blissfully pulling 'Dumbo' the elephant in a little red wagon!!

Anyway, back to the headwind story. A general assumption would be, one would think, that if your going one way into a headwind, that one could freely sail back with a tailwind..right? WRONGO!!! The nasty weather gods took a look down at those three crazy bike riders and thought amongst themselfs, "Hey Barney, ya wanna have some fun with these characters? ;)"

So off we go on the return leg and into another HEADWIND!! Trouble was this headwind brought along to play, some rain to include bits and pieces in varying assortments and quantities of FROZEN CHUNKS.

There was some concern for Lisa as she had started the ride not expecting such turns in the weather ( none of us did!) and was dressed for a dry ride. Freezing rain on bare legs is not a good combination. The poor girl was nearly blue when we finished. Afterwards she introduced me to a little Mexican joint, that I always thought of as 'fast food" however it was not, and was actually quite good, where we had a chance to warm up and celebrate our thirty mile milestone!!!

The day before yesterday I was invited up to Kent for another ride with Lisa and some of her friends. Folks I am STILL relishing the great feeling of surrounding myself with normal, fun, non-whining, clean people who do not live in truckstops!!! It almost feels like a re-birth or re-entry from a long extended space trip to Jupiter!

At any rate, Lisa, Stephanie, Gary and myself met and began a wonderful ride ( it was breezy again, BUT sunny and Spring-like!!)

Here we are at the 5 mile mark, where Gary and Stephanie's schedules and time restraints turned them back.

Lisa and I continued on over the bridge and pedaled on another five miles, and part of that route was a new adventure for both of us as she had not been on a section of that trail until that day. Once we got a general idea of how this path worked, and where it was headed, we had some ideas about an eventual farther ride down the road. Its true, just as I was told, King County, Washington has some really KEWL bike trails!!

We escaped that headwind breeze on our return trip and enjoyed a rather leisurely cruise back to complete a twenty mile ride!!

I was mentioning yesterday that I was still trying to figure out who this guy in my mirror was, and if I would end up looking at thirty miles as a 'warm up'. Folks you need to remember that I've only been doing this bicycle stuff for about six weeks or so. When Lisa got me on that first 5 mile ride as a 'dare' the thought of riding a bike 5 miles was a BIG, BIG step. Now I think, 5 miles? Are you serious? Is that ALL?!!

After our ride, we stopped off for dinner at a seafood place nearby. Sounds like food is connected with these rides doesn't it! Hey, let me tell you...burning up all those calories on these rides gets one downright RAVENOUS!

Often Ive found that finding decent 'non-seafood' at a seafood restaurant is challenging at best. (I'm not a big seafood eater) However, this particular place turned out one dang fine bacon cheeseburger!! Yeah I ate it because I CAN!! ;)

The other part of this blog has little to do with bicycles. Well no, I guess it does actually.

As some of you know, I live aboard a 33 foot sailboat on Puget Sound. Storing a bicycle aboard is a dicey situation at best. Hauling it on board and taking it off again every time I wanted a ride was getting to be a pain. Not to mention that the salt air was already beginning to show some rusty consequences, and getting the bike on and off in tight spaces was scuffing up my deck. And where I had it locked up it was blocking some locker hatches that I need to get into. Then I realised that this arrangement was going to be impossible if I felt like going for a sail. So I figure, Glinda needs a home.

This is how bad I have been bitten by the bike bug. Who on earth goes out and buys a TRUCK to house a bicycle!!!!

Yesterday I bought a matching white canopy for it, and I'm trying to devise a permanent way of securing Glinda in the back.

I'll also add that riding a bit higher than in the car, has its rewards. Now I can see out past the cars parked far too close to the intersections that block my view without nosing halfway into the street, and I don't feel like I need an arm extension when reaching up to the ATM drive ups! AND it has a kewl CD player!
Yeah I'm happy now!

More to follow. Be safe.