Riding Again



Patti and me. New Year's Eve 2007/2008. I'll miss her.



January 16th, 2008

OK kids! The Scrabblebiker rides again. Tomorrow I leave on my next trip. Yup, and I only started packing today. The bike is in the box and all I need to do is pack some clothing, camping gear and all the other things I'm likely to forget anyway. Yes folks, the full chaos lifestyle is back ...woohoo!!

I had planned on writing about a lovelorne Scrabblebiker heading off once again. But instead I'm writing as a Scrabblebiker in love. Yes people, I've found love ...shocking eh? So what does a Scrabblebiker do when in love? Cancel her trip? take her lover with her? ...nope, she goes on the trip while her sweetie stays behind due to work commitments. Patti will be there in my mind, and I in her's. Anyway, it's only for 2 1/2 weeks ...damn! I miss her already and I'm not even gone yet.

What's it going to be this time?

Off to Reno for 4 days for yet another Scrabble tournament. I hope I don't get my ass kicked too badly. I haven't been studying my word lists, being too busy creating Scrabble poetry for my sweetie ;-). From Reno it's down to Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico. That's 650km's north of Cabo San Lucas. From there I'll be making my way down to the Cabo area for my flight back home two weeks later. This should be a lot of fun. The broken ankle is healing quite nicely but still causing some pain. Thank goodness cycling is the one activity that does not increase the pain, as long as I don't do any faceplants while clipped in with my SPD's.

Time for some more packing and lunch. Goshdarn! gotta get ready for Patti tonight as well ...I guess I'm ordering in.




January 17th, 2008

The alarm went off at 5:30am. I couldn't swing the hammer to smash it, I didn't want to accidentally hit Patti lying beside me. Besides, she does have to work in the morning. So I sneaked her out the door, trying not to wake the roomie who had only come home at around midnight. Promptly back to bed I went, and even more promptly dreamt of Patti til my real wake up time of 8:30 ...Hey! I AM on vacation after all.

The full tilt, full chaos lifestyle I've chosen for myself fully embraced me this morning. More errands to run, emails to write and final stuff to pack. Damn! forgot the dishes in the sink. Thankfully Patti volunteered to do them while I lugged the heavy stuff to the waiting Patti wagon. She's so sweet, taking the time off work to drive me to the airport. We pried our faces apart and said our goodbyes after Patti insisted that she needed to get back to work.

The small twin prop Bombardier Q400 to Seattle was airborne in no time at all. The nimble little plane banked happily all over the place, while its' light weight jumped all over the place through the turbulence. Less than 10 minutes after levelling off, we started our descent into Seattle. To my left, towering above a puffy blanket of clouds, was Mount Baker and Mount Rainier. It was a downright serene setting. I'm still sad for leaving Patti behind. But the trip was planned before we met and a Scrabblebiker has to do what a Scrabblebiker has to do. An absolutely cool and way rad image appeared beside my plane window. The round shape of the sun reflected off the clouds as we skimmed their tops. Beautifully centred and superimposed over the reflection was the shadow of our plane. Just like a cosmic logo imprinted on the clouds.

OK, I'm sitting at SEATAC waiting for my connecting flight while sipping my obligatory layover beer.

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