Friday I’m dropping Elmer off at Seatac so of course we have to get breakfast first.
Glo’s closed... guess it’s no longer open 24h. So we go to Seatac Denny’s. Just can’t get over the menu- eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, toast, pancakes dripping with something sugary and buttery and unlimited coffee all for $9. The challenge was finding something under 1000 calories. Well my heart won’t be broken if we had to go to Denny’s again. Then off to the dentist to get the barnacles scraped off, meeting the organizer to throw away 4 bags of clothes now too small for me, groceries, doctor appt, before heading off to Fremont to see the boys.
Still had this weird guilt about the new bike. Yes I "paid" for him but somehow I didn't "earn" it. It never bothered me before, to have a bike way beyond my skill level, but two of the same bike? The new bike was beautiful, but all I could see was Davey, now clean but somehow sad. I had initially hoped to get Davey back in time for RSVP and P2P but apparently he was not in good shape. Handlebars were dented, pedals were missing, basically stripped down with a different saddle. I found it curious they had the means to switch out the pedals and the saddle.
I heard the full story about how he was recovered. Apparently the rescuer was a UPS driver and avid cyclist who kept seeing Davey in a homeless camp while on his deliveries in West Seattle. The first time he thought, "that’s weird". The next time he thought "that titanium Davidson with couplers does not belong there, someone is missing their pride and joy". So he decides to throw the bike into the back of his van with the intent of returning to rightful owner. After making the rounds with Davey in tow, he kept the bike at home until Bill drove to his house one evening and picked him up. Apparently they had a nice chat and he even took a photo with his family, Bill, and Davey.
The new bike was so light, my arm practically flew in the air when I went to lift it up. He looked a bit like Davey’s son, the younger, faster, modern version of something once great. What would I name him? There was already Davey and Billy. Well there’s still the middle name, “Forbes”.
He also told me a story of a woman he knows whose car was stolen off their driveway, and on recovery, the keys were in the front seat. Did my tendency to self-sabotage extend to leaving Davey unprotected in case someone might steal him the night before RAMROD? We discussed tubeless tires a bit before he helped me load both bikes into the Beast.
Saturday morning the weight of 40+ delinquent charts and who knows how many unanswered messages from Friday weighed on me. All I wanted to do was lie in bed all day drinking and playing candy crush, but I had more important tasks at hand.
After 3 hour run to “cram” for Quadzilla,
I was waiting for something to be off, but I felt like it immediately clicked into place. My Garmin was dying but I did get to see a couple times how easy it was to go 50% faster. My immediate thought was, is this bike self-propelling? Did Bill secretly install an e-bike mechanism in there out of pity? Up those hills without even switching to the small front cog, and still many to go even while coasting downhill. Yeah people still passed me but it I was going up hills without leaving the saddle, with no burn in my legs.
I don't know if Davey would have also felt like that after a season of riding Billy but there was no way to feel bad about Forbsie joining the family. You can't feel anything bad when the wind is in your face and scenery with colorful leaves flying by.
