My grounded plane was finally wheels up at 9:15 AM, much later than the 6:45 AM scheduled. But hey, that’s traveling for you.

Tim and I got back to our respective homes on Monday evening. I was due to fly out again Thursday for a visit to Raleigh in Kent, Washington. So we had two days to put the finishing touches on the magazine before we had to send it to the printers. So Monday I sat in front of my computer and banged out prose like there was no tomorrow! I went into the office Wednesday and helped proof the magazine, but I had to leave Tim at 11:00 PM so I could pack for this trip. What I basically did was take my clothes I wore for Greenville, removed the really stinky ones, added a couple of fresh t-shirts and zipped up the duffel bag. I was packed! Four hours of sleep later I was jumping into a cab for the airport. Didn’t I just return from an airport? At least this trip I will still be on Pacific Standard Time, so I got that going for me…

Other than the drama of this morning and the delay in take-off it has been a good day. Did a quick 27 mile ride on the ’08 Raleigh (see www.roadmagazine.net for more details). As I type this I am in a spare bedroom of Raleigh’s marketing guy Reed Pike. I know what you are thinking. Isn’t it uncomfortable staying at someone’s house? Well if they have a collection of human heads on display, sure it is. But I know Reed and to my knowledge he has no odd collections in the house other than cycling related paraphernalia, which I can relate to. Plus staying in a real room rather than a hotel room by myself is just good for me mentally. Too many hotel rooms and I start to crack! Tomorrow we have some planned trips to see vintage bikes and check out a unique bike shop called Recycled Cycles. So look for more blogs to come. Yeah that’s right, I’m blogging more than once a week!

Displaying my sprinting prowess on the banks of the Marymoor Velodrome

Usually you only see these small cars in Europe