2005 STP Seattle to Porland Ride

This was a great ride! There were 8 Blue Monkies (Mullet, Foo, Biker, Coyote, Nativity, Lee V., Ron B, Tim T) and 2 Blue Monkey Drivers (Sean H. and Gangrenous). This is all of us here.

The weather was predicted to be bad, but the first day was perfect (other than getting up really early...after staying up really late getting Biker Blue Monkey's bike fixed after the berings fell out of the headset).

The worst part of the first day was that we were staying at FOF Blue Monkey's house (Foo and Bikers parents place) and it ended up being about 15 miles further past the end. Some people jumped in the van, but Mullet, Foo, Biker and Lee V. all decided to ride it and it ended with a 1 mile climb up a 10-12% grade! UGH! The evening at the parents place was wonderful, but getting there was hard!.

The second day got a bit wet and windy, but we survied. The worst part about the second day was getting in the cars and driving 6 hours back to Moscow after we finished riding.

Two days @ 100 miles each wasn't too bad. Having a paceline of a bunch of monkies really helped because the miles would just melt away.

See all the pictures here!

Here are some highlights

Early Start: We wanted to hit the road at 6 so we were up at 4:30 getting ready...Ron...WAKE UP!

Early Start: I was excited! The previous day was a bitch and I was tired. I think we were all running on 4 hours of sleep. I was just happy that we finally had everyone together and everyone's bikes were working finally.
COFFEE: That Coffee sure was good. QFC - the way to start your day!
Preparing: We were getting all our bikes ready in teh QFC parking lot.
Test Ride:Jeff (Coyote) just making sure his bike is ready.
The Zabriskie Brothers:Biker (left) and Foo (right)
Almost Ready:We were all standing around...just about to start...but we hadn't seen Lee V. yet.
Driver:Cody was happy that he wasn't riding...he was tired. We were VERY happy to have Cody and Sean drive the Sag waggons. Thanks Guys!!
Ready to Start:Ok, we found Lee (he came separate) and we are all sitting at the start line ready for our chance to go. They start a big group every 10 minutes.
We are OFF!!:There gos coyote!
Kent food stop:This was the first food stop. This was 25 miles into the first day, we were having a BLAST!
Happy:We were feeling fine at this point...no worries!
Second food stop:Jeff is still feeling great at the second food stop.
Monkey Train:We would get this paceline going. It was SOOOOO COOOL! We would be going 20-23 depending on who was driving and when all 8 of us were in it we would be passing people like crazy...it was "Line Left" all day long! I loved the comments from people...if you were a few monkies back in the line you would start hearing people say stuff like "There go the Monkeys" or "Look at the butts". It was EXCELLENT!
Tinino stop:This was about 15 miles from the end of the first day...we were ready to be done. Of course, I kept trying to forget that we had 15 miles to go after that to get to Foo's parents place.
DONE:This is when we were done...and the drivers were in the beer garden so we were going to find them!
Clean and tired:Foo and Bikers parents (FOF Blue Monkey and their mom) let us sleep at their place and shower and they made us great food! It was PERFECT! (except for the 12% grade we had to climb over to get there)
2nd day breakfast:This was SOOOOO much better than QFC!!!
WET WET WET:The second day was wet. I was laying in bed in the garage and at 4:15 I heard it start raining... when we hit the road it started getting really really bad. Luckly, it didn't do it all day, just in the morning was real bad. The rest of the day it would spit on us, but nothing too heavy. It was the wind that really kinda sucked.
Bye bye:We said goodby to our wonderful hosts and hit the road in the rain.
Wet Train:A very very wet Monkey Train.
Happy:I was happy to be stopped and eating...and that it wasn't raining...at the moment!
Lee Flats:The second day we got hit with some mechanicals. Lee flatted, I flatted, Carls rim needed trued...and then he flatted.
Conversation between Carl (Nativity) and Jason (Mullet):
Carl says "Jason, is the road bumpy?".
Jason says "No".
Carl says "Uh Oh".
DONE!:Here we are rolling into the finish!
Happy survivors:WE DID IT!!!
Bye Jeff:Jeff got cleaned up and headed for the airport...and we all headed home.