We did the Seattle to Portland (i.e., STP) bike ride with Jules every year for seven years (2012-2018)...210 miles and 16 hours of cycling in two days, usually on the second weekend in July. We trained and trained for months, and it was still a long, hard, glorious ride. We loved it every year. And we were sad when we realized that the 2018 STP would be our last year we could do the ride. Dan and I were 70ish and knew that we should stop before the ride became too painful to enjoy....to stop while it was still fun, so all our memories of this spectacular ride would be good. It was the right decision, although a very hard one.
And now we treasure our memories of the hundreds of miles we rode training for this 200+ miles bike ride, and we treasure each mile of every year that we rode the STP.
One of our special memories is riding into Centralia, Washington (half way to Portland) on our first day of the STP, tired and hot with people cheering and spraying us with hoses...and someone always waiting to cheerfully hand us a cold, refreshing creamsicle!
(Note: Dan always ate at least two!)
Dan rode the STP in 2009 all alone (with 10,000 other riders) and had his first Centralia creamsicle. He started the creamsicle tradition. In 2011, the year we met and were married, he had a very special STP. He rode the STP with his son, Jules, and his son-in-law, Sean, and introduced them to the Centralia creamsicle. I was waiting for my fiancé and future son-in-laws at the finish line to holler and cheer, take their finish line pictures, and drive my three VERY tired men home.
Last year, 2019, during the July STP weekend, we were selling our Washington home and none of us were riding the STP. Jules, Ian, and Adam visited us at our Whidbey Island home. We kept up our STP creamsicle tradition, and on Saturday afternoon the five of us sat in the sunshine, ate our creamsicles, and reminisced about all the special experiences we shared doing the STP together.
Today, July 11, 2020, on the Saturday afternoon of the STP (when it would have been held if it hadn’t been cancelled due to the Coronavirus), Dan and I ate our creamsicles in the hot Arizona sun and remembered all our glorious times while riding our bikes from Seattle to Portland.
We could feel the excitement and triumphant feeling of riding into Centralia on Saturday afternoon and then on Sunday riding across the bridge into Portland!
We feel such joy for the life we have lived, but we also are sad that we will never again cross the finish line in Portland, ride onto the grass, be handed our cloth “Finisher” badges, and proudly give each other a kiss. We laugh and we cry. As Dan says, “It’s okay to have two feelings.”
Here is a link to our blog post of our final Seattle to Portland ride:
https://livinginthebedofapickup.blogspot.com/2018/07/stp-2018-we-finish-our-7th-stp.html
Our Seattle to Portland creamsicles will be an annual tradition.
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