On December 26th, the day after Christmas, we went on our 1,000th bike ride together since January 2012, slightly less than nine years.
In addition, on our 1,000th bike ride, we passed 21,000 miles cycling in less than nine years.
1,000
times Dan has pumped up our tires and recharged all the 10+ lights
that he has plastered all over our bikes to keep us visible and safe.
1,000 times I have washed and set out our bike clothes, filled our water
bottles, and prepared our cycling snacks.
1,000 times we have
put on all our many layers of cycling clothes and and headed out on a bike ride.
We have braved the rain (soaked to the skin), cold (at times snow),
wind (40 mph gusts riding up Weber Canyon on the Inland Empire Century),
and heat (we started and finished our virtual STP Bike Ride this
summer at 3:30 a.m. in 95 degree weather).
Amazingly enough, we have both been enthusiastic before, during, and after each and every one of these 1,000 bike rides. And then the next day we were raring to get out and cycle again.
During all of these 21,000 miles, Dan has cycled behind me. (The exception is when we are on our tandem, Daisy, where we need his strength for tight turns and braking.) Dan is very insistent about cycling behind me. He is constantly watching the cars behind us, staying alert and aware of any dangerous driver who is going too fast or might veer toward us. He says that if a car runs into one of us, it will be him, not me. He is my Superman.
For the past nine years cycling, 1,000 bike rides, and 21,000 miles, I have seen Dan constantly in my rear view mirror. And I feel a deep abiding love for him. He is keeping me safe.
During these 1,000 bike rides we have seen spectacular scenery all over our amazing county....at 12 miles per hour, slow enough to really enjoy each sight and each moment!
Here we are on our very first bike ride (with my brand new “fancy” $450 Specialized road bike) touring the wine country outside of Cloverdale, California in January 2012:
Cycling on the Pacific coast from Pacific Grove, through Monterey, and north to Marina, California:
Cycling in the Mojave National Preserve was my first 40-mile ride. The last 20 miles was up a steady hill and into the wind. When we got back to the truck/camper Dan said, “You can make to to Portland!” (He was referring to the 206 mile, 2 day, Seattle to Portland STP Bike Ride that he had done before.)
In Roper State Park, Arizona we set a Dan & Vicky Record of four flat tires in ONE bike ride. Nine years and 21,000 miles cycling and we have not broken this record, or even gotten close (thankfully).
Every spring and early summer we trained like fiends for the Seattle to Portland 200+ mile bike ride (the STP). We are old and need to be in top cycling shape to ride that far in two days. By the time we head south to Portland we have ridden 1500-2000 miles and have completed several 100 mile rides as part of our training.
Here we are in Coupeville on our ride from our Whidbey Island home in Langley to Deception Pass and back home again, a total of 95 miles in one day!
Here we are taking a lunch break on another 100 mile ride which we love and have completed many many times (often with Jules) on the Burke-Gilman Trail which travels from Seattle around Lake Washington. We really enjoyed our rides with Jules.
Marymoor Park on the Burke-Gilman Trail:
We rode on a beautiful 40 mile trail through Red Canyon in southern Utah:
We stayed with Kathy and Bill in Fort Collins, Colorado and spent days on end with them, Mom, and Tonia. In the mornings we cycled on all the walking/bike trails in the area.
Sean invited us to ride the Tour de Tugaloo with him. The ride traveled from Georgia into South Carolina. The fall colors were spectacular! Thank you Sean. It is a special memory being able to take this ride with him.
Through the years we have cycled many miles in Mesa, Arizona, on the Pass Mountain Loop and out the road to Lake Saguaro. We would start our ride from our campsite at Usery Mountain Regional Park.
Several times we rode right through the center of Death Valley from Mesquite Springs campground. We found that this 40 mile ride is often windy, the elevation gain is considerable.....and it can be very HOT!
To stay hydrated on this long, hot ride, we started stashing extra water bottles along our route. Look at the wind blowing Dan’s jacket in this photo while he is repairing a flat tire.
Our first organized bike ride in early springs was the Tulip Pedal. We did this ride with Jules several years. It was through the beautiful farm land and tulip and daffodil fields around La Conner, Washington.
Here we are at the end of the driveway at our Whidbey Island home. We were not play acting in this photo. It was often VERY cold cycling there in early spring.
Several years we rented a motel room in the San Juan Islands. We cycled on virtually every road on Lopez Island and San Juan Island. This is one of our very favorite cycling destinations.
The Orca Inn on San Juan Island had very tiny rooms, but was quite
adequate for our cycling trips.
The buildings had originally been on
barges to provide housing for the men that worked to clean up the 1989
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The tiny rooms were the quarters for the
workers and had not been remodeled. The interesting history of this Inn
made it more fun for us.
Our favorite organized bike ride (that we did many years with Jules) was the Inland Empire Century in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington. And our favorite part of this ride is on the top of the Horse Heaven Hills plateau.
The day of the photo below was on top of Horse Heaven Hills. It was our 5th anniversary, Mother’s Day, and 8,000 miles cycling together. How cool!
We ran into Jules and Dale at the rest stop at the top of Weber Canyon high on the plateau:
It was so windy another year going up Weber Canyon and on the Horse Heaven Hills plateau that at times even though we were pedaling with all our strength, our bikes had no forward movement. But we loved the ride on this windy day and often reminisce about it.
Look at the wind billowing our STP jackets like balloons (although I think that Dan’s jacket is all puffed out because he is so buff!).
After cycling together for 5 1/2 years, five STP’s, over 10,000 miles we retired my $450 bike, and we bought me a top class road bike. Here is my new Specialized Ruby. Isn’t my red bomb a beauty!
Another wonderful annual bike ride that we did with Jules was the Apple Century. It was held in early June, often on my birthday. To go on this ride was a wonderful birthday present. The Apple Century is in central Washington and travels from Wenatchee on the Columbia River, through dozens of apple orchards, to the mountains surrounding Leavenworth, and back again.
Here we are at our halfway point on the Apple Century after climbing over 10 miles up Chumstick Highway. Now we get to fly down the hill on our bikes for miles and miles!
The last part of the ride travels along the Columbia river. Here is a photo of Jules as he finishes the ride.
The Apple Century on June 2, 2018 was our 500th bike ride since our first ride through the California wine country in January of 2012. In those 6 1/2 years we had cycled 12,827 miles.
Here we are on top of Deadman Hill on our 500th ride together!
The Centennial Trail travels north for 30 miles from Snohomish, Washington. We loved that trail that travels through forests, farms, and over rivers. We rode hundreds of miles on this trail.
This old barn at the end of the trail where we’d turn around and head back to Snohomish.
And then the ultimate ride: The STP with Jules.
We did the 204-mile Seattle to Portland bike ride seven times and every time we rode it with Jules. Since Jules is a speed bomb cycling and we’re not, we didn’t actually ride "with" Jules.
We started our ride with him each morning. Then we would reach our destination in the afternoon several hours after Jules had arrived there. He had already showered, gotten a massage, and finished at least one beer. Nevertheless, we all consider that we rode seven STP’s with the three of us together.
The next several photos are highlights along the STP route that we think of with great fondness.
The three of us heading out from Jules’ home at 5 a.m. on Day 1 of the STP.
Lake Washington Boulevard in Seattle:
Tenino Trail south of Yelm, WA:
The magnificent barn:
Devouring cool, refreshing creamsicles in Centrailia, Washington at 100 miles into our ride:
End of Day 1: Relaxing at Wayne and Mindy’s “Nightmare Farm” (their name, not ours) in Napavine, Washington after cycling 116 miles from Seattle. We stayed here all 7 years.
Mindy, Wayne and June--who opened their home to us and who we became very fond of.
Day 2: leaving Nightmare Farm at 5:30 a.m. and heading to Portland....with Jules!
In this photo we had just set our tires on Oregon pavement! In the background is the Longview Bridge which spans the Columbia River and is the boundary between Washington and Oregon.
Jules approaching Portland ahead of us:
Dan and I crossing the Willamette River on the St John’s Bridge and entering Portland.
Only 10 miles to the Finish Line!
Over the finish line and onto the grass where we were awarded our Finisher’s Badges!
And to be very honest about it: We DID need those steeenking badges!
Our Finish Line photo.....206 miles from Seattle to Portland!
We cycled with Jules on many other organized bike rides in western Washington. These rides included Flying Wheels, Bike and Bruise, Tour de Peaks, Daffodil Classic, and the Tour de Whidbey.
Almost half of our 21,000 miles cycling in nine years was on Whidbey Island, where we lived for seven years during the springs and summers (before we left in the falls for our 5+ month long road trips).
There is not a more beautiful place to cycle than Whidbey Island, which is one of the San Juan Islands. We got to cycle through forests and farmlands. In addition, the island is surrounded by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Saratoga Passage. In the distance you can see the Olympic Mountains, the Cascade Range, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Rainier!
In the fall of 2018 we were living at our new home in Mesa, Nuestra Casa. Dan was recovering from open heart surgery, and we felt that cycling would be a good way for him to get his strength back. Since our road bikes were at our home on Whidbey Island, we decided that it would be time to grant ourselves one of our wishes....to ride a tandem bicycle together.
So we bought "Daisy," a $440 Schwinn tandem bike. And we loved riding our Daisy. In fact, our road bikes now feel very neglected. Since November 2018 we have ridden over 6300 miles on Daisy. And all of those miles were racked up in Leisure World!
Here we are in December two years ago. We were excited because we had just set a Dan & Vicky Cycling Record. We had just completed more miles cycling in 2018 than we had in any year previously....3,000 miles!
Last summer we discovered that if we cycled at 3 a.m., it was comfortably cool or at least not too hot. So every morning we happily rode Daisy in the dark. It is very safe, as the only other vehicle we usually saw was Security, who we always waved to and who always waved to us.
We loved watching the moon waxing and waning. And we loved the intense quiet and solitude.
We rode the STP this summer for the 8th time. This year, due to the pandemic, it was a "Virtual" STP. And we rode virtually with Jules, Diane, Emily, Sean, Kathy, Bill, and our grandsons, Ian, Adam, Soren, and Sebastian. It was a blast!
And it meant the world to Dan to have his family's support during a hard time for him--they all jumped in and did it shortly after he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had begun daily radiation treatments. And because our family all came together to ride with him, this was our favorite STP. It meant so much to us.
Our STP virtual team (we named it Nightmare Farm Team because we wanted Mindy and Wayne to be part of our virtual STP):
We rode every single one of the 206 miles of the Virtual Seattle to Portland Bike Ride on Daisy and in the community where we live, Leisure World. So now we have ridden the STP on a tandem bike.
Here we are with our well deserved STP shirts and Finisher’s Badges:
This year we cycled over 3,500 miles....a new Vicky & Dan Record! As we completed the 3,500 miles, Daisy died. It was her last gallop around the block. She creaks and clunks, throws her chain constantly, has bald tires, bad brakes, damaged sprockets, and those are just the problems we’re aware of!
It's just a bicycle for crying out loud, but it was very sad to both of us to have to say goodbye to her. It was like saying goodbye to an old trusted friend.
Our last ride on Daisy:
So, sadly, like in the old 1950s Westerns, Dan had to put our trusty old steed down.
But Daisy will live again, which actually means something to us, as she will be disassembled and we will use her for parts.
Fortunately we had just purchased a new Daisy, and we plan to cycle thousands more miles and take at least 1,000 more bike rides together on her. And when she breaks down, we will use parts from the original Daisy to fix her.
We are better as a couple than each of us is individually. Neither one of us would have cycled 21,000 miles in nine years without the other. And definitely, neither of us would have gone out into the rain, snow, wind, hot sun, and in the middle of the night 1,000 times in nine years all by ourselves.
