Ten of us set out from Seattle in the early morning and stayed together
until the first rest stop. Dave Attwell and Steve Keeler are clearly fathers of young children. They
tried to herd us together and I think I was asked if I needed to go pooh.

After that first stop things got a bit confused with a minor bump* and the A
team ( Lawrence, Dave, Neil, Judith and Steve) took off. They passed
everybody ...zoom, zoom. I was at the back of the B team which was powered
by the Backus tandem and Rob Attwell with Ron and myself hanging on. We
passed everybody ...zoom. We more or less stayed like this all the way to
Centralia, the halfway point (160 k). Here we found Neil and Judith
receiving medical attention......Neil with a displaced shoulder and Judith
very scraped and bruised. Steve described the accident to us that evening,
complete with schematic diagrams and reference to a lustful opportunist and
drugs. Photodocumentation will soon be available; so watch for the full
story.

Neil had to give up at this point but Duane who had cycled the course
backwards (he had his reasons) from Longview took his place on the A team.
Judith amazingly got back on her bike and rode with the fast guys.... she's
a power cyclist as well as a power shopper.

After a high calorie, low taste lunch we set off into that incessant
headwind. The C team of Ron and myself emerged and we still passed a lot
of riders though not with much zoom. It wasn't exactly pretty but we got
there eventually. The first day was 243 k which is a lot of k.

There are advantages to being slower and in the uniform. Ron and I collected
accolades at the rest stops "You guys are soooo fast". At first we
dutifully explained that we were the dregs of the group but later learned to
smile modestly and say nothing. We talked to people including the preacher
who tried to sell us redemption and home-made banana bread.

Vanessa and Steve traded babysitting/ driving duties and Vanessa rode the
second day in style. Thanks to Richard, our dinner organizer: "Ciao Bella" and take out.

* I got the Attwell brothers confused and accused Dave of bumping into me.
They were both offended; Dave because of the false accusation, and Rob
because he says he has a much cuter butt than Dave.

Helen Martindale