Rain still threatening today after torrential a.m. dump, so I played cautious and did U District/Ravenna loop. Lots of variations here but I typically dart through Lower Woodland, up N. 45th St. through Wallingford, over I-5 and then cut up Brooklyn or University Avenue to Ravenna, dink around on the bike lane back to Green Lake and then home, often climbing the hill to Phinney Ave. N. for the workout. There are legs through Ravenna Park, through the UW campus to University Village (the Apple store a favorite hangout), and so on.
I stopped by my LBS, the Downhill Zone, today to chat with Adam and Darren. I’ve been going to the shop since they got started 10 years ago, and never had a bad experience. I’ve bought so many bikes there that I like to joke with Darren I should get a card like they have at the coffeehouses, you know, buy 9 lattes get one free. I’d be close to my freebie by now.
Windy but dry so it wasn’t all that bad a ride. On the uphill I passed another dude on a mountain bike, a commuter no less, with pannier hanging from one side. I thought I was the only one crazy enough to ride up this hill, I told him. He said he was perfectly sane, he just lived at the top!