So three flat tires at one crew stop has to be some kind of record. Today’s ride was our shortest yet, but after my little flat-fest early on I was kickin it with the sweeps (guys who stay at the back of the pack) all day for what turned out to be a comedy of errors. The rest of the team was zoomin as we managed to take a wrong turn (which on the bright side provided some sweet canyon pics), and then ran into more bike trouble as Andrew’s bike chain decided to lodge in between his gears and wheel spokes. After all that fun we decided to smooth sail the rest of the way and enjoy the nice sunny day. Route 12 tracks through WA’s “wine country” …we must have passed 7 or 8 vineyards. Not sure but I think I’ve had “Ecole no. 41” wine before and now I can say I’ve seen where its made…sweet. We finally rolled up about an hour behind the main pack to the “Sun Dome” arena (part of Walla Walla community college) which reminds me of a golden mini-epcot center. I munched on some lunch with a good buddy I met at Charlotte midyears named Ian, who goes to WSU and rode with us today. The best part of the day was definitely getting the letter from Moffalicious; she’s a pretty cool cat J
We had about an hour between lunch and our friendship visit so I set up to get some work done and ended up crashin out hard…guess I needed it! Waking up a couple hours later it felt like a brand new day as we packed up to head to the Lillie Rice Community Center. There we had some amazing grub (bbq chicken, burgers, all sorts of salads and some rockin baked beans) and I got to try a Walla Walla sweet onion which you can eat like an apple it’s so sweet. I was definitely at the fun (and diverse) table sharing laughs with Liza from Ukraine, Mae and Mike from Taiwan, and Rasheeda and Pretty from India. None of these folks appeared to have any form of disability,
perhaps the Lillie Rice Center helps to provide jobs to disadvantaged people as well as those with disabilities. Not sure how it went down but all of the sudden I was challenged by Liza to an arm wrestling contest, and as the crowd gathered I suffered an embarrassing defeat. Several more of our guys, including Pops, our team strongman tried their hands and were all good sports swallowing their pride to show Liza a good time; she was a total sweetheart. Things were then coming to a close so we gathered for our classic group shot and got ready to head back to lodging, but not before I learned from one of the sponsors that Walla Walla started out as a wheat farming town until they found out the soil and climate were extremely close to France’s: then came the mad rush of wineries.
We got back to the dome around 7 and a bunch of the guys and I went to see Ocean’s 13 at the local theatre…sweet movie, and it made us even more pumped to gamble at the little local casino/bar downtown, which is where we headed next. The Blue Mountain treated us to some fine spirits as the guys were cutting loose having the day off tomorrow. Got to chat with a local after he made fun of me for asking what a “pull tab” was (a cheap little lottery-ticket type game), before he proudly finished his beer and got on his “18 speed” to head home, ridiculous haha. I learned how to play Pai Gow poker from Grant which is a good game for casino drinking because it’s easy to get a push and keep your money, but we still lost $20 each. A last bit of fun came with a bachelorette party, which had some of our guys “winning” beads from the ladies (Pops put on an extra private show). Around 1ish we decided to head back to crash, which was a lovely 2 mile walk through rain and mud but hey it was worth it.
We had about an hour between lunch and our friendship visit so I set up to get some work done and ended up crashin out hard…guess I needed it! Waking up a couple hours later it felt like a brand new day as we packed up to head to the Lillie Rice Community Center. There we had some amazing grub (bbq chicken, burgers, all sorts of salads and some rockin baked beans) and I got to try a Walla Walla sweet onion which you can eat like an apple it’s so sweet. I was definitely at the fun (and diverse) table sharing laughs with Liza from Ukraine, Mae and Mike from Taiwan, and Rasheeda and Pretty from India. None of these folks appeared to have any form of disability,
perhaps the Lillie Rice Center helps to provide jobs to disadvantaged people as well as those with disabilities. Not sure how it went down but all of the sudden I was challenged by Liza to an arm wrestling contest, and as the crowd gathered I suffered an embarrassing defeat. Several more of our guys, including Pops, our team strongman tried their hands and were all good sports swallowing their pride to show Liza a good time; she was a total sweetheart. Things were then coming to a close so we gathered for our classic group shot and got ready to head back to lodging, but not before I learned from one of the sponsors that Walla Walla started out as a wheat farming town until they found out the soil and climate were extremely close to France’s: then came the mad rush of wineries.
We got back to the dome around 7 and a bunch of the guys and I went to see Ocean’s 13 at the local theatre…sweet movie, and it made us even more pumped to gamble at the little local casino/bar downtown, which is where we headed next. The Blue Mountain treated us to some fine spirits as the guys were cutting loose having the day off tomorrow. Got to chat with a local after he made fun of me for asking what a “pull tab” was (a cheap little lottery-ticket type game), before he proudly finished his beer and got on his “18 speed” to head home, ridiculous haha. I learned how to play Pai Gow poker from Grant which is a good game for casino drinking because it’s easy to get a push and keep your money, but we still lost $20 each. A last bit of fun came with a bachelorette party, which had some of our guys “winning” beads from the ladies (Pops put on an extra private show). Around 1ish we decided to head back to crash, which was a lovely 2 mile walk through rain and mud but hey it was worth it.
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