This was a beautiful day on the bike.  Again uneventful starting before 7 am twice…  Yea I got out on the road and started riding decided to take a drink form my Camelback tube and found no tube.  I left it in my room with my room key.  Fortunately the woman in the office was up and gave me the second key to retrieve my pack.  A “DOH!” moment to be sure.  I finished around 2 PM so pretty good time was made.

Normally at the Blewitt Pass lunch stop we are fighting yellow jackets and flies.  No competition this year at all, and the Tomato Basil soup was great.  Coming down I saw a couple of very fast women, I have the inertia advantage on the downhills, for me to have to work at passing someone half my weight or lighter is very impressive.

We had a different route into Leavenworth a little easier for me at least.  I am sleepy but it is dinner time almost so I am gone.  Bye bye.

Here I am enjoying the comfort and warmth of the Cle Ellum Travelers Inn. The day started with rain pouring down on my drive up to the start. I eaven saw what looked like frozen rain hitting the windscreen, not a good sign. I found a very long line at check in, they really have to do something different next year.

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The line for dinner is very very long. Hopefully some food left. I finished around four.

Yummy banana splits.

I made it to the summit around 3 hrs 8 mins riding time.

Whoo Hoo!!! See those of you with the courage to be on this hills with me for the 2008 Courage Classic.

The rest of you thanks for your support. It’s still not too late to get donations in for this great fund raiser at:
http://www.firstgiving.com/bikermikey2008/

Check back here for daily updates, if the technology gods are willing.

Well the mobile blogging I tried on this trip was kind of cool, but plagued by the spotty T-Mobile coverage out in those parts. I rode my racing bike, which is scary light and quick like a rabbit. I am going to have to work on my photo gallery posting, that seems to have gone sideways in the last update.

The first day was the easiest ride, second was next, and the third day was the hardest. But all days were pretty easy for me today. The first day registration and breakfasts are a little late, so I am getting into the climb during the hottest part of the day, that sucks. I really miss the early registration that we used to have. If you got your minimum money in early enough then you got your rider number in the mail and could get your bags checked in early and get on the road fast. Now it takes way too long to get started. But we got what we got.

I got a flat tire the first day I got a flat on I-90 around the same place I helped someone else last year. Easy riding pretty much all the way, lunch was great at the top. The spaghetti lunch was great, it was nice not being almost the last one up. The banana split stop was the next one and that is always a treat. Getting to Cle Elum was a pretty easy ride. The finish is now at at a yuppie resort community called Suncadia.  Dinner was at Suncadia too, there was not much in the way of shade for those of us with sun sensitivity.

More on  the rest of the ride…