Olympic Bound

Ok, so it’s the Olympic Mountains, not the Olympics in Tokyo. 

Sue me. 

Taking a commuting job in Seattle (actually Bothell). The terms allow me to jump back and forth between the job and my Bend home. 

#BestOfBothWorlds

This first trip is a serious stroll down Nostalgia Lane. 30 years ago, I’m a young and bulletproof Naval Nuclear Officer working on a Bremerton shipyard project to refuel two nuclear reactors. Today’s goal is to travel to Bremerton and see the first house I ever bought. And to make the trip on this bad boy…

I buy a used Specialized Rockhopper in 1990 and commute the 10 miles each way from my house, many times in a cold driving rain. A decade later, when the paint and decals are peeling, i have the bike sandblasted and gussied up. The bike artist dips chopsticks into neon paint and drizzles it along the frame. 

So badass (rare for me). And those pictures are taken yesterday; that 31 year old bike has been all over the country and is still kicking. The handlebars? I fly over them in October 1990 when I t-bone someone on the shipyard pier while riding too close to buildings, probably the start of my back problems (and three surgeries). I also remember riding thru a puddle (ok, a lake) in the shipyard and finding out the hard way that there are railroad tracks under the water. 

The goal is to ride that bike from the ferry to my first ever home purchase and bike, re-creating the commute I do so many times in the Navy. 

Waiting for the boat to arrive in downtown Seattle…

Yikes….this view makes me twitch. Two years there, deep in the ship’s basement, trying to stay awake for 0300 testing with a black coffee in one hand and a Mountain Dew in the other. 

Bremerton has changed. Condos everywhere!

From up above the shipyard…

Every morning thru this gate…

I jump on my trusty steed and ride. Given that the previous month was, oh, a bit busy, my fitness is lacking. But an easy 20 mile round trip is no big deal, right? 

My house is at the top of Bucklin Hill Road. As in ‘HILL.’ My preacher dad would say, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” I remember a climb, but this is now an elevator shaft. And my bike is steel, as in ‘heavy.’

One VA loan later, and I buy this fortress on Mt St Helens Day, 1990. Lots of parties in that beast. Unfortunately, the new owners care less about the lawn health than i ever did. 

On the way back, i meet Jim. He was a Navy liason back in the day when Navy Runner Ron was about to leave the service and pursue his Olympic dreams. Jim convinced an admiral to give Ron an easy job that would provide training time. It works; in 1996, Ron takes 3rd in the Olympic Trials. 

Jim also has coached runners and triathletes….like Navy’s Tim O’Donnell, who placed 2nd in the Hawaii Ironman. Steve, I thought you’d like that tidbit. 

And his stories about watching track workouts at Georgetown in the mid-90s, with the coach dropping F-Bombs on Ron and his boys while greeting the Catholic priest dean of the college in mid-diatribe. 

I hustle back to catch the ferry, all while on very dead legs. Need to get my mileage back up. 

The obligatory Space Needle shot…

Nightfall over Lake Union…

Also caught up with my man Sean, a classmate at Navy. Ever since my one and only Navy reunion 4 years ago, I’m having a blast reconnecting with old friends and making new ones that I never knew at school. 

Nothing like a change of pace to get the adrenaline flowing again.