I made it to Seattle. The flight was uneventful, and there were fewer snakes on the plane than I'd have liked, but there's always next time. My friend Tracy was nice enough to pick me up at the airport and drop me and my gear off at the the hotel , which like everything else in Seattle has a Starbucks attached to it. I put my bike back together and headed over to the REI flagship store. It's enormous and I could spend a lot of money there if I had any left to spend.
This is my first visit to Seattle and it's a beautiful city (in the summer.) A perfect day, with no trace of the dismal pall that fueled a generation of suicidal grunge rockers. Also, there are a lot more extremely steep hills in Seattle than I'd imagined. It's a shame though that they put stop lights right at the bottom, so you don't even get to appreciate the downhills. At least I found out that I reconnected my brakes correctly.
I had dinner with Tracy and then met up with her sweetie Tim for drinks in Capitol Hill. Burgers at Dick's then sleep.
