Of Bikes & Bellingham

Tara, Molly, and Victoria biked from Bothell to Bellingham in two days, covering about 85 miles! Our first real long-distance test of moving ourselves and our things from place to place entirely under our own pedal power, it was predictably a trial by fire. The tandem suffered a flat tire and the chain slipped a few times – all minor fixes we took care of on the road. We  did have absolutely gorgeous weather (so sunny we had to break out the sunscreen), so we just kept pressing on, enjoying the passing scenery and the burning in our thighs!

In the last few weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting quite a few bike-handy people who helped us get road-ready.  In Port Townsend, we spent a delightful afternoon with Chauncy at The Recyclery’s weekly open community bike maintenance session, learning some very useful bike basics like lubricating cables and adjusting derailleurs. (In PT we also got the chance to meet up with Jim Rohrssen, who is organizing Bikes for Haiti, an excellent initiative to collect donated bikes and ship them to Haiti.) Then there’s our new friend Bryan (who we stayed with our first time in Seattle) who’s been our shining-knight-on-wheels time and again, when at first we thought we’d never get the tandem and then that we’d never be able to fix it! When we did get Sweet Ride fixed, she was well taken care of by the wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable Jay at Tim’s Bike Shop in Everett (instead of at an overpriced chain store).

Yesterday we had the chance to check out the Bellingham Circus  Guild’s Cirque Lab here, where we will be performing Tuesday night at their monthly Vaudevillingham show. It’s a friendly, spacious arts center in a converted industrial space, with a stage, loads of aerials rigging points and floor space for juggling and acrobatics. Lindsay and Kristian joined us in the afternoon and we ran through our acts to entertain our lovely Bellingham hosts yesterday at an informal house BBQ. Today we’re heading out to the Lookout Arts Center at The Quarry a ways outside of town for a fireshow and to spend the night with fellow circus folk!