Can You Hear Me Now?

I was invited to join a small group today on a lunch ride.  Deb and Gerald were coming across the water from the Kitsap Peninsula via ferry. I rode 11 miles from Queen Ann and met them at the ferry terminal. It was going to be a great day.

 I met Gerald and Deb at the ferry terminal and three of us rode along a path in Lincoln Park where in a short time we were joined by Ric.

We pedaled a leisurely pace along Alki Beach and made a stop at Jack Block Park. There is a good view of Seattle's Terminal 5 working waterfront and some informational signs telling the history of container shipping.

Following our stop at Jack Block Park we pedaled over to The Chelan Cafe in the shadow of the one-of-a-kind West Seattle Bridge,   Lunch was tasty and reasonably priced.

We started back toward the Vashon Ferry terminal.  We stopped to get a few photos capturing fall colors.

 

We started off again and I snapped this photo with my phone as we pedaled away.

It would be the last I saw of my phone today. As I pedaled I slid the phone back into my vest pocket and secured it with the velcro closure.  ....or so I thought.

It was a windy day, and our course wiggled around enough that sometimes we had a head wind, and other times a tail wind.  As we pedaled back along Alki we had a howling tail wind.  I love a good tail wind!  I shifted into 56x11, exited the path and moved to the center of the traffic lane, and pedaled along at 30-35 mph.  After a couple of miles of this the main road turned slightly left and we were to continue straight.  I pulled over to wait for my riding partners.  I waited for several minutes then reached for my phone to see if there was a message from them/to take a photo.  Alas, no phone.  It had fallen out somewhere along that fast pedal.  I hopped on the bike and backtracked my route, keeping a sharp eye out for my phone.  I got all the way back to where we had taken photos of the fall foliage without finding the phone, or seeing my riding partners.  I was busy focusing on the pavement so I probably rode by them without seeing them.

I turned back around and searched the road again. Still no phone.  I figured that someone must have picked it up. I was hoping that whoever found it would be a stand up type person.  I had no way to call my phone.

I pedaled back to Lincoln Park but did not continue on to the ferry terminal, presuming that my partners were already making their way across the water.

It was a windy day, and the normally placid Puget Sound was looking almost like ocean surf.  While I was riding back and forth looking for a cell phone my partners were noticing the rough water.

After climbing the hill to Lincoln Park I returned to the West Seattle Bridge via Faunterloy Ave rather making another trip along the water.  I crossed the bridge and headed toward downtown Seattle where my plan was to stop by the Paramount Theater to get tickets for an upcoming event.  As I was buying the tickets at the box office I was asked to give an email address for a receipt.  My email address is "Kevin97116@........." and as I put the tickets in my pack and was preparing to pedal a guy comes around the corner of the building and says "Do you know a Julie?".  It's a joke between Julie and I, she's a native Seattleite and has many friends here.  This was unreal though!  It seems that a series of stars had aligned.  I normally have my phone on "auto lock" and it would require a password to operate.  I had disabled that feature during my recent crew chief duty at Furnace Creek to allow all crew members to use it and had not yet turned it back on.  The finder of my phone turned it into a nearby restaurant, Saltys,  someone there started going down my contact list and calling people from Seattle to San Diego trying to find out who the phone belonged to.  Julie got one of those calls. She was at work in Bellevue. She called the Paramount knowing that I was to be there buying tickets at some point.  The guy who took the call at the theater just happened to be standing outside of the front door as I was around the corner at the box office buying tickets......and heard "Kevin".

After an hour or so I finally made connections with Julie via phone.

Julie has an out of town friend visiting and was planning to take her to dinner in Alki tonight. She would swing by and pick it up following dinner.

With the phone now found, if not back in my hand, I put lights on the bike and continued on to a SDOT Open House on a planned cycle track.  It was billed as a presentation on options with a Q&A session.  The crowd was MUCH larger than the organizers had planned and the room would not accommodate all of us.  The organizers decided to give the presentation several times and have attendees shuffle between static displays in an adjoining room and the presentation. The Q&A opportunity was lost in the shuffle.

No phone, no opportunity for Q&A.   Can you hear me now?

  ...............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle........total

Today..............54...........0................0............0.............54 Jan..................93..............0...............0.........0..............93 Feb................411..............0..............0.........0............411 March.............653.............0..............0.........0............653 April..............696..............0...............0.........0............696 May...............900...............0...............0.........0.............900
June..............484...............0..............0..........0...........484
July..............1300................0...............0..........0.............1300
 Aug................638.............0.................0..........0.............638
 Sept...............232..............0................0...........0.............232
 Oct...............298...............0................0...........0..............298 Total...........5461.............0...............0..........0.............5461