Cardboard effloresced in the airport vestibule as multi-tools glinted under fluorescent light. Trekkers trickled in one by one, two by two, each wrangling a Black Friday TV-sized box filled with specialized aluminum. The mission, at all costs, was to set up 10 bikes in Sea-Tac. Mission accomplished.
Then came navigation into hostel territory, the Green Tortoise in Pike Place. Green like Starbucks. We would take the train, depositing us a hair’s breadth from the tortoise’s shell. But the train would stop short, like Frank Costanza, for maintenance, leaving us 2.5 miles out. With no other recourse, we biked. We made it. We charmed hostel managers into storing our bikes in their basement, and settled in just before a sorely needed homemade spaghetti dinner. Minutes ticked by. Seconds were had. Ragu vanished like a possum over a picket fence.
Trekkers explored, showered, ice-creamed, acquired free hats and generally conked out around 10:30. The water pressure was lauded. It was a long day, but the group’s patience and resourcefulness bodes well for the coming weeks. A latte people would call this trip a tall order. For this batch, it’s a grande Americano ad-venti-ure.
