This is about people riding their bikes from Seattle to St. Louis. They started with nine riders, including me. I dropped out at Quinn’s Hot Springs in Montana, returning to Seattle to celebrate a grandson’s graduation from Seattle U. Two other riders had plans to go to Cody, Wyoming, and then return to home in Cincinnati.
So there are six riding now, three to Omaha and then three on to St. Louis. Carol keeps a blog worth following. Check it out:
https://carolla1010.wixsite.com/wanderers
I didn’t cover the Seattle Seawolves game today as a journalist, so I feel like I can ignore all that stuff about no cheering in the press box. Which leads me to say that I love it when my team scores a converted try 56 seconds into the game after Vili Toluta’u jumped up to take the opening kickoff from the arms of the waiting New Orleans forward. Brock Staller and Will Holder were steady all day in kicking conversions and penalties.
I’m even happier when my team goes up 21-0 before 10 minutes into the game.
Nervous when New Orleans scores twice within three minutes before the half and then gets the first score of the second half to come within a try of the Seawolves: 31-26.
And so ended the New Orleans scoring for the day, but not the Seawolves’, who added another penalty, three tries and three conversions to take the win, 55-26.
I didn’t take any photographs today, but I did talk to Peter Tiberio, who was bloodied in last week’s victory over the Utah Warriors. I tweeted a photograph of that last week and was surprised to see him scarless after the game today while signing autographs for future rugby players and chatting to fans. Last week’s cut took eight stitches to close, he said, and was wrapped for today’s game. Give that doc kudos for keeping the lads pretty.
The win today puts the Seawolves at the top of the standings over the Glendale Raptors, who did not play. The Seattle team will be in Texas for the next two weekends, against Houston next week and then Austin the following weekend. The regular season comes to an end on June 16 when the Seawolves play Glendale in Colorado, a game that could decide the league winner and could be a preview of playoff action on June 30 (in Glendale) for the semis and July 7 (in San Diego) for the finals.
Wherever the season goes from here, the four home games ended on a high note today, and I can’t wait for the return of the Seawolves at Starfire (or CenturyLink) in 2019.
Hoping my enthusiasm hasn’t destroyed anyone’s beliefs in my ability to be an objective journalist. When I’m on the clock, these guys are just another team (and they should have beat Utah, 41- 22, instead of 41-32, but I digress). Not on the clock? Hey, I’m human and a forever rugby fan.
When the Glendale, Colo., Raptors show up at Starfire Stadium to face the Seattle Seawolves this Saturday (April 28), they’ll be without two of their dominant players.
Ben Landry, second row, and Connor Cook, wing forward, have both been suspended for three weeks by Major League Rugby. Both Landry and Cook received red cards last Saturday for dump tackling – upending a player and driving him head first into the ground – during the Raptors’ 41-26 win over the Austin Elite.
Both Landry and Cook had scored tries before they were ordered out of the game, not to be replaced.
Landry has played for the U.S. national team, and when his MLR season ends, he’ll head off to England to play for the Ealing Trailfinders.
Cook played for the Waimea Rugby Club in Hawaii, for Arkansas State University and might have the best dreadlocks in rugby.
While not having these two players on the field might seem advantage Seawolves, Seattle fans might be wise to hold their glee in check. Despite losing Landry, Cook and then another player who received a yellow card at 73:35, the Raptors were able to prevent the Elite from scoring. Playing 12 men to 15 and keeping the 15 out of the try zone for almost 10 minutes indicates some defensive prowess.
The Seawolves’ lineup will probably be missing Riekert Hattingh this week. He took a blow to the head during the first half of the 39-23 win over the San Diego Legion last week that left him staggering to the sideline with the help of medical staff. Before that, he had startled the San Diego backs and thrilled Seattle fans when he burst out the back of a San Diego ruck that seemed to have the ball well protected and ran 50 yards up the field before passing to his backs. He’s a thrill to watch, but safety says to keep him out for the week.
The Seawolves come into Saturday’s game riding a positive wave of good tidings. They were named the team of the week by Major League Rugby. Both Seawolves’ props, Kellen Gordon and Tim Metcher, made the league’s rep side of the week as did fullback Matt Turner. Player coach Phil Mack didn’t make the team of the week but he was named player of the week.
How does that happen?
Nonetheless, the league had nice things to say about Mack, who took over head coaching duties only a couple of weeks before the first game:
“Mack’s duties over the past few weeks have increased,” the league said. “Stepping into the lead coaching role, he built a game plan based around the Seawolves strength in the scrum. His agility and ball speed out of the ruck put the ball in the hands of his fly-half Will Holder for quick-play. Mack’s timely box kicks took the pressure off the Seawolves when they were within their own half.”
Seawolves’ management says the fan experience will be even better this week at Starfire. Twice as many beer and wine stands. More bathrooms. Another food truck. Lines on the field made more visible (they’ll be the blue ones).
But they promise the sunshine from last week?
Gates open at 5:30, and there is a curtain raiser between two youth clubs: Budd Bay vs. Liberty Club.
The game is sold out, but it’s the game of the week on CBS Sports Network. Kickoff and broadcast at 7:30 p.m.
(See last week’s game coverage in The Seattle Times.)
In my last post, a thinly disguised recounting of 2016 adventures, I missed an important one: the Labor Day visit to Ape Cave on the southern slope of the Mount St. Helens volcano in Southwestern Washington state.
Four of us took the 1.5 mile hike through the lava tube while Kathy walked along the surface trail and met the cave explorers at the upper exit, a tight climb up a ladder to the outside.
We might have had the cave more to ourselves on a week day, but I still have friends who insist on having jobs. So we joined dozens of people who had driven up to the cave parking lot, maybe rented a lantern (we brought our own recommended three sources of light) and took either the short route that led to the “Meatball” or the longer route that we took.
It’s a popular spot, easily accessible to the public and an inexpensive way for a family to have an outdoor experience (parking is $5). Which is what I expect from the wonderful lands that have been set aside for the public to enjoy — and what I fear is most threatened by a Trump administration. Donald does not impress me as a man who relishes campfire smoke, sleeping on the ground and pooping in places where you should bury your scat (and your TP, too).
Given the names that are being floated for replacing Sally Jewell at the Department of Interior, it’s surprising that Ammon Bundy‘s name isn’t on the list. The best of the group might be Jan Brewer, former governor of Arizona, who called Hillary Clinton a “lyin’ killer,” one of the more subdued pieces of hyperbole from the GOP side in the recent presidential election.
Trump’s list of Interior Secretary candidates is filled with names of people itching to get their hands on public lands for the benefits of themselves and their ilk:
Robert E. Grady, Gryphon Investors partner;
Harold G. Hamm, Chief executive of Continental Resources, an oil and gas company;
Forrest Lucas, president of Lucas Oil Products, which manufactures automotive lubricants, additives and greases;
Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor.
There is already a movement afoot to give away federal lands, and I can’t see that these Interior Department choices will do anything but further that misguided effort.
Focusing on this one issue extremely important to me may seem selfish, but I look at it as voting my interests, which is what they say Trump supporters were doing: they also insist on having jobs, don’t want to be left behind in the slow economic recovery, don’t want to be regarded as the “fly-over” and forgotten part of our nation. Having driven 6,000 miles back and forth across the United States within the past six weeks, I can understand what it must feel like to live in a hollowed-out town where even the last-thing-to go town coffee shop sits empty among similar storefronts on Main Street (this, in the Starbucks-free Zone, made for some shaky mornings).
I’m lucky that my life in the blue bubble of Seattle is often penetrated by Facebook posts by Trump supporters from my hometown back in Ohio. I know characterizations of those friends as uneducated rural rubes in Dumbfuckistan miss the mark by, well, a country mile.
And Hillary Clinton? There was much to criticize, and the Orange Man never missed a chance to do so. She also made her own mistakes (Call him deplorable? True that. His supporters? How rude). J. Edgar Comey didn’t help.
Even with all of that, I’m having a hard time getting my head around a man who made it up as he went along, spouted whatever he thought would play to the crowd in front of him and insulted so many Americans. I also believe he has no intention of fulfilling the promises he made to his supporters (build a wall, repeal Obamacare, deport 11 million people, ban Muslims from immigrating here), which I guess I should consider a good thing since I disagree with all of it.
But the whole mess tempts me to go live in a cave for the next four years, but there might not be room.
“You walked into the party
Like you were walking on a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf, it was apricot
You had one eye on the mirror
And watched yourself gavotte . . .”
So you walked into the party wearing your photographer vest and cargo pants because one can never have enough big pockets for phone, notebooks, pencils, pens, bandana, keys, wallet, coins, utility knife, nail clippers and — what’s this? — a camera. It’s practical. It’s comfortable. Lots of people dress like that in the Pacific Northwest even before Maria Semple wrote “Where’d You Go, Bernadette.” (Why no question mark in the title?)
It’s gotten so it seems normal to some of us until we walk into the party and someone asks, “Did you just come off a safari?”
Well, no, but . . . you look around and see that not everyone dresses like Jungle Jim. He would be the lead character in films on the 5 o’clock movie that gave you reason to go back outside and try keeping the Hula Hoop going for 100 loops. The only thing worse would be a rerun of Peter Lorre in another Mr. Moto movie. Jungle Jim movies were a waste of film and Johnny Weissmuller, who happily showed up more often at 5 swinging from grape vines and calling wild animals to his aid.
Jungle Jim wear is a lot more practical though than Tarzan’s loin cloth. But if you aren’t in the jungle or on safari and you dress like it, are you exhibiting nerd behavior?
These are questions that give us a break from should our president wear a pants suit and delete emails or wear a red tie and force his way into women’s pants suits.
So let’s say you paddle down a river and you are dressed like Jungle Jim floating the Limpopo — life jacket, quick-dry shirt and pants (with BIG pockets and lots of them), neoprene booties and river sandals. Tent, freeze-dried food, sleeping bag, water bladders all secured behind your seat. Suddenly you are in the middle of floaters hardly dressed at all — bikini-clad women, men in bathing suits, all stretched across inner tubes, toting radios and towing floating coolers. The party seems to go on forever and you, Mr. Moto Nerd, are way overdressed.
Kinda like bike riding. Most American bicyclists dress the same whether they are riding 100 miles or going down the street to the post office. They show up in all kinds of places — the post office for instance — looking like they’re stopping by for a drug test or blood transfusion before the next leg of the tour. And, Mr. Skinny Pants Moto, you’ve got B.O.
Of course there are times when unusual dress is appropriate. The croquet court would be one where one should never neglect wearing whites (Captain of the Yacht, you are welcome here!).
Time behind the barbecue? A ridiculous apron is a must.
But these are special occasions where we all agree to be a little weird. If we all dress the same, then we can’t be nerds, right? Not necessarily, as Amazon workers prove daily in the streets of Seattle.
So perhaps this is a question that should be left for quieter times so that we can rejoin the ranks of fellow citizens either packing their bags for their trip to Canada Nov. 9 or stirring up a pot of tar and feathers for dressing up the losers.
It’s been a great year, with lots of fun activities with good friends, and I’ve enjoyed bringing you this silly review of those activities. America seems pretty great to me, and I know I am fortunate to be in a position where I can say that. Whatever we do on Nov. 8, I’m hoping it’s for the best for all of us, no matter how we are dressed, how we look, vote or pray. I also hope it is good for Earth, this place we call home and yet don’t pick up after ourselves. We need to do better.
Til then, anyone know where I can get a hat like Jungle Jim’s — with a big pocket in the back?
When I put out my list of Mad Schemes to accomplish in 2016, I had not planned on so many of my potential Schemers to be as nutty about work as I have been. I seemed to have been dropped into a pool of people who say they are retired except for when they are working.
“I’m retiring but I’ll still be working two days a week.”
“I’m retired but I’ll still be on call.”
“I’m retired but I signed up to substitute.”
“I’m retired except for the seven weeks I have worked this year and whenever the paper calls on me to cover a horse race or do a book review.”
That last one is my hypocritical statement about my retirement. The last part of that confused view is usually followed by my excited statement of how after 50 plus years of work life I have found the perfect job for me: Getting paid to read books.
And like all my friends who have one foot in retirement and one foot still stuck in work, I mouth the same trite excuses:
“It’s not so bad if you love what you’re doing.”
“Besides, the money’s good.”
“I’d be bored if I just sat around the house.”
I’ve never said that last one. That’s what the Mad Schemes are for, to make sure that you’re not just sitting around the house. Which I was not doing on April 3, the day of the Emerald City Bike Ride.
Sponsored by the Cascade Bike Club, the ride took thousands of pedal pushers onto the deck of the new Highway 520 bridge before it opened to motorized traffic. The ride continued onto the Interstate 5 express lanes to a food stop at the Hing Hay Park in Seattle’s International District. Then the ride introduced me to the I-90 Bike Trail. How did I miss that one?
Then back to the start at the University of Washington. About 20 miles with Jerry and Wendy, which was very enjoyable.
On Saturday, April 16, I was with Dr. Tim to do the Tulip Pedal out of La Conner, WA. But we stayed at his lake cabin the night before, and in the morning the sun had turned the lake into a big, beautiful jewel shining through the kitchen windows and Tim’s waffles were delicious with maple syrup. So the start was late and the end had to come soon to accommodate Tim’s 2 p.m. tee time. We dropped from the 40-some mile to the family ride and neither odometer came up with the mileage for that wienie ride. We probably didn’t even ride off the butter smeared on the morning waffles.
A great day, but also an early sign that my training for the Seattle to Portland ride was not on a path to make my sister proud. And she will be here soon for the STP and I’ll be lucky to stay in the same county with her. More on that later.
Thanks for coming along with me on a trip to the Rugby World Cup in England from September 18 to October 31. I’ll assume that you think that rugby is the greatest game on Earth and that traveling to another country holds the promise of new tales to tell.
I’ll try to relate some of those tales on a daily basis, concentrating on the Eagles, the United States national team, and especially on those players from Seattle who make the team.
That’s not all we’ll do in this space. Kathy and I are arriving in England three weeks before the tournament starts and will be staying in Oxford. We plan to do some exploring in the area, do lots of walking, take many photos and gather many tales to tell.
But I do have my press credentials for the Rugby World Cup (RWC) and promise to be your faithful scribe from beginning to end of the greatest rugby show on Earth.