Introductions - Hiya from Aberdeen, Washington!

This is a far-cry from its namesake in Scotland, but I live about 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean.

Chris L talks about motoring primates -- we've got Rednecks in big diesel-hogging, road-hogging pickups who think plaid flannel shirts are DRESS shirts?!?! (SERIOUSLY!!)

And idiots on bicycles who puff away on their cigarettes while running red lights and riding on the leftside of the road in cowboy hat, jeans and cowboy boots (and no lights).

I haul my karaoke gear for my fledgling Family Karaoke business by bicycle (right now I haul it in my B.O.B. Yak, but looking to get a two-wheeled trailer A.S.A.P.). My sole form of transportation is by bike. Even go grocery shopping with it.

So, we could say I'm in the wasteland of bicycling. :D And I'm the only sane person here. LOL ~~Bren

Welcome Bren :) Welcome to the realm of sanity..

Welcome! can you karaoke and cycle at the same time? kind of like the traveling ice-cream guy...

Welcome to Bikeforums! Sounds like the rednecks there are almost as serious as the rednecks in east Texas!

Aggressor -- Thanks for the welcome!

CycleMagic -- well, my almost 9-year old daughter and I have been known to sing loudly as we ride around town, much to the embarrassment of my 14-1/2 year old son. :lol:

~~Bren

MsVicki -- Thankfully there aren't TOO many with gun racks in the pickup trucks here. It's bad enough the people around here seem to turn off their brains once the engine is on; they would be REALLY dangerous if they had guns, too! :eek:

Originally posted by BrenHébert
my almost 9-year old daughter and I have been known to sing loudly as we ride around town, much to the embarrassment of my 14-1/2 year old son. :lol:

~~Bren

I do that, too! (But I don't ride with my 15 year-old son...that would just about kill him..hahaha.)

You forgot to mention those darn logging trucks. Welcome to the forums it is great to have another PNB here there are a lot of us here. I did some riding in your area last year Westport to Tokeland round trip and Ocean Shores to Westport , took the ferry from Westport and rode back. Didn't think I was going to make it on the later lost the shoulder on the road and was playing with logging trucks now my beard is white :D .

Welcome Bren, from the other side of the state. I read your post over on the "stupid" thread. LOL, keep your words of wisdom coming. :beer:

Welcome to the forums from a dry-sider. Keep on bikin'.

Wow! Three Washingtonians in a row!

Yes, I'm in Wetter, I mean Western, Washington. :D Although this summer has been unusually hot and dry (apparently, though, we're not the only place to have unusually hot weather :( )

MtnMike -- Thanks :D I keep trying to tell my 14-1/2 year old son that I'm a genius, but he keeps rolling his eyes. :lol:

Oh yeah, ngateguy -- I guess I've gotten used to the logging trucks, of course I TRY to avoid narrow, windy roads. A couple Autumns back, though, my kids and I were riding back to Aberdeen from Ocean Shores -- My son was ahead of me pulling his sister on her AllyCat Shadow (like a Trail-a-Bike), and I was pulling the camping equipment. Well, the shoulder between Ocean Shores and Aberdeen is HORRIBLY uneven and narrow, and Garen lost his balance -- down they went. I pulled up behind them, leaving my bike and trailer a bit in the lane of traffic, because I didn't know if people would stop or not -- the bike (if they didn't run over it) would force the motorists to slow down and take a wide turn around us while I tended to Marin and Garen was able to get his bike out of the road.

He was fine, just a few scrapes, Marin was crying. I thought she was overreacting, until I pulled her pantleg up -- her knee had a big, deep gash across it. I quickly pulled the pantleg down and put my hand over it to help minimize the bleeding and had her lean on me, while I held her leg out straight. Thankfully the people in the minivan just behind me stopped and opened up the back so Marin could sit down and they called 911 on their cell phone. One of the first emergency personnel to respond went and got his pickup truck after his run was through and he brought our bikes and trailers into Aberdeen (a friend of ours had stopped and sat with Garen with the bikes until he came back with his truck).

I've only been to Westport a few times, but thought the shoulder was wider and less uneven than 109 to Ocean Shores. I don't like most of the road surfaces around here, though because they look smooth, but there's just the slightest "gravel-type" surface which makes it feel like I'm constantly riding against a headwind. I met one touring cyclist who had lightweight wheels and when he arrived in Aberdeen bought ATB wheels because the spokes on the road wheels kept rattling loose from the road surface.

~~Bren

Hwy 105 is definitely a much better ride than 109 wider shoulders and less traveled. The first ride I did was down to Tokeland and back again, it was my first experience on a major highway so it took a couple of trucks screaming by to get used to them without crawling out of my skin. The city of Seattle is starting to use the loose gravel pavement in the northend Yuck but then again I can see why because of the ease they can lay it and its cost. The old asphalt roads here have gotten so bad that there are waves in the shoulder that make it very hard to ride on especially on a road bike.

Welcome.. from another Washingon newbie!

I can attest as well to conditions out your way. I've only been out there once, but I can say 105 is pretty crazy, kudo's to sticking with it!

Welcome! I remember the one time in Aberdeen. Going the wrong way down a one way road around 1am in the rain trying to get to Ocean Shores.

It's about time you made it over here Bren :) Glad to see your name up on my screen again.

Howsabout a photo of your bike loaded with the karaoke gear?

Allister --

I'll have to get one taken. LOL I want to get a better trailer for hauling the gear in (AND better gear LOL). ~~Bren

I don't know how to add an image. It wants me to put an http:// url, and it's not on the web. ~~Bren

ooooooooh, I think I have it now! Thanks, MsVicki!

Okay, here are my equipment, my bike and I. :D This was taken this afternoon after I finished Family Karaoke.

~~Bren

I just LOVE guys from Aberdeen, WA! Wanna be my boyfriend?

:love:

Ummm. . . Do I LOOK like a guy??????? I HOPE not! LOL

~~Bren

Originally posted by BrenHébert
Ummm. . . Do I LOOK like a guy??????? I HOPE not! LOL

That won't matter to Trollie.

oh, okay. LOL :D ~~Bren

Good to see you Bren. I'm afraid I stopped looking in on your BicycleForums Refuge when Yahoo changed all clubs to groups. I expect to see you in the commuting forum, and often. NEWFSmith

That's okay, Newf :) I pretty much petered out now. I tried to get some convo going the other day, but I think I had one or two responses.

Commuting, eh? I have a whole 1.5-2 block commute now. ROFL (oh, that's each way, so 3-4 roundtrip). ~~Bren

Originally posted by BrenHébert
Commuting, eh? I have a whole 1.5-2 block commute now. ROFL (oh, that's each way, so 3-4 roundtrip). ~~Bren

So what your saying is that you have to ride from one end of town to the other :D

Sorry I couldn't help myself besides I really can't talk I do live in Everett

Oh, by the way, the FORUM petered out, not me. lol

Ngateguy -- LOL Actually, this town is about 3 miles from East to West.

I've bicycled through Everett a couple times. And attended a Giants' game or two (a loooooooooooong time ago -- I know, they are no longer the Giants).

The first time was in 92, when I rode from Tacoma to Vancouver, BC. The 2nd time was when I rode the Pacific Coast (I started in Tacoma and headed to Vancouver, then did the Pac Coast).

The first time I did get on I-5 I think one exit early, heading north. It was rather funny, a Highway Patrol officer pulled over someone, and the guy was pretty much blocking the shoulder, and the first thing the officer did was tell the motorist to pull further off the shoulder, and I didn't have to pull into traffic. :D

~~Bren