AUGUST 1986

PRESIDENT
VICE PRES.
SECRETARY.
TREASURER
TOURING CAPTS..STEVE & PHYLLIS LAY
NEWSLETTER oe

Tacoma Wheelmen’s Club
PO, Bos 99555,
Tacoma, \WA 98499

Dateline: American Lake, TWC picnic.
Per the latest communiqué via the Given
Communications Center, the King family is
having a wonderful adventure on their

bicycle tour from Washington state to

Washington, D.C. They just spent several
days visiting relatives in Milwaukee and
left this morning (Sun., July 20) on a
route through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio,
heading for Washington, D.C. E.T.A. is
August 15th. E

Terry, Lori, Josh, and Jason got off
to an exciting start on May 24, with
several TWC members escorting them as far
as Vader, Wa. They followed the Columbia
Gorge, then headed for Yellowstone. No
word about bears from Josh or Jason.

The Fourth of July found the King's
in Nebraska, where the residents of
a small town "adopted" them. They were
treated to a good time, including a place
to stay, cooked meals, and the use of a
car. Bet it was hard to leave that town!

Terry is very pleased with the route they are following and promises to docu- ment it for us when he gets back. The boys are having a great time. They were treated to a real tractor ride on a farm by one new friend. Lori put a letter in the mail to me yesterday, so I'll pass along the "real scoop" soon.

Sue Given

JIM DAVIS
«+...+BOB BRANSON
LAURIE WOHLHUETER
eee ae SUE GIVEN

759-5616
848-3714
878-5465
565-0535
759-1816

++..eLINDA SMITH 863-1327

Wayne Wakefield, IWC Vice-President for the first half of this year, has left the area to accept a job in catalogulng and research at the Corps of Engineering Museum in Virginia. He has taken Klyde (famous 30-gear cross between a beach cruiser and off-road klunker) with him for his debut to the East Coast.

Bob Branson has been appointed by
the Club's Board to the position of Vice-
President for the remainder of 1986. Bob
will be responsible for organizing the
remaining club meeting programs for this
year. If you have a good idea, just give
him a call (848-3714).

Our thanks go to Wayne for coordi-
nating many interesting club meeting
programs, and our congratulations go to
Bob who we are sure will follow in his
footsteps (or tire tracks).

Fateil

Steve Muscha
Louis Polcari
Dan Powell

Kathy Rasmussen
Marilyn Ray

Rita Reandeau
Pete Sabin

Mike & Sue Veseth
Michael Wakeman

Helmut Andres
David Bell

Ronald Bland

Frank Bradley
Rosemary Crawford
John Davis & family
Gloria deVries
Anne Gibson

John Gilman

Edward Josberger

Miles Activity Ride Code Leader

—. | TOSRV-NW camping All] B.I.K.E.S. Club
trip ($50 for food, Linda Wimer
campsites, & sag). 1-653-6094

Time

Sue Given

Aug. 7 | sharp | ____[6th & Skyline _______ tt p05: 053) ees
Tony Beuché
c aees Sos Sa soe eeL 22549-2788
Pt. Defiance Park to| Jim Davis
Ug soe eat | eee Pea KR CAE ES eee Steilacoom & back | ___[ 759-5616 ______
People's Bank, So. Prairie, Wilke- | 2 Steve Lay
24th & Pacific son, Buckley loop. 759-1816
Buckley (call Teader |] Picnic at "THE RIVER’
__| for_exact location) _| Bring towel & extra shoes.| | ___.-----.
8-12] Villa Plaza, Tom Miller
i erstate Ban 584-1296

UPS. N. 11th & Union. | Green River Gorge 2 | Tony Beuché

IGasthouse Bakery, 1-549-2788

Mi Ld OAM tae ear ee errr et ae ee

Rainier Brewery Rainier Ale Metric All] Team Green Death

3100 Airport Way, Century ($5 before P.O. Box 1969

Seattle 8/1; $7 day of). See i\ Bellevue, 98009 eae es see ee | ee ees eeesnet= = | a (send SASE)______

So. End Neighborhood| Bike ride instead of} 1 Jim Davis

Center, 7802 S."L" St] club meeting (DRESS 759-5616

PSNB, WestgateShopping| Thursday night ride
Center. arl

Greg Grenier

et ee ee eee ---/($2_if pat eee

Sat. 7-8 call 120 Wenatchee. Seven C's Variety Club

Aug. 23 Cycle-A-Thon (benefit 623-3630

for Children's Chari-

course)| South Tacoma Way ride. See article.

Sun. 10:30 [ 35: Park & Ride Lot, Crescent Lake loop
Aug. 24 a.m. 6th & Skyline (Gig Harbor area)

Thurs. | 7 pem.| 8-12 UPS fieldhouse Thursday night ride

Aug. 24 sharp | ____ 4 N. 1th & Uni

Sat-Mon| 8 a.m.| 90 + | So. Park Community |Big Creek. Labor Day | 2 Tom Miller
Center, S. 50th & Weekend camping trip 584-1296
No sag. Zz

. is Mount Vernon s ury
Sept.7 100 fairgrounds ("Northwest's Flattest]
* Century")

Fred Strong
1-232-7311

#1 - EASY PACE - Frequent stops for riders to catch up & regroup. 10-13 mph. #2 - MODERATE PACE - Occasional stops to catch up & regroup. 13-16 mph. #3 - STEADY PACE - Limited stops. Maps will be provided. 15-18 mph. a

“REMINDER: Thurs. night rides meet. at
6:45 pm and leave PROMPTLY at 7 pm!!
Ride leaders - please bring at least
2 cue sheets.

Your Tacoma Wheelmen have been working. $10,000 in capital improvement funds has made it through the city planning review process! All that remains is for the City Council to approve the $3,000,000 capital improve- ment budget and we're in.

It all began in February when Sue
Given submitted a request to the planning
department. Two or three meetings later,
our request made the final cut.

If the Council approves, we'll be
working with the Traffic Division to help
re-work the bicycle route map, redo the
brochure, and paint the bicycle
markers on the streets throughout the
city. There are 1,327 markers that were
last painted in 1979! It is time to
RE-WORK THE TACOMA BIKE ROUTES.

dua 53

,
4D
VARIETY

RIDE THE REAL S.T.P.!!!
(SEATTLE TO PORTLAND, MAINE)
(OR AT LEAST FROM WOODINVILLE TO WENATCHEE)

The Seven C's Cycle-A-Thon is a new event put on by Variety Club - The Children's Charity. On Saturday, August 23, ride solo or relay team from Woodin- ville to Wenatchee. Sag wagon and food stops provided, as well as return of bikes and bodies on Sunday.

This is a great opportunity to ride
the Cascades and help out kids who can't
ride. Entry forms are already at local
bike shops, or call Variety Club at
623-3630.

P.S.: We still have room for people to
join us for any part of our fully sagged
trek east to Portland, Maine. We'd love
the company!

David Fisher

SUN SHINES ON TWC PICNIC

After a week of rainy weather, the sun shone on the Annual TWC picnic. Lots of food, a nice bike ride, games and prizes, boating and waterskiing, beautiful weather, and wonderful people all combined for a successful, day.

Merit and Robbie, Art and Ruth,
Gina, Robbie (again), and Don were
all winners in the "very intense"
competitions led by Laurie W.

Greg and Dave took the very adven-
turesome out for waterskiing, and
Sue learned all about holding the
orange flag. Jim suffered Greg's
pranks and Tony's team won the 1986
TWC Volleyball Championship.

All in all some 50+ people had
a great day in the sun. Many thanks
to Art for leading the ride and to
everyone who helped organize another
successful TWC event!

Laurie and Sue,
Picnic co-chairpersons

Carol (Fast Grannie) sends her
"greetings from the frozen North where the
R.C.M.P. always gets his man, etc., etc."
She is pedaling her way to Prince Rupert
on a 1100 mile trip.

Except for one 83 mile day, 75 miles
of which were uphill in the rain, she
reports beautiful scenery, tailwinds, and
lovely cloud formations (which just
occasionally spit on them).

She sends the following message to
Jack W. (famous TWC road scavenger)---
the roads are so clean that so far the
most useful thing she's found has been a
used toothbrush! And to John K.

(of bicycling in the Baja fame)---she'd
like to report that so far she's run
across (literally?) two Mexican burritos.

Colynn Kerr—Elbow Valley Cycling Club—Calgary, Alberta

9
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ake

WELL, THE ONET PART LARCH = TE LAST TWO FEET
I REALLY Look FORWARD = OF FLEVATION GAIN.
re) ~

=
EX OCIOCIOCO) THE ANNUAL TREK TO PORTLAND CXOCOCO) Cz

"This will be the last year I will ride S.T.P.", I vowed upon learning that they
were registering 4,000 riders this year for the classic bicycle event. "This is just
getting completely out of hand."

Saturday morning dawned perfect bicycling weather---the only improvement would have
been a brisk North wind. At 5:15 a.m. we mounted the tandem in Parkland (the Spoke
Wenches hadn't really trained enough to go from the offical start) and pushed off South.
We had the road all to ourselves to Centralia, where we arrived at 7:53 just in time to
help set up the food stop. After stuffing our faces and pockets, off we went again, but
now we were passing other riders steadily. The adrenalin flowed and the excitement
mounted as we flew down the road to Longview. As we passed George (age 83 and I'm sure
the oldest rider in the event), I thought,"I'll never give this up until I’m too old to
push my bike up the hills!"

After another food stop in Longview and a fix of the bicycler's Wonder Drug, it's off again. Over the bridge, around the big loop and we picked up that life-saving tail- wind. The world was our oyster as we passed the 120-mile mark on the odometer, still overtaking other riders. But from there on it sorta ceased being fun anymore. Thanks to the tailwind, the pace was still a steady 18, the same as it had been all day, but the quality of riders had improved considerably and now we were being passed about as often as the other way around.

Finally we saw the sign that said "Portland - 20 miles", and I knew that we had this ride under our belts. (You can always do another 20 miles.) Over the last bridge, through the thousand traffic lights, and there it was---the finish line, cold beer, and all our cronies. What a great ride! Best ever!

There was a sad spot in the weekend though. We again celebrated our victory with a
2 hour pigout at the Hilton Sunday Morning Brunch ( I received the Bent Fork Award), and
I was awarded my very first senior citizen discount. It's something of a milestone when
you buy beer in the supermarket and they don't ask you for I.D., but when they give you
a senior citizen discount without even asking for it, that's devastating!

As I reflect back on all seven $.T.P. events I have participated in, I think of the first year when there were 70 official finishers (number 70 was Stephen Lay - time 19:45.00), the torrential rains and horrendous headwinds, the one box of bananas at Span- away and a similar box at Centralia, and the train ride home; it's hard to believe what a superbly organized and huge event this annual trek has become. May this bicycle classic remain a tradition for many years to come! _

Fast Crannie