Can you imagine a better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens than by blowing off (get it?) work to participate in the Seattle Beer Week Brew Cruise (this means May 18 for you non-volcanic historians).
The ride starts at 1:30pm at Big Time Brewery and Ale House on the Ave. in the U-district, and then, like a Yelm-swallowing lahar, it will ooze its way on the slightly-downhill-to-flat Burke-Gilman Trail toward Ballard. Scheduled stops are: Big Time, Fremont Brewing, Hales, and Maritime Pacific. Mmmm…tasty.
The pace is advertised as “easy.” And according to the guy in the rat costume at Big Time last Friday, this will be an inclusive event for all types of bike riders. Are you a beer lover curious about this whole bike thing? This is the ride for you. Maybe you love your bike and find yourself beer-curious. Again, this is your ride.
Often times, us local biking types feel a bit of Portland envy, what with their Bike Dinners, Pedapalooza Pedalpalooza and thousands of nekkid bike riders. But not tomorrow, no sirree! I mean, how many other US cities can brag at least four breweries along a single flat bike path? This is something to celebrate, so own it.
In fact, I’d argue that skipping out of work to ride and drink is the responsible civic choice. Volcanoes are known to be fickle and demanding of respect (recall Sleepless in Seattle stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in the megahit: Joe vs. the Volcano) . The last thing we want to do is piss off St. Helens and her closest big Brother, Mt. Rainier, and bring an assload of fiery lava down on the entire region.
Anne and I will be at Big Time as part of a four-Xtracycle wrecking crew at 1:30 or so. We’d love to see a huge pallet of cargo bikes in attendance. Be be a good citizen and join us!
-Tim
PS – It could rain in the morning, but the rest of the day is expected to be dry. Even if it does rain, a little precipitation is better than a beer full of ash!
Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 
Dammit does your temporarily unemployed lifestyle make me jealous …
“Pedapalooza” sounds a bit iffy. Do they meet at that Man-Boy statue down at the sculpture park?
Yikes. Looks like I broke the first rule of “Pedapalooza.” Try to pretend that I said “pedal” palooza. Yeah, that’s it…
And not to worry, Julian. I’m gonna be back in the salt mines right about the time most of you “normal” folk start thinking about vacation.
This should be a monthly event given how much fun was had this one. I met cool bike people, drank good beer (not TOO much), and rode bikes. And excepting for the unfortunate bit of jinxing that poor woman who crashed on the tracks in Ballard, it was pain-free!
Let’s do it again! Deep-fried bacon and all.
Agreed, Shawn. It was a great time meeting everyone (and the beer was nice, too).
I’ve got a bunch of photos I’ll get up here at some point today!
Tim get the photos up! deep fried bacon? (yuck!)
how have you been? gosh the weather in Seattle SUCKS! and I can say that with no reservation because I was actually here when Mt .St. Helens blew in 1980. Pedalpalozza sounds like it was fantastic! (jealous)