it's my birthday and i'll ride if i want to

today we meet mike park and gang at the camp in olympia. we're actually getting ready to leave now, and decided that since we've got the time and the technology available, we'd update the blog. last nite eric and i went out and had a few brews. it turned into a birthday celebration once i realized that it was 9:30pm here, but 12:30am in new york. we played some fifty cent pool (yes, a game for fifty (50) cents), drank a couple drafts and moved on. we did the same at the next place, but eric brought over a soco and lime shot to boot. we met these 4 girls there, one whose birthday it actually was. she turned 21, so we took some photos, had some laughs and then moved on. as it goes, we saw the same 4 at the next bar, which was a karaoke bar. by this time eric and myself were fairly intoxicated. the karoke-ers sucked, so we resorted to screaming louder than them while they were singing. it got to the point where eric and i were just yelling bear vs shark lyrics so loud that it was drowning out the karoke. we called ronnie, left him an acapella version of six bar phrase hey hey (drunken style) on his voicemail. we tried to call jenn, but she picked up and i couldnt hear her because it was so loud. but we called her back and left her a smooth rendition of the opening to ma jolie on her voicemail. awesome times. we managed to ride our bikes back to our camp site that was in the middle of nothing. we're still pretty amazed we made it back, and that the ride didnt seem so bad. waking up was brutal, but that's expected after an unexpected nite of all-out drinkery. today, we got up, made english muffins on a grill, rode into town, got chinese food because ive been craving it, bought some books (i got the odd sea by frederik reiken) and then lounged in the grass in this awesome park. i slept for a short time before we came here to do this. so i guess the tour is going to start for real tomorrow. i'll tell you one fuckin thing, i'll be glad i won't have to wear my pack. i have no doubt we'll be able to keep pace with the others. especially after the hell we've been through carrying these sacks of shit for the past 4 days. but goddamn it, we've survived, and become men in the process! real, tough, intimidating men! eric is typing away beside me, so make sure to keep scrolling on this page to see both of our posts. we'll get some pics up at some point, but that time is still TBA, and will remain so indefinitely. well, i got a minute left. time to post this. talk to you all again soon.

horray!
shawn