Follow along all weekend as Kais pedals to Portland July  12 and 13th and blogs along the way

The 2008 Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic takes place this upcoming weekend, July 12 (and 13th for the slackers), marking the 29th year of what has been described to me as a "nice long ride with a big hill." Funny, I thought it was a 204-mile grueling obstacle course through small town Washington with hazards like stale peanut butter sandwiches and all the chocolate milk you can drink?  I'm sure it is somewhere in between those two extremes, but for this slacker who has never ridden the STP before, a double century over two days sounds like an excellent way to kick off the summer.

OK, where do I sign up? Anyone else want to go?

Thankfully, I asked these questions months ago, and beat the 9500 rider cut-off without issue. As it turns out, a few friends also thought it would be a good idea to ride this year, so no cajoling was required to get a team together. I use the word "team" loosely, as the only concrete plans made were to meet Sunday night at the sparkly Doug Fir Lounge & Jupiter Hotel and celebrate our triumphant vanquishing of the STP beast.

I guess that's what text messaging was invented for... everyone taking their phone, right?

Speaking of which, I have rigged this here blog to accept posts from my phone (including ghetto-fabulous photos!) so look for more posts from the road starting, oh, at about 5 am this Saturday!

I wonder if Washington's no-texting-while-driving law applies to bicyclists too?