Cranksgiving

Honestly, showing up at the first annual Cranksgiving bike ride/food drive/alleycat race with the Haulin’ Colin trailer was like the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out to play a Pop Warner team: it was obvious before the event even began that there was no way anybody was going to carry more cans of soup, beans, vegetable, and fruit or bags of pasta and rice than me.

And that’s just how it turned out.

I won the prize for most carried by a mile and hardly even scratched the surface of how much I could have hauled; I only halfway filled the trailer’s 18 gallon bin with stuff but it was plenty to wow the worker at the Rainer Valley Food Bank who remarked that it was as if I were unloading a bottomless pit of groceries for the needy, but she also assured me it all would get eaten, even the random can of beets I rescued from the back of our cupboard pantry when I stopped in at home for a moment along the course route.

The route was reminiscent of a Sunday shopping trip what with a stop at Madison Market, another at the Grocery Outlet, still another at Uwajimaya, and then had the flavor several southern .83 sojourns what with darting into the Beacon Hill Red Apple for supplies.

The final pick-up was McPherson’s fruit and vegetable stand where I was subjected to a tirade against the homeless by Mr. McPh. himself when I asked if he’d be willing to contribute a few goods to our cause. “I’m out here all day long,” he growled, “they can get a job just like me.”

I hardly knew how to respond to that so I shook his hand and headed to the strange Seattle Super Market at Columbia and Beacon, where I pretty much cleaned the place out of canned corn and mixed vegetables before heading downhill to collect my prize of two free “Yoga for Cyclists” classes.